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Editorial Policy

AgroEnvironmental Sustainability is published by the Society for AgroEnvironmental Sustainability (SAGENS), Dehradun, India. Decisions on what to publish rest with the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board. They are based only on the quality of the work, its relevance to the journal's scope, and the outcome of peer review. The journal operates in line with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. The publisher does not take part in editorial decisions, and payment of the article processing charge has no bearing on them.

Editors judge manuscripts without regard to the authors' nationality, institution, gender, religion, or seniority. Submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential: editors and reviewers do not share them or use unpublished material for their own work. An editor with a conflict of interest in a manuscript, for example a recent collaboration with an author or an institutional connection, hands it to another editor.

Editorial board members, including the Editor-in-Chief, may submit their own work to the journal. Such manuscripts go through the same peer review as any other, are handled by an editor with no connection to the authors, and the author-editor has no access to the review records or the decision process for that manuscript.

Submitting a manuscript means the authors accept the journal's policies. All authors sign a publishing agreement that grants AgroEnvironmental Sustainability non-exclusive rights to publish the article. The authors keep the copyright.

Peer Review Policy

All research articles, reviews, short communications, and case studies are peer reviewed. The journal uses single-blind review: reviewers know the authors' identities, but reviewers' names are not disclosed to the authors. Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent experts. Editorials and letters are assessed by the editors.

Reviewers are chosen for their subject expertise and must declare any conflict of interest before accepting an invitation. Authors may suggest reviewers, but the editor is not obliged to use them, and at least one reviewer is always selected independently of the authors' suggestions. The editor checks suggested reviewers' identities and institutional email addresses. Reviewers assess the originality, methods, soundness of the conclusions, and relevance of the work, and may recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection. The final decision is made by the handling editor. The review process is described in full in the Reviewer Guidelines.

Supplementary material submitted with a manuscript, such as additional data, tables, or figures, is sent to the reviewers and assessed as part of the review. Review reports are confidential: they are shared with the authors without the reviewers' names and are not published with the article. If the review of a manuscript takes longer than usual, the editorial office informs the authors of the delay, and the authors may then choose to withdraw the manuscript.

Open Access Policy

AgroEnvironmental Sustainability is a fully open access journal. Every article is free to read and download from the date of publication, with no subscription, registration, or payment needed. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which allows anyone to share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercial use, provided the original authors and source are credited, a link to the licence is given, and any changes are indicated. Articles published in Volume 1 and Volume 2, Issue 1 (June 2023 to March 2024) were released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) and keep that licence; the licence of each article is shown on its article page and PDF.

Authors keep the copyright in their articles without restriction. When an article is accepted, the authors grant the journal a non-exclusive licence to publish it, and the article is released under CC BY 4.0. Because the licence is non-exclusive, the authors may reuse, distribute, and deposit their work anywhere, provided the original publication in AgroEnvironmental Sustainability is cited. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any third-party material, such as figures or tables from other publications, and for ensuring that such material can be released under the article's licence or is clearly marked otherwise.

Intellectual Property Policy

The journal does not claim ownership of the intellectual property in the work it publishes. Authors keep all rights in their articles and in the data, methods, and results they describe, apart from the non-exclusive licence they grant the journal to publish the article. By submitting, authors confirm that the work does not infringe anyone else's copyright, patent, or other rights, and that they have permission for any third-party material they include. Because publication is a public disclosure, authors who intend to seek patent protection for their work should do so before submission. The journal title, logo, and website design belong to the Society for AgroEnvironmental Sustainability. Suspected infringement of intellectual property in a submitted or published article is handled under the Research Integrity Issues Policy.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism means presenting another person's words, data, images, or ideas as one's own, without acknowledgment. It includes copying text word for word, close paraphrasing without citation, reusing figures or data without permission or credit, and reusing substantial parts of the authors' own published work without citing it (text recycling or self-plagiarism).

