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.
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 December in 2008.
?
Quarterly now since 2009.
?
Will be 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...
Copyright 2012 Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering(CSAE) and Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological and Food Engineers (AOCABFE).
Open Submissions
Peer Reviewed