Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

The International Journal of Precision Agricultural Aviation (IJPAA) is dedicated to highlighting the latest original research related to the field of precision aerial application with a particular focus on spray applications from unmanned aerial systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones. IJPAA is a peer-reviewed journal committed to timely publications of research related to, but not limited to:

  • Evaluation of spray deposition and drift;
  • Efficacy of agricultural protection and production materials released from aerial vehicles;
  • Development and evaluation of new spray equipment and techniques;
  • Integration of remotely-sensed data into spray applications;
  • Studies designed to support the development and implementation of National and International Standards;
  • Agricultural aviation remote sensing technology;
  • Agricultural aviation sensor development;
  • Other technologies that could be used on agricultural UAVs.

Applications to problems in both developed and less-developed countries are welcomed. Articles need to make a significant contribution to the theoretical and /or methodological literature on the subject. Review articles may be permitted at the discretion of the Editor as long as the Review is germane to the Scope of IJPAA and provides timely information to the reader (Authors are encouraged to send a proposal to the Editor before full article submission).

Overview

IJPAA is an open-source journal that encourages a mixture of traditional manuscript format for publication, as well as, imbedded video for the on-line journal. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit a 30-60 second video that captures how the research was conducted. Examples of the types of videos desired are shown on the IJPAA website (http://www.ijpaa.org).

IJPAA is an English language journal, although authors are permitted to submit copies of the manuscript abstract in both English and their native language. Keywords in both languages are also permitted to facilitate web browser searches.

Style Guide and Submissions

IJPAA publishes original research articles of outstanding scientific significance. We will consider manuscripts of any length. The writing style should be concise and accessible. Editors will make suggestions for how to achieve this, as well as suggestions for cuts or additions that could be made to the article to strengthen the argument. Our aim is to make the editorial process rigorous and consistent, but not intrusive or overbearing. Authors are encouraged to use their own voice and to decide how best to present their ideas, results, and conclusions.

Registration and login on the IJPAA website are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

 

Section Policies

Overview Articles

Conduct Peer review to ensure the quality and standard

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Research Articles

Conduct peer review to ensure the quality and integrity.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Information

Table of Contents, Editorial Board, Author Guide, Science News, etc, are included in this section.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

IJPAA adopts single-blind peer review, all manuscripts must go through peer review process to ensure the quality, soundness and integrity.

 

Publication Frequency

Quarterly

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

 

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

1. An author’s main obligation is to present a concise account of his/her research, work, or project completed with an objective discussion of its significance. An author is obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes during review and publishment process
2. A manuscript has to make a clear statement about the significant contribution for each author in the research, meanwhile, information on financial support should be provided by authors.
3. Submitted manuscripts should contain detail and reference to public sources of information to allow the author’s peers to repeat the work or otherwise verify the accuracy.
4. It is forbidden to publish same research in more than one journal. In such a case, the manuscript will not be accepted.

 

Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

For the peer reviewer, IJPAA adopts single blind peer review for each submitted manuscript, reviewers know the identity of authors, while authors don’t know the identity of reviewers.

Being a reviewer

Basic requirement: Potential reviewers should provide us with personal and professional information that is accurate and a fair representation of their expertise, including verifiable and accurate contact information. The provided information needs to include relevant papers (in list) that can be retrieved on Scopus or EI.

Competing interests: Ensure you declare all potential competing, or conflicting, interests. If you are unsure about a potential competing interest that may prevent you from reviewing, please let IJPAA Editorial Committee know. Competing interests may be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious in nature.

Timeliness: It is courteous to respond to an invitation to peer review within a reasonable time-frame, even if you cannot undertake the review. If you feel qualified to judge a particular manuscript, you should agree to review only if you are able to return a review within the proposed or mutually agreed time-frame. Always inform the journal promptly if your circumstances change and you cannot fulfil your original agreement or if you require an extension. If one cannot review, it is helpful to make suggestions for IJPAA Editorial Committee to find alternative reviewers.

In a reviewing

(1)    Reading: Read the manuscript, supplementary data files and ancillary material thoroughly, getting back to the journal if anything is not clear and requesting any missing or incomplete items you need. Do not contact the authors directly without the permission of the journal.

(2)    Confidentiality: Respect the confidentiality of the peer review process and refrain from using information obtained during the peer review process for your own or another’s advantage, or to disadvantage or discredit others. Do not involve anyone else in the review of a manuscript, without first obtaining permission from the journal. The names of any individuals who have helped with the review should be included so that they are associated with the manuscript in the journal’s records and can also receive due recognition for their efforts.

