About the journal
The North-Western Journal of Zoology (North-West.J.Zool.)is the official zoology and animal ecology journal of the Herpetological Club of Oradea (HCO), Romania.
It was founded in 2005 by a group of young researchers (PhD and PhD candidates) that recognize the necessity to create a new peer reviewed scientific journal in Romania. They also recognized the need of giving possibility for researchers to publish their research quickly, and in visible way. Since its formation, North-West.J.Zool. make the papers published available online without fee. North-West.J.Zool. is currently published two times every year (in June and December) but the editors are working in the possibility for increasing the number of issues to three per year. This will moreover depend on the number of high quality manuscripts submitted. From 2007 the editors introduced the “online first” , to facilitate a more rapid apparition of the accepted manuscripts.
North-West.J.Zool. was recently covered by ISI, by this being the only biology journal covered by ISI inRomania. C.N.C.S.I.S. (The National University Research Council) have indexed N.West.J.Zool. in the “A” category, our journal receiving by this the highest recognition from the Romanian scientific forum from all Romanian biology journals. These new changes in the journal “status” impose a series of further responsibilities regarding the quality of the papers published in this journal. This responsibility will be reflected both in the high quality review process and the short publication period after the paper acceptance.
Each paper will be sent to at least two independent reviewers. If there are inconsistencies between the reviewers, a third reviewerill be asked to review the manuscript. Since the review process is a time and energy consuming work, the editors will acknowledge their effort by respecting their proposals entirely. Periodically, the journal will list the name of the reviewers, acknowledging them their work in a separate note.
The editors will be grateful if the authors that submit manuscripts propose for the editorial board three internationally recognized researchers in the domain of their paper. This will facilitate the review process. The following details of the proposed reviewers should be mentioned: name, e-mail address, institution and the domain of work. The editors have the right to choose or not the proposed reviewers. Moreover, a paper may be rejected if the editors think that it is unacceptable for publication.
When preparing the manuscript, the authors should check very carefully the “Instruction for authors” section.
Types of articles
The manuscripts submitted in North-West.J.Zool. should be primary research papers, reviews and opinion papers. Original research papers are welcomed both as full-length papers or short notes. Review papers should deal with topics of general interest or of contemporary importance, being synthetic rather than comprehensive in emphasis. The opinion papers should debate important issues in zoology and animal ecology. Authors of Review papers should consult with the editor before submission. The editors reserve the right to move manuscripts from one to other category.