About the Journal
Focus and Scope of the Journal
The Ethiopian Journal of Animal Production (EJAP) is a peer reviewed journal published annually by the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production (ESAP). The Journal is publishing original basic and applied research articles, short communications, technical notes, and review articles dealing with livestock and livestock related issues. Critical reviews may also be published. Although the journal focuses on livestock production in Ethiopia, papers from similar agro-ecological regions from different parts of the world are welcomed.
Only new and original manuscripts that have not been previously published can be accepted. When submitting a paper to EJAP, the authors must declare, in an accompanying cover letter, that the manuscript is new and original and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers published in EJAP, whether invited or volunteered, are subject to a peer review process.
Peer review
Papers submitted to Ethiopian Journal of Animal Production will be peer reviewed by at least two referees to ensure both accuracy and relevance. The Section Editors and Editor-in-Chief will base their decision on the report of the referees whether to accept or reject the paper. Most papers undergo different levels of revision (major, moderate or minor) before final acceptance.
Editorial Board
The journal is prepared by an Editorial Board elected by the General Assembly of the society and the members ae listed on the inside front cover.
Responsibility of the Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief
The Editor-in-Chief serves as Chair of the Editorial Board and is assisted by four Section Editors for specific subject areas. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for overall quality of the content of the journal and for final decisions on the fate of a paper. The Editor-in-Chief notifies the corresponding author the final decision of the Board on the fate of a reviewed manuscript after the peer review process is completed. The Editor-in-Chief handles appeals for manuscripts that are rejected and when deemed necessary the case may be brought to the attention of the Board.
Section Editors
Section Editors are assigned by the Board to specific subject-matter areas and are responsible for scientific and intellectual content of the journal in their fields. EJAP has assigned Section Editors in four subject areas viz. Animal Feeds and Nutrition, Animal Breeding and Genetics, Animal Production and Health, and Livestock Socio-Economics to expedite the review process. The Section Editors are responsible for obtaining a minimum of two reviews for each manuscript assigned to them, one of which could be accomplished by the Section Editor. Each review is an evaluation of the technical content of the manuscript and its suitability for publication. A Section Editor recommends to the Editor-in-Chief the course of action regarding an assigned manuscript.
Manuscript Handling
Manuscripts are submitted by the corresponding author to the email address of the Editor-in-Chief (adugnatolera3@gmail.com) or the EASP office at the address (esapeth@yahoo.com). Submissions sent to the ESAP office are forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief, who registers and notifies the author of receipt of the manuscript. The registration number will be used in all correspondence regarding the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to a Section Editor or to other reviewers.
If the reviewers recommend publication of a reviewed manuscript and the Section Editor agrees, the manuscript and the reviewer reports are sent to the Editor-in-Chief for decision. The author of an accepted manuscript will be notified by Editor-in-Chief. If the reviewers and the Section Editor recommend that the manuscript could be published after revision, the manuscript is returned to the author by the handling Section Editor or by the Editor-in-Chief for revision. If the reviewers and the Section Editor recommend that the manuscript be rejected, the Section Editor sends the manuscript and reviewers' comments to the Editor-in-Chief. If the Editor-in-Chief concurs then the decision will be communicated to the corresponding author by the Editor-in-Chief. If a manuscript returned to an author for revision is not returned within a period specified by EJAP, it will be released by the Editor-in-Chief. Once released, a manuscript must be resubmitted as a new manuscript for reconsideration by the Board.
Publication Ethics
- Soundness and reliability
The research being reported should be sound and carefully executed in an ethical and responsible manner. Researchers should use appropriate methods of data analysis. Authors should carefully check calculations, data presentations, typescripts/submissions and proofs.
- Honesty
Researchers should present their results honestly and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation. Research methods and findings should be presented clearly and unambiguously. Authors should represent the work of others accurately in citations and quotations. They should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work.
- Balance
New findings should be presented in the context of previous research. The work of others should be fairly represented. Scholarly reviews and syntheses of existing research should be complete, balanced, and should include findings regardless of whether they support the hypothesis or interpretation being proposed. Any limitations of the study should be indicated in the manuscript.
- Originality
The submitted manuscript must be original that has not been published elsewhere in any language. The authors should ascertain that the work is not submitted concurrently to another journal. Relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors’ own, should be properly acknowledged and referenced. The primary literature should be cited where possible. Data, text, figures or ideas originated by other researchers should be properly acknowledged and should not be presented as if they were the authors’ own. Original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations.
-
Transparency
All sources of research funding, including direct and indirect financial support, supply of equipment or materials, and other supports (such as specialist statistical or writing assistance) should be disclosed and acknowledged. Authors should follow journal and institutional requirements for disclosing competing interests.
- Appropriate authorship and acknowledgement
The list of authors of a submitted publication should accurately reflect individuals’ contributions to the work and its reporting. The listed authors should be only those individuals who meet authorship criteria (i.e. made a substantial contribution to the work) and the researchers should ensure that deserving authors are not omitted. All authors should agree to be listed and should approve the submitted and accepted versions of the publication. Any change to the author list should be approved by all authors including any who have been removed from the list. The corresponding author should act as a point of contact between the editor and the other authors and should keep co-authors informed and involve them in major decisions about the publication (e.g. responding to reviewers’ comments).
- Accountability and responsibility
All authors should be familiar with the reported work and should take responsibility for the integrity of the research and its reporting. They should work with the editor or publisher to correct their work promptly if errors or omissions are discovered after publication. Authors must also follow relevant journal standards.
- Adherence to peer review and publication conventions
Authors should not submit the same work to more than one journal for consideration at the same time. If the authors want to withdraw their work from review, or choose not to respond to reviewer comments after receiving a conditional acceptance they should immediately inform the Editor-in-Chief. Authors should respond to reviewers’ comments in a professional and timely manner.
Open Access Policy
All articles published by Ethiopian Journal of Animal Production are openly accessible to readers worldwide under the Creative Common CC BY Attribution 4.0 International open access license. Everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles published in the journal and everyone is free to re-use the published material if proper accreditation or citation of the original publication is given. However, reuse of an article does not imply endorsement by the authors or the journal. The open access publication is supported by the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production through donations obtained from different sources.