(3)    Bias: It is important to remain unbiased by considerations related to the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, origins of a manuscript or by commercial considerations. If you discover a competing interest that might prevent you from providing a fair and unbiased review, notify the journal and seek advice. While waiting for a response, refrain from looking at the manuscript and associated material in case the request to review is rescinded. Similarly, notify the journal as soon as possible if you find you do not have the necessary expertise to assess the relevant aspects of a manuscript so as not to unduly delay the review process.

(4)    Suspicion: If you come across any irregularities with respect to research and publication ethics do let the journal know. You should contact the editor directly and do not attempt to investigate on your own. It is appropriate to cooperate, in confidence, with the journal, but not to personally investigate further unless the journal asks for additional information or advice.

After a reviewing

(1)    Format: Follow journals’ instructions for writing and posting the review. Be objective and constructive in your review, providing feedback that will help the authors to improve their manuscript. Be specific in your critique, and provide supporting evidence with appropriate references to substantiate general statements, to help editors in their evaluation. Be professional and refrain from being hostile or inflammatory and from making libelous or derogatory personal comments or unfounded accusations.

(2)    Language: Remember it is the authors’ paper, so do not attempt to rewrite it to your own preferred style if it is basically sound and clear; suggestions for changes that improve clarity are, however, important.

(3)    Suggestions for further work: It is the job of the peer reviewer to comment on the quality of the work they receive. If the work is not clear because of missing analyses, the reviewer should comment and explain what additional analyses would clarify the work submitted.

(4)    Accountability: Prepare the report by yourself, unless you have permission from the journal to involve another person. Refrain from making unfair negative comments or including unjustified criticisms of any competitors’ work that is mentioned in the manuscript. Do not intentionally prolong the review process, either by delaying the submission of your review or by requesting unnecessary additional information from the journal or author.

IJPAA Editorial Committee

03/2018

 

Ethical Guidelines for Editors and Publisher

1. All authors are responsible for the following academic misconduct behaviours, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, contract cheating, collusion, falsification or misrepresentation of data, results or other outputs or aspects of research, failure to meet legal, ethical and professional obligations in carrying out research. These behaviours are strictly prohibited by IJPAA Editorial Committee and publisher (ISPAA)
2. The IJPAA Editorial Committee and publisher (ISPAA) will track and inspect the behaviours above, once these appear, the manuscript will be rejected. If the manuscript has been published, we will issue statement and withdraw the manuscript.
3. The IJPAA Editorial Committee and publisher (ISPAA) promise that, any allegation of research misconduct (about the manuscripts, and activities in publication and review processes) will have a public response, the process will be open and accountable.
3. When an article needs to be retracted or corrected, please contact us first. The IJPAA Editorial Committee and publisher (ISPAA) will make a statement and contact the authors for skillful handling. Please notes that, we always are willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
5. IJPAA will back up the manuscripts and store them on our servers for at least 10 years.
6. The IJPAA Editorial Committee and publisher (ISPAA) claim that no subscription fees or pay-per-view fees are needed.

 

 

IJPAA Copyright Policy

We state this copyright policy to determine a publishing agreement between publisher (ISPAA) and author. This copyright statement highlights the significant rights for ISPAA and author to use and share the articles (details in License Agreement). ISPAA supports authors to share or broadcasts their articles for maximizing the impact under the policy.

As an open access international journal, readers can read all the content on IJPAA website for free. For these open access articles, the author obtains the copyright. In this case author has the right to retain patent, trademark and other intellectual property rights (including research data). They can give proper attribution and credit for the published work.

For articles, ISPAA grants the exclusive right to publish and distributes an article, and to grant rights to others. ISPAA has the authority to enforce the rights in the article, on behalf of an author, for example in the case of plagiarism or copyright infringement. Copyright aims to protect the specific way the article has been written to describe an experiment and the results. ISPAA is committed to its authors to protect and defends their work and their reputation and takes allegations of infringement, plagiarism, ethic disputes and fraud very seriously.

