ISSN : 2663-2187

Dear Author, 
AFJBS, Do not guarantee   any type of indexing, as it is solely depends on indexing authority

Timeline Publication takes intellectual integrity very seriously. The publisher, editors, reviewers, and authors all agree upon the following standards of expected ethical behaviour, which are based on COPES’s Best Practice Guidelines.

The "Article manuscript handling charge" is the only fee. Each article that is published in our journal is open-access and immediately accessible online. An "Article manuscript handling fee" makes this feasible. The supply of online tools for editors and authors, the creation and hosting of articles are all included in this. The ‘Article manuscript handling fee’, payable before publication, is charged to you.

* Article Withdrawal*
Articles which are published include errors, or are determined to violate the publishing ethics guidelines such as multiple submission, fake claims of authorship, plagiarism, forceful demand to index articles in directories, fraudulent use of data or the like, may be “Withdrawn” from the journal with no refund.

Circumstances beyond our control: This may include, for example, where natural or other disasters prevent us from fulfilling our obligations.

Article unavailable on another platform: The Journal responsibility is to ensure that the definitive published versions of articles we publish are available on our website, or any successor platform, in ways that are accessible to all.  We provide APIs to enable third party platforms to manage this process themselves or to update their platforms to reflect changes subsequently made to the article, such as author license choice changes, and retractions. Journal is not responsible for ensuring third party repositories maintain accurate metadata and full-text such as Scopus and other directories.

Article Processing Charges

Open access publishing proposes a relatively new model for scholarly journal publishing that provides immediate, worldwide, barrier-free access to the full-text of all published articles. In an open access model, the publication costs of an article 200 USD paid from an author's research grant, or by their sponsoring institution, in the form of Article Processing Charges. These Article Processing Charges replace subscription charges and allow publishers to make the full-text of every published article freely available to all interested readers. In addition, authors who publish in our open access journals retain the copyright of their work, which is released under a “Creative Commons Attribution License,” enabling the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction of an article in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.APC for AFJBS is 200usd , APC is accepted only to host manuscript in www.afjbs.com, non refundable amount in any case

Publishing of manuscript involves many procedures like quality and plagiarism check, locating peer- reviewers, proofreading, typesetting, file format change and web maintenance etc. These tasks involve certain costs which are compensated to some extent by the article processing fee, paid by the authors.

African Journal of Biological Sciences requires Article Processing Charges that will be billed to the submitting author following the acceptance of an article for publication. Apart from these Article Process Charges, there are no submission charges, page charges, or colour charges.

 

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

(based on Elsevier recommendations and COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors)

 Ethical guidelines for journal publication

(These guidelines are based on existing Elsevier policies).

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal AFJBS is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society.

Timeline Publication as publisher of the journal AFJBS takes its duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing extremely seriously and we recognize our ethical and other responsibilities.

We are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, the Timeline Publication and Editorial Board will assist in communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful and necessary.

Duties of authors

(These guidelines are based on existing Elsevier policies).

Reporting standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work.

Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial opinion works should be clearly identified as such.

Data access and retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism takes many forms, from passing off another’s paper as the authors own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper. Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g. clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

Acknowledgement of sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and human or animal subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

Fundamental errors in published works

 

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the authors obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

 

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

Refund Policy

Once an article has been accepted for publication, any Article Processing Charges on the article become due. The submitting author assumes responsibility for the Article Processing Charges, and AFJBS will not issue refunds of any kind.