About the Journal

Aims and Scope:

NTU Journal of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences NTU-JAVS (P-ISSN: 2788-9890  E-ISSN: 2788-9904) is an open-access and peer-reviewed online journal from the Northern Technical University, Iraq, which highly encourages a broad spectrum of multidisciplinary publications in the area of agricultural and veterinary sciences. This journal provides a platform for academics, researchers, and postgraduate students to publish and share their findings to enhance all aspects of agricultural and veterinary science developments. The journal publishes four issues per year, and the scope and field of this journal include, but are not limited to, the following subjects:

  • Agriculture: animal production, agricultural biotechnology, agricultural botany, agricultural industry, agricultural resources and production, breeding and genetics, agricultural ecology and environment, biological engineering, plant physiology, plant breeding and genetics, plant disease and pathology, soil and water science, and biology, food sciences, agricultural machinery and equipment.
  • Veterinary: Animal disease, animal genetics, animal breeding, bioinformatics, animal feeding and nutrition, animal behavior, ethics and welfare, animal management and production, food safety, microbiology, parasitology, animal physiology, veterinary surgery and clinical sciences, veterinary medicine, veterinary epidemiology and public health, veterinary pathology, virology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, and veterinary education.
  • Forestry Science and Technology.
  • Wood Sciences.

Frequency of Publication:

The journal publishes four issues per year in English.

Peer Review Process

  • The NTU-JAVS follows a double-blind reviewing process for all submitted manuscripts.
  • All submitted manuscripts to NTU-JAVS are strictly and carefully peer-reviewed by a minimum of two external reviewers.
  • There is a primary check for plagiarism using Turnitin software, which is applied in the editorial office to check the plagiarism.
  • Editors apply the manuscript's preliminary review in the editorial office, which will take no more than seven days after submission before sending it to external reviewers.
  • After accepting the manuscript for a full review, the editors will pass the manuscript to at least two reviewers. The reviewing process will take no more than six weeks before collecting the reviewer's decision by the editor. After that, the editor will prepare a decision letter to the author(s) based on the reviewer's comments. The author will be asked to answer the reviewer's comments and format the manuscripts according to the NTU-JAVS template.
  • All accepted manuscripts will be proofread by NTU-JAVS and the author(s) (the author shall provide the editor with evidence that the accepted manuscript has been proofread). After completing this step, the author(s) will receive the paper in PDF format from NTU-JAVS to give room for the last check before publishing online.
  • The author(s) will be asked to provide complete information about where the research has been done and the study period.
  • The author(s) should provide information about the received financial support or grant number if applicable.

Some points the reviewers should take into consideration before agreeing to review the manuscript:

  • The field of proficiency or interest: the reviewer's expertise or fields of interest have to cover the manuscript topic.
    • Conflict of interest with one of the authors: let the editors know if there is any conflict of interest with any of the authors and decline the invitation to review.
    • The editor will appreciate providing the contact details of a qualified person to review the manuscript in case of declining the invitation of review. Otherwise, you will have 20 days to complete your review. The reviewers will be excluded from the reviewer's database if they exceed that time without replying to the journal or give reason(s) for the delay.
    • For more information, click here to view the reviewer process guide. 

Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The NTU Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences (NTU-JAVS) is a peer-reviewed journal, and it supports all themes of respected knowledge transfer networks. The journal publications ethics and malpractice statement is primarily based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011), and that includes:

  1. The responsibility of the journal editors and their duties.
    • The relations with authors, editors, editorial board, journal publisher, and reviewers.
    • Individual data protection.
    • Encouraging ethical research that includes humans and animals. 
    • Dealing with possible misconduct.
    • Secure the integrity of academic records.
    • Intellectual property.
    • Conflicts of interest.

Copyright

This is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Open access authors retain the copyrights of their papers, and all open access articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.

Animal Research

  1. The appropriate approval must have been obtained in all researches that involves live animals. This must be based on international, national, or local regulations. On this occasion, ethical approval must be obtained before researching the relevant body (for instance, the  Ethics Committee). The research must have an ethical statement within the author's materials and methods section and include all information related to the ethical approval statement (for instance, the granting organization and the approval reference numbers). If the approval reference number is not applicable, the author must provide a  written approval as a confidential supplemental information file. Non-human primates are subject to  Weatherall guidelines (2006)  (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).
  2. A statement must be provided on why ethical approval was not required in research conducted on non-regulated animals.
  3. Apply the author’s institution's highest standards regarding handling, treatment, and observation of the experimental animals.
  4. The journal editorial board inspires all authors to observe the 'Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments' (ARRIVE) guidelines developed by NC3Rs.
  5. A specific description of the live materials used in research should specifically provide articles (such as the organism(s)' name and strain, lab animal breed, and where they are obtained).