 

License Agreement

Terms of the license to publish
1. In consideration for publication of, the author grants to ISPAA (the publisher) an exclusive worldwide license to:

  • Reproduce, publish and communicate any part of the article, to the public in media, whether existing before or after the date of this license, for commercial, educational and all other purposes for the full remaining term of the copyright subsisting in the article in each applicable jurisdiction.
  • Approve reasonable permission requests from third parties to reuse material contained in the article for the purpose of study, research or subsidiary publication.
2. The Author retains the right to:
  • Use the work and illustrations (e.g. line art, photographs, figures) for further research and any presentations
  • Share print or digital copies of his/her work for personal use or study
  • Place his/her accepted manuscript on a preprint server
  • Place his/her accepted manuscript on a website administered by the author or by the institution that employed the author
3. The Author retains the right to:
  • Include a link of publisher to all article digital copies used within his/her institution
  • Not post his/her accepted manuscript to a networking site or centralized repository other than ISPAA
  • If the paper is rejected, all rights under this license revert to the author and, where relevant, to the author’s employer.
4. The Author warrants that the article:
  • Has not been published before, and not presently being considered for publication elsewhere
  • Does not infringe any intellectual property right of any person and its use in accordance with this license will not infringe any intellectual property right of any person
  • Does not contain any subject matter that contravenes any laws (including defamatory material and misleading and deceptive material)
  • Meets ethical standards applicable to the research discipline.
5. This license agreement will be sent to the author by email, the author needs to sign and return to the publisher.

 

Editorial Team and Board of International Journal of Precision Agricultural Aviation

Honorary Editor-in-Chief

Jaw-kai Wang, PhD, member of the US National Academy of Engineering

Simon Blackmore, the National Centre for Precision Farming, Harper Adams University, UK

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Clint Hoffmann, PhD, Prology Consulting, USA; Former Research Leader, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Aerial Application Technology Research Unit, TX, USA

Co-Editor-in-Chief

Yubin Lan, PhD, Member of European Academy of Sciences Arts and Letters (EASAL); Prof., South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China; Adjunct Prof., Texas A&M University, TX, USA

Executive Editors- in-Chief

Yingkuan Wang, PhD, Prof., Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, Beijing, China

Yuxing Han, PhD, Prof., College of Electronic Engineering/College of Artificial Intelligence, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

Yali Zhang, PhD, Associate Prof., National Center for International Collaboration Research on Precision Agricultural Aviation Pesticide Spraying Technology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China

Huihui, Zhang, PhD, Water Management and Systems Research Unit, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Colorado, USA

Associate Editors-in-Chief

Liping Chen, PhD, Prof., National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing, China

Bradley Fritz, PhD, Research Leader, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Aerial Application Technology Research Unit, TX, USA

Yong He, PhD, Prof., Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

Andrew Hewitt, PhD, Prof., the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Yanbo Huang, PhD, Research Agricultural Engineer, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Crop Production Systems Research Unit, MS, USA 

Kyeong-Hwan Lee, PhD, Prof., Chonnam National University, Korea

Xinyu Xue, PhD, Prof., Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Nanjing, China

Editorial Board Members

Ganesh Bora, Mississippi State University, USA

Haiyan Cen, Zhejiang University, China

Lie Deng, Southwest University, China

Yufeng Ge, University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA

Wenting Han, Northwest A&F University, China

Wenjiang Huang, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Jian Jin, Purdue University, USA

Minzan Li, China Agricultural University, China

Baijing Qiu, Jiangsu University, China

Yu Ru, Nanjing Forestry University, China

Yeyin Shi, University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA

Nick Sigrimis, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece

Jianli Song, China Agricultural University, China

Zhongbin Su, Northeast Agricultural University, China

Naveed Tahir, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Yu Tang, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China

Wenbin Wu, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China

Caicong Wu, China Agricultural University, China

Tongyu Xu, Shenyang Agricultural University, China

Xia Yao, Nanjing Agricultural University, China

Lili Yi, Shandong University of Technology, China

Huizhu Yuan, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China

Dongyan Zhang, Anhui University, China

Zhiyan Zhou, South China Agricultural University, China

Hang Zhu, Jilin University, China

Secretary of IJPAA Editorial Committee

Joshua Wang, ISPAA, IJPAA, China

 

Instructions for Authors

1. Please make sure that your manuscript does not violate the ethics of this journal before submission.

2. Please click New Submission after registering as author authority, then submit the manuscript according to the guidelines and fill in the relevant information.

3. The word template and the necessary instructions for contribution will be sent to the author by email or other means.

4. If there are materials related to the manuscript (if supplementary can allow editors and reviewers to better understand the research content), you are suggested to make this submission at the same time.

5. Please make sure that you have read and agreed to the copyright policy and license agreement of the journal before submitting the manuscript.

6. In term of the repository of different versions (original version, review version and publication version),  authors can track and download all stages of work by logging on to IJPAA website.