The instructions for authors include information about the types of articles received for publication, preparing a manuscript for submission to the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research and the online submission process. Other relevant information about the journal's policies and the reviewing process can be found under the about section.

Please select the applicable link below:

• Frequently asked questions from authors
• Types of articles published by the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research
• Publication procedure
• Publication, copyright and usage licence
• Authorship and competing interest

Proceed to submit:

•  New submission
•  Revised submission (after formal peer review)
•  Thesis abstract (create awareness for your research)

Types of articles published by the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research ↑ 

Most articles published by the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research follow a specific format, as listed below:

• Original research articles: These articles are innovative research in a particular field within or related to the focus and scope of the journal presented according to a clear and well-structured format (Maximum 7000 words; 60 references.) 
• Review articles: These articles may be submitted or solicited by the editor. Reviews provide a synthesis or integration of an extensive field of literature, informing a broad readership about fields in which there have been recent advances of fundamental importance. The reviews highlight unresolved questions and future directions. Standard headings are not always appropriate, but the review should have clear subheadings to provide order to the manuscript. (Maximum 7000 words; 80 references, with specific focus on the most pertinent references.)
• Book reviews: The book reviews are normally requested by the editor or book review editor on any books relevant to the focus and scope. Please contact the editor if you would like to suggest a review or book for consideration.

References: Begin the reference list on a separate page. The Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research uses the Harvard referencing style, details of which can be downloaded from the journal website. Note: no other style will be permitted. 

Submit:    New submission |    Revised submission |    Thesis abstract

 For full details on how to ensure your manuscript adheres to the house style, click here.

The submission process can be interrupted at any time; when users return to their journal’s personalised section, they can continue from where they left off.

Publication procedure ↑ 

On the acceptance of a manuscript for publication by the Editor-in-Chief, the editorial staff will work towards preparing the manuscript for online publication. The aim is towards a three-month turnaround time from acceptance to online publication. This is however dependent on the corresponding author’s responses during the final stages of editing.

The first stage is the language editing that is returned to the corresponding author for review. This will be the final opportunity for the author to make text changes to the manuscript. At a later stage, the editorial staff will send the author one set of galley proofs, at which time the author will have two working days to mark any typographical errors. It may not be possible to incorporate author corrections in the printed version of the manuscript in the event of the author failing to respond to the proofreading requests. Authors should visit their personalised home page frequently to assess the location or stage of the manuscript.

Publication, copyright and usage licence ↑ 

Authors submitting a manuscript to the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research grant the title owner and AOSIS OpenJournals an irrevocable licence and first right and perpetual subsequent right to:

1. publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the article in any form or medium
2. translate the article into other languages, create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the article or other derivative works based on the article and exercise all of the rights set forth in (1) above in such translations, adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works
3. license others to do any or all of the above
4. register the Digital Object Identifier for the published article. 

The following legal documents need to be submitted with the manuscript online in Step 4 of the submission process:

• Author Declaration and Publishing Licence
• Author account form
• Third-party material release form (if applicable).

Ownership of copyright of the manuscript contents remains with the authors. The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to Koedoe with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institutions’ websites or institutional repositories.

Articles are published online under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) usage licence.

In the event where a manuscript is not accepted for publication by the Editor-in-Chief, the sections of the publication agreement in respect of the publishing licensing shall be null and void and the authors will be free to submit the manuscript to any other publication for first publication.

Authorship and competing interest ↑ 

All co-authors (collaborators) share a degree of responsibility for articles they collaborate on. Hence, if an individual is unwilling to accept appropriate responsibility for a manuscript’s contents, the individual should not be a co-author.

A ‘co-author’ is defined as any person who has made a significant scientific contribution to the work reported and who shares responsibility and accountability for the results. We advise that authorship credit should follow and be based on:

1. substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data
2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3. final approval of the version to be published.

Include a statement in the manuscript specifying the actual contribution made by each co-author with their affiliation at the time of the study and completion of the work. Contributions made by each of the authors listed, can follow the example below (please note the use of author initials): 

J.K. (University of Pretoria) was the project leader, L.M.N. (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and A.B. (Stellenbosch University) were responsible for experimental and project design. L.M.N. performed most of the experiments. P.R. (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) made conceptual contributions and S.T. (University of Cape Town), U.V. (University of Cape Town) and C.D. (University of Cape Town) performed some of the experiments. S.M. (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) and V.C. (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) prepared the samples and calculations were performed by C.S.(Cape Peninsula University of Technology).

AOSIS OpenJournals will seek reasons for any requests for changes in authorship; ensure changes are legitimate, justified and authorised by all authors.

Competing interest exist when an author’s interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by a personal or financial relationship with other people or organisations that can potentially prevent the authors from executing and publishing unbiased research. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests as well as any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read ‘The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.’