About the Journal

Journal History

Agronomía Mesoamericana was established in 1989 during the 35th Annual Meeting of the Central American Cooperative Program for the Improvement of Crops and Animals (PCCMCA), held in Honduras, with the initial purpose of disseminating research results presented at these meetings. Its first volume was published and distributed in 1990 during the 36th Annual Meeting of the PCCMCA, held in El Salvador. Over time, the journal broadened its scope and ceased to be editorially affiliated with the PCCMCA.

Focus and Scope

Agronomía Mesoamericana is a scientific journal published by the University of Costa Rica under a continuous publication model. Its objective is to disseminate original scientific information related to food and agricultural sciences through the publication of scientific articles, technical notes, analyses and commentaries, and literature reviews. Literature reviews are published exclusively by invitation of the Editorial Board.

The journal accepts manuscripts in Spanish and English reporting research conducted in any region of the world, with particular interest in research relevant to tropical and subtropical areas. It is intended for researchers, faculty members, students, and other members of the scientific community associated with these fields of knowledge.

Publications are classified into five subject areas: agronomy, agricultural engineering, animal production, animal health, and food technology. The journal publishes basic and applied research related to these areas, as well as interdisciplinary studies that establish connections among them. In the area of food technology, manuscripts may address, among other topics, microbiological, chemical, sensory, nutritional, and physiological aspects of foods.

Manuscripts must contribute original knowledge and relevant novel elements to their field of study.

Similarity and Plagiarism Detection Policy

All manuscripts submitted to Agronomía Mesoamericana undergo a similarity check using Turnitin® software as part of the editorial process.

When relevant matches with previously published works are identified, including works by the authors themselves, the editorial team analyzes the results to determine whether there may be a breach of the journal’s originality and citation standards.

When appropriate, authors will be asked to provide the necessary clarifications, submit evidence of originality, or make the required corrections. The Editorial Board will evaluate the information provided and determine whether the manuscript may continue in the editorial process or should be rejected.

Preliminary Evaluation Process

Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively through the Agronomía Mesoamericana website. To submit a manuscript, authors must be registered on the site and log in to their account. Those who do not yet have an account must register beforehand.

Submissions must be original and unpublished and may not be simultaneously submitted, either in whole or in part, to another journal.

All manuscripts undergo a preliminary evaluation by the editorial team to verify their relevance to the journal’s focus and scope, as well as compliance with the Author Guidelines and the Mandatory Manuscript Template. This process is completed within a maximum of 22 days.

Manuscripts that meet the editorial and relevance requirements proceed to peer review. If a manuscript does not meet these requirements, it will be rejected at this stage. When rejection is due to noncompliance with formatting requirements, authors may submit a new version as a new submission after making the requested corrections.

The manuscript’s date of receipt is established once it meets the editorial requirements and is ready to be sent for peer review.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts that pass the preliminary evaluation undergo peer review under a double-blind model, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are kept anonymous.

Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two external reviewers who are specialists in the relevant subject area. Reviewers are selected by the editorial team based on their academic background, experience, and scientific publications related to the manuscript’s topic. Their participation is voluntary and unpaid.

Reviewers assess, among other aspects, the relevance and clarity of the objectives, the methodology used, the results obtained, the soundness of the conclusions, and the manuscript’s contribution to scientific knowledge. Reviewers are given one month to submit their reports. If the required number of reports is not obtained within that period, additional specialists will be invited. If this delays the process, authors will be informed so they can decide whether they wish to continue waiting for additional evaluations or withdraw the manuscript from the editorial process.

When reviewer reports contain conflicting recommendations that prevent an editorial decision from being reached, a third reviewer will be invited to evaluate the manuscript.

Once the required number of reviewer reports has been received, the editorial team has a maximum of 15 days to compile the comments and communicate the editorial decision to the authors. When revisions are required, authors have 10 days to address the comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript.

The revised version is reviewed by the editorial team to verify that the comments have been adequately addressed. When any reviewer has requested to review the revised manuscript again, a second round of evaluation will be conducted.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reclassify a manuscript submitted as a scientific article as a technical note, or vice versa, according to its content, scope, and impact, and based on the comments provided by the specialists who participated in the evaluation.

Once the manuscript is approved by the Editorial Board, the editorial team performs the final review and editing of the document. The final version is sent to the authors for review and approval, for which they have a maximum of three business days.

Authors may explicitly request the withdrawal of a manuscript at any time before publication. Once the withdrawal has been formalized, they may submit the work to another journal.

Duration of the Evaluation Process

The evaluation process for manuscripts submitted to Agronomía Mesoamericana, from the date of receipt to acceptance, has an estimated duration of two months and a maximum duration of five months. The estimated timeframe may be extended when it is necessary to invite additional reviewers to obtain the required number of evaluations, when the manuscript must undergo a second round of review, or when authors do not respond to requests for corrections within the established deadlines.

Publication Frequency

Agronomía Mesoamericana follows a continuous publication model, with one annual volume that opens in January and closes in December. Papers are published individually once the evaluation, editing, and editorial production processes have been successfully completed.

Open Access Policy

Agronomía Mesoamericana provides immediate and free open access to all its content in order to promote the dissemination and exchange of scientific knowledge.

Authors retain the copyright to their work and grant Agronomía Mesoamericana the right of first publication. Published works are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license permits sharing and redistribution of the published material, provided that proper credit is given to the authors and to the original publication in Agronomía Mesoamericana. It does not permit commercial use of the material or the distribution of modified, transformed, or derivative versions of the work.

Authors may enter into additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of their work, for example, by depositing it in institutional repositories or including it in other works, provided that the original publication in Agronomía Mesoamericana is acknowledged.

Once a work has been published, authors are permitted and encouraged to disseminate the published version on personal or institutional websites, repositories, or other academic platforms. In such cases, the full reference to the original publication and a link to the version published by the journal must be provided. This practice may promote wider dissemination, greater visibility, and academic exchange around the published work.

Agronomía Mesoamericana does not charge article processing charges (APCs). See the corresponding statement. Likewise, its sustainability is based on institutional resources provided by the University of Costa Rica and on an open access model with no costs for authors. For more information, see Funding Sources and Sustainability Model.