Frequently Asked Questions

This information base proposes a selection of journals and publishers that cover CIRAD subjects, meet quality criteria and are reliable, avoiding potentially predatory publishers. It provides help for choosing journals or publishers, and for consulting advice on your publishing projects. It is produced and updated by CIRAD information scientists and scientific editors.

A search by topic, word, or article title/publisher's name is proposed. The search can be fine‑tuned with additional criteria.

Detailed information is available for each journal: description of the journal, the topics covered, language, article types, existence of an editorial committee, impact factor, a Scimago Journal Rank - SJR, the publisher's policy on research data, self-archiving, publishing costs, etc.

For a publisher, the following information is displayed: description of the publisher, the topics covered, language, monograph types, readership, possibility of publishing in open access, publishing costs, dissemination and self-archiving policy, and collections covering Où Publier ? subject fields.

CIRAD produces or supports six journals and a policy brief, which are presented on the CIRAD Revela-Journals in open access website

- Bois et forêts des tropiques This international journal publishes articles on forestry science and technology in warm regions. 

- Revue d'élevage et de médecine vétérinaire des pays tropicaux  International journal on livestock production, environment, and animal health in Mediterranean and tropical areas.

- Perspective the CIRAD policy brief. The authors draw on their research findings and provide an opportunity to explore new avenues for discussion and action on strategic issues regarding the Global South.

These three journals are edited, produced and published by CIRAD with full open access.

- Les Cahiers Agricultures A - mainly - French language scientific journal on world farming systems, how they are changing and their role in society. This journal is published by EDP-Sciences. The 1992-2015 archives are available on the CIRAD-Revela website. The current journal is available since 2014 on the EDP-Sciences website.

- Fruits  A scientific journal for original articles and reviews on horticultural crops in Mediterranean, subtropical and tropical regions. The journal is published by the ISHS-International Society for Horticultural Science in partnership with CIRAD. The 1945-2018 archives are available on the CIRAD-Revela website. The current journal is available since 2002 on the ISHS website.

- Nature, Sciences, Sociétés The NSS journal focuses on research policies on global change, biodiversity, food security, territorial and urban dynamics, health-environment relations. The journal is published by the NSS Dialogues Association with the support of CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE and IRD. It is hosted by EDP-Open.

Quae was created in 2006 by three french research institutes: Cirad, Ifremer and INRAE. With near 1 500 books, our publications aim at encouraging exchanges between scientists, passing on knowledge and know-how, decision analysis and public dialogue.
By developing thematics as diversified as agriculture and silviculture, environment, nutrition, sea, aquatic and aquacultural resources, life and earth sciences or humanities and social sciences, Quae has become a leading French scientific and technical publisher.
Quæ has been a digital publisher since 2008, with the implementation of an organized edition chain based on the XML format. Main of its titles are declined in the PDF and ePub formats. More than a hundred of ebooks are freely available in order to meet the French and European guidelines regarding the free distribution of research documents which are funded by the French public research or by European Union funds.   

https://www.quae.com/

• With CIRAD authentication more information can be displayed in the records, such as:

  • For journals: the value of the Journal Citation Reports Impact Factor (JCR from Clarivate Analytics) as access to this resource is by paid subscription,
  • For journals and publishers: the names of CIRAD members of the editorial commitee,
  • For journals : the names of CIRAD reviewers who have revised manuscripts.
    If your name does not appear in the list, please declare it in the "My editorial activities" menu. Your data will be automatically imported in your Annual Digital Report-RNA.

• CIRAD authentication also provides access to the "Avoiding Questionable Publishers" menu, which offers advice and some useful links.

• The secure connection allows CIRAD staff working off-site, to use the link to the FI-JCR (Journal Citation Reports Impact Factor) displayed in the record, in order to find the journal page at Clarivate. Consult the instructions on the CIRAD-Dist website: https://intranet-questions-ist.cirad.fr/toutes-les-questions/acceder-aux-ressources/se-connecter-aux-bases-de-donnees-bibliographiques-proposees-par-la-dist

The "Find a Journal" menu contains all the journal titles recorded in Où Publier ? in alphabetical order. The journals can be filtered by different criteria using the proposed fields on the left-hand side of the page. When several search fields are used, the search is carried out on the journals corresponding to the content of all the fields (implicit AND operator between the fields).

