Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

Int. J. Agric. & Biol. Eng (IJABE) is an international peer-reviewed open-access journal sponsored and published jointly by US-based Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological and Food Engineers (AOCABFE) and Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering(CSAE). The ISSN 1934-6344 and eISSN 1934-6352 numbers for the IJABE have been registered in US. The IJABE is published in both online version and hard copy. Open access IJABE provides wider sharing of knowledge and the acceleration of research, and is thus in the best interest of authors, potential readers, and increases the availability, accessibility, visibility and impact of the papers, and journal as a whole.

IJABE aims at developing agricultural and biological engineering, promoting the prosperity of academics, and improving international academic exchange and cooperation. This journal provides a home for the latest high-quality research concerning the agricultural, food and biological engineering and the application of bio-agricultural engineering techniques in all areas of agriculture. The journal features works of great significance, originality, and relevance in all the concerned areas. Our audience is the international scientific community as well as educators, policy makers, agricultural engineers and scientists, and interested members of the public around the world. The six major technical categories that the journal covers include, but are not limited to:

Power & Machinery System (PMS)

Design and manufacturing, Mechanization and automation, Man-machine system interaction, Precision agriculture and emerging technologies.

Land & Water Engineering (LWE)

Conservation of water and soil resources and quality, Technology for improvement of soil and water infrastructures, Hydrology, Erosion, Drainage, Water quality and ecosystem integration, Stream corridor restoration, Irrigation management, Infrastructure management.

Bio-environmental Engineering (BEE)

Pollution source and emission, Environmental control technology, Ecological engineering, Waste management, Greenhouse engineering, Safety and health, Life cycle analysis.

Information & Electrical Technologies (IET)

Artificial intelligence, Advanced sensing technology, Biosensors and system control, Computer aided systems, Application of GIS, GPS, and RS in agriculture.

Renewable Energy System (RES)

Innovative energy sources, Renewable energy technologies, Biomass production, handling, and utilization, Energy efficiency and conservation.

Agro-product & Food Processing Engineering (AFPE)

Post-harvest handling and storage, healthy food technology, food and biological processing engineering, Imaging and sensing technology, Safety and security, Biomaterials and bio-chemicals.

Emerging Science, Engineering & Technologies (ESET)

Types of Papers

Cover Caption, Editorial, Review, Research Articles, Forum, Perspectives, Commentary, Brief Communications, Book and Media Reviews, Corrections, Correspondence, etc.

 

Section Policies

Editorials

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Review

Include research review and literature review with hot topics, in-depth analysis and enlightenment. Free submissions are welcome but invited preferable.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Power & Machinery System

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Land & Water Engineering

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Bio-environmental Engineering

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Information & Electrical Technologies

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Renewable Energy System

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Agro-product & Food Processing Engineering

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Emerging Science, Engineering & Technologies

New trends in emerging science,engineering,and tecgnology. Multidiscipline articles.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Information

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Science News

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Cover Caption

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Book Review

Checked Open Submissions Unchecked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts will be critically reviewed by the editor and invited referees within 2 months. All manuscripts submitted to IJABE are peer-reviewed according to the following procedure:

Initial review: A Division Editor evaluates all manuscripts sent his/her division to determine if submitted manuscripts are appropriate for consideration by IJABE. Manuscripts that do not meet the minimum criteria are returned to the authors within one week of receipt. This is in the best interest of the authors who could then decide to fix the problems or to submit the manuscript to a more appropriate venue, avoiding delay caused by a lengthy review process that would nonetheless lead to rejection.

Peer review: Manuscripts passing the initial review are assigned to an Associate Editor, who selects and invites two reviewers based on their expertise in the particular field. A manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers. Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript based on

  • Material is original and timely
  • Writing is clear
  • Study methods are appropriate
  • Data are valid
  • Conclusions are reasonable and supported by the data
  • Information is important
  • Topic has general engineering interest and practical significance
To facilitate timely publication, reviewers are asked to complete their reviews within one month. If the two reviewers have very different opinions on the manuscript, the Associate Editor or Division Editor's review will weigh in. After collecting the referees' reports, the Associate Editor makes a recommendation on the acceptability of the manuscript to the respective Division Editor.


Recommendation: Based on the reviewers' comments and the Associate Editor's recommendation, the Division Editor makes a final decision on the acceptability of the manuscript, and communicates to the authors the decision, along with reviewers' reports. The decision can be:
  • accept as is
  • minor revision
  • major revision
  • reject
A revised manuscript should be re-submitted within six months of the decision. It will usually be returned to the original reviewers for evaluation.

