Guidelines for Authors

Manuscripts will be carefully scrutinized for evidence of plagiarism, duplication and data manipulation; in particular, images will be carefully examined for any indication of intentional improper modification. Any suspected misconduct ends up with a quick rejection and is then reported to the US Office of Research Integrity.

The Corresponding Author must submit the manuscript online-only through our Manuscript Submission System.
The Publisher and Editor regret that they are not able to consider submissions that do not follow this procedure.

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present
One author (multiple corresponding authors are not allowed) has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded

• Manuscript file
• Include keywords (no more than seven)
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided

Further considerations

• Please prepare your manuscript for the single-blind peer review;
• Ensure that all references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
• A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements
• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'. Ensure that your work is written in correct English before submission. Note that submitted manuscripts will not go through language-focused copyediting with the journal prior to or after acceptance; language-focused copyediting is the responsibility of the authors prior to submission. Professional copyediting can help authors improve the presentation of their work and increase its chances of being taken on by a publisher. In case you feel that your manuscript would benefit from a professional English language copyediting checking language grammar and style, you can find a reliable revision service at:

Desk reject criteria
The editorial team and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Agricultural Engineering use desk review to filter out papers that will not be processed; these are papers that are not aligned with the journal's aims and scope, or that lack essential information in one or more sections of the paper, or that were not submitted in accordance with the correct procedure.

Research data

Authors submitting their research article to JAE are encouraged to deposit research data in a relevant data repository and cite and link to this dataset in their article. If this is not possible, authors are encouraged to make a statement explaining why research data cannot be shared. There are several ways you can share your data when you publish with PAGEPress, which help you get credit for your work and make your data accessible and discoverable for your peers.

Below some available repository:
https://zenodo.org/communities/solace/?page=1&size=20
https://zenodo.org/communities/sae-eth/?page=1&size=20
https://zenodo.org/communities/soilcare/?page=1&size=20
https://nomad-lab.eu/repo-arch

JOURNAL SECTIONS

Original Articles: should normally be divided into: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions and References. The number of references should not exceed 40 and the total number of tables and figures should not be greater than 15. The abstract should contain a maximum of 400 words.

Review Articles: no particular format is required for these articles; however, they should have an informative, unstructured abstract of about 250 words. The total number of tables and figures should not be greater than 15. The number of references has no specific limitations, provided that all of them are essential for the scope of the review.

Technical Notes: are articles with a simple layout and containing limited data (no more than 5 figures or tables) and a small number of citations (not more than 20). They should be limited to 3,000 words of text (figure captions, table headings and reference lists are additional to this limit).

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING

The manuscripts should be double spaced with numbered lines and wide margins and should be arranged as follows:
Title page: including the full title, the name(s) of the author(s), their affiliation and the name of the corresponding author to whom proofs and requests for off-prints should be sent.
Abstract: should not exceed 400 words.
Key words: three to six keywords characterizing the content of the article in alphabetical order.
Introduction: a brief introduction.
Materials and Methods: this section should provide sufficient information and references on the techniques adopted to permit their replication.
Results: the content of this section should permit full comprehension of the data reported in figures and tables.
Discussion: this should underline the significance of the results and place them in the context of previous research.
References: references should be prepared strictly according to the instructions given below.
Units: authors are recommended to use the International System of Units (SI).
Scientific names: common names of organisms should always be accompanied, when first cited, by their complete scientific name in italics (genus, species, attribution and, if appropriate, cultivar).
Formulae: mathematical formulae must be carefully typed, possibly using the equation editor of Microsoft Word; when a paper contains several equations, they should be identified with a number in parentheses (e.g., Eq. 1). Please note that each accepted paper will undergo technical and scientific copyediting before publication.

