About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Genetic Resources is an open access journal disseminating global knowledge and tools used by the community of practitioners of plant and animal genetic resources involved in monitoring, collecting, maintaining, conserving, characterizing and using genetic resources for food, agriculture and forestry. Genetic Resources publishes original research, methods, strategies, guidelines, case studies and reviews as well as opinion and other papers on a variety of topics of interest on the present and future use of genetic resources. These may include the acquisition, documentation, conservation, management, assessment, characterization and evaluation of genetic resources and their link to broader biodiversity, socioeconomic practices, policy guidelines or similar, serving stakeholders within and across sectors. Occasionally, Genetic Resources publishes special issues with a focus on selected topics of interest for the genetic resources community. The journal has a focus on the European region and also welcomes contributions of wider interest from all world regions. 

Genetic Resources is inspired by the no longer existing Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter and Animal Genetic Resources journal and aims to fill the gap created by their discontinuation. Its scope and setup draw from the results of a survey conducted among stakeholders within the framework of the GenRes Bridge project, which provided seed funding for the journal. An impact report based on usage statistics and a survey among readers evaluated the success and relevance of the journal after its first year of publication, informing a sustainability plan for continuation after the project end. As of 2022, Genetic Resources continues operation with the support of the European genetic resources networks for plant (ECPGR) and animal (ERFP) genetic resources, retaining its commitment to serve genetic resources stakeholders within and across domains. Genetic Resources is published by Bioversity International on behalf of the ECPGR Secretariat. 

Copyright notice

Authors retain copyright of the articles published in Genetic Resources and grant the journal right of first publication with open access. All articles published in Genetic Resource are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to download, share and adapt the work for commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as proper attribution to the original article is given. Genetic Resources permits and encourages authors to post items submitted to the journal (including the publisher's final layout) on personal websites or institutional repositories after acceptance and/or publication, while providing bibliographic details that credit their publication in Genetic Resources.

Open Access

There are no publication fees for authors to publish in Genetic Resources. Genetic Resources is published as an open access journal available online only. The published articles (full texts) are available for searching, viewing or downloading at no cost.

Privacy statement 

Genetic Resources  follows the EU General Data Protection Regulation in maintaining the privacy of subscribers, submitters and reviewers. The names and email addresses entered on the journal website will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of Genetic Resources and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Publishing schedule

Genetic Resources publishes new articles shortly after their acceptance. Articles are combined into issues twice a year. Articles published in Genetic Resources are associated with a digital object identifier (DOI). 

eISSN: 2708-3764

Indexing

Genetic Resources is indexed in relevant open access indexing services such as Scopus, CrossRef, DOAJ, Google Scholar, ROAD, SCImago, The Keepers registry, 

Digital archiving

The full issues published in this journal are added to the CGIAR archival system and the PKP Preservation network for long term archiving. 

Editorial policies

Conflicts of interest 

The authors need to state any possible conflict of interest, both financial or personal, in a dedicated section in their article. Editors and reviewers are also required to inform of any possible conflicts of interest.

Upon receiving a submission, the editors will evaluate whether any conflict of interest exists. In the case of a conflict of interest involving the editor, the submission is passed to another editor. The editors also avoid possible conflicts of interest upon selecting the external reviewers.

Publication Ethics 

During submission the authors are made aware and need to confirm that their submitted manuscript does not involve any form of research misconduct, including in particular: plagiarism(including self-plagiarism), manipulation of authorship, data falsification, interference with the review process, etc.

In dealing with allegations of research misconduct, Genetic Resources follows the guidelines of COPE. The editors may use anti-plagiarism software to check a manuscript or contact the authors for explanations. Any submissions associated with research misconduct will be rejected. Genetic Resources publishes corrections, errata and retractions when appropriate, as quickly as possible, and following the guidelines of COPE. 

Review and decision policy

Genetic Resources is a peer-reviewed journal. Each new submission is initially reviewed for completeness, language, style and fit with the journal scope by a member of the editorial board (Handling Editor) who may reject it or recommend to send it for external review. If rejecting a submission, Handling Editors will provide submitters with detailed reasons for their decision as well as options for improvements or alternative publishing options, if appropriate. Submissions from members of the editorial board will be handled by a different editor and undergo the same rigorous review process as other submissions. 

The journal uses a blind-review scheme, which means that the identity of the reviewers is not revealed to the authors. However, reviewers may choose to make their review publicly available, with or without being identified themselves, in order to enhance transparency of the review process. At least two reports by external reviewers are required for full length research articles, and one for reviews. Short communications will be evaluated by the editorial board and submitted to external review if necessary. For more information see our Guidelines for Reviewers. The Handling Editor takes the final decision based on the recommendation of external reviewers and other editors if appropriate. 

Genetic Resources makes an effort to process all submissions until a final decision within 12 weeks. The Authors are informed of the decision of the Handling Editor and receive the comments of the external reviewers.

If the manuscript is accepted, the Authors will typically be invited to make minor changes to correct editorial or formatting errors and have the possibility to review the final proof before publication.

If the authors are invited to resubmit a revised version of their manuscript, they should do so within four weeks of notification, responding to the referees’ comments and requests and summarizing the changes made. The editor may decide on acceptance of this revised manuscript with or without contacting the original reviewers, depending on the nature of the revisions made.

If a manuscript is rejected and the Authors wish to resubmit it to Genetic Resources, they should do so within six months of notification, in order to be considered a revision of the original manuscript. Authors should provide detailed responses to the referees’ comments and requests and provide a summary of the additional data presented and changes made to the manuscript. Resubmissions will be send out for another round of revisions, preferably to the same referees as the original manuscript.

If authors wish to appeal a rejection of their manuscript, they may do so by providing their reasoning and responses to referees’ comments. Appeals will be reviewed by a different Handling Editor alongside the original submission and referees’ comments and a final decision on acceptance or rejection will be made.