All submissions are screened with iThenticate (Crossref Similarity Check) before review. An editor reads each similarity report rather than relying on the percentage alone. Manuscripts with an overall similarity above 10%, or with a large overlap with any single source, are normally returned or declined. Where the overlap is limited, the authors may be asked to revise the affected text.

If plagiarism is found during review, the manuscript is declined and the authors are informed of the reason. If it is found after publication, the journal follows COPE guidance, which may lead to a correction or retraction. In serious or repeated cases, the journal may inform the authors' institution and may decline further submissions from the authors for a fixed period.

Article Publication Policy

The journal publishes original research, reviews, short communications, case studies, and editorials across agriculture and the environmental sciences, with particular interest in work that links the two. Manuscripts must be original, must not have been published previously, and must not be under consideration by another journal. Posting a preprint or including the work in a thesis does not count as prior publication (see the Preprint and Self-Archiving Policy), but should be mentioned in the cover letter.

Submissions are made through the journal's online system. Each one is checked for scope, completeness, and similarity, then sent for peer review. Accepted articles receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registered with Crossref and are published in one of four issues each year. The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Principles, and this policy is reviewed periodically.

Authorship Policy

The journal follows the ICMJE authorship criteria, adapted to the agricultural and environmental sciences. Everyone listed as an author should have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data. They should also have drafted or critically revised the manuscript, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for the work. People who contributed in other ways, for example by providing funding, supervision alone, technical help, or language editing, should be named in the Acknowledgments rather than as authors. Gift, guest, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.

Each author's role must be stated in the Author Contributions section using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) roles. The corresponding author is responsible for making sure all authors have seen and approved the manuscript and agree to its submission. Changes to the author list after submission are handled as described in the Author Guidelines.

Conflict of Interest Policy

A conflict of interest exists when a financial, professional, or personal relationship could influence, or could be seen to influence, a person's judgement about the work. Examples include employment by or funding from a company with an interest in the results, holding patents, consultancy, and close personal or professional relationships.

Authors must declare all such interests in the Conflicts of Interest section of the manuscript. Reviewers must decline an invitation if they have a conflict with the authors or the work, and editors must pass a manuscript to another editor if they have a conflict. Undeclared conflicts that come to light after publication are handled under the Research Integrity Issues Policy and may lead to a correction.

Research Ethics Policy

Research published in the journal must have been carried out ethically and in line with the laws and regulations of the country where it was done.

  • Human participants: Studies involving people, including surveys and interviews with farmers or communities, need approval from an appropriate ethics committee and informed consent from the participants, in line with the Declaration of Helsinki where it applies. Personal information must be kept confidential and data anonymised where possible.
  • Animals: Studies involving animals need approval from an institutional animal ethics committee and should follow recognised guidelines for animal care and reporting, such as the ARRIVE guidelines.
  • Field studies and biological material: Authors must hold any permits required for field work, sample collection, or work in protected areas. Studies using genetic resources should comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol where they apply. Voucher specimens should be deposited in a recognised collection where appropriate.

The name of the approving body, the approval number, and the date must be given in the Institutional/Ethical Approval section. Editors may ask for copies of approval documents and may decline manuscripts where ethical requirements have not been met.

Data Sharing Policy

The journal encourages authors to make the data behind their results available so that the work can be checked and reused. Every research article must include a Data Availability Statement explaining where the data can be found, for example in a public repository with a DOI or accession number, in the supplementary material, or on request from the corresponding author. Where data cannot be shared, for reasons of privacy, confidentiality, or third-party restrictions, the statement should say so. Editors and reviewers may ask to see the underlying data during review.

Preprint and Self-Archiving Policy

Authors may post the submitted version of their manuscript on a preprint server at any time, and should tell the journal at submission if they have done so. After publication, authors may deposit the published version of their article in any institutional or subject repository, or post it on a personal website, without embargo, provided the original publication is cited with its DOI. This follows from the CC BY 4.0 licence.

Long-term Preservation Policy

The journal's content is preserved in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), which uses LOCKSS to keep copies of published material in several locations. If the journal ever stops publishing, its archive will remain accessible through the network. Article metadata and DOIs are also registered with Crossref, so that citations continue to resolve.

