Policies
Policies of the Journal
Peer Review Policy
All research articles to be published in Yemeni Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences (YJAVS) have to go through a double blind double peer review process. The peer review is masked in both directions as the identities of author and reviewers are kept confidential from each other. Each research article is necessarily got reviewed from two reviewers of international repute. The comments of reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author for modification accordingly and the final opinion of reviewers is taken about the articles modified by authors. The final decision about suitability of the research paper is taken by the editor of YJAVS in pursuance of referees’ opinion.
Reviewers’ Responsibilities
If Journal of YJAVS Editor has invited you to review a manuscript, please consider the following items:
1. Treating the manuscript as a confidential document.
2. Reviewing manuscript critically but constructively and preparing detailed comments about the manuscript to help authors improve their research.
3. Making recommendations to the editor regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in the journal.
4. Ensuring that the manuscript is of high quality and original research.
5. Declaring to the editor any potential conflicts of interest concerning the authors or the content of a manuscript they are asked to review.
6. Reporting possible research misconducts.
7. Suggesting alternative reviewers in case they cannot review the manuscript for any reasons.
8. Authoring a commentary for publication related to the reviewed manuscript.
What should be checked while reviewing a manuscript?
1. Novelty
2. Originality
3. Scientific reliability.
4. A valuable contribution to science.
5. Structure of the article submitted and its relevance to authors’ guidelines
6. References provided to substantiate the content.
7. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Review Outcomes
The Editor will make a final publication decision using feedback from the peer review process. Decisions categories include:
1. Reject: Rejected manuscripts will not be published, and authors will not have the opportunity to resubmit a revised version to YJAVS.
2. Major Revision: The manuscript will be reviewed again after some major modifications are made.
3. Minor Revisions: Manuscripts receiving an accept-pending-revisions decision will be published in YJAVS if minor modifications are made. An editor will review revisions to ensure necessary updates are made before publication.
4. Accept - Accepted manuscripts will be published in the current form without further modifications.
Plagiarism policy
Plagiarism is using someone else’s work, other original material, ideas, and even sentences without citing the original author. Plagiarism could be categorized based on various factors: the magnitude of copied material, the novelty of copied material, position/context/type of material, and referencing/attribution of the material used. The Editorial Office vigilantly monitors plagiarism in content of manuscript through Anti-Plagiarism Software. The plagiarized content having similarity index more than permitted limits is not acceptable. Only manuscripts with less than 19% similarity index are entertained. When plagiarism is identified, after careful consultation, publications team will write to the corresponding author of the manuscript (found to be plagiarized), summarizing the complaint and requesting them to provide a reasonable explanation. If they are unable to provide a reasonable explanation, then the publisher will write to the institution/company they are associated with. The overall cases will be handled according to the flowcharts given below by COPE.
Corrections and Retraction of research article
If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud, the journals and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after an investigation, there are valid concerns, the authors concerned will be contacted under their given email address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the journal and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to: a. If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author. b. If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:
1. An erratum/correction may be placed with the article.
2. An editor’s note or editorial expression of concern may be placed with the article.
3. In severe cases, retraction of the article may occur.
Article withdrawal
After submission, when the author(s) needs to withdraw their article(s) due to some reasons, the journal editor investigates the matter, the step of the peer-review process, and the reason for withdrawal. All the withdrawal requests within ONE week of submission will be accepted and the manuscript will be deleted from the journal database.
In case the author(s) are paid the APC but demands withdrawal of articles in Press (those have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published and will not yet have the complete volume/issue/page information), the manuscript may be withdrawn from our database but the publication fee will not be refunded. The withdrawal requests because of simultaneous submissions to other journals especially when the article is under peer-review process, will not be accepted. After the peer-reviewing step, the editor processes the withdrawal after investigating the matter.
In case of multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, duplication, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or the like that are determined to violate YJAVS ethics guidelines, the article may also be withdrawn from our database.
Reject of article for publication
Manuscript may be rejected, if the content is not in line with the journal scope, does not meet the ethical standards (i.e. false authorship, plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication of data and citation manipulation), does not meet the required quality, written in inappropriate format, has incorrect grammar, or ignores correspondence in three months. Manuscripts can also be rejected if there are two reviewers who gave a negative note.
Appeals and Complaints
In case the article is rejected by editor/reviewer, the authors have the right to appeal/defend against editor/reviewer’s decision in writing to the Editorial Office stating the reasons/arguments with evidence and supporting data/document.
Acceptance of Articles for Publication
The YJAVS considered all types of manuscripts i.e. full length research articles, research notes, short communications and also review articles on a particular topic. After complete review of articles by the reviewers, acceptance letter is issued immediately after final comments of reviewers. The author is required to submit author agreement form after acceptance letter is issued. The author agreement form must be received to editorial office before tentative date of paper publication. However, the Editor/Chief Editor has the right to change the publication schedule of any research paper if any ambiguity/short-comings are found in the manuscript during editing process.
Proofs and Reprints
Electronic proofs will be sent (e-mail attachment) to the corresponding author as a PDF file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript at the proof stage. Because YJAVS will be published online without access restrictions, authors will have electronic access to the full text (PDF) of the article. Authors can download the PDF file from which they can print unlimited copies of their articles.
Copyright and Licensing
All the research work published in YJAVS is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows reuser to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. Authors hold full copyright in their work, and retain publishing rights without restriction.
Open access statement
The YJAVS provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
