Editorial Policies

• Focus and Scope
• Section Policies
• Peer Review Process
• Publication Frequency
• Open Access Policy

Focus and Scope

Articles published in The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences encompass a broad range of research topics in animal health and production related to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, camel, equines, pig, rabbit, yak, mithun, poultry and fisheries. Studies involving wildlife species and laboratory animal species that address fundamental questions about their biology will also be considered for publication. All manuscripts must present some new development and must be original, timely, significant and scientifically excellent. Papers will be rejected if standards of care of, or procedures performed on animals are not up to those expected of humane veterinary scientists. At a minimum, standards must meet the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research involving Animals, as issued by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences. (C.I.O.M.S., c/o WHO, CH 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland). Articles reporting new animal disease must follow GOI directive as given in detail in Guidelines to Authors.

The readership of the journal is global.

The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences is published both online and in print mode.

The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences includes articles on following disciplines:


I. Animal Health

1. Epidemiology: Research findings and methodological developments in the field of epidemiological research; epidemiology of both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
2. Immunology: Broad range of experimental studies in molecular and cellular immunology: vaccine — molecular biology, synthetic peptides, recombinant antigens, vectors, new immunogens, adjuvants, immunity, immunology of protection, fertility, academic research, developmental applications, field trials, epidemiology, efficacy, cost/ benefit (biology of cells and mechanisms of the immune system, immunochemistry, immunodeficiencies, immunodiagnosis, immunogenetics, immunopathology, immunology of infectious disease and tumours, immunoprophylaxis to infectious disease including vaccine development and delivery, immunological aspects of pregnancy including passive immunity, reagent development including development of antibodies to new differentiation antigens and cytokines and gene isolation, interaction of the immune system with other tissues including autoimmunity, transplantation immunology.

3. Veterinary microbiology: Veterinary Microbiology is concerned with microbial (bacterial, fungal, viral) diseases of domesticated animals (livestock, poultry). In addition, Microbial diseases of wild animals living in captivity, or as members of the feral fauna will also be considered if the infections are of interest because of their interrelation with humans (zoonoses) and/or domestic animals, or for comparative or other scientific reasons. Studies of antimicrobial resistance are also included.

Original research papers of high quality and novelty on aspects of control, diagnosis, epidemiology, host response, immunology, molecular biology, pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of microbial diseases of animals are published. Drug trial papers are accepted if they have general application or significance. Papers on the identification of microorganisms are also accepted, but detailed taxonomic studies do not fall within the scope of the journal. Case reports are usually not accepted, unless these have general application or contain novel aspects. Papers of geographically limited interest, which repeat what had been established elsewhere, will not be accepted.

4. Parasitology: Original papers, from all geographical areas and covering all parasitological disciplines, including structure, immunology, cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and systematic are considered. Reviews on recent developments may be submitted. Papers of the highest quality dealing with all aspects of disease prevention, pathology, treatment, epidemiology, and control of parasites in all domesticated animals fall within the scope of the journal.
Parasitological studies on laboratory animals are considered only if they provide a reasonably close model of a disease of domestic animals. Papers relating to wildlife species where they may act as disease reservoirs to domestic animals, or as a zoonotic reservoir, are also considered. Papers dealing only with the taxonomy of parasites are not accepted.

5. Veterinary public health: Articles included are on — infection prevention and control, microbiology, infectious diseases, public health and the application of healthcare epidemiology to the evaluation of health outcomes. The information must advance the scientific knowledge of the sources, transmission, prevention and control of zoonoses. Articles that incorporate recent data into new methods, applications, or approaches (e.g. statistical modeling) which enhance public health are also considered.

6. Medicine: Epidemiology of domestic and wild animals, costs of epidemic and endemic diseases of animals, the latest methods in veterinary epidemiology, disease control or eradication, relationships between veterinary medicine and animal production, and development of new techniques in diagnosing, recording, evaluating and controlling diseases in animal populations.

7. Pharmacology and toxicology: Basic and clinical aspects of veterinary pharmacology and toxicology; toxic effects observed at relevant exposures, which have direct impact on safety evaluation and risk assessment — articles on these aspects are included in the journal.

8. Surgery and radiology: Articles having up-to-date coverage of surgical and anesthetic management of animals, and addressing significant problems in veterinary surgery with relevant observations are considered.

9. Pathology: Original articles presenting findings on all aspects of general, anatomic and molecular pathology, coverage of the most recent developments across the entire field of pathology and reviews focusing on recent progress in pathology, are included.

10. Avian diseases: Articles on etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and control relevant to avian diseases are considered.

11. Reproduction: Original research articles and timely reviews on topics relating to reproduction and fertility in animals are included — both fundamental research and applied studies, including management practices that increase our understanding of the biology and manipulation of reproduction; animal physiology and biochemistry of reproduction; animal reproductive biology and biotechnology, including basic and applied studies in cryobiology of gametes and embryos, conservation biology, and assisted reproduction of domestic, wild, avian species and captive and endangered species including zoo animals.

12. Biochemistry & biotechnology: Articles of original research in the fields of biochemistry and biotechnology and papers presenting information of a multidisciplinary nature are particularly welcome.

