Editorial Policies

POLICIES :

 

FOCUS AND SCOPE

BJAS is the scientific journal of Basrah University / College of Agriculture with e-ISSN: 2520-0860, p-ISSN: 1814-5868 and DOI: 10.21276/basjas. BJAS is a journal of original scientific research, Short Communications, and Review Papers. The BJAS Scientific Journal is a peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes original research articles as well as review articles in different areas of Science. 

 
The aims and scope BJAS journal are:
  1. BJAS Journal seeks to publish those papers that are most influential in their fields or across fields and that will significantly advance scientific understanding
  2. BJAS Journal is an Open Access, double blind peer-reviewed, scholarly journal. It considers articles (written in English only) in the field of agricultural sciences, applied environmental sciences and biological sciences..
  3. BJAS Journal accepts Original Research Articles, Review Articles and Short Communications to Editor.
  4. BJAS Journal evaluates articles based only on an objective determination of scientific and methodological soundness, not on subjective determinations of 'impact,' 'novelty' or 'interest'.
  5. BJAS Journal applies the highest standards to everything it does - specifically, the publication places an emphasis on research integrity; high ethical standards; constructive peer-review; exemplary production quality; and leading edge online functionality.
  6. BJAS Journal does not accept pre-submission enquiries; however, if you are unsure whether or not your article fits our Scope then please email us at: bajas.bajas@edu.iq.

  

SECTION POLICIES

ARTICLES

This is the main type of publication that BJAS will produce.

Checked Open    Submissions

 Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

REVIEW ARTICLES

A critical, constructive analysis of the literature in a specific field through summary, classification, analysis, comparison.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

Short Communications are short papers that present original and significant material for rapid dissemination. For example, a Short Communication may focus on a particular aspect of a problem or a new finding that is expected to have a significant impact.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed
 

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

At BJAS journal we are committed to prompt quality scientific work with local and global impacts. To maintain a high-quality publication, all submissions undergo a rigorous review process. Characteristics of the peer review process are as follows:

  • The journal peer review process is a "double blind peer review".
  • Simultaneous submissions of the same manuscript to different journals will not be tolerated.
  • Manuscripts with contents outside the scope will not be considered for review.
  • Papers will be refereed by at least 2 experts as suggested by the editorial board.
  • In addition, Editors will have the option of seeking additional reviews when needed. Authors will be informed when Editors decide further review is required.
  • All publication decisions are made by the journal's Editors-in-Chief on the basis of the referees' reports. Authors of papers that are not accepted are notified promptly.
  • All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. We expect our Board of Reviewing Editors, Associate Editors and reviewers to treat manuscripts as confidential material as well.
  • Editors, Associate Editors and reviewers involved in the review process should disclose conflicts of interest resulting from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, and remove oneself from cases in which such conflicts preclude an objective evaluation. Privileged information or ideas that are obtained through peer review must not be used for competitive gain.
  • Our peer review process is confidential and identities of reviewers cannot be revealed.

Note:

All manuscripts submitted will be checked for plagiarism (copying text or results from other sources) and self-plagiarism (duplicating substantial parts of authors' own published work without giving the appropriate references) using the Turintin database. Plagiarism is not tolerated.

For more information about turnitin, please visit

https://www.turnitin.com

 

 

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

BJAS Journal is published 2 times per year(semiannual). Accepted papers are published online ahead of print. BJAS is e-published online with e-ISSN: 2520-0860 as/when process of peer-reviewing in finalized. BJAS's hard-copy published with p-ISSN:1814-5868 with two issues a year; odd issue that publishes the accepted papers during (January - June) closing on 1st June, and even issue that publishes the accepted articles during (July -December) closing on 1st Dec. The hard-copy of BJAS issues are published with all accepted online paper within each publication period.

 

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

This journal 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.

Open Access (OA) stands for unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse which means making research publications freely available online. It access ensures that your work reaches the widest possible audience, and that your fellow researchers can use and share it easily. The mission of the BJAS is to improve the culture of scientific publications by supporting bright minds in science and public engagement.
BJAS open access articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-NC 4.0 license. This license lets you retain copyright and let others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Commercial use of the publisher's PDF is subject to license fees. The main output of research in general is new ideas and knowledge, which the BJAS peer-review policy allow to publish as high-quality, peer-reviewed research articles. The BJAS believes that maximizing the distribution of these publications - by providing free, online access - is the most effective way of ensuring that the research we fund can be accessed, read and built upon. In turn, this will foster a richer research culture and cultivate good research ethic as well. The BJAS therefore supports unrestricted access to the published materials on its main website as a fundamental part of its  mission and a global academic community benefit to be encouraged wherever possible.
 