CrossMark Policy

Crossmark is a Crossref service that tells readers whether the version of an article they are reading is current, or whether it has since been corrected, updated, or retracted. Where an article carries the Crossmark button, clicking it shows the article's status and links to any correction or retraction notices.

The published version of record is not changed after publication. Any change is made by publishing a separate notice (a correction, expression of concern, or retraction) that is linked to the original article, and the article's Crossref record is updated to show that link.

Corrections Policy

If an error is found in a published article that affects its accuracy or interpretation but not its main conclusions, the journal publishes a correction notice linked to the article. Errors introduced by the journal during production are corrected as a publisher's erratum, and errors made by the authors as a corrigendum. Minor errors that do not affect the meaning, such as spelling mistakes, are not usually corrected. Authors who find an error in their published article should contact the editorial office as soon as possible.

Retraction Policy

AgroEnvironmental Sustainability corrects the scientific record when serious problems are found in a published article. A retraction is used when the findings can no longer be relied on, whether because of honest error or misconduct. The journal follows the retraction guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

An article may be retracted if, for example: the results are unreliable because of fabrication, falsification, or major errors in the data or analysis; the work has already been published elsewhere without proper cross-reference, permission, or justification (redundant publication); it contains plagiarism; the research was carried out unethically; peer review was compromised or manipulated; or the authorship is false or disputed in a way that undermines the record.

When a concern is raised, the editors look into it and, where appropriate, contact the authors and their institution for an explanation. Authors are given a fair chance to respond before any decision is made. If retraction is warranted, the journal publishes a retraction notice that is linked to the original article. The original article is not removed; it stays online, clearly marked as retracted, so that readers can see its status. The retraction notice states who is retracting the article and why. Where only part of an article is affected, the journal may issue a correction or an expression of concern instead of a full retraction. The decision to retract rests with the editors.

In the rare cases where content has to be removed for legal reasons, or because it poses a serious risk to health, the bibliographic record and a notice explaining the removal remain online.

Post-publication Discussion Policy

The journal welcomes discussion of the work it publishes. Readers who wish to comment on, question, or add to a published article may submit a letter to the editor through the online system or by email to info@sagens.org, normally within twelve months of the article's publication. Letters are assessed by the editors, and where a letter is considered for publication, the authors of the original article are invited to reply; the letter and any reply are published together and linked to the article. Concerns about errors are handled under the Corrections Policy, and concerns about possible misconduct under the Research Integrity Issues Policy.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

This policy sets out how authors, reviewers, and editors may use artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools in work submitted to and handled by the journal.

Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors, in line with the COPE position on authorship and AI tools. Authorship carries responsibility and accountability for the work, which only people can accept. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of everything in their manuscript, including any part produced with the help of an AI tool. Authors who use AI tools for anything beyond basic language or grammar checking, such as generating text, producing images or figures, analysing data, or writing code, must disclose it in the manuscript, naming the tool and describing how it was used. Authors must check AI-generated content for errors, false statements, and invented references before submission, since these tools can produce inaccurate or misleading output.

Creating or altering images, figures, or data with AI in a way that misrepresents the actual research is misconduct and is handled under the Research Integrity Issues Policy.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, or any part of them, to AI tools, because doing so breaks the confidentiality of the material under review. Reviewers are expected to write their own assessment rather than have an AI tool produce the report. Editors are held to the same standard of confidentiality and must not enter submitted work into AI tools. If AI is used to support any editorial task, all decisions and judgements remain with the human editors.

Research Integrity Issues Policy

The journal expects all research it publishes to have been carried out and reported honestly. This policy explains how the journal deals with concerns about research or publication misconduct, whether in a submitted manuscript or a published article.

The journal treats the following as misconduct: fabrication of data or results; falsification, including improper manipulation of images or figures; plagiarism of any kind; duplicate or redundant publication; failure to declare relevant conflicts of interest; improper authorship, including gift authorship or leaving out people who should be credited; ethical breaches in how the research was conducted, such as missing approvals for work involving people, animals, or protected environments; citation manipulation; and any attempt to interfere with peer review, including suggesting fake or conflicted reviewers.

