1. What is Open Access?
Open Access (OA) is a model for publishing digital scholarly peer-reviewed journals, available for free distribution via the web. The full text of OA journals and articles can be freely read, as the publishing is funded through means other than subscriptions.
Open Access (OA) publications reduce permission requirements and eliminate price barriers for readers. OA allows access for researchers, teachers, journalists, policymakers, and the general public without subscription. Studies confirm that OA literature receives more citations than subscription publications.
A&R is a Gold Open Access. In this model, articles and related contents related are licensed under Creative Commons Licenses (CC) and can be accessed at no cost on the journal’s website, downloaded, stored in personal or institutional repositories, and be freely distributed and shared. In short, articles are permanently and freely available online for anyone, anywhere, to read, greatly supporting ongoing research.
2. What types of articles are published by A&R?
A&R accepts submissions of the following types of manuscripts:
(1) Perspective articles.
(2) Review Articles.
(3) Original Research Articles.
(4) Commentary Articles.
3. Why is an additional cover letter required for the manuscript?
A&R mandates that every manuscript submission be accompanied by a cover letter. In this letter, authors should concisely articulate the value of their contribution, highlight the novelty and significance of their work, and explain why it will engage the scholarly community. The editorial team underscores authors’ reflective engagement with their work as the foundational quality checkpoint in the publication process.
A cover letter is far more than a routine formality or a perfunctory box to check; it is, in essence, a vital instrument through which authors foster trust with A&R editors and articulate the unique value of their research. More than a mere "declaration" of academic integrity, it acts as a strategic catalyst—sharpening a manuscript’s competitive edge by clarifying its relevance, rigor, and alignment with the A&R’s scope.
An exemplary cover letter can substantively elevate a manuscript’s chances of acceptance, while a hasty, poorly crafted, or absent one risk immediate desk rejection during the initial screening phase. For authors, investing care in crafting this document transcends procedural duty: it is a deliberate gesture of respect for the intellectual labor behind their work and a tangible commitment to upholding the integrity and purpose of the academic enterprise.
4. What are contributor Roles – CRediT?
CRediT is a community-owned 14 role taxonomy that can be used to describe the key types of contributions typically made to the production and publication of research output such as research articles.
(1) Conceptualization – Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
(2) Data curation – Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use.
(3) Formal analysis – Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
(4) Funding acquisition - Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
(5) Investigation – Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
(6) Methodology – Development or design of methodology; creation of models.
(7) Project administration – Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
(8) Resources – Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
(9) Software – Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
(10) Supervision – Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
(11) Validation – Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
(12) Visualization – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
(13) Writing – original draft – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
(14) Writing – review & editing – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.
5. What is a Digital Object Identifier?
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) serves as an international, public, and enduring identifier for intellectual property entities, represented by a distinctive alphanumeric string. For SCC PRESS journals, the DOI is assigned to an item of editorial content, providing a unique and persistent identifier for that item. The DOI system is administered by the International DOI Foundation, a not-for-profit organization. CrossRef, another not-for-profit organization, uses the DOI as a reference linking standard, enables cross-publisher linking, and maintains the lookup system for DOIs. This structured framework underscores the importance of the DOI in modern scholarly communication, enabling precision, permanence, and interoperability across diverse publishing platforms.
As a member of CrossRef, SCC PRESS aligns itself with these global standards, ensuring its publications are integrated into a broader network of academic resources and remain easily discoverable by researchers worldwide.
6. What do the numbers in the DOI signify?
The DOI has two components, a prefix (before the slash) and a suffix (after the slash). The prefix is a DOI resolver server identifer (10) and a unique identifier assigned to the publisher—for example, the identifier for SCC PRESS is 59978 and the entire DOI prefix for an article published by SCC PRESS is 10.59978. The suffix is an arbitrary number provided by the publisher. It can be composed of numbers and/or letters and does not necessarily have any systematic significance. Each DOI is registered in a central resolution database that associates it with one or more corresponding web locations (URLs). For example, the DOI 10.59978/ar01010001 connects to https://doi.org/10.59978/ar01010001.
7. What is the Funder Registry?
Authors must clearly disclose all financial support for their research and/or article preparation. Use a funder’s FundRef ID (e.g., 10.13039/100000002 for the U.S. National Institutes of Health) or its official full name (verified via Crossref’s Open Funder Registry) to ensure accuracy. If the funder is listed in the Crossref Open Funder Registry, the funder name should be included exactly as it appears within that database.
The Crossref Funder Registry is an open metadata registry of grant-giving organizations that connects research funding to published outcomes. The Funder Registry assigns each organization a unique and persistent identifier to facilitate the collection and creation of accurate metadata to associate funding organizations to research publications and outputs. This clear, transparent, and measurable information enables multiple parties to better understand the research funding landscape:
(1) Researchers can acknowledge the funders that supported their research
(2) Readers and researchers can read and assess literature in the context of knowing who funded it
(3) Research institutions can monitor the published outputs of their researchers
(4) Publishers can track and facilitate compliance of research they publish with funding mandates
(5) Funders can track the reach and return of the work they have supported.
8. What distinguishes A&R?
(1) Interdisciplinary Scope: A&R centers on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary inquiry, integrating insights from economics, sociology, human geography, and cognate disciplines to address pressing contemporary issues in agriculture, rural development, and farmer-related policies—bridging theoretical frameworks to advance holistic understandings of these dynamic systems.
(2) Global Editorial Excellence: The journal is guided by a distinguished, highly specialized, and globally diverse editorial board, ensuring rigorous peer review, cultural sensitivity, and alignment with international scholarly standards.
(3) Culture-Driven Operations: Rooted in our mission, vision, and values, cultural stewardship lies at the core of A&R’s identity. Our unwavering commitment to ethical principles, community engagement, and purposeful impact permeates every facet of the journal’s operations.
(4) Sustainable Non-Profit Model: No Article Publishing Charges (APC) for the first four years. Beyond this, it will maintain a reasonable level of APC for authors worldwide in the future.
(5) Fully Independent OA Platform: As an independent OA publication (https://sccpress.com/ars), A&R prioritizes equitable global access to scholarship while actively promoting your work to a worldwide audience, maximizing its reach and impact.
(6) Tailored Publication Support: Committed to fostering a seamless research journey, A&R offers comprehensive, efficient, and professional editorial services. Recognizing the unique demands of each study, our dedicated team provides structured guidance—from refining article frameworks to managing references—simplifying the publication process and empowering authors to focus on their core scholarship.