Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research

Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (MedFAR) is an international peer-review open access journal aiming to establish a platform for dissemination of high quality original research papers, short communications, technical notes, comments and in-depth reviews related to all aspects of aquatic sciences, capture fisheries and aquaculture including interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary studies.

The main focus of the journal is  Mediterranean and Black Sea region. However; this does not mean any geographic restriction, and manuscripts from other regions are also welcomed. Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research intends to contribute to development of environmentally (both marine and freshwater), economically and socially sustainable  capture fisheries and aquaculture in the region by bridging science and the industry. The journal welcomes case studies providing viable solutions to administrative and operational problems. Applied research and innovative solutions and product development are much appreciated. Similarly, conceptual frameworks and meta-analysis critical reviews from the early stages PhD researchers are strongly supported through this publication.

Along with prevailing issues related to aquatic sciences, fisheries and aquaculture, Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research welcomes manuscripts in following domains;   

• Environment and fisheries and/or aquaculture interactions, ecological footprints of fisheries and aquaculture operations,
• LCA (Life Cycle Assessments)
• Risk analysis (environmental, economic, social) in Fisheries & Aquaculture
• Marine science education
• Climate change and its potential impact on fisheries and aquaculture,   
• Social and economic issues related to fisheries and aquaculture,
• Fisheries and aquaculture policies and management, including coastal zone management and marine protected areas,
• Genetics and broodstock management,
• Bio-security and aquatic animal health management,
• Sustainable fish feed production and technology,
• Innovative materials and technology, including off-shore technology related to fisheries and aquaculture operations,
• Water quality, water resources monitoring/management and technology,
• Algal technology, blue biotechnology,
• Fisheries management, conservation and restoration engineering,
• Responsible fisheries and aquaculture practices, product quality,  safety and certification,
• Software, information/communication and mobile technologies in fisheries and aquaculture,
• Energy efficiency in fisheries and aquaculture,
• Fish behavior in fisheries and aquaculture, aquatic animal welfare and ethics.

1. AUTHOR GUIDELINES

Download Template 

1.1 General Rules

• Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (MedFAR) is published twice a year.
• Publication language of the journal is English and Turkish.
  
• All manuscripts are subject to peer-reviewed process by at least 2 qualified reviewers.
• Manuscripts are published after the final approval by the editor in chief.

Publication categories are as follow:

a) Research article: Articles presenting original research results.

b) Review articles: An up-to-date comprehensive review of related scientific works on a particular subject.

c) Short communication: This category consists of the fast and brief announcement of the results of continuing research.

d) Technical note: A technical note is a short article giving a brief description of a specific development, technique, or procedure, or it may describe a modification of an existing technique or procedure to research techniques.

e) Comments/reply Comments: Fair and scientifically based critics or assessment of an article published in MedFAR and reply of the author (s) of the article.  

f) Spotlight corner: Short personal views, assessment, or highlights regarding a critical/hot topic as well as introduction of a new development, initiative, or project of interest to fisheries and aquaculture.  

1.2 Manuscript Structure 

• The manuscripts should be typed on A4 size papers and the font of the articles must be Times New Roman with 12 pt.

• Manuscripts should be written with 1,5 space throughout.

• Each paragraph must be indented using tabs.

• Number of pages should be placed on the bottom-center of each pages.

• Title page of the manuscript should include title, authors' names, affiliation and full mailing addresses. Corresponding author should be indicated his/her working address, telephone numbers and e-mail address.

• All illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end (Details about preparing the illustrations and tables are listed below).

• Line numbers should be inserted throughout manuscript.

• Manuscripts should be organized as follows: Title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, material-method, results, discussion, conclusion and references. The section titles must be written with bold capital letters at 12 pt font.

• Units of measurements should all be SI units. 

