Focus and Scope

Biosaintifika Journal of Biology & Biology Education, an electronic journal, provides a forum for publishing the original research articles related to biological research and biological education.

This journal encompasses original research articles, including:

• Biotechnology. Biotechnology is the use of biology to develop new products, methods and organisms intended to improve human health and society.
• Microbiology. Microbiology is the study of the biology of microscopic organisms - viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, slime molds, and protozoa.
• Biochemistry. Biochemistry explores chemical processes related to living organisms. It is a laboratory-based science combining biology and chemistry.
• Botany. Botany, also called plant science(s), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology.
• Environment. Environmental  conservation, Ecology, Ecosystem, biodiversity and natural capital
• Biodiversity. biodiversity aspects of plants, animals, and microbes at the level of the gene, species, and ecosystem as well as ethnobiology.
• Zoology. Zoology, branch of biology that studies the members of the animal kingdom and animal life in general.
• Biology Education. The journal provides a forum where the latest advances in research into the teaching, learning and assessment of biology can contribute to policy and practice in biological education

Section Policies

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to this journal must follow Focus and Scope and Author Guidelines of this journal. The submitted manuscripts must fulfill scientific merit or novelty appropriate to the focus and scope of this journal. All manuscripts submitted to this journal must be written in good English. Authors for whom English is not their native language are encouraged to have their paper checked before submission for grammar and clarity. English language and copyediting services can be provided by International Science Editing and Asia Science Editing. The work must not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. 

All submitted manuscripts must be free from plagiarism content. All authors are suggested to use plagiarism detection software to do the similarity checking (please use Turnitin or iThenticate to check the similarity). Editors will also check the similarity of manuscripts in this journal by using a Turnitin or iThenticate software. The submitted manuscripts to this journal will be peer-reviewed at least 2 (two) or more expert reviewers. The reviewers give scientific valuable comments improving the contents of the manuscript. Sometimes (if required) a third peer-reviewer is needed to give critical comments to the submitted manuscript. The review process used in this journal is a double blind review system.

The final decision of manuscript acceptance is solely made by Editor in Chief/Regional (Handling) Editor (together with Editorial Board if required) according to reviewers' critical comments. The final decision of the manuscript is solely based on the Editor's final review which considering peer-reviewers comments (but not solely by Reviewer). Publication of accepted articles including assigning the article to the published issues will be made by Editor in Chief by considering the sequence of accepted date and geographical distribution of authors as well as a thematic issue.

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.

This journal is open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to users or / institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to full text articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or author. This is in accordance with Budapest Open Access Initiative

Archiving

Digital Archive

BIOSAINTIFIKA journal is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and to ensure accessibility by converting and upgrading digital file formats to comply with the newest technology standards. We work in partnership with organizations as well as maintaining our own digital archive.

Local Archive

BIOSAINTIFIKA journal maintains a local state-of-the-art facility to store a complete, accurate digital version of paper published. The current format standards are XML and .pdf; with most files being retained in both formats. Website archiving All of BIOSAINTIFIKA electronic content (website, manuscripts, etc.) is stored on three different sources. Content on one server is online and accessible to the readers. The copy of the same content is kept as a backup on two other sources. In case of failure of one server, any one of the other sources can be made online and website expected to be accessible within 24-36 hours.

Self-archiving

BIOSAINTIFIKA journals support self-archiving. BIOSAINTIFIKA journal permit and encourages authors to make their research visible and accessible to the peers by uploading the final published version of their articles in personal or institutional repositories immediately after publication, while providing bibliographic details that credit, if applicable, its publication in the journal.

Indexing

BIOSAINTIFIKA journal’s Abstracting/Indexing services store many essential information about the articles. Additionally, two of our journal’s Abstracting/Indexing services archive not only the metadata about the article, but the electronic versions of the articles, as well. Therefore, copies of the articles are available to the scientific community through their systems as an alternative to the journals own.

All published articles are assigned to Digital Object Identifier (DOI)- CrossRef. BIOSAINTIFIKA journal deposits publications in multiple digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. All published articles are indexed in DOAJ, Google Scholar, and Index Copernicus. All articles are permanently archived and available in HTML and PDF formats. BIOSAINTIFIKA journal makes article metadata available in compliance with Open Archives Initiative protocols, enabling automated 'harvesting' of our research articles for inclusion in any other digital archives. We support non-exclusive digital archiving of research articles by as many international archives as possible, to ensure the security and permanent accessibility of that research.