Anyone may raise a concern about work submitted to or published in the journal. Concerns should be sent in writing to info@sagens.org, with enough detail for the matter to be looked into. The identity of the person raising the concern is kept confidential where possible.

The editors assess each concern and decide whether it needs a fuller investigation. If it does, the authors are told what the concern is and given a fair opportunity to respond and provide supporting material. The journal may ask to see the original data, and may contact the authors' institution or funder in serious cases. The journal follows the COPE flowcharts and guidance in handling these cases.

Depending on the findings, the journal may: reject a manuscript under review; ask the authors to make corrections; publish a correction; publish an expression of concern while the matter is resolved; retract a published article under the Retraction Policy; report the matter to the authors' institution; or, in serious cases, decline submissions from the authors for a fixed period. Authors are kept informed of the outcome, and no conclusion is reached until they have had the chance to reply.

Appeals Policy

Authors may appeal an editorial decision if they believe it was based on a factual error, a misunderstanding of the work, or a reviewer's conflict of interest. Appeals should be sent to info@sagens.org within 30 days of the decision and should explain the grounds point by point. An editor not involved in the original decision reviews the appeal and may consult the reviewers or an additional expert. Only one appeal is considered per manuscript, and the outcome of the appeal is final. A manuscript under appeal must not be submitted to another journal until the appeal has been decided.

Complaint Policy

Authors, reviewers, readers, and others may complain about any aspect of the journal's work, such as delays, the handling of a manuscript, or the conduct of an editor or reviewer. Complaints should be sent in writing to info@sagens.org, giving the manuscript or article details where relevant, the nature of the complaint, and any supporting information.

The editorial office acknowledges each complaint and aims to give a full response within 30 days. Complaints are handled by a person who was not involved in the matter complained about. Where a complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, it is passed to the publisher. If a complaint is upheld, the journal will take suitable action, such as correcting the record, reconsidering a decision, or changing a procedure. Complainants who remain dissatisfied with the journal's response may refer the matter to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Revenue Sources Policy

The journal is published by the Society for AgroEnvironmental Sustainability and is run entirely on the Society's own income: article processing charges, which are paid only after a manuscript has been accepted; the optional subscriptions described on the Subscriptions page; the Society's membership fees; and registration fees for the workshops and conferences it organises. The journal receives no external funding from any government, organisation, or sponsor, and it does not accept advertising or paid sponsorship of content. Editorial decisions are kept separate from all sources of revenue: waiver requests and payments are handled by the editorial office, not by the editors or reviewers dealing with a manuscript, and income has no influence on whether or how a manuscript is published.

Advertising Policy

The journal does not accept advertising, and no advertisements appear on its website or in its articles. If this changes, an advertising policy will be published on this page before any advertising is accepted, and advertising will be kept separate from editorial content and will have no influence on editorial decisions.

Direct Marketing Policy

The journal promotes its work in ways that are appropriate and unobtrusive. Email updates, such as new-issue alerts and calls for papers, are sent only to registered users of the journal website, such as authors and co-authors of submitted manuscripts, and to people who have signed up for journal updates on the website. Every such email includes a way to unsubscribe. The journal does not send bulk unsolicited emails inviting submissions. Any invitation sent to an individual researcher is relevant to their field and states accurately what the journal is and what it charges. All information in promotional material is truthful and not misleading.

Privacy Policy

The journal collects the personal information needed to run the submission, review, and publication process: names, email addresses, affiliations, ORCID iDs, and other details that users enter when registering or submitting. This information is used only for managing manuscripts and communicating about them, and for publishing author details with articles. It is not sold or used for marketing, and it is not shared with other parties except the service providers the journal needs in order to operate, as listed in the full Privacy Policy. The names, affiliations, and ORCID iDs of published authors form part of the public article record and are deposited with Crossref and indexing services.

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