Policies
The South African Journal of Animal Science (SAJAS) is governed by the following editorial policies, regularly reviewed and updated by the Editorial Team.
Open Access
The South African Journal of Animal Science is a peer-reviewed, open access journal, supporting the Budapest Open Access Initiative principles: “By ‘open access’ to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, is to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.” Therefore, copyright remains with the author(s) of the article(s).
Copyright holders (authors) are eligible to upload the published versions of their articles to their institutional repositories or personal websites (refer the License). However, we recommend creating hyperlinks to the articles on the primary journal website (this site) instead of duplicating the full manuscripts, in order to preserve accurate usage statistics. Refer to the entry for SAJAS on the JISC Open Science Policy Finder.
Publication Fees
The South African Journal of Animal Science charges publication/page fees (Article Processing Charges or APCs).
Upon acceptance for publication, the main and/or corresponding author will receive an invoice with payment details. Payment must be made via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or PayFast, and the proof of payment (POP) emailed to the SASAS Secretary and returned to the journal manager via the online platform. Use the invoice number as your reference. Manuscripts will not be edited or published until the publication fee has been paid.
Main and/or corresponding authors who wish to claim the discounted rate available to active members of the South African Society for Animal Science (SASAS) must submit a valid SASAS membership certificate along with their manuscript. Membership certificates can be downloaded from the SASAS Members Area.
Publication fees per article accepted for publication are as follows:
| Non-SADC international authors (SASAS non-members) | USD 750 for a 10-page manuscript + USD 75 per additional page |
| Non-SADC international authors (SASAS members) | USD 600 for a 10-page manuscript + USD 60 per additional page (where the senior or corresponding author on the manuscript is a SASAS member) |
| SADC authors (SASAS non-members) | ZAR 10 000 for a 10-page manuscript + ZAR 1000 per extra page |
| SADC authors (SASAS members) | ZAR 8000 for a 10-page manuscript + ZAR 800 per extra page (where the senior or corresponding author on the manuscript is a SASAS member) |
Publishing Agreement
Authors are required to submit a fully completed Publishing Agreement, signed by all authors, as part of their manuscript submission.
Copyright
Copyright for articles published in the South African Journal of Animal Science remains with the author(s).
By submitting their work, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article in print and electronic formats, and to index it in relevant repositories and databases. This includes the right to make the article publicly available under the terms of the applicable open access license.
Authors are free to:
- Reuse and distribute their published work;
- Deposit the published version in institutional or subject repositories;
- Use the article for teaching, presentations, or further research.
Proper citation of the original publication in the South African Journal of Animal Science is required in all cases.
License
Articles published in the South African Journal of Animal Science are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Deed license. This allows others to copy, distribute, and adapt the work, provided proper attribution is given to the original author.
Preprints
The South African Journal of Animal Science allows the submission of manuscripts that have been previously uploaded as preprints. Authors must clearly indicate this in their comments to the editor during the submission process and provide full details of the preprint, including where and how it can be accessed.
If the manuscript is accepted for publication, a statement acknowledging the existence of the preprint - along with a link to it - will be included in the final published version.
Data
The data upon which all types of manuscripts are based should be original (except review articles), should not have been published previously in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submission of a manuscript is understood to imply that these conditions have been met. The context and/or detail of the new findings must be sufficiently different to merit addition to the matrix of knowledge through publication.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use or misattribution of original authorship - whether of ideas, text, or research findings. It includes, but is not limited to, the theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s work. Plagiarism is deemed to have occurred when large portions of text are copied and pasted without clear and appropriate attribution.
SAJAS utilises the iThenticate plagiarism checker. All manuscripts considered for publication will be checked for possible plagiarism, and the generated report will be stored along with the manuscript for future reference. Manuscripts containing unacknowledged copying will not be considered for publication in the South African Journal of Animal Science.
Authors must also exercise care when paraphrasing or summarising the work of others. Proper citation and acknowledgement are mandatory to avoid misleading readers about the originality of the content.
Text recycling, or the reuse of portions of text from an author’s own previous publications, is a form of self-plagiarism. When reusing any material - whether from prior work by the authors or others - appropriate citation and attribution must be provided. This ensures transparency and maintains the integrity of the scholarly record.
Duplicate publication occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of their previously published work without appropriate reference. This includes submitting identical or nearly identical manuscripts to multiple journals, or making only minimal changes to previously published work without proper disclosure.