13. Anatomy and histology: Publishes original papers and invited review articles with main focus on understanding development, evolution and function through a broad range of anatomical approaches. Articles on bioinformatics and other topics clarifying functional anatomical understanding will also be considered. Priority will be given to experimental studies, to contributions based on molecular and cell biology, and on the application of modern functional imaging techniques. Studies that are essentially descriptive anatomy will only be published if the Editor considers that these are of functional significance. Also include original papers covering a link between anatomy and molecular biology, cell biology, reproductive biology, immunobiology, developmental biology, neurobiology, embryology as well as neuroanatomy, neuroimmunology, clinical anatomy, comparative anatomy, modern imaging techniques


II. Animal Production

1. Genetics and Molecular tools: Areas covered in the journal are genetic resources; genetics and genomics immunogenetics, molecular genetics and functional genomics of economically important and domesticated animals; evolutionary and comparative genomics, including phylogenomics; study of variability at gene and protein levels, mapping of genes, traits and QTLs, associations between genes and traits, genetic diversity, and characterization of gene expression and control; animal genetic resources; computational biology, bioinformatics and biostatistics, complex gene studies, population genomics, association studies, structural variation, and gene-environment interactions; genomic approaches to understanding the mechanism of disease pathogenesis and its relationship to genetic factors; medical genomics, application of genomic techniques in model organisms.

2. Breeding: Articles are included on — crossbreeding, its impact on economic traits of animals; progress in animal production and quantitative genetics.

3. Nutrition: Areas covered in the journal are — nutritive value of feeds (e.g., assessment, improvement); methods of conserving and processing feeds that affect their nutritional value; rumen manipulation; agronomic and climatic factors influencing the nutritive value of feeds; utilization of feeds and the improvement of such; metabolic, production, reproduction and health responses to dietary inputs (e.g., feeds, feed additives, specific feed components, mycotoxins); mathematical models relating directly to animal-feed interactions; analytical and experimental methods for feed evaluation; pasture, plant-animal relationship.

Behaviour, housing and climatology: Articles are included on — behaviour of farm, zoo and laboratory animals in relation to animal management and welfare; studies of the behaviour of wild animals when these studies are relevant from an applied perspective, for example in relation to wildlife management, pest management or nature conservation; aspects of shelter design and animal housing that affect health and physiology of animal; effect of climate change on breeding, feeding and health in animals and its mitigation.

4. Livestock economics, marketing and extension: Livestock economics and related disciplines such as statistics, marketing, and their application to issues in the livestock, food, and related industries; rural communities, and the environment; new extension issues are considered for publication.

5. Statistics: Articles on development and use of statistical methods in the animal sciences and fisheries, are considered for inclusion in journals.

6. Indigenous technical knowledge: Articles related to validation of indigenous knowledge on any field of animal sciences; organic farming are included in the journal.

III. Animal Products

Animal products: Methods to improve production, quality and shelf life of dairy, meat and egg products, and wool and hide are in the scope of the journal.

IV. Fisheries

Articles on fisheries in salt, brackish and freshwater systems, and all aspects of associated ecology, environmental aspects of fisheries, and economics, are considered. Both theoretical and practical papers are acceptable, including laboratory and field experimental studies relevant to fisheries. Papers on the conservation of exploitable living resources and review articles are also published. The approach of the journal is multidisciplinary.

Section Policies

Review Article

Peer Review Process

The article is sent to referees: Each paper submitted for publication is sent to 2 independent referees for peer review. They are selected on following basis:

• Expertise in one or more areas of paper
• No conflicts of interest
• Able to think clearly and logically
• Able to write a good critique
• Accurate
• Reliable in returning reviews
• Able to do the review in the allotted time-frame

Referees are expected to respond to the editor's request for advice within a limited period of time (15 days), which is clearly stated by the editor. A comment sheet is also provided to him for seeking his advice on all aspects of the article. He is advised to return the script immediately without comments if it is not possible for him to attend to a manuscript within this period, so that the editor can send it to another referee without further delay.

Comments from the referee are received by the editor

• If the reports of both referees disagree with regard to the suitability of the paper for publication, advice of a third referee is sought.
• Comments received from both referees: Article is sent to author for modification along with comments of referees. At this stage editor completes the preliminary editing. It includes checking in-house style (presentation of title, affiliations, present address, abstract, scientific nomenclature, text and reference presentation).
• Comments not received from both referees: If comments are not received from both referees, reminder is sent to them.

Reminder to referee from whom the comments not received: If comments are not received from one referee, reminder is sent to him.

If the referees have not sent comments and copy of the article is not available, ask the author to submit two more copies of the article:

Comments not received from one referee: Reminder is sent to the referee who is not responding.

Reminder is sent to referee who is not responding to editor's request. However if his reply is not coming in a stipulated time, editor takes suitable action on the basis of comments received from one referee.

Rejection of the article on the basis of comments of referees: The article is rejected on the basis of comments of referee/referees. The author is informed accordingly
Author does not agree with the adverse comments of the referee or in the mean time suitable comments are received from Second referee: Editor's decision independently or in consultation with editorial board, is final. Editor may ask the first referee or a third referee to go through the comments of first referee, reply of author to comments of referee and /or contradictory comments of second referee.

Favorable comments are received from second referee after the modification: Input of the second referee is incorporated in modified article. Author is contacted if referee asks for inclusion of more information in the form of table, figs or references.

Adverse comments received from the second referee at any stage: Author is informed of the adverse comments from second referee and action is stalled (even at proof stage) till final decision.

Editor's decision independently or in consultation with editorial board, is final . Acceptance of the article is sent to author.

Publication Frequency

Its a monthly Journal.

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.