Publication policy
Editorial Policy
Acta Agriculturae Serbica (abbrev. Acta Agric Serb) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. The Journal covers the fields of agricultural science, biotechnology, biology and other natural sciences.
Acta Agriculturae Serbica publishes original research articles, reviews and short communications which have not been published elsewhere. The Journal is issued twice a year in English language.
Editorial responsibilities
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision on which manuscripts submitted to Acta Agriculturae Serbica will be published. In doing so, the Editor-in-Chief follows the journal’s Editorial Policy and complies with all applicable legal requirements concerning libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
The Editor-in-Chief retains the right to decline publication of submitted manuscripts if they are found not to meet the relevant standards related to content and formal requirements.
The Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board must not have any conflicts of interest regarding the manuscripts under consideration. If any member of the Editorial Staff has a conflict of interest related to a submitted manuscript, that individual must withdraw from the reviewer selection process and from all editorial decisions concerning the manuscript.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of their intellectual merit, without regard to racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.
The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the authors’ explicit written consent. All information and ideas contained in submitted manuscripts must be treated as confidential and must not be used for personal benefit.
Editors and Editorial Staff are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during, and after the peer-review process.
Author's responsibilities
Authors guarantee that their manuscript is an original work, that it has not been previously published, and that it is not under review for publication elsewhere. Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to another journal is considered misconduct and will result in the manuscript being excluded from consideration by Acta Agriculturae Serbica.
Authors further guarantee that the manuscript will not be published elsewhere, in any language, after its publication in Acta Agriculturae Serbica, without the Publisher’s consent.
If a submitted manuscript arises from a research project conducted under the same or a similar title, detailed information about the project must be provided in the Acknowledgments section at the end of the manuscript. Articles that have already been published in another journal cannot be republished in Acta Agriculturae Serbica.
Each author bears responsibility for ensuring that manuscripts submitted to Acta Agriculturae Serbica adhere to ethical standards. Authors confirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not infringe upon the rights of third parties. The Publisher shall not be held legally liable in the event of any claims for compensation.
Reporting standards
A submitted manuscript must provide enough detail and appropriate references to allow reviewers, and later readers, to verify the claims made in the paper. Any intentional presentation of false or misleading statements constitutes a breach of ethical standards.
Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their submissions and must ensure that they have obtained permission from all relevant parties to make the data publicly available.
If authors intend to include figures, tables, or other materials that have been previously published, they are required to secure permission from the copyright holder(s). In the absence of such proof, the material will be considered the original work of the authors.
Authorship
Authors must make sure that all only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Authors are obliged to appropriately acknowledge and cite all sources that have had a significant impact on their research and the preparation of their manuscript. Information obtained through private conversations or correspondence with third parties, as well as through the review of project proposals, manuscripts, or related materials, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the original source.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, defined as presenting another person’s ideas, words, or other creative work as one’s own, represents a serious breach of scientific ethics and may also constitute a violation of copyright law subject to legal consequences.
Forms of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:
- Verbatim or near-verbatim copying, as well as intentional paraphrasing of parts of another author’s work without proper source attribution or without clearly marking the reproduced text (e.g., by using quotation marks);
- Reproducing equations, figures, or tables from other publications without appropriate citation and/or without permission from the original author or copyright holder.
All submitted manuscripts are systematically screened for plagiarism using the iThenticate software. Any submission displaying clear evidence of plagiarism will be automatically rejected. If plagiarism is identified in an article that has already been published in the journal, the paper will be retracted in accordance with the Retraction Policy outlined below.
Conflict of interest
Authors are required to disclose in their manuscript any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that could have influenced the results presented or their interpretation.
Fundamental errors in published works
If an author identifies a major error or inaccuracy in their published work, they are obliged to promptly inform the Editor-in-Chief or the Publisher and to cooperate in the process of correcting or retracting the article.
By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm their agreement to comply with the Editorial Policies of the Acta Agriculturae Serbica.
Reviewers' responsibilities
Reviewers are expected to provide timely, objective, and thorough evaluations of manuscripts, focusing on their scholarly quality, scientific merit, originality, and relevance to the journal’s scope. Reviews should be supported by clear arguments and constructive feedback, avoiding personal criticism of the authors.
Reviewers must identify any ethical concerns, including suspected plagiarism, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or parallel submissions to other journals, and promptly report these to the Editor-in-Chief. They should also note any relevant literature not cited in the manuscript.
All manuscripts received for review are strictly confidential. Reviewers must not use any unpublished material from the manuscripts for personal gain or without the authors’ written consent. Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest and notify the Editor-in-Chief if they are unqualified to review the manuscript or cannot provide a timely evaluation.