Specifically;
  • Basrah University, College of Agriculture supports the principles and objectives of Open Access and Open Science
  • BJAS expects authors of research papers, and manuscripts to maximize the opportunities to make their results available for free access on its final peer-reviewed paper
  • All manuscript will be made open access online soon after final stage peer-review finalized. 
  • This policy will be effective from 1st June 2016 and will be reviewed during the first year of operation.
  • Open Access route is available at uobasrah.edu.iq  for publishing and archiving all accepted papers, 
Specific details of how authors of research articles are required to comply with this policy can be found in the Guide to Authors.

 

ARCHIVING

This journal utilizes both the LOCKSS and CLOCKSS systems to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

 

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
 
The publication of an article in the peer-reviewed journal BJAS is to support the standard and respected knowledge transfer network. Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011) that includes;
  1. General duties and responsibilities of editors.
  2. Relations with readers.
  3. Relations with authors.
  4. Relations with editors.
  5. Relations with editorial board members.
  6. Relations with journal owners and publishers.
  7. Editorial and peer review processes.
  8. Protecting individual data.
  9. Encouraging ethical research (e.g. research involving humans or animals).
  10. Dealing with possible misconduct.
  11. Ensuring the integrity of the academic record.
  12. Intellectual property.
  13. Encouraging debate.
  14. Complaints.
  15. Conflicts of interest.
Reference:
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf
 
 
Multiple and Simultaneous Submission/Publication
The practice of duplicate submission/publication is considered unethical because it exaggerates the findings, wastes the times of editors, peer reviewers, and readers, and also breaks the integrity of science. In case multiple submission/publication, we will contact the author(s), will state that submitted work has already been submitted/published elsewhere, and will ask for explanation about that. If the author gives a sufficient and reasonable explanation, we reject the submission without penalties. However, if the author does not respond, the explanation is unsatisfactory, or the author admits guilt, we will reject the submission with penalties, including; sending a letter of warning, put the authors in the Authors black list, writing to the Journal that published the paper, imposing the authors to pay $200 the fee of reviewing, and informing the author's superior about the misconduct.

 

ANIMAL RESEARCH

  1. For research conducted on regulated animals (which includes all live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates), appropriate approval must have been obtained according to either international or local laws and regulations. Before conducting the research, approval must have been obtained from the relevant body (in most cases an Institutional Review Board, or Ethics Committee). The authors must provide an ethics statement as part of their Methods section detailing full information as to their approval (including the name of the granting organization, and the approval reference numbers). If an approval reference number is not provided, written approval must be provided as a confidential supplemental information file. Research on non-human primates is subject to specific guidelines from the Weatherall (2006) report (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).
  2. For research conducted on non-regulated animals, a statement should be made as to why ethical approval was not required.
  3. Experimental animals should have been handled according to the highest standards dictated by the author’s institution.
  4. We strongly encourage all authors to comply with the 'Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments' (ARRIVE) guidelines, developed by NC3Rs.
  5. Articles should be specific in descriptions of the organism(s) used in the study. The description should indicate strain names when known.

 

SCREENING FOR PLAGIARISM

We use plagiarism detection according to Oxford on-line dictionary, Plagiarism means: The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.
The Editorial Board of BJAS journal will check any case of plagiarism on its own merits. If the plagiarism is detected, either by the editor or peer reviewer at any stage before publication of the manuscript - before or after  acceptance, during editing or at page proof stage, we will alert the author(s), asking him/her to either rewrite the text or quote the text exactly and to cite the original text. If at least 15% of the original submission is plagiarised, BJAS journal has the right to reject the manuscript.

Processing Charge

ARTICLE SUBMISSION CHARGES

 BJAS is an Open Access Journal (OAJ) and there will be an Article Processing Charge (APC) to be paid by the author . 

  

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES

200000 ID (150$) as cost of publication for a single paper with 12 pages. It must be add 5000 ID (3 $) if the manuscript exceed on 12 pages. The published articles can be downloaded freely without barrier of admission ,otherwise, there are no submission fees.

 

ADVERTISING POLICY

BJAS-The Scientific Journal of Basrah University |College of Agriculture accepts online advertising.