Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences
Journal / Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences / About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences (TAJAS) publishes world class research in agricultural sciences. The journal aims to maximize the quality of the agricultural sector across the globe by focusing on publishing the high-quality articles and provides a platform for scientists and academicians all over the world to promote, share, and discuss various topics and developments in the field of Agricultural Sciences.

Specific topics of interest include (but are not limited to) agronomy, modelling of crop, land use, agricultural biodiversity conservation, climate smart agriculture, Irrigation and water resource management, agricultural engineering and mechanization.

Other topics are horticulture, plant breeding, Plant pathology, plant genomics, post-harvest technology, Food and consumer sciences, Agroecology and organic farming, soil sciences and soil fertility and pest management, agricultural biotechnology, Digital agriculture (use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and Internet of Things), agricultural economics, marketing and cooperatives, agricultural extension, Rural development, gender and development in agriculture, agricultural policy analysis, horticulture are also given high importance for publication.

Publication Scheduling

The Tanzania journal of Agricultural Sciences has since 1998 been publishing archival two issues one in June and the other in December making one volume per annum.

However, from 2024, the TAJAS is set to publish articles "continuously," i.e. articles are published online as soon as they are available (peer-reviewed and copy-edited).

Open Access Policy

The Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences (TAJAS) does not charge any Article Processing Charge (APC), also known as a publication fee before and after the paper is accepted for publication. All articles are freely available and immediately accessible online upon publication. Readers can study, download and/or print Open Access articles without any cost.

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.

Sources of Support

UNIVERSITY WIDE RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

Peer Review Statement

TAJAS operates a strict double-blind peer review process for all articles to help the editor make informed decisions that will be communicated to authors, to improve the quality of the papers. During the double-blind review, anonymity is maintained for both the authors and reviewers.

The average review period is expected to last for two months. The process of publishing an article begins when the authors submit their manuscripts through the journal's online platform. The Editor-in-Chief (EiC) initially screens the manuscript to determine if it is suitable for the TAJAS. TAJAS publishes papers that report original and unpublished research results. The journal considers plagiarism a serious offense. The journal will follow COPE guideline in suspected cases of plagiarism. Therefore, all manuscripts considered for publication undergo plagiarism check before being assigned to a peer review process. The EiC assigns an eligible manuscript to an Assistant Editor who will follow up the remaining peer review steps and provide a recommendation or decision to the EiC. Based on the reviewer's comments and the Assistant Editor's final opinion, the EiC decides to accept the paper, accept it with revisions, ask for resubmission, or reject it. If accepted, an acceptance letter is sent to the author and the manuscript is sent to production.

If revisions are necessary, the authors are given the opportunity to update their manuscript and resubmit it for further evaluation. In the event of rejection, a rejection letter is sent and the manuscript is archived.

The next step is for the manuscript to be edited by the typesetting secretariate, who ensures the manuscript adheres to the correct referencing system and journal style and layout. Once this is complete, the secretariate formats the manuscript into an article, adding necessary links and preparing it in both PDF and HTML formats. The final step is for the galley proof to review the manuscript and confirm it is ready for publication after consulting the corresponding author. The review process involves multiple independent reviewers, none of whom are aware of each other's identities. If the decisions of two reviewers are not the same, the EiC will seek opinion of additional reviewers. The editorial team takes care to uphold the reviewers' objectivity and quality, and if there is any doubt about their objectivity, they will assign additional reviewers.

Ethical Principles

TAJAS, implements the publication principles stipulated and accepted by following organizations: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public confidence in scientific findings, and respect for people's opinions. The TAJAS expects the author(s), reviewers and editors to comply with the principles of ethical rules throughout the publication period of the article.

Plagiarism

TAJAS undertakes to publish studies that have not been published elsewhere and/or are not under review elsewhere. Articles found to be plagiarized will be subject to plagiarism sanctions. In addition, the plagiarism control of the articles will be checked using TURNITIN, which is subscribed by Sokoine University of Agriculture. Threshold Similarity rate of manuscripts is 30%. Studies with a similarity rate of more than 30% are returned to the author for revision without being reviewed.

Duplicate Submission

Articles found to be published/under evaluation elsewhere will be subject to duplicate publication sanctions. When authors use their work to be published as the basis for their previous publications, they must both refer to their previous work and state that the submitted work presents new contributions that differ from the previous one.

Citation Manipulation

In order to increase the number of citations, citation sanctions will be applied to the submitted article when the existence of citations to a particular author's work or to articles published in a particular journal is detected.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Data fabrication and falsification sanctions will be applied to articles in which experimental result fabrication and image manipulation are detected.

Improper Author Contribution

All authors (including students and laboratory technicians) in the study submitted for evaluation must have contributed to the study and must have accepted and confirmed all their claims.

Sanctions

For documented violations of any of the above-mentioned policies, the following sanctions will apply:

• The infringing manuscript will be rejected.
• All new submissions with the authors of the infringing manuscript are prohibited. This ban will be enforced for at least 36 months.
• Authors are prohibited from taking part in the editorial board of TAJAS.

The publisher, Sokoine University of Agriculture reserves the right to impose different additional sanctions in cases where violations of the mentioned policies are more serious.

Editorial evaluation is based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Cope's recommendations for ethical mandate, responsibilities, and open access in this journal are considered. See: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). No fee is charged for the articles and other processes uploaded to TAJAS, and all accepted articles are published, read and downloaded free of charge. All members and authors should be aware of the rules of thumb and recommendations set by COPE.

In case reports, it is necessary to include information that the informed consent/consent form was signed in the article. In studies that require ethics committee clearance, information about the clearance (name of the committee, date and number) should be included in the method section and also on the first/last page of the article. However, in the material and method section, the statement "Declaration that the study was carried out in accordance with the international declaration, guideline, etc." should be included.

Author: All authors must make significant contributions to the research. Subjects such as plagiarism, forgery, distortion, unfair authorship are the responsibility of the authors. If detected, the article will be rejected. An article in progress cannot be sent to another journal or published. Also; Indicating that “informed consent form” was taken in case reports; Obtaining and specifying permission from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires, photographs belonging to others; Statement that copyright regulations are complied with for the intellectual and artistic works used.

Reviewers: The articles submitted for publication are evaluated by blind reviewers. The peer review process involves seeking advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers' experts in the field. The reviewers should have no conflict of interest and ensures the articles are kept confidential. The reviewers’ evaluation results are reviewed by the editor and the author is informed about the decision about the article. The names of the reviewer who evaluated the articles are not notified to the authors. Reviewers also cannot see the names of the authors. It is a general principle that the articles that are not considered sufficient should be developed in line with the recommendations of the referees.

Edıtor: Journal Editors adopt the principle of complying with all the COPE Code of Conduct standards. Editors should not have a conflict of interest regarding the articles they accept or reject. Only articles that will contribute to the field should be accepted. Manuscripts that do not reach the intended level, studies that are not considered scientifically sufficient are rejected by the EiC without explaining the reason. 

Journal Management: Journal management and EiC will take the necessary steps to prevent the publication of articles that are found to be abusive on the above-mentioned issues for the authors. In no event should the journal or its editors encourage or allow such abuse to occur. If the publisher or editor of the journal is notified of any alleged research misconduct, the publisher or editor will deal with the allegations responsibly.