All allegations or instances of plagiarism are assessed on a case-by-case basis by the Editor-in-Chief. If plagiarism is identified during peer review, the manuscript may be rejected or returned to the authors for correction. If plagiarism is discovered after publication, a correction or retraction may be issued, depending on the severity and its impact on the integrity of the published article.
Source: Adapted from https://www.nature.com/nature-research/editorial-policies/plagiarism, 13/8/2019
Peer-review
All submissions will be subjected to a single-blind peer-review process. A sub-editor, with the assistance of at least two reviewers, will review the manuscript and make a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief. Authors may suggest a list of experts whom they consider especially suitable to referee their paper, especially if the subject is highly specialised. However, authors must take care to avoid any ethical conflicts when making these recommendations.
The Editor-in-Chief will advise the corresponding author on the outcome of the review based on the recommendation of the sub-editor.
Resubmitted manuscripts will be evaluated by the sub-editor for the adequacy of the responses to the reviewers and, if deemed necessary, may again be sent to reviewers for their insight. Resubmitted manuscripts must be accompanied by a summary of the changes made in the revision and a brief response to all recommendations and criticisms. The sub-editor will make a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief to either ‘provisionally accept’ or ‘reject’ the manuscript.
Digital Preservation
The South African Journal of Animal Science utilises both the Portico and the PKP Preservation Network (PN) systems to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. Click here to view South African Journal of Animal Science in the Portico Keeper's Registry.
Retractions
Procedures as recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) will be followed should a published manuscript need to be retracted.
Retraction serves to correct the scholarly record and alert readers to content so seriously flawed - due to error, misconduct, or ethical breach - that its findings cannot be relied upon. It is not meant as a punitive measure.
An article may be retracted if:
- There is clear evidence the findings are unreliable (due to error, data fabrication, or falsification)
- It involves plagiarism or redundant publication (duplicate or self-plagiarism without permission)
- It reports unethical research, infringes copyright, or hides serious conflicts of interest
- The peer-review process was compromised, or there are legal or integrity issues
Minor errors that don't undermine main findings will be handled via Corrections or Errata. Authorship disputes, alone, are not grounds for retraction if the research remains valid.
If evidence of misconduct is inconclusive or awaiting institutional investigation, the journal will issue an Expression of Concern to notify readers while the matter is pending.
Retraction notices will:
- Be clearly labeled and linked to the original article
- Identify the article title and authors, and clearly state who retracted the article
- Provide specific reasons (e.g., “retracted due to data fabrication”)
- Be promptly published with free access, and use factual, neutral language to avoid defamation
The Editor-in-Chief holds the final authority to retract or issue notices, even if authors disagree. While authors and institutions are typically consulted, lack of cooperation will not delay action in the presence of reliable evidence to retract a manuscript.
Retracted articles will remain in the scholarly record, clearly marked and linked to the retraction notice. Removal will only be justified in rare cases, such as when retaining the article poses legal or public safety risks - and even then, metadata will be retained .
Corrections of retracted articles (e.g., “retract and republish”) will be transparently linked to both the original article and the notice. Related works - such as systematic reviews relying on retracted data - will be reassessed or retracted as needed.
Retraction notices will stick to verifiable facts, avoid defamatory or speculative wording, and authors will generally be consulted on wording to avoid legal risk.
Use of Large Language Models (LLMs)
Large language models (LLMs), including tools such as ChatGPT, do not meet the criteria for authorship in the South African Journal of Animal Science. Authorship implies responsibility and accountability for the content of a work - requirements that LLMs cannot fulfill.
If an LLM has been used to assist in the preparation of a manuscript (e.g., for language editing, summarisation, or drafting), this use must be clearly disclosed and appropriately documented in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. If the manuscript does not include such a section, the disclosure should be made in another suitable part of the text.
Failure to disclose the use of generative AI tools may be considered a breach of publication ethics.
Authors are encouraged to improve the quality of their writing by using freely available artificial intelligence (AI)-based language editing tools. These tools use machine learning models trained on large collections of scientific literature to suggest improvements in grammar, spelling, clarity, and academic tone.
Recommended tools include:
- Writefull
- Paperpal Preflight
Please note that while these tools can assist in refining your manuscript, their use does not replace the need for careful review by the authors. Final responsibility for the accuracy and clarity of the manuscript rests with the author(s).
