About this Journal

African Journal of Soil Science ISSN 2375-088X is an international peer-reviewed, English language journal that publishes original articles, reviews and short communications in all areas of soil science and related disciplines. The journal considers articles dealing with the relationships between plants and soil, such as the relationships and interactions of plants with minerals, water and microbes, the anatomy and morphology of roots, soil biology and ecology, and so on.

Articles that raise concerns about how to preserve soil and arable land in a world with a growing population, possible future water crisis, increasing per capita food consumption, and land degradation management of soils are most welcome.

African Journal of Soil Science also welcomes articles that deepen our understanding of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth as well as soil formation and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils; chemistry, morphology and classification of soil; influence of soil on organisms, especially plants.

The following are areas where AJSS usually welcomes contributions:

• Environmental soil science
• Pedology
• Soil genesis
• Pedometrics
• Soil morphology
• Soil micromorphology
• Soil classification
• Soil taxonomy
• Soil biology
• Soil microbiology
• Soil chemistry
• Soil biochemistry
• Soil mineralogy
• Soil physics
• Pedotransfer function
• Soil mechanics and engineering
• Soil hydrology, hydropedology
• Climate change
• Ecosystem studies
• Pedotransfer function
• Soil fertility / Nutrient management
• Soil management
• Soil survey
• Standard methods of analysis
• Watershed and wetland studies
• Agricultural sciences
• Agricultural soil science
• Agrophysics science
• Irrigation management
• Anthropology
• archaeological stratigraphy
• Environmental science
• Landscape ecology
• Physical geography
• Geomorphology
• Geology
• Biogeochemistry
• Geomicrobiology
• Hydrology
• Hydrogeology
• Waste management
• Wetland science
• Conservation science, practice, and policy.

Open Access 

• All articles published by this journal are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers.  
• All works published by this journal are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). 
• Authors of articles published in this journal are the copyright holders of their articles and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate articles.

Article-processing charges

African Journal of Soil Science levies an article-processing charge of $500 (USD) for each article accepted for publication. The journal does not charge a submission fee. Authors are required to pay the manuscript handling fee only after their manuscripts have been reviewed and accepted for publication by an editor. Authors can request a waiver or discount during the submission process as the journal routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries.

ISJ offsets publication expenses – including the cost of peer review management, journal production, and online hosting and archiving – by charging an Article Processing Charge (APC), to authors, institutions or funders for each article published. This publication fees vary by journal and are payable upon article acceptance. 

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used by ‎ African Journal of Soil Science to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Qualified researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published or not. 

African Journal of Soil Science operates a double-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers of the paper won't get to know the identity of the author(s), and the author(s) won't get to know the identity of the reviewer. The advantage of double-blind peer review is that it eliminates bias.

Manuscripts submitted to this journal will generally be reviewed by two or more experts who will be required to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board. 

Peer Review Process

When we receive an article for publication, it is checked by the journal’s editorial office to ensure that the files are in order. After this is done, the manuscript is assigned to three or more reviewers on the basis of their subject expertise. Based on the reports of the reviewers, our editor makes the decision to accept, reject or subject the article to further revisions.

Once the manuscript is finally accepted, the article would need to undergo final check by the journal editorial office. After this, the author would be notified of the acceptance of their articles. Galley proofs are sent to the corresponding authors who are expected to read and correct any typographical or grammatical errors. Once proofs are returned by authors to the editorial office, an invoice is sent to the corresponding author. After we received payment for the article, the manuscript is usually included in the next issue of the journal. As soon as the article is published on the journal’s website, a publication notification is sent to the corresponding author with links to the issue and article.

Conflict of interest 

Public trust in the peer-review process and the integrity of published works depend in part on how well conflict of interest is handled during writing, peer review, and editorial decision making. Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that influence his or her actions. At ISJ, authors are required to disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript.

Reviewers are advised to disclose any conflict of interest and if necessary, decline the review of any manuscript they perceive to have a conflict of interest. Editors should also decline from considering any manuscript that may have conflict of interest. Such manuscripts may be re-assigned to other editors.

A clear declaration of all possible conflicts – whether they actually had an influence or not – allows others to make informed decisions about the work and its review process.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights

Humans

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. If any doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

Animals

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. The materials and methods (experimental procedures) section must clearly indicate that appropriate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, and details of animal care should be provided.

Informed Consent

Authors should not include patient information such as names, initials, or hospital numbers, in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is required for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent/ guardian) has given written, informed consent.

When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article and a copy of the 'Patient Informed Consent Form' for each patient should be included during article submission. Authors should provide written verification that all the study participants have been shown the final manuscript to be published.

Plagiarism

The editors of ISJ take a very serious stance against any evidence of plagiarism including self-plagiarism in manuscripts submitted to them. Every reasonable effort will be made to investigate any allegations of plagiarism brought to their attention, as well as instances that come up during the peer review process. 

ISJ Self-Archiving Policy

Authors of articles published in any of our journals are permitted to self-archive the submitted (preprint) and accepted (peer-reviewed) version of the article at any time. There is no embargo period. At ISJ, we strongly believe that self-archiving makes research to be widely “visible, accessible, harvestable, searchable, and useable,” thus increasing its reach and impact, and possibly the number of citations it receives.

The submitted version may be placed on:

The author's personal website

The author's company/institutional repository or archive

Not for profit subject-based preprint servers or repositories

Benefits of publishing in this journal

At ISJ, we continue to work hard to support our authors who trust us with their works. Here are just some of the benefits we provide:

• Open Access: Our research is freely available to all, from the time of publication. Readers do not need a subscription or to register before they can access our articles.
• ‎High visibility: ISJ allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to the widest possible scientific outreach, including to the general public.
• Rapid publication: The timeframe between acceptance and publication is about 3 weeks. All ISJ journals offer a fast publication schedule.
• Rigorous peer-review: ISJ is operated by a team of experienced professional editors. We work closely with academic editors and reviewers to provide authors with an efficient, fair, and constructive reviews.
• Post-publication comments: ISJ allows readers and authors to exchange ideas that are directly accessible from the full-text article.
• International readership: All articles are being accessed from over 200 countries worldwide.
• Promotion and press coverage: Articles published in this journal are included in article alerts and regular email updates.
• Access and reach: We continue to submit our journals to all known abstracting and indexing services.
• Flexibility: ISJ journals gives you the opportunity to publish at your convenience.
• Copyright: Authors retain the copyright to their works. Authors are allowed unlimited use and/or distribution of their work without any form of restriction. As an author of an article published in any ISJ journal, you retain the copyright of your article and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work.

Subscription Information

To subscribe for an article published by any of our journals, kindly contact editor@internationalscholarsjournals.com. The subscription rate is $350 and it is the same for all countries. The subscription charges are inclusive of delivery charges. All journals are open access and subscribers shall receive the print edition.