As an official publication of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Banja Luka, launched in 2000, the Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal is a scientific journal published four times (four issues) per year (one volume) in English, as an online edition (e-ISSN 2233-0070) from 2019. Previous issues are available in printed (ISSN 1512-6412) and online edition (ISSN 2233-0070).

Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal publishes articles in the field of agriculture and related academic disciplines that have not been published previously. Articles acceptable for publication should present scientific contributions through the latest theoretical and empirical research in the following scientific fields: plant science, crop science, fruit science, viticulture, horticulture, water and soil science and management, agrometeorology, biometrics, animal and dairy science, food technology, post-harvest technology, natural resources, agro-ecology, genetic resources, agricultural economics and rural development, veterinary science, hunting, fishery, bee-keeping, food safety and quality, innovative technologies in agriculture and similar topics.

Contributions to journal shall be submitted in English.

Papers published in the Journal are classified into the categories of Original scientific paper, Review scientific paper, Preliminary communication, Scientific criticism, Informative annex and Viewing a book, an instrument, a computer program, a case, a scientific event.

Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal is an Open Access Journal, and does not charge any fees at submission, reviewing, and production stages.

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editor is responsible for deciding which papers submitted to Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal will be published. The Editor and Editorial Staff will be guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

The Editor reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within three months from the date of the manuscript submission.

The Editor must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the papers they consider for publication. If an the Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the paper shall be made by the Editorial Board.

Editor shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.

The Editor and the Editorial Board must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

The Editor and the Editorial Board shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.

Authors’ responsibilities

Reporting standards

Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Multiple, redundant of concurrent publication of submission of the same paper to another journal constitutes a misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal. In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or if it has been presented at a conference in part or full version (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in the footnote at the very beginning of the manuscript.

It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that papers submitted to Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal are written with ethical standards in mind. Authors affirm that the paper contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.

Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the data public. The authors may be required to send a signed statement when sending a manuscript that they have obtained such consent.

By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree to abide by the Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal Policies.

Authorship

Authors must make sure that all only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgments section.

Acknowledgement of sources

Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Conflict of interest

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.

Reviewers’ responsibilities

Reviewers are required to provide written, competent and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript, according to the highest level of academic standards.

The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus,.

Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor without delay.

Reviewers should alert the Editor to any well-founded suspicions or the knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should recognize relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors and alert the Editor to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in case they are aware of such.

Reviewers should also alert the Editor to a parallel submission of the same paper to another journal, in case they are aware of such.

Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Peer review

The submitted manuscripts are subject to a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to assists the Editor in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communications with the author, it may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

A manuscript goes through the peer review process - Double-blind peer-review. Double-blind peer review mean that reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers. There have to be at least two reviewers for each manuscript. The typical period of time allowed for reviews is 4 weeks, and this period can be modified during the editorial process.

The choice of reviewers is at the editors' discretion. The reviewers must be knowledgeable and competent about the subject area of the manuscript. Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay.

Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

During the review process Editor may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the scholarly merit of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Possible final decisions include:

Accept without revision
Accept subject to revision
Decline

The Editorial team shall ensure reasonable quality control for the reviews. With respect to reviewers whose reviews are convincingly questioned by authors, special attention will be paid to ensure that the reviews are objective and high in academic standard. When there is any doubt with regard to the objectivity of the reviews or quality of the review, additional reviewers will be assigned.

Open Access Policy

Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal is an Open Access Journal. All articles can be downloaded free of charge and used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which lets others distribute and copy the article; create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation); include it in a collective work; text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the Author(s), provide a link to the license and indicate if changes were made. However, this is not allowed to be done in a way that suggests the licensor endorses the use, nor is it allowed to modify the article in such a way as to damage the Author's honour or reputation.

Self-archiving Policy

The Agroznanje / Agro-knowledge Journal allows Authors to deposit author’s post-print (accepted version) and publisher's version (PDF) of their paper in an institutional repository, subject-based repository, author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as Research Gate, Academia.edu, etc.), and/or departmental website prior or during the submission process, at any time after the acceptance of the manuscript and at any time after publication in the journal in compliance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and links must be made to the article's DOI and the license.

Copyright

Authors retain the copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media. Articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Disclaimer

The views expressed in the published papers do not express the views of the Editors and Editorial Board. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the papers. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Publishing