Title Page

The title page should include:

• The name(s) of the author(s)
•  A concise and informative title
• The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
• The e-mail address of the corresponding author

Abstract:

• Please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
  

Keywords:

•  Please provide 3 to 5 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Acknowledgments:

• Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section on the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

References:

References should be cited according to following example in the text: (Lawrence, 1990; Samuel and Richardson, 2013; Rickshaw et al., 2017). We recommend for authors to use of tools such as EndNote (http://www.endnote.com) and Reference Manager (http://www.refman.com) for management and formatting of the references.

References to be given in the references section should be listed in "6th Edition of APA Citation" according to following rules;

• Article published in journals:

Moncada, S., Palmer, R.M.J., Higgs, E.A. (1989) Biosynthesis of nitric oxide from L-arginine: A pathway for the regulation of cell function and communication. Biochemistry and Pharmacology 38: 1709 -1715.

• Books:

Strunk, W., White, E.B. (2000) The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.

• Chapter in an edited book:

Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B. (2009) How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith, R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.

• Conference proceedings:

Glare, T.R., Barlow, N.D., Walsh, P.J. (1998) Potential agents for eradication or control of gypsy moth in New Zealand. In: Proceeddings of the 51 st New Zealand Plant Protection Conference. New Zealand Plant Protection Society, pp. 224-229.

Illustrations and Tables:

These should be referred to in the text as figures using Arabic numbers, e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc., in order of appearance. All tables and figures should not exceed 16x20 cm in size. Figures should be saved in data formats in JPEG or TIFF or PNG and have high resolution with maximum 300 dpi. MSOffice files are also acceptable.

Line drawings should be on separate sheets of white paper in black indelible ink (dot matrix illustrations are not permitted); lettering should be on an overlay or photocopy and should be no less than 4 mm high for a 50% reduction. Please note, each figure should have a separate legend; these should be grouped on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. All symbols and abbreviations should be clearly explained.

Tables should be self-explanatory and include only essential data. Each table must be type written on a separate sheet and should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, e.g. Table 1, and given a short caption. No vertical rules should be used. Units should appear in parentheses in the column headings and not in the body of the table. All abbreviations should be defined in a footnote.

All tables and figures that are reproduced from a previously published source must be accompanied by a letter of permission from the Publisher or copyright owner if necessary.

2. SUBMISSION PREPARATION CHECKLIST

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check if their manuscript compliance with all of the items of the guideline. Submitted manuscripts will be returned to author(s) if it does comply with the guideline.

*Please note that  MedFAR team including editors and Editorial Advisory Board members are fully committed to ensure high ethical and professional standards in scholarly publication for both editors and authors.  Though a new journal and not a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), MedFAR is  inspired by COPE  guidelines and standards for best practices and responsible research publications for both editors and authors including; 

• GUIDELINES ON GOOD PUBLICATION PRACTICE (https://publicationethics.org/files/u7141/1999pdf13.pdf),
  
• INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR EDITORS (https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standard_editors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf) 
• INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR AUTHORS (https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf).

Authors are kindly encouraged to go through these document before submitting their manuscripts to be aware of the editorial aspects and to fully comply with these standards.   

All manuscripts submitted to MedFAR for publication should be screened for plagiarism using İThenticate software, prior to online submission by author(s). The "Similarity Index" should not exceed 24%. The similarity report should be submitted along with the manuscript and manuscript submission and copyright form.

All manuscripts based on research works involving animals as well as questionnaire surveys, focus-group discussions and observations must have a permission/approval letter from a from relevant "Ethics Committee".

**Authors are highly recommended to read MedFAR policies regarding copyrights/Licensing and ethics (see the section on about MedFAR) before submitting their manuscripts. 

Publication Ethics

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

General duties and responsibilities

Editors are responsible for each study published in the Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (MedFAR). In this respect, the editors have the following roles and responsibilities:
• Making efforts to meet the demand for knowledge from readers and authors,
• Ensuring the continuous development of the journal,
• Managing the procedures aimed to improve the quality of the studies published in the journal,
• Supporting freedom of expression,
• Ensuring academic integrity,
• Following the procedures without making concessions on intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
• Being transparent and clear in issues that require correction or explanation.