TABLES & FIGURES
Tables: tables are numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers without no. before the number. References should be made in the text to each table. The desired style of presentation can be found in published articles. Titles of tables should be descriptive enough to stand alone. Do not present the same data in tabular and graphic form. Tables should be provided as editable Word files, and authors should ensure that they are presented in a publication-ready format. Considering how a table fits on a page in a wordprocessing program can often provide insight into how it will appear on a journal page. 
Larger or more complex tables will be made available online as supplementary material at the Editorial Office's sole discretion, including ensuring efficient readability of the paper publishing format.

Figures: figures are numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers. References should be made in the text to each figure. Each figure should have a caption. The term "figure" is used also for graphs and photos. Symbols and abbreviations used in figures can be defined in the figure caption or note or within the figure itself. Please avoid the use of bold face or greater size for the characters. Figures should be designed using a well-known software package. Figures with different panels have to be grouped into a plate, and panels marked with letters. Please note that the Production Office will not redraw or re-letter any image.

In case of acceptance, authors are required to provide the figures as .tiff or .jpg files, with the following digital resolution:

1. Color (saved as CMYK): 300 dpi - maximum width 17 cm - minimum width 8.5 cm
2. Black and white/grays: 600 dpi - maximum width 17 cm - minimum width 8.5 cm

Videos: can be submitted and uploaded as "Supplementary Files" during the manuscript submission procedure. Dimension should not exceed 5 MB.

PERMISSIONS
When citing someone else's work or considering reproducing figures or tables from a book or journal article, authors should make sure that they are not infringing a copyright.
In case extracts (text/figures/tables) from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright holder(s) and credit the source(s) in the article. A copy of the written permission has to be provided before publication (otherwise the paper cannot be published) and appropriately cited. The procedure for requesting permission is the responsibility of the Authors; PAGEPress will not refund any costs incurred in obtaining permission.

REFERENCES
Citations in the text: the Journal follows the "author, year" style of citation. When a citation has one or two authors, cite the reference throughout using the name(s) and the date. When a citation has more than two authors, cite the reference throughout the text with et al. following the last name of the first author. When two or more references are included in a grouping within a sentence, they are arranged and separated by a semicolon. The first criterion is the year (former citations precede recent ones); multiple citations for a given year are further arranged alphabetically and multiple citations for the same initial letter are arranged as follows: first the citation with one author, secondly the citation with two authors, then the other (with et al.). When the same author has two references with different dates, cite them in chronological order, separating the dates with a comma; when the same author has two references with the same date, arrange the dates as a and b (also in the reference list) and separated by a comma.

• Example: (Foury, 1967, 1972; Burns et al., 1970; Allen et al., 1990; Basnizki and Zohary, 1994; White et al., 1990a,b).

Citations in the References List: Journal titles mentioned in the reference list should be abbreviated according to the following websites (sequenced by relevance)

1. ISI Journal Abbreviations Index (http://library.caltech.edu/reference/abbreviations)
2. Biological Journals and Abbreviations (http://home.ncifcrf.gov/research/bja)

Citation should be made in the text to each reference. Citations are listed in strict alphabetical order by first author' last names.Use capital and lower case letters for authors' names. If all authors are identical for two or more citations, chronological order of publication should dictate the order of citations. When more than one paper in a given year is listed by authors whose names are in the same order in each paper, the papers are arranged in alphabetical order of the paper title.

Use the following system to arrange your references:

