Persian Journal of Acarology (PJA) is a peer-reviewed international journal of the Acarological Society of Iran for publication of high-quality papers on any aspect of Acarology including mite and tick behavior, biochemistry, biology, control, ecology, evolution, morphology, physiology, systematics and taxonomy as well as tick-borne diseases. All manuscripts will be subjected to peer review before acceptance.
Using the appropriate template file is mandatory. Please download them by clicking on the taxonomic, non-taxonomic articles or correspondences.
Based on length, five categories of papers are considered. New records to the fauna of the country can be regarded only as "Correspondence".
1) Research article
Research articles are significant papers of four or more printed pages reporting original research. Papers between 4 and 59 printed pages are published in multi-paper issues of 60, 64 or 68 pages.
Persian Journal of Acarology encourages large comprehensive works. There is no upper limit on the length of manuscripts, although authors are advised to break monographs of over 1000 pages into a multi-volume contribution simply because books over 1000 pages are difficult to bind and too heavy to hold.
Short papers on species of economic, environmental or phylogenetic importance may be accepted at the discretion of editors, who will generally encourage and advise authors to add value to the paper by providing more information (e.g. checklist of or key to species of the genus, biological information......). Short papers of 4 or 5 pages accepted for publication may be shortened for publication in the Correspondence section.
Keywords should be arranged alphabetically.
2) Correspondence
High quality and important short manuscripts of 1 to 4 pages are considered at the end of each multi-paper issue.
These short contributions should have no more than 20 references and its total length should not exceed four printed pages (except editorials). Neither an abstract nor a list of key words is needed; major headings (Introduction, Material and methods...) should NOT be used, except for new taxon heading and references. A typical correspondence should consist of (1) a short and concise title, (2) author name and address (email address), (3) a series of paragraphs of the main text, and (4) a list of references if any. For correspondence of 3 or 4 pages, the first or last paragraph may be a summary.
Commentaries on published papers are intended for scholarly exchange of different views or interpretations of published data and should not contain personal attack; authors of concerned papers may be invited to reply to comments on their papers.
3) Monographs
4) Book review
5) Editorial Material
Peer Review Process
When a manuscript is submitted to a journal, it is assessed to see if it meets the criteria for submission. Each manuscript is initially screened by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) in terms of structure and content. If it meets the scope and standard of the journal, it will be sent to an appropriate subject editor (SE). The subject editor evaluates the manuscript based on its novelty, structure, and plagiarism. If the manuscript passes this initial editor check, then it will enter the external review process. When a manuscript is received by the Subject Editor, he/she will have it reviewed by at least two peers qualified to evaluate the manuscript and he/she normally asks the reviewers to complete the review in three weeks. However, the reviewing process will normally take longer, depending on the length of the manuscript and reviewers' responses.
The key criteria for assessing manuscript quality include originality, novelty, and a worthy contribution to acarology as the provision of new information. Additional factors include the manuscript's structure, adherence to author guidelines, reference quality, and English writing style, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
The PJA strongly expects reviewers to be confident during the review process. Reviewers assist the Editors of JESI in making decisions regarding manuscript acceptance and contribute to the improvement of the manuscript through their feedback.
Reviewers who feel unqualified to evaluate a manuscript should decline the request. We invite all reviewers to follow the COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers).
The PJA is always seeking reviewers who can provide critical and constructive comments while remaining anonymous and adhering to the deadlines. If there is any conflict of interest, like professional relations, friendship, collaboration, or competition, the reviewers should decline the invitation to review.
A single-blind type of peer review is used by the PJA:
Single-blind: The reviewers know the names of the authors, but the authors do not know who reviewed their manuscript unless the reviewer chooses to sign his/her report.
Editorial responsibilities
The Editor is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to Persian Journal of Acarology will be published. The Editor is guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
The Editor reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is suitable for publication within 10 days from the date of the manuscript submission.
Editor must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the paper shall be made by the Editorial Staff. In the case that one or more members of the Editorial Staff hold a conflict of interest regarding a submitted manuscript, these members of the Editorial Staff will be withdrawn from the selection of reviewers and all decisions related to the manuscript.
Editor shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.
The Editor and the Editorial Board must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
Editors and the Editorial Board shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the review process.
Authors' responsibilities
Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same paper to another journal constitutes a misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by PJA.
In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in the section Acknowledgements. A paper that has already been published in another journal cannot be reprinted in PJA.
It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that papers submitted to PJA are written with ethical standards (COPE) in mind. Authors affirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Reporting standards
A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.
Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved participants/parties to make the data public.
Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
Authorship
Authors must make sure that all only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgments section. Changing or removing the authors after acceptance of the paper is impossible.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, where someone assumes another's ideas, words, or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.
