About the Journal

Aims and Scope

SEMIÁRIDA (ISSN 2408-4077) is a peer-reviewed, biannual scientific journal that publishes original contributions advancing scientific and technological knowledge in agricultural, natural, and environmental sciences, as well as Agribusiness. The journal also welcomes manuscripts addressing the teaching of these disciplines, including innovative educational, didactic, and pedagogical experiences.

The journal is intended for researchers, academics, educators, students, and professionals, as well as readers interested in these fields.

SEMIÁRIDA publishes scientific research articles, review articles, technical papers, short communications, and research notes. Manuscripts may be submitted throughout the year, as submissions are accepted on a continuous basis.

Submitted manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication in any other journal.

Editorial Process – Flowchart

IMAGEN

Evaluation process

The evaluation of manuscripts consists of two stages:

1. Internal evaluation by the Editorial Committee to determine relevance, general compliance with publication standards, and plagiarism detection.

2. External evaluation conducted under a double-blind system by two reviewers external to UNLPam.

In case of discrepancy, the manuscript will be sent to a third reviewer. The final decision on acceptance or rejection lies on the editorial committee and will be communicated to the authors. Evaluation forms (link)

The estimated time between article reception and publication is 3-4 months.
[1] All articles submitted to SEMIÁRIDA will be screened using iThenticate plagiarism detection software.

Evaluation Criteria. Evaluation Forms:

The Statement of Originality and Responsibility and the Authorship Form must be submitted simultaneously with the manuscript.

[Link to the Note]

Open Access Policy

SEMIÁRIDA provides immediate open access to all of its content, supporting the unrestricted dissemination and global exchange of scientific knowledge.

The journal does not charge authors any submission, publication, or Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Section policies

Scientific-Technical Articles:

o Scientific Articles:

Manuscripts presenting unpublished and original results, and possessing the characteristics of a complete research study, will be considered within this category. The maximum length is 30 pages, including tables and figures."

Download template (link

o Reviews:

Manuscripts presenting a synthesis, update, and discussion of the state of the art on a topic (not merely a bibliographic compilation) will be considered within this category. Maximum length: 30 pages, including tables and figures.

o Technical Articles:

Manuscripts describing an original and innovative technique, development, procedure, or device based on research, aimed at providing a solution to a relevant problem in professional practice, will be considered within this category. Maximum length: 20 pages, including tables and figures.

Communications:

Works presenting original and unpublished results with the characteristics of research of limited representativeness (e.g., partial results of ongoing research or a single sample over several years) that justify rapid publication due to their relevance, or preliminary results of a more restricted scope, will be considered within this category. Maximum length: 20 pages. The same drafting and evaluation standards will apply. [Download template] (link)

Notes:

These include well-founded comments on current topics within the disciplines covered by the journal.

Notes include well-founded commentaries on current affairs within the disciplines covered by the journal. They may present viewpoints or debates linked to scientific-technical and socio-environmental aspects, as well as reflections on scientific and academic events. They will be published solely at the discretion of the Editorial Committee. The structure is flexible; however, it must include a title, abstract, and keywords, with a maximum length of 5 pages (tables and figures are not permitted). Download template. (link)

For all contributions, if the page limit is exceeded, the reasons must be justified, and acceptance will be determined by the Editorial Committee

Open Access Policies

SEMIÁRIDA provides immediate open access to its content, based on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports the global exchange and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Editorial Policies

Code of Ethics

The Editorial Committee of Semiárida is committed to practicing and ensuring ethical behavior throughout the editing process, protecting the intellectual property of the publication and copyright. In turn, the journal guarantees an objective, fair, and in-depth review of texts through peer review (following guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE).

Directors/Editors: They commit to improving and guaranteeing the quality of manuscripts, and to publishing errata, clarifications, retractions, or apologies. They will accept or reject an article based on its importance, originality, clarity, and the journal's scope. They will publish and update guidelines for authors and reviewers. They will ensure that the identities of both reviewers and authors remain protected. They will fulfill their editorial duties and take necessary measures to prevent fraudulent publications. They will maintain the anonymity of authors and reviewers during the evaluation process to preserve intellectual integrity. They commit to enforcing deadlines for reviews and publication.

Reviewers: They commit to conducting an honest, critical, and objective review. They will evaluate works while respecting delivery deadlines. Under no circumstances will they keep or copy the work.

Authors: They commit to not submitting the article to another journal simultaneously and will guarantee that the work is original and unpublished. They will be responsible for the opinions, statements, or conclusions formulated in their texts. They agree to use images for which rights have been assigned or for which the authors have granted permission for publication. They shall credit the author of the image (whether an individual, group, institution, or media outlet). If archival materials are used (letters, images, etc.), the author agrees to cite the original details of the piece or work and the location where it is archived or exhibited. They also agree to make any changes or corrections requested by the reviewers.

Anti-Plagiarism Policy

Semiárida maintains an anti-plagiarism policy aimed at ensuring that all published works are original and unpublished. All manuscripts submitted to Semiárida will be reviewed using iThenticate plagiarism detection software or any other tool established by the Editorial Committee.

In the event that plagiarism is detected, Semiárida follows the guidelines provided by COPE.

The journal considers the following practices as plagiarism:

Direct Plagiarism

· Authorship is omitted, and the quoted text is not indicated with quotation marks.

· Minimal changes are made to another person's text (modifying sentence structure, changing case, using synonyms, etc.) and it is presented as original.

Plagiarism in Direct Citations

· Quotation marks are not used to indicate fragments (sentences or paragraphs) that are reproduced verbatim.

· Only part of the verbatim fragment is indicated with quotation marks (omitting that the phrases before and/or after the quoted passage also correspond to the cited text).

