It is of utmost importance for the Revista de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (RIA) the collaboration of evaluators in order to enjoy the highest quality and international prestige in the disciplines published.

For this reason, we appreciate the valuable time evaluators take to review the texts that are sent to them.

The process and role of evaluators

Once a text is submitted to the journal, the Editorial Committee reads it and decides if the article will be reviewed by at least two evaluators or rejected for not fitting RIA’s profile.

The role of the reviewers is essential for the quality of a journal because they are scientists of outstanding professional level who are at the forefront of knowledge in their specific field. Their selection is based on many factors, including their experience, reputation, and specific recommendations, among other characteristics.

Aspects to consider

The major aim of a review is to enhance the academic scientific quality of the manuscripts submitted for publication. Besides, another purpose is to provide publishers with the necessary information to decide if that text should be published in RIA. In this sense, it is important that evaluators take into account the following criteria:

-It provides sufficient evidence for discussion and conclusions.

-It represents an important contribution in the subject or discipline.

-It is important for the scientists who do research in that field.

-It also has some importance for scientists in other fields.

Items to evaluate

The following items will be assessed in the journal:

1- Presentation: conceptual clarity and logic in the reasoning and conclusions.

2- Bibliography: adequate number of citations from other studies that contribute to the understanding of the work and the discussion of its results.

3- Evidence: confidence in the methodology, plausibility of the data and its adequate analysis. Besides, the statistical design must be relevant and there must be sufficient amount of information to support the conclusions.

4- Reasoning: strength in logic, arguments, inferences and interpretations.

5- Theory: verifiable conclusions supported by evidence.

After the evaluation, the reviewers are asked to rate the work within the following possibilities:

–Totally rejected. In general, it is due to lack of novelty, insufficient conceptual progress, or significant problems of interpretation or technical difficulties.

–Accepted with major modifications.

–Accepted with minor modifications.

–Accepted.

All this procedure is monitored by the reviewer through RIA’s Open Journal Systems -OJS- platform, with guidance to fulfill the objective.

Times 

Editorial times are extremely important for the development of a journal that is at the forefront of research on agricultural, agri-food and agro-industrial sectors. For this reason, evaluators are requested to review the work in a maximum time of 30 days.

Nevertheless, if there is a delay in delivery, reviewers are asked to please notify the Associate Editor in advance so as to keep the author informed about the status of their article’s evaluation.

Ethics

First, it is necessary to stress the confidentiality that covers the evaluation process of all the articles that are sent to the reviewers.

In addition, if there were to be any type of conflict of interest, it is important to please notify the Associate Editor so as to take the necessary measures.

Conflicts can be due to:

-Competition for publication, subsidies and commercial interests.

-Abuse of privileged information. The studies are generally sent to the reviewers confidentially. This implies that they must not use any part of the work, keep copies or show them to another colleague without the expressed permission of the Associate or General Editor.

-Prejudice or personal conflicts with one or several authors.