Peer review
All manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo a peer review process to assist the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions and, through communication with the authors, to help improve the quality of the manuscript.
Each paper undergoes single-blind review. During the main review phase, the Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to independent expert in the relevant field. Reviewer complete an evaluation form with a checklist to ensure all key aspects are assessed. In the final section, reviewer provide observations and constructive suggestions for improving the manuscript, which are communicated to the authors anonymously.
The selection of reviewers is at the Editor-in-Chief’s discretion. Reviewers must have expertise in the subject area, must not be affiliated with the authors’ institution, and should have no recent co-authored publications with any of the authors. Reviewers act independently and are unaware of each other’s identities.
During the review process, the Editor-in-Chief may request additional information from the authors, including raw data, if necessary to assess the manuscript’s scholarly merit. All such materials are treated as confidential and must not be used for personal benefit.
The Editorial team ensures the quality and objectivity of reviews. If authors raise concerns regarding a review, special attention is given to verify its fairness and academic standard. In cases of doubt regarding the objectivity or quality of a review, additional reviewers may be assigned.
Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior
Handling Unethical Behaviour and Misconduct
Anyone may report suspected unethical behaviour or misconduct to the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Staff at any time, providing sufficient information or evidence to initiate an investigation.
Investigation Process
- The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Board, decides whether to initiate an investigation.
- All evidence collected during the investigation is treated as strictly confidential and shared only with those directly involved.
- The accused individual is always given an opportunity to respond to any allegations.
- At the conclusion of the investigation, any confirmed misconduct is classified as either minor or major.
Minor Misconduct
Minor misconduct is addressed directly with the individuals involved, without involving other parties. Examples include:
- Communicating with authors or reviewers regarding minor misunderstandings or misapplications of academic standards.
- Issuing a warning letter to an author or reviewer for relatively minor infractions.
Major Misconduct
Decisions regarding major misconduct are made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board, based on available evidence. Possible actions include, separately or in combination:
- Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct.
- Informing the author’s or reviewer’s department head or employer through a formal letter.
- Formal retraction of publications in accordance with the journal’s Retraction Policy.
- Imposing a temporary ban on submissions from the individual involved.
- Referring the case to a professional organization or legal authority for further investigation and action.
In all cases, the Editorial Staff follows the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Retraction policy
Articles may be retracted in cases of legal restrictions imposed by the publisher, copyright holder, or author(s), or in instances of serious violations of professional ethical standards, including multiple submissions, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or any other major misconduct. Retractions may also be issued to correct errors identified in the submission or publication process.
The primary purpose of retraction is to correct the scientific record while maintaining the integrity of research; it is not intended as a punishment for the author.
Standards for handling retractions have been established by numerous library and scholarly organizations, and the Acta Agriculturae Serbica follows these practices. In the electronic version of a retraction notice, a link is provided to the original article. Conversely, in the electronic version of the original article, a link is provided to the retraction notice, clearly indicating that the article has been retracted. The original article remains unchanged, except for a watermark on each page of the PDF indicating that it is “retracted”.
Open access policy
Acta Agriculturae Serbica is an Open Access Journal. All articles can be downloaded free of charge and used in accordance with the Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/rs/.
The journal does not charge any fees at submission, reviewing, and production stages.
Self-archiving Policy
The Acta Agriculturae Serbica permits authors to deposit the Publisher’s version (PDF) of their article in institutional repositories, non-commercial subject-based repositories, or to share it on their personal website - including social networking platforms such as Research Gate or Academia.edu - and/or on departmental websites.
This sharing is allowed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/rs/) and may be done at any time after publication.
Authors must provide full bibliographic details of the original publication, including authors’ names, article title, journal title, volume, issue, and page numbers, and include a link to the article’s DOI.
Copyright
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, authors shall transfer the copyright to the Publisher.
Authors grant to the Publisher the following rights to the manuscript, including any supplemental material, and any parts, extracts or elements thereof:
- the right to reproduce and distribute the Manuscript in printed form, including print-on-demand;
- the right to produce prepublications, reprints, and special editions of the Manuscript;
- the right to translate the Manuscript into other languages;
- the right to reproduce the Manuscript using photomechanical or similar means including, but not limited to photocopy, and the right to distribute these reproductions;
- the right to reproduce and distribute the Manuscript electronically or optically on any and all data carriers or storage media - especially in machine readable/digitalized form on data carriers;
- the right to store the Manuscript in databases, including online databases, and the right of transmission of the Manuscript in all technical systems and modes;
- the right to make the Manuscript available to the public or to closed user groups on individual demand, for use on monitors or other readers (including e-books), and in printable form for the user, either via the internet, other online services, or via internal or external networks.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
