Publishing articles
The Journal publishes original scientific articles, reviews and short scientific reports with original experimental data or new interpretations of existing results who are responsible by thematic of journal.
After receipt, the manuscript is subjected to doble blind peer-review. The author shall be notified if the manuscript is accepted or rejected.
The editor staff does not have a responsibility for incorrect citation, website content and infringement of copyright.
In its editorial policy the journal follow international standards for publications ethics, just like the principles, standards, and the best practices for ethical conduct in publishing by COPE.
The standards of ethics shall apply for all participants in publishing: authors, editors, reviews.
Care and use of animals
Bulgarian Journal of Crop Science only publishes research that has followed established international and national laws and regulations for the humane care and use of animals, for example:
1. Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.
2. Ordinance No. 20 of 01. November 2012 on the minimum requirements for the protection and humane treatment of experimental animals and the requirements for the objects for the use, breeding and/or their delivery issued by the Minister of Agriculture and Food. The practices for complying with these measures are indicated on the Bulgarian Food and Safety Agency (BFSA) website, section "Health and animal welfare".
Authors should expressly state that all necessary approvals have been obtained prior to initiation of research. They should ensure that experiments were conducted in a manner that avoided unnecessary pain or discomfort to the animals. All methods of euthanasia of experimental animals or surgical procedures giving information on anesthetics, analgesics, tranquilizers during preoperative, operative and postoperative procedures should be described in the text.
Protection of Research Involving Human Subjects
Bulgarian Journal of Crop Science requires that any research that involves humans (eg, surveys, sensory panels, or other participation) complies with all national and international laws, regulations, and policies. Manuscripts describing procedures involving humans should include an explicit and easily identifiable statement indicating that the procedures followed comply with the ethical standards of the responsible human experimentation committee (institutional and national) and with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Plagiarism
Bulgarian Journal of Crop Science evaluates the originality of the materials submitted by the author(s). Sources cited in the manuscript should be identified appropriately. Reusing text, data, figures, or images without proper acknowledgment or permission is considered plagiarism, as is paraphrasing text, concepts, and ideas. All allegations of plagiarism are investigated thoroughly and in accordance with COPE guidelines. The journal reviews submitted articles using plagiarism detection software to identify possible cases.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
Authors
Bulgarian Journal of Crop Science requires all authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that any conflict of interest is clearly declared and identified at the time of article submission.
The presence or absence of a conflict of interest is declared in the Author's Declaration, which is submitted together with the manuscript, as well as in the text of the manuscript in the place indicated for the purpose in the Instructions for Authors.
Conflicts of interest may arise when authors have financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationships with other organizations or with people working with them that could influence their research. When authors submit their articles to the journal, full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is required.
The journal follows COPE's undeclared conflict of interest guidelines for each submitted manuscript.
Editors and Editorial Board
If the journal's editor-in-chief, editor, or editorial board member is an author and submits a manuscript to the journal, another editor with no conflict of interest will manage the review and publication process. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the process of processing, editing and reviewing it will be indicated in the article.
Reviewers
Reviewers who have a conflict of interest with respect to a submitted manuscript will not be assigned to review, process, or review the manuscript.
If, during the review, an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed, they must immediately inform the editor-in-chief.
Responsibilities of Authors, Editors, and Reviewers
Responsibilities of the authors
The author must submit an original manuscript that has not been published and has not been submitted for consideration elsewhere.
The author must acknowledge his or her responsibilities for the manuscript by completing and submitting the Author Declaration form.
The author declares all conflicts of interest in the Author's Declaration, which is submitted together with the submission of the manuscript to the editorial office of the journal, as well as in the text of the manuscript in the place specified for the purpose in the Instructions for Authors.
The author must submit the manuscript in accordance with all requirements stated on the journal's website.
The author has no right to request and, accordingly, receive the name of the reviewers of the submitted manuscript.
Responsibilities of editors
The editor must ensure anonymity when submitting manuscripts for review.
The editor must not disclose the content of the received manuscripts to anyone other than the relevant reviewer.
The editor must observe ethical norms in his relations with all participants in the publishing process and not show any form of discrimination regarding the information he has about the authors, manuscripts and reviewers.
The editor-in-chief of the journal makes the final decision whether to accept or reject a manuscript, taking into account its significance, originality and contribution to the development of the journal.
Responsibilities of reviewers
The reviewer should contribute to improving the quality of the manuscript through objective analysis, providing an unbiased, constructive and detailed assessment of its scientific content.
The reviewer evaluates the manuscript confidentially. The manuscripts of are disclosed or discussed with third parties.
The reviewer should be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, professional, or other relationships between the reviewer and the author), alert the editor about it, and if necessary decline to review the manuscript.
The reviewer declares the presence or absence of a conflict of interest in a declaration that is attached to the review form, which the reviewer must complete to evaluate the manuscript submitted to him.
A reviewer should refuse to review a manuscript if it is determined that it is outside their competence. The same applies if this is identified in the manuscript review process.
The reviewer objectively evaluates the scientific value and qualities of the manuscript without allowing personal comments about the author or the manuscript.