Animal publishes the best, innovative and cutting-edge science that relates to animals (farmed or managed) used for animal production, and that is relevant to whole animal outcomes, and/or to animal management practices. Papers can be accepted from all species if they are in, or contribute knowledge to, animal production systems. Animal is essential reading for all animal scientists, stakeholders and policy makers interested in agricultural, biomedical, veterinary and environmental sciences with expected impacts on Animal Production and Productivity, Animal Welfare, Animal Health, Food Security, Environment, Climate Change, Product Quality, Human Health and Nutrition, and Sustainability of Animal Agriculture and Livestock Systems. Impacts should be of international relevance.
Animal aims to publish novel and original research papers, horizon-scanning reviews and critically informative opinion papers. Papers should consider animal responses, as well as lower or upper levels of understanding, with research spanning from genes to systems. Interactions between levels of approach are encouraged to account for the integrative nature of biological systems.
The Journal is sub-divided into a number of Sections
- 1. Breeding and Genetics: considers research on genomics and genomic selection, breeding and breeding programs, and association between phenotypic and genetic variation in consideration of genomic and pedigree information.
- 2. Nutrition: considers studies on all nutritional functions. It has two subsections, 2A - Monogastrics and 2B - Ruminants.
- 3. Physiology and Functional Biology: considers studies on the biology of tissues and functions, including the physiological modes of action of growth, developmental, reproductive and productive processes in animals.
- 4. Welfare, Behaviour and Health Management: considers studies on behaviour, animal-health and welfare, with an emphasis on their interactions, as well as ethics of animal production and animal research. This includes population medicine, preventive medicine and epidemiological approaches to animal health. It has two subsections, 4A - Welfare and Behaviour, and 4B - Health Management.
- 5. Livestock Farming Systems: considers all aspects of livestock farming systems and their sustainability (economic, social, environmental, and their interactions). It also includes precision livestock management and technologies. It has two subsections, 5A - Livestock Systems, and 5B -Precision Livestock Farming.
- 6. Quality of Animal Products: considers the quality and safety of animal products (whether food or non-food products), consumer acceptance and perception, as well as impacts of animal products on food security and human health.
Standards
The journal aims to publish research with the following characteristics
Across all sections, the journal encourages a variety of experimental or observational approaches, including any omics, monitoring, bioinformatics or modelling methodology, as long as conditions are well controlled without confounding effects. Submissions to disciplinary sections (Breeding and Genetics, Nutrition, Physiology and Functional Biology) are encouraged to offer hypothesis-driven research relying on reference methods for testing the critical hypothesis. Submissions to multi-disciplinary sections (Welfare, Behaviour and Health Management, Livestock Farming Systems, Quality of Animal Products) are encouraged to offer multicriteria, holistic, integrated, multi-level approaches (including economic, environmental and social issues), agroecological, or farm to fork approaches. These later submissions can include social/human elements of animal sciences provided there is a strong implication for livestock management practices and they are based on sound social science methodologies. The journal encourages research transparency and reproducibility. In particular, it encourages the detailed description of critical methodologies, including mathematical equations and statistical models in the Supplementary Materials. Authors are expected to support their findings with results from quality control tests for the critical methodologies.
The journal generally does not publish research with the following characteristics
Research directed to local conditions with no international relevance will be rejected. Purely descriptive or routine research lacking interpretation will also be rejected. Similarly research unrelated to whole animal outcomes or to management practices will be rejected. Lack of novelty or lack of state-of-the-art methods are discouraged. Clinical veterinary research or pharmaceutical studies investigating disease treatment do not fit in the scope. The same applies for biomedical studies and companion animal studies.
Article types
animal publishes different types of articles:
Research Articles
Research articles correspond to a full account of a complete study. The approach can be experimental, data-driven (e.g. meta-analyses) or theoretical. Research articles should be comprehensive and should include an in-depth discussion. Linked papers are accepted if numbered in a series and submitted at the same time.
Short communications
Short communications present exceptionally promising early results, novel or timely contents. animal publishes a limited number of short communications. Their submission will be accepted based on Editor’s judgement, and they will be peer-reviewed as research papers.
Review articles
Review articles have to be contemporary, comprehensive, and add information to published reviews on the same topic. Critical analyses of novel data and conceptual framework are encouraged providing new insights. In this context it may be relevant to put forwards new theories and/or speculations, it may also include perspectives etc. However, the paper must contain more that these unsubstantiated elements i.e. the paper must be grounded in existing literature knowledge. Papers containing only meta-analyses are not considered as review articles. Authors of unsolicited review articles (i.e. those not produced in response to a specific invitation from animal) are encouraged to question the Editorial Office prior to submission through questions@animal-journal.eu to ask if their paper is within the scope and of interest to the journal. Authors are expected to provide an abstract and a rationale explaining the originality of the review as compared to other published reviews in the same subject area, and the new information the review offers beyond previous published results. The decision on whether an unsolicited review article will be considered for publication will be made by the Editor-in-Chief after consultation of the Editorial Board.
Invited Opinion papers
Opinion papers are invited by the Management Board of animal and are published as open access papers. They are short papers, which aim to inform scientists, industry, the public and policy makers about cutting-edge issues in research or the impact of research. The papers reflect the opinion of their authors who bear full responsibility of the published paper.
Conference/Symposium papers
Bundles of research papers or reviews presented in conjunction with specific conferences/symposia or projects can be considered for publication as a Special Topic or as a Supplement Issue in animal. Conference organisers who wish to publish bundles of papers from a symposium/conference in animal should first contact the Editor-in-Chief of animal (questions@animal-journal.eu) for agreement and information on the management of these papers. If the papers do not fit the conditions for publication in animal, the papers may be referred to Advances in Animal Biosciences, a companion publication of animal published by Cambridge University Press. The placing of such bundles in animal vs Advances in Animal Biosciences will depend on the relevance of the conference subject to the scope of animal.
Please view the full publication policy here.