A rejection decision is made typically because the manuscript does not meet the criteria outlined above such as originality, importance to the field, cross-discipline interest, or sound methodology.

If the Division Editor and Associate Editor have conflicting opinions on a manuscript, they will seek consultation with the Editor in Chief who may make the final decision.

Honest and Polite
After each round of the review, review reports will be sent to the author(s) and all reviewers of the manuscript under consideration. It is important for a reviewer to be honest but not offensive when providing comments. Review reports with opinions expressed in a kind and constructive way will persuade the authors of the merit of the review more effectively.

Writing the Review
The purpose of the review is to provide the editors with an expert's opinions on the quality of the manuscript under consideration. A good review report should identify both the strengths and the weaknesses of the paper, and should also provide constructive and specific comments on how to improve the paper. If the reviewer believes that the paper is not suitable for publication in IJABE, the review report should provide brief but sufficient information that enables the author(s) to understand the reasons for the decision.

 

Publication Frequency

Two issues in 2008. First issue in August and second in November in 2008.

Quarterly from 2009.


Biomonthly in a few years.

 

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 means that every paper is freely available for everyone to read, download, copy, distribute and use. If an article is “Open Access”, it means that it can be freely accessed by anyone in the world using an internet connection. This means that the potential readership of Open Access articles is far, far greater than that for articles where the full-text is restricted to subscribers. Evidence shows that making research material Open Access increases the number of readers and significantly increases citations to the article - in some fields increasing citations by 300%. It is important to point out that Open Access does not affect peer-review; articles are peer-reviewed and published in journals in the normal way. There is no suggestion that authors should use repositories instead of journals. Open Access repositories supplement and do not replace journals. Some authors have feared that wider availability will increase plagiarism: in fact, if anything, Open Access serves to reduce plagiarism. When material is freely available the chance that plagiarism is recognized and exposed is that much higher.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system 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 Fees & Reprints

  • US$50 per printing page for authors outside mainland China.
  • RMB¥300 per printing page for authors in mainland China.
  • US$300 or RMB¥2000 for one printing Color Page.
  • Publication fees will be billed upon acceptance. However, the ability of authors to pay publication charges will never be a consideration in the decision whether to publish.

METHOD OF PAYMENT

Transfer money from a bank account. Or Remit money by post office. Give a clear indication of whose(first or corresponding author) publication fees in the postscript.

  • Account name:Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering(中国农业工程学会)
  • Account bank:Agricultural Bank of China, Beijing Branch, Chaoyanglu Bei Sub-branch (中国农业银行北京朝阳路北支行)
  • Account number:11040101040004739
  • Contact Person: Wang Yingkuan (王应宽)
  • Telephone: 80-10-65929527,65929451(Fax), 013691070263
  • Mailing Address: Room 506, No 41, Maizidian Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100125, China
  • Email: wangyk@agri.gov.cn; ijabe@sina.com; ijabe@163.com
Reprints and EPrints
  • Reprints
    Reprints (also offprints) may be ordered when the edited typescript is sent for approval to the corresponding author. Reprints ship three weeks after publication. From 2008, thirty reprints will be supplied to the corresponding author once required. A charge of RMB¥ 500 (US$ 70) and RMB¥ 2000 (US$ 270) will be levied for each article without color plate and with color plates, respectively. For reprints of more than 30, extra charge will also be levied.
  • EPrints
    Corresponding authors who provide an e-mail address for publication will receive an electronic link that provides free online accesses to the PDF view of their article.

 

Cover Letter

It is important that you include a cover letter with your manuscript. Take the time to consider why this manuscript is suitable for publication in IJABE. We recommend that authors explain briefly how their work meets the Journal's scope and quality. Why will your paper inspire the other members of your field, and how will it drive research forward? Please explain this in your cover letter. Authors and effective contact information should also be included.

A cover letter must be submitted along with the manuscript, stating that the manuscript as a whole and any part of the content have not been submitted for publication elsewhere, except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium. Any closely related papers that are in press or that have been submitted elsewhere should be noted in the cover letter and cited in the submitted manuscript as appropriate.

Authors can recommend over three reviewers for their manuscript in the cover letter. If authors wish to request exclusion of any reviewers, specific reasons must be provided.

The cover letter must also contain a declaration that all authors have contributed significantly to the work and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.