Relationships with Readers

Relationships with Authors

Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with authors:
• Editors must make positive or negative decisions about the studies' importance, originality, validity, clarity in wording and suitability with the journal's aims and objectives.
• Editors must accept the studies that are within the scope of the publication in the pre-review process unless there are serious problems with the study.
• Editors must not ignore positive suggestions made by reviewers unless there are serious problems with the study.
• New editors, unless there are serious issues, must not change the previous editor's decisions about the studies.
• "Blind Review and Review Process" must be published and editors must prevent possible diversions in the defined processes.
• Authors should be provided with explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with Reviewers

Editors must

• Choose reviewers according to the subject of the study.
• Provide the information and guidance reviewers may need during the review process.
• Observe whether there are conflicting interests between reviewers and authors.
• Keep the identities of reviewers confidential in a blind review.
• Encourage the reviewers to review the manuscript in an unbiased, scientific and objective tone.
• Develop practices and policies that increase the performance of reviewers.
• Take necessary steps to update the reviewer pool dynamically.
• Prevent unkind and unscientific reviews.
• Make an effort to ensure the reviewer pool has a wide range.

Relationships with the Editorial Board

• Ensure that the members of the editorial board review the manuscripts in an unbiased and independent manner.
• Select the new members of the editorial board from those who can contribute to the journal and are qualified enough.
• Send manuscripts for review based on the subject of expertise of the editorial board members.
• Regularly communicate with the editorial board. Arrange regular meetings with the editorial board for the development of publication policies and the journal.

Relationships with the Journal's Owner and Publisher

The relationship between the editors and the publisher is based on the principle of the independence of editors. All the decisions made by the editors are independent of the publisher and the owner of the journal as required by the agreement made between editors and publisher.

Editorial and Blind Review Processes

Quality Assurance

Protection of Personal Information

Encouraging Ethical Rules and Protection of Human and Animal Rights

Editors are supposed to protect human and animal rights in the studies being reviewed and must reject the experimental studies which do not have ethical and related committee’s approval about the population given in such studies.

Precautions against possible Abuse and Malpractice

Editors are supposed to take precautions against possible abuse and malpractice. They must conduct investigations meticulously and objectively in determining and evaluating complaints about such situations. They must also share the results of the investigation.

Ensuring Academic Integrity

Editors must make sure that the mistakes, inconsistencies, or misdirections in studies are corrected quickly.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all the articles published in the journal and the rights of the journal and author(s) in cases where these rights are violated. Also, editors must take the necessary precautions in order to prevent the content of all published articles from violating the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Constructiveness and Openness to Discussion

Editors must
• Pay attention to the convincing criticism about studies published in the journal and must have a constructive attitude towards such criticism.
• Grant the right of reply to the author(s) of the criticized study.
• Not ignore or exclude the study that includes negative results.

Complaints

Conflicting Interests

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Ethical Responsibilities of Publisher

• The Editors and the Editorial Board of Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (MedFAR) are conscious of the fact that they must observe the ethical responsibilities below and act accordingly:
• Editors are responsible for all the processes that the manuscripts submitted to Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (MedFAR) will go through. Within this framework, ignoring the economic or political interests, the decision-makers are the editors.
• The publisher undertakes to have an independent editorial decision made.
• The publisher protects the intellectual property rights of all the articles published Mediterranean Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (MedFAR) and holds the responsibility to keep a record of each unpublished article.
• The publisher bears all the responsibility to take the precautions against scientific abuse, fraud and plagiarism.

Unethical Behaviour

PUBLICATION POLICY and COPYRIGHT

Publication Fees

Peer Review Process

COPYRIGHT, LICENCING and PUBLISHING RIGHTS

No fee is charged, including article submission, process management, publication, printing, subscription.