Mission statement

The journal provides an international forum for the publication of papers related to the management of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture (AnGR). It covers the following areas: phenotypic and molecular characterization; surveying and monitoring; development (genetic improvement); sustainable use; conservation; capacity-building in livestock keeper and pastoralist communities; and policies and institutions.

The editors welcome all papers addressing the topics above. Papers related to breeds and technologies contributing to the sustainable management of the world's medium-to-low input production systems, which account for the largest area of land involved in livestock production and for a major part of production from livestock, are of a particular interest.

The journal supports the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, the internationally agreed framework for the management of AnGR and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Disclaimer

Views expressed in the papers published in Animal Genetic Resources represent the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies of FAO or the views of the editors or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated.

Peer review

Manuscripts submitted for publication in Animal Genetic Resources undergo full peer review by two referees. The suitability of manuscripts is judged by the reviewers and editors, and the editors' decision on a paper is final.

Categories of papers

Research papers – Findings of work related to the management of AnGR will be considered for publication in AGRI. Authors are encouraged to include relevant high-quality photographs in their manuscripts. If photographs illustrate animals, they should be shown in the primary production environment to which they are adapted.

Review papers – Unsolicited papers reviewing country-level, regional or global developments in one or more aspects of AnGR management will be considered for publication. These papers may include state-of-the-art reviews of specific fields in AnGR management.

Position papers – Invited papers on topical issues will be published when the editors consider there to be such a requirement.

Other published material – Readers are encouraged to send the following items by e-mail to [email protected]:

• • book reviews or proposals

• • conclusions and recommendations arising from relevant meetings, workshops and conferences

• • announcements of training courses and major national, regional and international events

Originality and copyright

To be considered for publication in the journal, a manuscript must not have been published previously, nor be under review for publication elsewhere. (Previously published figures may be used sparingly in reviews, provided that permission has been obtained as appropriate.) Prior to publication, an authorization and copyright transfer agreement form must be signed and returned to the publishers by the lead or corresponding author of a manuscript (corresponding authors sign on behalf of any co-authors). The form will be sent to the lead or corresponding author together with the proof of the paper for publication.

Authorship

Papers with multiple authors are reviewed with the assumption that all authors have contributed materially to the research reported, have approved the submitted manuscript, and concur with its submission. A contribution includes the conception and design of the project, the performance of experiments and/or the analysis and interpretation of data. Authors should have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the drafting or critical revision of the manuscript.

Manuscript submission

All manuscripts must be submitted online at http://journals.cambridge.org/AGR. No page charges are required from the author.

Receipt of your manuscript will be acknowledged, a manuscript reference number assigned and the manuscript will be sent out for review. You should quote your manuscript reference number in all subsequent correspondence.

The following instructions must be followed carefully (see Manuscript preparation and style for further details):

• • Manuscripts may be submitted in English, French or Spanish. If your manuscript is written in French or Spanish, it should include a summary and keywords in that language as well as in English. All published articles will feature a summary in English, French and Spanish. It would be appreciated if, wherever possible, authors could supply a summary in all three languages, as this reduces the need for translating services and therefore expedites processing of the manuscript.

• • The preferred file format for submission is Microsoft Word. Word Perfect or other word-processor files are not acceptable. Tables should be included within the same file but at the end of the document. Placeholders should be used within the text to indicate their positioning.

• • Figures must be submitted as separate files, and at to-be-published resolution (see Manuscript preparation and style for further details).

• • A cover letter should be provided as a separate file. The letter should indicate the category under which the manuscript is submitted (see Appendix 1) and provide the details of the corresponding author (telephone number, fax number and e-mail address).

• • Filenames should indicate the name of the first author of the paper, either in full or abbreviated.

• • Printed copies of the manuscript, tables and figures are not required and should not be sent.

Please note that correspondence regarding submitted and revised manuscripts will take place with the corresponding author only.

Manuscript preparation and style

The manuscript should be formatted with line spacing set to “double”. Pages should be numbered sequentially beginning with the title page. Margins should be at least 2.5 cm on all sides. The font should be set to Arial.

Authors and affiliations – Names and affiliations of authors should be presented as follows:

E.C. Quispe¹, T.C. Rodríguez², L.R. Iñiguez³ and J.P. Mueller⁴

¹Universidad Nacional de Huancavelica, Huancavelica, Perú; ²Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia; ³Cochabamba, Bolivia; ⁴Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Bariloche, Argentina

Correspondence to: E.C. Quispe, Universidad Nacional de Huancavelica, Huancavelica, Perú. E-mail: [email protected]

A Running Head of up to 50 characters should be provided on the title page.

The Summary should be unstructured (i.e., no sub-headings) but must provide the reader with a self-contained summary of the paper. It should include a brief introduction to the paper, the method, the key findings and the conclusions. The summary should be no longer than 210 words in English and 250 words in French and Spanish. A list of three to five keywords or terms for indexing should follow the summary and be separated by commas. The summary and keywords should be provided in the same language as the manuscript as well as in English.

The Body of the manuscript should begin on page 3 and a new page should be used for the References. The lines of text must be numbered and the manuscript structured with consecutively numbered headers and sub-headers (e.g. 1., 1.1, 1.1.1 etc). However, it is important to avoid cross-referencing using these numbers, as the editorial office will remove numbering and apply heading styles in the final version.