The list of journals displayed on the right-hand side is updated as soon as a criterion is added, modified, or deleted. The number of journals corresponding to the search is indicated top-right.

To display or export the corresponding records, select one, several, or all the journal titles.

To delete all the criteria, use the "Reset search" button.

The different search fields:

• Journal title

  This field is used to find a particular journal. Enter the first letters of the journal title and select the journal in the drop-down list. If other search fields are filled in, they are not taken into account. This search focuses on the journal title, on its former title, or other titles where they exist.

• Topics/Sub-topics

  Choose one or more topics or sub-topics in the drop-down list. Choosing a topic is equivalent to choosing all the sub-topics within that topic.
  Choose the AND operator: the journals must contain all the topics and sub‑topics
  or
  Choose the OR operator: the journals must contain at least one topic or sub‑topic.

• Words or expression

  Enter one or more words, or a precise expression. The words or expressions are sought in the journal titles (original title, other titles, former title) and in the journal description (in the language of the journal).
  Accents are not taken into account.
  Choose the AND operator: the journals must contain all the words or expressions
  or
  Choose the OR operator: the journals must contain at least one word or expression.

• Fields with identical search principles
  • Open access Language
  • Notoriety
  • Article type
  • Publisher

  • Publisher's country

  Select one or more criteria in the drop-down menu. The criteria appear in the order of occurrence.
  Choose the OR operator: the search is carried out on the journals corresponding to at least one of the selected criteria.
  Choose the AND operator: the search is carried out on the journals corresponding to all the selected criteria.

The "Find a Publisher" menu contains the names of all the publishers recorded in Où Publier ? in alphabetical order. Publishers can be filtered according to different criteria using the fields proposed on the left-hand side of the page. When several search fields are used, the search is carried out on publishers corresponding to the content of all the fields (implicit AND operator between fields).

The list of publishers displayed on the right-hand side is updated as soon as a criterion is added, modified, or deleted. The number of publishers corresponding to the search is indicated top-right.

To display or export the corresponding records, select one, several, or all the publisher's names.

To delete all the criteria, use the "Reset Search" button.

The different search fields:

• Publisher's name

  Once the first letters are entered, a list of names starting with those letters is displayed: click on the name you want. The search focuses on the following fields: publisher's name/publishing house name, other name, former name, subsidiary, parent company.

• Fields/Topics

  Choose one or more fields or topics in the drop-down menu. Choosing a field is equivalent to choosing all the topics in that field.
  Choose the AND operator: the publisher records must contain all the fields and topics
  or
  Choose the OR operator: the publisher records must contain at least one field, or one topic.

• Words

  Enter one or more words or a precise expression. The words or expressions are sought in the name, description and topics of the publisher (original language, or other language) and in the name, description and topics of the collection (in the original language).
  Accents are not taken into account.
  Choose the AND operator: the publisher records must contain all the words. e.g., "press" AND "academic"
  or
  Choose the OR operator: the publisher records must contain at least one word.

• Open access proposed

  Select a single criterion.

• Fields with identical search principles:
  • Publication languages
  • Book types
  • Publisher's country

  • Readership

  Select one or more criteria in the drop-down menu. The criteria appear in order of occurrence.
  The search is carried out on the publishers corresponding to at least one of the selected criteria (OR operator).

• Collection name

  Once the first letters are entered, a list of collections listed in the base starting with those letters is displayed: click on the name you want.

The terms "parent company" and "subsidiary" should not be construed in the legal sense of the term. As takeovers and mergers are frequent within publishing groups, "parent company" refers to a wider group to which a lesser publisher is attached, "subsidiary" refers to a subdivision of the publisher.