If journal stops publishing

BIOSAINTIFIKA intend and expect to continue to publish our journal for a very long time. If, due to some rare, unfortunate circumstances, we are forced to stop publishing the journal, the manuscripts published in the journal will be kept online and accessible to the readers for at least 10 more years.

Policy of Screening for Plagiarism

All manuscripts must be free from plagiarism contents. All authors are suggested to use plagiarism detection software to do the similarity checking. Editors check the plagiarism detection of articles in this journal by using a Turnitin software.

Policy of Retraction, Withdrawal, & Correction (R-W-C)

Article Retraction

Articles may be retracted if:

• There is major scientific error that would invalidate the conclusions of the article, for example where there is clear evidence that findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission, or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication).
• There are ethical issues such as plagiarism (appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit including those obtained through confidential review of others' manuscripts) or inappropriate authorship.

In order to ensure that retractions are handled according to publication best practice, and in accordance with COPE retraction guidelines, Biosaintifika adopts the following retraction process:

• An article requiring potential retraction is brought to the attention of the journal editor.
• The journal editor should follow the step-by-step guidelines according to the COPE flowcharts (including evaluating a response from the author of the article in question).
• Before any action is taken, the editor's findings should be sent to the Ethics Advisory Board. The purpose of this step is to ensure a consistent approach in accordance with industry best practices.
• The final decision as to whether to retract is then communicated to the author and, if necessary, any other relevant bodies, such as the author's institution on occasion.
• The retraction statement is then posted online and published in the next available issue of the journal (see below for more details of this step). 

Note that if authors retain copyright for an article this does not mean they automatically have the right to retract it after publication. The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance and COPE’s Retraction Guidelines still apply in such cases.

 Article Withdrawal

The author is not allowed to withdraw submitted manuscripts, because the withdrawal is a waste of valuable resources that editors and referees spent a great deal of time processing submitted manuscript, and works invested by the publisher. For attention, before the author submits the manuscript through our OJS, the author is obliged to approve the checklist that we provide.

• If the author requests the withdrawal of his/her manuscript when the manuscript is still in the peer-reviewing process, the author will be punished by paying $100 USD per manuscript.
• If the withdrawal of the manuscript after the manuscript is accepted for publication; the author will be punished by paying $150 USD per manuscript.
• If an article has been published as "Article in Press" (articles that have been accepted for publication but which has not been formally published and will not have the complete volume/issue/page information) that include errors, or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article (s), or are determined to violate our journal publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), maybe "Withdrawn "From the Biosaintifika website. Withdrawing means that the article content (HTML and PDF) is deleted and replaced with an HTML page and PDF simply states that the article has been withdrawn. In this case, the author will be punished by paying $200 USD per manuscript.
• If the author doesn't agree to pay the penalty, the author and his/her affiliation will be blacklisted for publication in this journal (3 years).
• If the author request to withdraw a manuscript, an official letter signed by the corresponding author and agency leader must be sent to the Principal Editor.

 Article Correction

Article correction if:

• A small part of an otherwise reliable publication reports flawed data or proves to be misleading, especially if this is the result of honest error.
• The Author or Contributor list is incorrect (e.g. a deserving Author has been omitted or someone who does not meet authorship criteria has been included).

Corrections to peer-reviewed content fall into one of three categories:

• Publisher correction (erratum): to notify readers of an important error made by publishing/journal staff (usually a production error) that has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
• Author correction (corrigendum): to notify readers of an important error made by the Authors which has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
• Addendum: an addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main work.

The decision whether a correction should be issued is made by the Editor(s) of a journal, sometimes with advice from Reviewers or Editorial Board members. Handling Editors will contact the Authors of the paper concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and if so which type rests with the Editors.

Policy of Revenue Sources, Advertising, and Direct Marketing

Revenue Sources

Some of the operations of Biosaintifika are funded by the through Daftar Isian Pelaksanaan Anggaran (DIPA) of Universitas Negeri Semarang.

Advertising

Biosaintifika does not accept advertising from any parties.

Direct Marketing

In promoting the journal and publications to the public, Biosaintifika attempts to avoid actions detrimental to other parties (e.g., spreading spam) and to avoid misleading information between prospective authors and the publishers.