Research papers should additionally include the following headers: Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusions.

The Maximum length of the body of the manuscript should not exceed 10 journal pages (approx. 8 500 words). Short communications should not exceed 1 journal page (approx. 750 words or, when an image is included, 550 words).

Tables should be numbered consecutively as they are cited in the text (Table 1, 2 etc.). Each table should be on a separate page (at the end of the document) with the number and heading above and any notes below the table.

Figures should be numbered consecutively as they are cited in the text (Figure 1, 2, etc). Use italic letters for parts a, b, c, etc. Legends must be provided for each figure. If applicable, figures should be supplied as either TIFF or EPS files, preferably at the approximate size in which they are to be reproduced. Line artwork should be supplied in black and white mode at a resolution of 1 200 dpi; combination artwork (line/tone) at a resolution of 800 dpi; black and white halftone artwork should be saved in “grayscale” mode at a resolution of 300 dpi; colour halftone artwork should be saved in CMYK mode at a resolution of 400 dpi. All necessary permissions must be obtained.

Abbreviations and SI units – The use of abbreviations, except those that are widely used, is strongly discouraged. They should be used only if they improve comprehension of the manuscript. Acronyms should be spelled out at first mention. Metric system (SI) units should be used.

Acknowledgements

In this section authors should acknowledge any support from granting agencies and other sources for the work reported in their paper. The contribution of individuals who assisted with the research but are not included as authors of the paper may also be acknowledged in this section.

The Acknowledgements should be placed after the main body of the text before the references. If there are no Acknowledgements, the title should be inserted followed by “None”.

Statement of interest

A conflict of interest exists when an author has interests that might inappropriately influence his or her judgement, even if that judgement is not influenced. Because of this, authors must disclose potentially conflicting interests so that others can make judgements about such effects. At the time of manuscript submission, authors should disclose any financial arrangements or connections they may have that are pertinent to the submitted manuscript and that may be perceived as potentially biasing their paper. Non-financial interests that could be relevant in this context should also be disclosed. If no relevant interests exist, this should be stated. This requirement applies to all the authors of a paper and to all categories of papers.

References

Every reference cited in the text should be included in the reference list and every entry in the reference list should have been mentioned in the text at least once. References should be ordered first alphabetically by the first author's surname, and then by year.

Examples:

1. 1 Reference in a periodical:

   • Köhler-Rollefson, I. 1992. The camel breeds of India in social and historical perspective. Animal Genetic Resources Information 10: 53–64.

2. 2 When there is more than one author:

   • Matos, C.A.P., Thomas, D.L., Gianola, D., Tempelman, R.J. & Young, L.D. 1997. Genetic analysis of discrete reproductive traits in sheep using linear and non-linear models: 1. Estimation of genetic parameters, Journal of Animal Science 75: 76–87.

3. 3 For a book or an ad hoc publication, e.g., reports, theses:

   • FAO, 2007. Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources and the Interlaken Declaration. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy (available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1404e/a1404e00.htm).

   • van der Werf, J., Graser, H-U., Frankham, R. & Gondro, C. (eds.) 2009. Adaptation and fitness in animal populations. evolutionary and breeding perspectives on genetic resources management. Springer.

4. 4 For an article in the proceedings of a meeting:

   • Abad, M., Arrigo, J., Gibbons, A., Lanari, M.R., Morris, G. & Taddeo, H. 2002. Breeding scheme for Angora goat production in North Patagonia. Proceedings 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, 19-23 August 2002, Montpellier, France, 12–14.

5. 5 Information hosted on a web site:

   • FAO. 2010. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System, http://www.fao.org/dad-is/, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.

For a work that has been accepted for publication but not yet published, “In press” should be written in place of the year of publication. Do not insert an expected year of publication.

Supplementary online material

The online platform gives authors the opportunity to include data that would be impossible or impractical to include in the printed version. Authors may include tables and figures as well as data such as videos, 3-D structures/images, extensive datasets and any other supplementary material not suitable for print duplication. All supplementary material must be submitted with the original manuscript. Supplementary data should be referred to in the text with the prefix "S" (e.g. Supplementary Table S1, Supplementary Figure S1). Supplementary files will not be copyedited but will be published as supplied. The electronic publication of this material needs to be approved by the editors. The manuscript must be able to stand alone without the supplementary material (for the benefit of readers with access to the hard copy only).

Review process

Manuscripts submitted to the journal will be reviewed by two external reviewers and evaluated by one of the editors. If the editors deem that a paper is not relevant for this journal or is unlikely to be reviewed favourably, it may be returned to the author after initial review by the editors. This rapid rejection process enables the author to submit the work promptly for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts may also be rejected by the editors if they do not comply with the recommendations for preparation of manuscripts. Every effort will be made to provide authors with a review decision within six weeks of receipt of the manuscript. If the editors request revisions to a manuscript before publication, a maximum of one month shall be allowed for such revisions to be implemented.

Proofs

The publisher reserves the right to copyedit manuscripts to ensure that grammar and spelling are consistent with the style of the journal. The corresponding author will receive page proofs for final proofreading. These should be checked and returned within two days of receipt. The publisher reserves the right to charge authors for excessive correction of non-typographical errors.