The publication collections of a publisher are often numerous and changing. Just a few collections of interest on the topics in the Où Publier ? database are presented in the record.

Open access journals offer readers free and comprehensive access via the Internet to the full text of their articles.

Three types of open access are taken into account in Où publier ?:

• Journal in total open access: all the articles in the journal are accessible free of charge as soon as they appear in the journal. Some of these journals charge authors publishing fees, others do not.

  The publishing model with publishing costs for authors is the Gold route to Open Access with APC (Article Processing Charge).

  The publishing model without publishing costs for authors is the Diamond route to Open Access, also known as Platinum OA or Gold OA without APC.

• Journal in optional open access: the journal offers authors the possibility of publishing their articles in open access subject to payment (called APC-Article Processing Charge). Depending on the publisher, this "tailor-made" open access option is called: Open Choice, Online Open, Open Solution, etc.

  Journals proposing optional open access with publishing costs are called "hybrid journals" as some articles are in open access for readers and others are only available by subscription or individual purchase. This model is Hybrid Open Access.

• Open access journal with embargo (less than or more than 12 months): for some articles the publisher imposes a time-lag before open access.

Some publishers offer their readership some or all of their publications in open access on their website.

The arrangements for open access publication are usually to be discussed with the publisher.

The author-payer publishing system is a hybrid economic model that enables "tailor made" open access publishing in a journal, subject to the payment of the Article Processing Charge-APC.

This option provides readers with immediate and free access to the full text of the article on the Internet and authorizes authors to deposit their articles in an open archive or on a personal website.

Some publishers adopt editorial processes that do not live up to the quality criteria expected of a peer-reviewed scientific publication and have slipshod editorial practices.

For example: an editorial committee comprising non-specialists, little or no reviewing, Phishing techniques sending emails to authors, lack of information on publishing costs, etc.

The Où publier ? website only presents journals of reliable publishers.

Before submitting an article to a journal, check out these advice notes on the CoopIST website (French-language source):

• Eviter les revues et éditeurs prédateurs - définitions et indices : https://doi.org/10.18167/coopist/0036
• Outils pour aider à détecter les revues et éditeurs prédateurs : https://doi.org/10.18167/coopist/0077

Authors wishing to deposit their publications in open archives or make them accessible on a personal or institutional website need to check their self-archiving rights.

The permission for authors to make their articles available on-line depends on:

• The version of the article

  • Preprint: version submitted to the journal for publication, not peer‑reviewed,
  • Postprint: final version, peer-reviewed and accepted for publication,

  • Published: final published version that can be cited, available on the journal website.

• The policy of the journal or the publisher. This information is available:

  • On the journal or publisher website.
  • On Sherpa Romeo, a British academic and university website, which presents the self-archiving rules defined by publishers for their journals. In the journal record, Où publier ? proposes a link to journal information in Sherpa-Romeo.

A Data Paper describes a set of data, how they were obtained, how to access them and their potential for future use.

Où Publier ? offers the possibility of fine-tuning the results of a search via the Data Paper criterion in "Article Type".

You can therefore identify not just Data Journals, but also conventional journals that publish Data Papers, in addition to the usual types of articles.

A Data Journal is a scientific journal that specifically publishes Data Papers, i.e., articles highlighting datasets that authors wish to place at the disposal of the scientific community.

Find out more by consulting the following advice note on the CoopIST website (French-language source).

• Rédiger et publier un Data paper dans une revue scientifique : https://doi.org/10.18167/coopist/0057

Journal or Publisher records can be exported in .DOCX or .XLSX format, compatible with Excel type spreadsheets.

The Où Publier ? information base lists a selection of scientific journals and publishers in the life sciences, social sciences and engineering sciences applied to agriculture. It is not exhaustive and you can suggest a journal or a publisher. If it covers the topics of the base and is not linked to a publisher considered to be "questionable", it will be referenced.

To send your suggestions, or report a mistake or a malfunction, please contact: ou-publier@cirad.fr