Policy of The Journal: Editorial process (peer review)

Each paper in every issue is reviewed (Peer Review) by the experts from the concerned field. The policy is double blind peer review. The list of referees is published in respective issue of the journal at the end in such a way that author of a paper or referee or vice-versa cannot identify each other. Referees are advised to inform the Chief Editor about any potential conflict of interest as soon as he/she receives the invitation to review the manuscript. Further, their judgments should be objective and be treated confidentially. Any relevant published work which is not yet cited, should be pointed out to the authors by the referees. Decision of the Chief Editor / Editorial Board is final. Mention of a pesticide or a commercial or proprietary product does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for the use

The editorial process is consisted of 5-steps through online:

Step-1: On receipt of an article through email to the Chief Editor (at [email protected]) (Article submission> link), the article is marked by ‘date of receipt' and MS number. Observing the suitability of article to the journal as mentioned in link, an acknowledgement of the article is sent to the corresponding author through email. If the author does not submit the ethical statement (link), along with the article, the corresponding author is requested to submit an ethical statement through email. If the author does not submit the ethical statement, the article is not processed and after 3-months the article ceases to be qualified for consideration and is omitted from the list.

Step-2: After receipt of article and author’s ethical statement, a request letter is sent through email to an expert of concerned field for review. The selection of reviewer is made by Editor-in-Chief or members of Editorial board. On receipt of consent from reviewer, the manuscript bearing MS- number on the top of the first page without the name of authors, affiliation/address and email (i.e., by deleting the author/s identity) along with an evaluation form is sent through email as attachments for review.

Step-3: After receipt of reviewed article and evaluation report from the reviewer, a letter is sent to the concerned author of the article along with reviewed article and evaluation report for revision through email as attachments. The signed evaluation report is not sent to the author.

Step-4: After receipt of revised article, the article is checked for plagiarism by special software provided by iThenticate. The article having less than 20 per cent similarity is considered for publication.

Step-5: After receipt of the final revised article, the article is structured as per format of the Journal. Before hard copy printing and online publication, the whole issue is sent to the authors and all members of Editorial Board for any correction/comments. A waiting period 7-10 days are provided for any comments and correction. The concerned article is corrected as per the suggestions / comments. Afterwards, the final corrected version of the issue is uploaded on the website> link and printed subsequently.