Peer Review Policy

Viterra: Agricultural, Biological and Natural Sciences adopts the double-blind peer review system, ensuring the anonymity of both authors and reviewers throughout the editorial process. This model guarantees objectivity, academic independence, impartiality in editorial decisions, and compliance with international standards of scientific quality, in accordance with the journal's specialized scope and its biannual publication frequency.

All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening. This stage aims to verify the manuscript's suitability to the journal's scope and focus, compliance with the submission guidelines, adherence to the required academic structure, and originality through similarity detection tools. Only manuscripts meeting these requirements proceed to external peer review.

Following the initial screening, the manuscript is generally assigned to two independent external reviewers selected according to their academic expertise and research experience in agricultural sciences, biological sciences, natural sciences, or related disciplines. The evaluation is conducted without institutional or professional relationships between authors, reviewers, and the editorial team, ensuring the absence of conflicts of interest and maintaining the transparency of the review process.

Reviewers are selected based on the following criteria: one specialist with expertise in the manuscript's primary subject area and a second reviewer from a related or complementary discipline to ensure technical depth, methodological soundness, logical consistency, and scientific relevance. In highly specialized cases or when substantial discrepancies arise between reviewers' reports, the Editor may appoint a third external reviewer to support the final editorial decision.

Reviews must be conducted in a critical, objective, ethical, and constructive manner, aiming to improve the scientific quality of the manuscript and strengthen its academic contribution. All manuscripts are treated with strict confidentiality. Reviewers agree not to disclose or use any information contained in the manuscripts for personal or professional purposes. Any additional technical consultation requires prior authorization from the editorial team.

Editorial Process and Review Timeline

Manuscript Submission

Once a manuscript is submitted through the journal's editorial platform, the corresponding author receives an automatic acknowledgment confirming receipt and providing a reference number for tracking the editorial process.

Initial Editorial Assessment

The Editor-in-Chief or a designated Editor performs the preliminary assessment to verify the manuscript's compliance with the journal's scope, formatting requirements, and originality. This stage typically takes 7 to 15 days. Manuscripts that fail to meet the journal's requirements may be rejected at this stage.

Double-Blind External Peer Review

Manuscripts that successfully pass the initial assessment are sent for external double-blind peer review. The estimated duration of this stage, including the first editorial decision, is 20 to 45 days.

Editorial Decision and Revisions

When revisions are recommended, authors receive the reviewers' reports together with the editorial comments. Authors are given up to 15 days to submit a revised version accompanied by a detailed response explaining how each comment has been addressed.

Additional Review Rounds

If reviewers provide substantially different recommendations or if the manuscript requires major revisions, the Editor may request an additional review by a third reviewer or initiate a second round of peer review, preferably involving the original reviewers.

Final Decision

The final decision regarding acceptance or rejection rests with the responsible Editor, who considers the reviewers' reports together with the journal's editorial policies and scientific standards.

Publication

Accepted manuscripts proceed to copyediting, technical editing, typesetting, and online publication. This stage generally requires 10 to 20 days following final acceptance. At this stage, the article receives its Digital Object Identifier (DOI) under the institutional prefix 10.63969 and is incorporated into the corresponding indexing and registration systems.