Plagiarism includes the following:
Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks);
Copying equations, figures or tables from someone else's paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder.
Any paper which shows obvious signs of plagiarism will be automatically rejected and the authors will temporarily (for six months) lose the right to submit their manuscripts to the journal PJA. The journal will refuse to accept any submissions from these authors for a stated period.
In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below under Retraction policy, and authors will not be able to submit and publish in the journal PJA during a period of two years.
Retraction
In some cases, it may be necessary for PJA to retract an article. These circumstances include e.g., if there is a major scientific error regarding the article, findings have been previously published elsewhere, when there is clear evidence of misconduct, or when there are ethical issues such as plagiarism. In these cases, the editorial board of PJA will take action and decide retraction. The retraction will be clearly indicated on the contents page of the issue in question and the reason for retraction will be explained.
Conflict of interest
Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.
By submitting a manuscript the authors agree to abide by the PJA’s Editorial Policies.
Procedures for dealing with unethical behaviour
Anyone may inform the editors and/or Editorial Staff at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by giving the necessary information/evidence to start an investigation.
Investigation
Editor will consult with the Editorial Board on decisions regarding the initiation of an investigation.
During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating.
The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them.
If it is judged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious.
Minor misconduct
Minor misconduct will be dealt directly with those involved without involving any other parties, e.g.:
Communicating to authors/reviewers whenever a minor issue involving misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards has occurred.
A warning letter to an author or reviewer regarding fairly minor misconduct.
Major misconduct
The Editor, in consultation with the Editorial Board, and, when appropriate, further consultation with a small group of experts should make any decision regarding the course of action to be taken using the evidence available. The possible outcomes are as follows (these can be used separately or jointly):
Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct.
Informing the author's (or reviewer's) head of department or employer of any misconduct by means of a formal letter.
The formal, announced retraction of publications from the journal in accordance with the Retraction Policy (see below).
A ban on submissions from an individual for a defined period.
Referring a case to a professional organization or legal authority for further investigation and action.
When dealing with unethical behaviour, the Editorial Staff will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): http://publicationethics.org/resources/.
Retraction Policy
Legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or any major misconduct require retraction of an article. Occasionally a retraction can be used to correct errors in submission or publication. The main reason for withdrawal or retraction is to correct the mistake while preserving the integrity of science; it is not to punish the author.
Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by PJA: in the electronic version of the retraction note, a link is made to the original article. In the electronic version of the original article, a link is made to the retraction note where it is clearly stated that the article has been retracted. The original article is retained unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”
Self-archiving Policy
The journal PJA allows authors to deposit Publisher's version/PDF in an institutional repository and non-commercial subject-based repositories, or to publish it on Author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.) and/or departmental website, at any time after publication and according to the Creative Commons license assigned to the paper. Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and a link must be made to the article's DOI.
It is also important to include the following statements in your cover letter:
1) All authors agree to its submission and the Corresponding author has been authorized by co-authors; 2) This Article has not been published before and is not concurrently being considered for publication elsewhere; 3) This Article does not violate any copyright or other personal proprietary right of any person or entity and it contains no abusive, defamatory, obscene or fraudulent statements, nor any other statements that are unlawful in any way.
Otherwise, your manuscript will not be processed.
Please single-space your ms and leave ample margins for printed manuscripts.
In submitting the final version of revised manuscript to editors, authors are asked to provide the following information to all proper typesetting and indexing of the manuscript:
1) Author last name and running title (<40 characters; to be used in footer)
2) Number of plates and cited references
3) High taxon name and number of new taxa described in the paper
Publication Frequency
PJA is a quarterly journal and will be published on 15 January, 15 April, 15 July and 15 October of each year. When needed, supplements will be published.
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. The journal does not charge any fees at submission, revieweing, processing and publication stages (NO APC).
Indexing
Persian Journal of Acarology (PJA) is an open access, peer-reviewed international journal of the Acarological Society of Iran for publication of high quality papers on any aspect of Acarology including mite and tick behavior, biochemistry, biology, control, ecology, evolution, morphology, physiology, systematics and taxonomy. All manuscripts will be subjected to peer review before acceptance. Time for review of a manuscrip is three weeks.
Persian Journal of Acarology is included in Thomson Reuters master journal list and indexed by Scopus, Zoological Record, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, Emerging Sources Citation Index and CAB Abstracts. Also, It has Scientific-Research grade from Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran and is indexed by Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC). Also, it is archived by Biotaxa and Magiran. and all volumes are available with the following address too: http://ecc.isc.gov.ir/shwEjournal.aspx?j=8022
Confirm that all the research meets the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the study country.