General Information
Agricultura Tropica et Subtropica (ATS) is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published under the authorisation of Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic (MENDELU) and managed by the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies. ATS is dedicated to publishing cutting-edge research in tropical and subtropical agriculture. The journal provides a platform for scientists worldwide to share their findings on plant and animal production, animal health and welfare, sustainable agriculture, agriculture technology, land and water protection, forestry, agricultural economics, regional development in tropical and subtropical areas, and related topics. Published studies contribute to the development of innovative solutions for the challenges faced by agriculture in tropical and subtropical regions. The journal publishes original research articles and comprehensive review articles from the disciplines concerned. The manuscript must be both original (not published previously elsewhere) and formally correct. Papers are published in English. The authors are fully responsible for the originality of the paper, its subject and formal correctness. As of 2021, the journal is published in open-access online-only; the articles are published continuously.
Publisher
ATS is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published under the authorisation of MENDELU and managed by the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies.
Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1665/1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Licence terms
The articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Open access and charges
All published articles are open access, and there is no publication fee, ensuring the wide dissemination of scientific knowledge. The 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.
Contact information
Editor-in-Chief: Ivo ZDRÁHAL, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, e-mail: ivo.zdrahal@mendelu.cz
Chairperson of the editorial board: Ivo PAVLIK, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic. e-mail: ivo.pavlik@mendelu.cz
JOURNAL POLICIES
Single-blinded peer review process - the journal uses a single-blinded peer review, which means that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors throughout the review process, while the reviewers can see the authors' identities. Peer-review process steps are:
1. Manuscript submission – the corresponding author submits the manuscript to the journal via the online editorial system.
2. Editorial office assessment – the manuscript’s composition and arrangement are checked against the Instructions for Authors. The manuscript is checked for plagiarism.
3. Evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) – EIC checks that the manuscript is appropriate for the journal and is sufficiently original and interesting. If not, the manuscript may be rejected without being reviewed. EIC consults with Editorial Board Members if necessary.
4. EIC may assign a Co-editor who will handle the peer review.
5. Invitation to Reviewers – at least two reviewers are assigned by the Editor in Chief or the Co-editor to a manuscript. Once responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until at least two acceptances of the article review are obtained.
6. Response to invitations – potential reviewers consider the invitation based on their own expertise, conflicts of interest and availability. They then accept or decline. If possible, when declining, they might also suggest alternative reviewers.
7. Review is conducted – the reviewer sets time aside to read the manuscript several times. The first read is used to form an initial impression of the work. If major problems are found at this stage, the reviewer may feel comfortable rejecting the manuscript without further work. Otherwise, he will read the manuscript several more times, taking notes to build a detailed point-by-point review. The completed review is then submitted to the journal, providing an Overall Reviewer Recommendation (ranging from excellent to unacceptable), an Overall Manuscript Rating on a scale of 1 to 100, and detailed Comments on the manuscript.
8. The EIC or assigned Co-editor considers the returned reviews before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ widely, an additional reviewer could be invited to get an extra opinion before making a decision. The EIC decides on the publication of papers, considering peer reviews, scientific importance, and recommendations of the Editorial Board members.
9. The decision is communicated. The Executive Editor sends a decision e-mail to the corresponding author, including any relevant comments.
10. Next steps. If accepted, the manuscript is sent to production. If the article is rejected or sent back for either major or minor revision, the handling editor should include constructive comments from the reviewers to help the author improve the paper. If the paper was sent back to authors for revision, the reviewers should expect to receive a new version, unless they have opted out of further participation. However, where only minor changes were requested, this follow-up review might be done by the handling editor.
Pre-submission language editing
This journal places a premium on high-quality scientific writing and clear presentation. Because of this, the manuscript must be grammatically and linguistically corrected throughout, and authors are required to use British English spelling conventions (such as aetiology, caecum, faecal, haematology, and utilise). To avoid acceptance problems, authors who are not native English speakers are strongly advised to have their work translated by a professional who understands the specific subject matter or to have it assessed by an English editing service before submission. Please note that manuscripts written in poor-quality English may be rejected immediately without entering the peer-review stage.
Submission of manuscripts
Submit the manuscript electronically to the editorial system from the web page. The manuscript should be submitted in the following separate files:
Manuscript file (.doc/.docx) including title, author's name(s) including ORCID, author's affiliation, abstract, keywords, content/text of the article (tables and figures in the text), acknowledgements, conflict of interest, ethical compliance, references.
When submitting the article in the editorial manager, the author must also submit these three declarations:
In case of multiple authorship, it is understood that the manuscript has been read and approved by all authors.