1. periodicals: Hennighausen L.G., Sippel A.E. 1982. Characterization and cloning of the mRNAs specific for the lactating mouse mammary gland. Eur. J. Biochem. 125:131-41.
2. books: National Research Council. 2001. Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle. 7th rev. ed. National Academy Press, Washington, DC, USA.
3. multi-authors books: Brouwer I. 1965. Report of the sub-committee on constants and factors. In: K.L. Blaxter (Ed.) Energy metabolism. EAAP Publ. N. 11, Academic Press Ltd., London, UK, pp. 441-3.
4. proceedings:
   - Rossi A., Bianchi B. 1998. How writing the references. Proc. 4th World Congr. Appl. Livest. Prod., Armidale, Australia, 26:44-6. (Or 44, if one page)
   - Blanco P., Nigro B. 1970. Not numbered volumes. Page 127 (or pp. 12-18) in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Cattle Dis., Philadelphia, PA, USA.
5. thesis: Rossi P. 1999. Stima di parametri genetici nella razza Reggiana. Degree Diss., Università  di Milano, Italy.
6. material from a World Wide Web site: Food and Drug Administration. 2001. Available from: http://www.fda.gov
7. Regulations:
   • Italian Regulation. 1992. Application of the Council Directive (EEC) No. 86/609 regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes. LD 116/1992. In: Official Journal No. 294, 18/2/1992, pp. 5-24.
   • European Commission. 1994. Commission Decision of 27 June 1994 concerning certain protection measures with regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the feeding of mammalian derived protein, 94/381/EC. In: Official Journal, L 172, 07/07/1994, pp. 23-24.
8. International standards: ISO, 1991. Determination of total fat content - Meat and meat products. Norm ISO R-1443:1991. International Organization for Standardization Publ., Geneva, Switzerland.
9. In press: Manuscripts that have been accepted for publication but are not yet published can be listed in the literature cited with the designation [In press] following the journal title.
10. Other: Citations such as personal communication, unpublished data, etc. should be incorporated in the text and NOT placed into the Reference section.

All submissions to the Journal of Agricultural Engineering are first checked for completeness before being sent to an Editor, who decides whether they are suitable for peer review. Each paper is first assigned by the Editors to an appropriate Associate Editor who has knowledge of the field discussed in the manuscript. The first step of manuscript selection takes place entirely in-house and has two major objectives: i) to establish the article appropriateness for our journal's readership; ii) to define the manuscript's priority ranking relative to other manuscripts under consideration since the number of papers that the journal receives is much greater than it can publish. If a manuscript does not receive a sufficiently high priority score to warrant publication, the editors will proceed with a quick rejection. The remaining articles are reviewed by at least two different external referees (second step or classical peer review). Manuscripts should be prepared according to the Uniform Requirements established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/#prepare).

Submissions by an Editor
Papers submitted by an Editor or Board Member (including submission as a co-author) are handled by one of the other Editors who are not at the same institution as the submitting author/co-author. The Editor will select reviewers and make all the Editorial Decisions on the paper; if in doubt, the Editor will consult with one another.  

The journal's review software does not allow a conflicted editor to access their manuscript but in the role as Author, which does not disclose relevant editorial information on the manuscript itself.

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship according to the ICMJE criteria. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should only be based on substantial contributions to: i) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data, and to ii) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and on iii) final approval of the version to be published; and iv) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Authors should provide a brief description of their individual contributions. Those who do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading. Authors can find detailed information on the Publisher's website.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology
Authors must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the creation of submitted work. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be held accountable for the work's accuracy, integrity, and originality, all of which are required for authorship. Because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that is incorrect, incomplete, or biased, authors should carefully review and edit the result. Authors should be able to assert that their paper contains no plagiarism, including text and images generated by AI. Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria. Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript. Use of an LLM for language editing must be stated in the Acknowledgments section.

We will review this policy on a regular basis and, if necessary, adapt it as we anticipate rapid development in this field in the near future.

Changes in Authorship
Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor:  Authors are requested to sign and send to the Editors a statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and from the author(s) to be removed or added.

Please note that if your manuscript is accepted you will not be able to make any changes to the authors, or order of authors, of your manuscript once the editor has accepted it for publication. 

No changes to the Authors or Corresponding Author can be made after publication of the article. Instead, a corrigendum may be considered by the journal editor.

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check it carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only).
Corrections other than printer errors should be avoided. Costs associated with such corrections will be charged to the authors.
Please be aware that the Publisher is unable to accept corrections made in ways other than specified at https://www.pagepress.org/site/guidance

This journal offers the Early Access service to authors and lets users access peer-reviewed and accepted articles well before publication in a regular issue.
The Early Access papers are newly published articles (Version of Records) but not yet assigned to an issue. These articles are searchable and citable by their DOI (Digital Object Identifier).

Authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.