Copyright Publishing Notice

This notice defines the formal copyright, licensing, and reuse terms for all scholarly content published in Gomal Journal of Agriculture and Biology (GJAB) , ensuring legal transparency and full compliance with international open-access best practices while respecting the rigorous scientific standards of the journal.

1. Copyright Ownership
Authors retain the copyright of their original research and scholarly contributions. By submitting to and publishing with GJAB, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive, irrevocable license to publish, reproduce, distribute, and archive the definitive version of the work in all formats and media under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2. Open Access Licensing
To maximize the dissemination and application of agricultural and biological research, each article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This license grants any user the worldwide, royalty-free right to:

Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt – remix, transform, translate, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial and educational uses.

These permissions are granted subject to one condition: proper attribution. Users must:

Credit the author(s) and cite Gomal Journal of Agriculture and Biology (GJAB) as the original source of publication.
Provide a hyperlink to the CC BY 4.0 license.
Clearly indicate if the original work has been modified.

3. Rights and Responsibilities

Author Rights and Self-Archiving: Authors are expressly permitted and encouraged to deposit the final published PDF (version of record) in institutional repositories, subject repositories, preprint servers, personal websites, and academic social networks including ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/) and Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/). Authors may reuse their own figures, tables, datasets, and text in future publications, grant applications, presentations, theses, or teaching materials without obtaining further permission, provided the original GJAB publication is appropriately cited.
Third-Party Content: Authors are solely responsible for obtaining written permission from the copyright holder for any third-party material included in their manuscript. This includes, but is not limited to: images, illustrations, photographs, micrographs, graphs, charts, extended quotations, proprietary datasets, and any other copyrighted material not created by the author. Proof of permission must be provided to the editorial office upon request. Proper attribution must accompany all reused content.
Originality and Plagiarism Prevention: GJAB accepts for publication only original materials that have not been published before and have not been submitted elsewhere. Authors must ensure their submission is original and all sources must be properly cited; plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. The editorial board, comprising eminent scholars and experts in various disciplines related to agriculture and biology, ensures a rigorous peer-review process, maintaining the quality and integrity of published articles . Authors submitting their work can expect fair and constructive feedback from reviewers, contributing to the enhancement of their research .
Publisher Archiving and Preservation: Gomal Journal of Agriculture and Biology (GJAB) ensures the long-term preservation and perpetual accessibility of all published content through participation in trusted digital preservation networks. These include:
- CLOCKSS: https://clockss.org/
- LOCKSS: https://www.lockss.org/
- PKP Preservation Network (PN): https://pkp.sfu.ca/pkp-pn/

These systems create distributed archives among participating libraries worldwide, guaranteeing that all content remains permanently available to the agricultural and biological research community even in the event the journal ceases publication.

4. Ethical Standards and Scholarly Integrity

Authors must confirm that their submission is original, has not been published elsewhere, and is not under simultaneous consideration by another publication. Manuscripts must be free from plagiarism, data fabrication, or any other unethical practices. Gomal Journal of Agriculture and Biology (GJAB) adheres to the principles, policies, and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) : https://publicationethics.org. The journal also encourages adherence to discipline-specific guidelines and standards, including:

FAIR Data Principles: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/
TOP Guidelines (Transparency and Openness Promotion): https://www.cos.io/initiatives/top-guidelines
Singapore Statement on Research Integrity: https://wcrif.org/guidance/singapore-statement
ARRIVE Guidelines for animal research where applicable: https://arriveguidelines.org/

Any allegations of plagiarism, copyright infringement, data fabrication, ethical approval violations, or other misconduct will be investigated promptly and thoroughly in accordance with COPE guidelines.

5. Research Ethics and Compliance

Animal Research: For research involving animals, authors must confirm that the study complied with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals, as well as relevant international standards such as the ARRIVE guidelines. The journal covers topics including animal sciences, animal production, and related fields .
Plant Research: For research involving plants, including work with genetically modified plants or plant genetic resources, authors must confirm compliance with relevant institutional, national, and international biosafety guidelines and regulations. The journal covers topics including plant sciences, genetics, biotechnology, and related fields .
Environmental and Field Research: For research involving field studies, collection of specimens, or work in protected areas, authors must confirm that all necessary permits and permissions were obtained from relevant authorities and that the research complied with local, national, and international regulations, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol where applicable. The journal covers topics including ecology and environmental sciences .
Data Availability and Transparency: Authors are strongly encouraged to make their underlying data, code, and materials openly available in recognized repositories or through supplementary files to support verification and replication, in accordance with the FAIR Data Principles and best practices in agricultural and biological research. A data availability statement should be included in all manuscripts where applicable.
Conflict of Interest: Authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest, including financial, professional, or personal relationships that could influence the research or its interpretation. This includes funding sources, consulting relationships, or affiliations with organizations mentioned in the research.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage: Authors must disclose any use of artificial intelligence or large language models in the preparation of their manuscript, including in writing, data analysis, or figure generation, in accordance with the journal's AI policy and COPE guidance. AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

6. Commercial Use

The CC BY 4.0 license permits commercial use of published content without requiring additional permission from the publisher or authors, as long as proper attribution is provided. This includes use by corporations, agricultural businesses, and other commercial entities. Users engaging in commercial use must still comply with the attribution requirements of the license.

7. Policy Updates

GJAB reserves the right to update this copyright and licensing policy as standards of publishing, copyright legislation, and open access practices evolve. All amendments will be clearly published on the journal's webpage.

Further Information