Plagiarism in Paraphrasing

· The changes made do not substantially modify the wording of the original fragment, thus failing to constitute a paraphrase.

· The paraphrasing is extensive, and the paraphrased passages are not clearly distinguished from the author's own work.

· The paraphrasing is continuous, without adding original material, ideas, or critical reflections that allow for interaction or enrich the information available in previously published works.

Plagiarism through Improper Use of Paraphrasing

· Although authorship is cited, plagiarism occurs because the original text is reproduced with only a few changes that do not constitute a paraphrase.

Complex Plagiarism using a Reference

· The original authorship is referenced, but the source page numbers are indicated inaccurately.

· Paraphrasing that summarizes extensive texts but provides little to no indication that they are paraphrases.

Plagiarism with loose quotation marks

· Occurs when a verbatim quote continues after the closing quotation marks, or when it is not clarified that the preceding sentences belong to the same citation.

Paraphrasing as plagiarism occurs when:

●A text is paraphrased without citing the original source.

● The paraphrasing is continuous and extensive without adding original material for interaction or enrichment, even if the source is mentioned.

"Self-plagiarism" or recycling fraud:

●Changing the appearance of a previous work and presenting it as a new, distinct one.

Ethical use of AI in scientific journals:

The accelerated development of generative artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming the production, evaluation, and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Tools such as large language models, writing assistants, and image generators have been rapidly integrated into the daily work of researchers, editors, and authors.

The use of AI should be restricted to auxiliary tasks such as text summarization, grammatical correction, translation, or the generation of tables and graphs. In the event of AI use, information must be included regarding the tools used, the specific tasks performed, the parameters applied, and the type of human editing or supervision involved. When used for tables and graphs, it is suggested to include this in the methodology or the captions.

In this context, we provide the "Decalogue for the use of AI in scientific and academic journals" prepared by Carolina De Volder and Carlos Authier (2025).

Link: Decalogue for the use of AI in scientific and academic journals by Carolina De Volder and Carlos Authier (2025).

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest is understood to exist when a divergence occurs between an individual's personal interests and their responsibilities regarding the scientific activities they carry out—whether as authors, reviewers, or editorial committee members—that could influence their critical judgment and the integrity of their actions.

Academic conflicts of interest may exist when reviewers or editors adhere to a specific methodological or ideological trend in such a way that they interfere with the evaluation of manuscripts from others who disagree with their views, or by delaying publication on such grounds. In this case, authors may mention upon submitting their manuscript if there are specific evaluators who should not participate in the review process. Although manuscripts are sent to reviewers without authorship data, if evaluators detect the potential identity of the authors, they must recuse themselves from intervening, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the authors' positions.

Finally, conflicts of interest due to personal or professional relationships imply that participants in the editorial process (authors, reviewers, editors) have some type of bond involving friendship, enmity, or a working relationship. Regarding this point, authors must indicate the source of research funding, while editors will take special care to select reviewers who do not belong to the same institution or research team as the authors. Furthermore, editors will not involve themselves in the review and editing process of manuscripts whose authors work at the same center, are relatives, or have had personal differences. In these cases, management will be delegated to another editor without allowing the original member to influence the reviewer selection process or the rest of the editing.

Ethics and study desingn

Biased manipulation, misleading information, selective communication, fabrication, falsification, or misrepresentation of data are considered scientific fraud. should any practice be detected, the article will be immediately withdrawn from the editorial process and the journal reserves the rigth to notify the autorithies of author´s intitution.

Furthermore, upon submitting their manuscripts, authors must declare that they have obtained permission from the archive or repository where the documents attached to the work sourced.

Interoperability Protocol

SEMIÁRIDA supports interoperability through the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). The journal's OAI base URL is: https://cerac.unlpam.edu.ar/index.php/index/oai

The journal also maintains digital preservation policies through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform backup system and the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of its published content.

Digital Preservation Policies

Semiárida utilizes the Open Journal System (OJS) archiving system to guarantee digital preservation.

PKP

The PKP Preservation Network (PN) provides free preservation services for any OJS journal that meets basic criteria.

To ensure long-term accessibility, Semiárida articles are archived in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), providing the journal with a permanent and secure archive.

LOCKSS

Open Journal Systems is compatible with the LOCKSS system, an open-source program that allows libraries to preserve selected web journals. It regularly crawls registered journals to collect and archive newly published content, ensuring a secure permanent record.

CLOCKSS

Open Journal Systems also supports the CLOCKSS system to ensure a permanent and secure archive for the journal. Based on the LOCKSS open-source software, CLOCKSS allows libraries to preserve chosen web journals by regularly checking registered sites for new content. Each archive is constantly validated against other library caches; if content is found to be corrupted or lost, other caches or the journal itself are used to restore it.

Publication Frequency

Semiárida is a published biannually, with two issues per year (January-June and July-December)

Journal History

The Journal of the Faculty of Agronomy, National University of La Pampa was established in 1982, and its first volume was published in 1985. Since then, it has remained the institution's only scientific journal.

SEMIÁRIDA is published biannually, with one volume comprising two issues per year. At the discretion of the Editorial Committee, the journal may also publish supplementary issues devoted to specific topics of particular relevance or scope.

In 2013, the journal obtained its online ISSN. Until 2017, both print and online editions were published through the Faculty of Agronomy website. In 2017, the journal became part of the CERAC – Scientific Journals Portal of the National University of La Pampa and has since been published through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform under a new ISSN.

Beginning with the 2014 edition, the journal adopted its current title, SEMIÁRIDA, reflecting an identity built over more than four decades through the publication of research related to semiarid regions while continuing to welcome high-quality contributions from other environments and disciplines within its scope.