Instructions to Authors
About Animal Frontiers
Animal Frontiers is a fully open access journal, and all articles are published in the journal under an open access licence immediately upon publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.
Details of the open access licences and open access charges.
CC BY licence - £0 / $0 / €0
If the corresponding author is based in one of the countries included in our Developing Countries Initiative, your article will be eligible for a full waiver of the open access charge.
OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.
Aim and Scope
Animal Frontiers [ISSN 2160-6056 (print) and ISSN 2160-6064 (online)] is a joint venture between four globally active professional animal science societies: American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS), the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), and the American Meat Science Association (AMSA). ASAS, CSAS, EAAP, and AMSA represent the world's leading authorities in animal science and animal agriculture. These organizations are dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of science-based knowledge concerning animal agriculture. From inception, the primary mission of each of these societies has been to encourage and promote communication of the best animal science and meat science research worldwide and to ensure that consumers of animal sourced-foods make decisions based on current and relevant scientific information. The ASAS, CSAS, EAAP, and AMSA each have a history of successful publications, broad coverage of issues in animal agriculture, editorial independence, and high standards—these attributes will ensure that Animal Frontiers becomes the world's premier review magazine in animal agriculture.
Animal Frontiers will be published on a quarterly basis (four issues per year). Each issue of Animal Frontiers will consist of a series of invited, peer-reviewed articles that present several international perspectives on the status of a high-impact, timely, global issue in animal agriculture. The articles will be in the form of discussion or position papers that will add to the scientific reviews and original papers published in the journals of the four science societies (Animal, Canadian Journal of Animal Science, Journal of Animal Science, and Meat and Muscle Biology). Animal Frontiers will also have the following regular features: calendar of events, news from the publishing societies, author bios, regional perspectives, and an introduction to the issue from a guest editor. Each article in Animal Frontiers will contain an “implications section” to meet the needs of a diverse community of scientists and the needs of policymakers, educators, and the general public. Animal Frontiers welcomes letters to the editor to encourage debate.
The editor-in-chief of Animal Frontiers will work with a distinguished team of international experts on the Animal Frontiers Management Board to ensure the highest standards of selecting a guest editor and topics for each issue, inviting authors, and peer review of each article. Each issue and all papers published within an issue will be produced in print as well as online in an open access format.
ASAS, CSAS, EAAP, and AMSA welcome approaches from other international animal science societies to join in this endeavor in the following years.
Guidelines
Structure of an issue of Animal Frontiers
Each issue of Animal Frontiers will include:
An editorial written by the guest editor(s) to provide an overview of the issue, a summary of the main conclusions and implications of each article, and citations of individual articles in the issue;
A minimum of 5 feature articles authored by a range of international scientists;
A calendar of events; and
An update on news from ASAS, CSAS, EAAP, and AMSA.
Content: Feature articles
Feature articles are invited by the guest editor(s). Unsolicited submissions will not be considered.
Feature articles will support the theme or topic of each issue of Animal Frontiers. Individual articles may be overviews of previously published or presented works or they can describe new developments of interdisciplinary significance and highlight future directions. Importantly, a feature article should describe the implications of the research and the impact on societal issues such as food quality and safety, food security, animal well-being, human health, or the environment. Articles should be written in a way that can be understood by a broad audience including consumers, policymakers, educators, extension specialists, and the public.
The following structure is suggested for feature articles:
A list of 4-6 keywords in alphabetical order.
A list of 3-5 short implications of the work described in the article.
An introduction that outlines the main theme, background information, aims of the article, and the overall structure of the information.
The body of the manuscript, in addition to outlining the state-of-the-art, may include speculation and offer opinions about specific issues discussed in the manuscript or the broader implications related to the entire theme of an issue.
Sidebars or short sections of text may be used to emphasize a unique point or perspective from a different source.
A conclusion section should summarize the main points of the article, any major unresolved issues, or describe future directions
Each article must contain 4-6 color graphics, photos, figures, diagrams, or tables that are easy to read and understand. These will attract the attention of the general reader. Tables of numerical data should be avoided as these are not easy to understand by a nontechnical expert. At least one graphic, photo, figure, diagram or table should appear on each page of the final, formatted article; each must be referenced in the text; and each must include a short caption.
A short (<150 word) biosketch must be included for each author. The biosketch should include: position title, institution, education (degree, discipline, institution), employment history, and research interests. Do not include: year(s) for degrees and employment history, number of publications, grant dollars, service on committees, etc. Also include a high-quality photo (head shot only) of the author(s).
Articles should be up to 5,000 words including references, notes, and captions. This is equivalent to 15 pages of double-spaced text in 12-point Times New Roman font, 8.5- x 11-inch paper, 1-inch margins all around).
A maximum of 30 references is suggested.
For more information contact: animalfrontiers@asas.org
Review Process
The guest editor will send each manuscript to two, independent experts for peer review. Based on feedback from the reviewers, the guest editor will make a recommendation to accept the manuscript or request revisions from the authors. The final version of the manuscript will be sent to the editor-in-chief for review. The editor-in-chief retains the final publication decision and will submit the manuscript to the publisher.
Proofs
Authors will receive a link to the PDF proof of their manuscript in the OUP online system by email. It is essential that the corresponding author for each manuscript provides a current email address. Proofing instructions will accompany the PDF file. In general, the proof should be checked immediately upon receipt and uploaded in accordance with the instructions. Only essential corrections should be made at the proof stage.
Role of the Guest Editor(s)
The guest editor is responsible for ensuring timely preparation of an individual issue of Animal Frontiers. The guest editor is responsible for:
Selection of the topic of each issue in consultation with the editor-in-chief;
Identification of relevant topics for feature articles and recruiting potential authors that consist of a broad array of international experts;
Submission of the topic and author list to the editor-in-chief who will consult with the Animal Frontiers Management Board to obtain approval of the topics and authors;
Receipt of manuscripts from authors;
Obtaining peer review of each article by two experts;
Submission of final manuscripts to the editor-in-chief for final review. The editor-in-chief will submit final manuscripts to the publisher;
Sending a letter of acceptance to the corresponding author for each manuscript to be published in the issue;
Preparation of an editorial that includes an overview of the issue, a summary of the main conclusions and implications of each article, and citations of individual articles in the issue. The editorial should not exceed 2 pages of final, formatted text (up to 4 pages of double-spaced text) and must include 1 or 2 color graphics. The title of the editorial should align with the tag line for the issue;
A short (<150 word) biosketch must be included for the guest editor(s). The biosketch should include: position title, institution, education (degree, discipline, institution), employment history, and research interests. Do not include: year(s) for degrees and employment history, number of publications, grant dollars, service on committees, etc. Also include a high-quality photo (head shot only) of the guest editor(s).
Design of a draft cover for the issue in consultation with the editor-in-chief.
Ethics
Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of the work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with in accordance with the COPE guidelines.
Third-party copyright
In order to reproduce any third-party material, including tables, figures, or images, in an article authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse. When seeking to reproduce any kind of third party material, authors should request the following:
non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
world-wide English-language rights.
It is particularly important to obtain permission for use in both the print and online versions of the journal. We are not able to accept permissions which carry a time limit because we retain journal articles as part of our online journal archive.
Further guidelines on clearing permissions can be downloaded on a pdf.
Third-party content in Open Access papers
If your paper contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:
Title of content
Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]
Conflict of interest
Oxford University Press requires a declaration of any conflict of interest upon submission online. If the manuscript is published, conflict of interest information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper.
Permissions regarding reuse of OUP material
Self-archiving policy
Preprint policy
Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
