Publication Policies of Scientia Agricultura Sinica
1. Open Access Policy
Scientia Agricultura Sinica was established in 1960 and became an open access journal in 2002. The full texts of all articles published since the Journal's establishment are permanently available for free access and download on its official website (https://www.chinaagrisci.com/CN/0578-1752/home.shtml). The Journal adopts the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For articles published under this license, third parties are permitted to reproduce, distribute, and share the formally published articles for non-commercial purposes, provided that the terms and conditions of the license are observed.
The following conditions must be met: Users must provide appropriate attribution, include a link to the license, and indicate whether any changes have been made to the original work. Articles must not be used for commercial purposes. Users are not permitted to remix, compile, transform, or create derivative works based on the articles. Authors retain the right to share and use their articles in accordance with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Further information about the Creative Commons license is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
2. Copyright and Licensing
All authors are required to sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement, which must also bear the official seal of the corresponding author's institution, to transfer the copyright and other relevant rights of the manuscript (for details, see “Copyright Agreement” in the Author Center) to the Editorial Office of Scientia Agricultura Sinica.
Upon publication, the copyright of the article shall be owned by the Editorial Office of Scientia Agricultura Sinica. Authors may nevertheless reproduce, distribute, and use their articles in accordance with the Journal's licensing terms (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Authors may also permit third parties to share their articles under the Creative Commons license, including by depositing them in institutional repositories, and may use their articles for other purposes related to academic discussion and scholarly communication.
If an article is not ultimately published by the Journal, the Copyright Transfer Agreement signed by the authors shall automatically become null and void.
3. Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content (AIGC)
3.1. Permissible Scope of AIGC Use
The Journal permits authors to make appropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for auxiliary purposes, strictly limited to non-creative tasks that do not constitute core academic contributions, such as literature retrieval, grammatical proofreading, formatting, and basic data organization. Core academic content, including the principal research ideas, experimental design, data analysis, and formulation of scientific interpretations, must be independently developed and written by the authors. The use of AIGC tools to generate the main body of a manuscript, core arguments, research conclusions, or original scientific ideas is strictly prohibited. The direct use of AIGC tools to generate an entire manuscript or substantial passages of text is also strictly prohibited.
3.2. Requirements for Responsible AIGC Use
Authors who use AI tools during the research process or manuscript preparation must proactively and truthfully disclose such use, including the names of the tools, their versions (where applicable), the stages at which they were used, and their specific purposes. Where AI tools are used in research procedures involving data processing, statistical analysis, programming or algorithmic procedures, or the generation of figures and tables, the authors must describe the relevant procedures and explain how the AI-assisted outputs were verified by the authors in the Materials and Methods section or other appropriate sections of the manuscript.
3.3. Handling of Improper AIGC Use
If suspected improper use of AIGC is identified during initial manuscript screening, peer review, subsequent editorial review, or publication proofreading, the Editorial Office reserves the right to request an explanation from the authors and, where necessary, require them to provide original data, research records, and other relevant supporting documentation. The results of AI-generated content detection tools shall be used only as supplementary evidence in the investigation and shall not serve as the sole basis for determining academic misconduct.
Where an investigation confirms AI-assisted ghostwriting, fabrication of research data, falsification of references, concealment of substantial AI use, or other violations of the Journal's policies, the Editorial Office may take appropriate measures according to the nature and severity of the violation, including manuscript rejection, suspension of the publication process, or rescission of acceptance. Authors who repeatedly violate these requirements or engage in serious academic misconduct shall be subject to disciplinary measures in accordance with the Journal's publication ethics policies and relevant management regulations. Where necessary, the Editorial Office may notify the authors' affiliated institutions in accordance with applicable regulations.
4. Advertising Policy
1. All advertisements must be approved by the Editorial Office of Scientia Agricultura Sinica. The Editorial Office is responsible for reviewing advertisements prior to publication and reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time.
2. All advertisements must be truthful and lawful and must strictly comply with the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China and other applicable regulations. Advertisements must be clearly identified with the label "Advertisement" and shall be placed exclusively on the inside front cover of the Journal.
3. The Journal maintains a strict separation between advertising activities and scholarly publishing. Peer-review processes and editorial decisions regarding the acceptance of manuscripts shall not be influenced by advertisements or any commercial considerations.
