Editorial

In 2016-17, the impact factor of the South African Journal of Animal Science (SAJAS)reached an all-time high of 0.678. We attribute this improvement to the high quality of submissions that we receive from authors and the commendable efforts of our reviewers and the editorial team to maximise the efficiency of the review process. The average turnaround period from manuscript submission to consolidation of a decision to accept, reject or request revisions on the manuscript has been reduced from 119 days in 2016 to 38 days in 2017. Contributing factors to this marked improvement include upgrades on the Electronic Submission System, which flag submissions that have overlapped the maximum time recommended for each stage of the review process and enable authors to directly send reminders to sub-editors and the Editor-in-Chief. We are committed to ensuring that your publications in the SAJAS comply with internationally adhered to standards and are able to achieve maximum impact in the respective fields of specialisation.

I would like to thank all the sub-editors and reviewers for the excellent work they are doing to improve the quality of our journal. I would like to specifically acknowledge the contributions of Dr Dominika Guzek, Dr Abdulmojeed Yakubu, Dr Vincenzo Tufarelli, Professor Genaro Miranda-de la Lama, Dr Arnold Kanengoni and Dr Tugay Ayasan; all of whom have had an average article turnaround period of less than 40 days, accompanied with quality review reports, in the last year. The journal's improvement in article turnaround time has not come at the expense of quality, as the proportion of manuscripts rejected at desk level currently stands at 70%. All submissions that we receive undergo a thorough and transparent peer review process; for which we greatly appreciate the efforts of all of our reviewers and sub-editors for their dedication, efficiency and excellence in handling submissions.

To minimise the risk of rejection, authors are urged to ensure that their submissions are scientifically sound, meet ethical requirements and are compliant with the format outlined in the Guide for Authors. Authors are also urged to closely attend to all of the revision recommendations that they receive and to clearly indicate their responses and revisions in a detailed response note upon resubmission. We are pleased to announce that due to the large number of high quality manuscript submissions; we have increased the number the issues published per volume from 4 to 6. There have been a great many advances, developments and emerging challenges in the animal science research domain over the last 10 years and we encourage the submission of robust and comprehensive review and original articles.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the support of the South African Society of Animal Science (SASAS) Council, the electronic submission system administrators (Graham Buchanan and Zelda King), and the editorial assistants, Elizabeth Hain Stewart, Martina Muller, Felicitas Mukumbo and Zikhona Mandela, for their individual and collective roles to improve the quality of the SAJAS. I also acknowledge the University of Pretoria for housing our secretariat and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa for maintaining our electronic submission system.

Voster Muchenje

Editor-In-Chief, South African Journal of Animal Science

Department of Livestock and Pasture Science, University of Fort Hare, Alice, 5700, South Africa. vmuchenje@ufh.ac.za

First published online 3 November 2017