About the Journal

Scopus CiteScore 2022: 2.1 / Journal Impact Factor™ (Five Year): 1.1 / SciMago Journal Rank: 0.26

Focus and Scope

The Journal publishes, in English or Spanish, Research Papers and Short Communications on research and development, as well as Genetic Resources Communications, contributions from practitioners (Farmer Contributions) and Review Articles, related to pastures and tropical forages in the tropics and subtropics. The journal is open to publish articles covering the agronomy, management and other relevant topics on temperate forage species only if the research reported was carried out in tropical or subtropical environments. (see Author Guidelines). The information published should be of interest to a wide readership, encomprising researchers, academics, students, technicians, development workers and farmers.

In general, the focus of the Journal is more on sown ('improved') pastures and forages than on rangeland-specific aspects of natural grasslands.

The Journal will also consider the occasional publication of associated, but closely related, research in the form of an additional scientific communication platform [e.g. a re-make of the former Genetic Resources Communication series of the former Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia].

Areas of particular interest to the Journal are:

Forage Genetic Resources and Livestock Production: Genetic resources of tropical forage plants; Improvement of rangelands, pastures and cut-and-carry feeding via sown forage plants; Role of forage plants in crop-livestock systems (including agroforestry); Multipurpose potential of forage plants, including forage shrubs and trees; Pasture and forage plants for marginal environments; Livestock production potential of improved forage technologies; Forages for ruminants and monogastrics.

Environmental Functions of Forages: Rehabilitation of degraded pastures and reversing land degradation; Natural resource management role of pastures and forages; Potential of tropical forages for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change effects; Pasture sustainability; Pastures and biodiversity.

Socio-economic Aspects: Forages, smallholders, and participatory research; Socioeconomic impact of improved forage technologies; Cross-site research and transregional analysis.

Topics within the aforementioned areas may include: Diversity evaluation; Agronomy; Establishment (including fertilization); Management and utilization; Animal production; Nutritive value; Biotic stresses (pests and diseases, weeds); Abiotic stresses (soil fertility, water, temperature); Genetics and breeding; Biogeography and germplasm collections; Seed production; Ecology; Physiology; Rhizobiology (including BNF, BNI, mycorrhizae); Forage conservation; Economics; Multilocational experimentation; Modelling.

The Journal publishes 6 types of articles:

Research Papers: These should aim at developing concepts as well as presenting results. They must be as concise as possible and include only information essential to the understanding of the paper and be no longer than 8,000 words. The subject should be of interest to a reasonably wide readership. Many tropical forages are perennial species, hence manuscripts should report on longer duration multi-year or multi-site experiments with sound experimental design and strong evidence to support conclusions. Manuscripts based on pot experiments and laboratory analysis must include sufficient replication and repeated cycles of data collection to be considered for publication.  It is expected that typescripts submitted to the Journal have undergone an internal peer review at the author´s institution and will undergo peer review by the Journal.

Short Communications: These are suitable for recording the results of complete small-scale investigations or giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods or techniques, and the like. Their structure and style of main sections need not conform to those of Research Papers. Short Communications should not exceed 4,000 words. They will also be subjected to the Journal´s peer-review system.

Genetic Resources Communications (GRC): These are to document the characterization and evaluation of large/comprehensive collections of germplasm of tropical and subtropical forage species and are accompanied by relevant data sets that are considered, in general, too extensive for publication in other paper categories such as Research Paper. GRC papers contribute to safeguarding information which otherwise would not be easily accessible by the research community or even might become lost. Such papers are treated in the same way as Research Papers, so should be structured accordingly, and are peer-reviewed. They are not meant to consist merely of data sets with limited description but should contain all relevant methodological details as in a Research Paper and culminate in clear conclusions and suggestions. Submissions for this paper category are welcome, even when they present data collected years ago.

Farmer Contributions: These are most welcome and can be reports of relevant experiences and results obtained by practitioners (both individuals and communities), queries and suggestions for researchers and development workers and the like. They need not follow a particular style but should be of interest to a reasonably broad readership, and should not exceed 4,000 words.

Review Articles: Review articles on topics of wide current interest will also be considered, but must be discussed previously with the Editor for suitability before preparation and submission.  Review articles will be subject to the Journal´s peer-review system and should not exceed 10,000 words.

Regional Communications: These are suitable to document results that are of more limited regional focus. The subject or methodologies should be of interest to a reasonably wide readership. They must be as concise as possible and include only information essential to the understanding of the paper. These contributions should not exceed 8,000 words. It is expected that typescripts have undergone an internal peer review at the author´s institution. They will also be subjected to the Journal´s peer-review system. The instructions detailed below also refer to this type of article.

News: Short news items on upcoming international or regional forage conferences, interesting new forage species, taxonomic changes, new books and obituaries are also welcome with hyper-links to more complete information online.

Peer Review Process

All submitted articles will be peer-reviewed by at least two ad hoc experts (members of the Editorial Board or external specialists) who will remain anonymous to the authors ('Single blind peer review'). The corresponding author will be informed of the Editor ́s decision based on the outcome of the review and the Editor ́s own evaluation. Editors will make every effort to expedite the review process.

Click here to see the evaluation format.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Thanks to the effort of the Publishing institutions (CIAT and CATAS), The authors do not have to pay any article processing charges (APC).

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Tropical Grasslands-Forrajes Tropicales (TGFT) is committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process. We adhere to the standards set and guidelines provided for best practices, by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Our key expectations with regard to authors, peer-reviewers and editors are summarized below.

Authors:

  • All work in the submitted manuscript is original, appropriate references are provided and financial sources acknowledged
  • Cooperation with the editor will be provided when it is deemed necessary to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper
  • All data in the manuscript are authentic
  • All authors have contributed significantly to the research
  • The manuscript is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere

Reviewers:

  • Manuscripts are reviewed objectively and timely
  • Reviewed manuscripts are treated confidentially
  • There is no potential conflict of interest with respect to the research and/or the authors
  • The editor is alerted to relevant published work which is not cited

Editors:

  • Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept a manuscript, based on its academic merit
  • There is no potential conflict of interest with respect to the articles they reject/accept
  • The editorial process is conducted in a balanced, objective and fair way without any type of discrimination
  • Anonymity of reviewers is preserved, unless they waive anonymity
  • Reasonable procedures are adopted and followed in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature
  • Publication of correction or retraction is promoted when errors are found

Publishing ethics issues and procedures in case of unethical behavior:

The publisher of TGFT, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), is:

  • Committed to ensuring that high ethical standards, as mentioned above, are followed in connection with editorial decisions on manuscript submissions
  • Committed to maintaining the integrity of academic records
  • Always willing to investigate plagiarism and fraudulent data issues involving articles published in TGFT
  • Always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed
  • Willing to provide guidelines, according to the standards set by COPE, regarding procedures in case of unethical behavior, including eventual retraction of an article