Sections
Grassland Research publishes excellent and novel research to foster scholarship in grassland science four times a year by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Chinese Grassland Society and Lanzhou University in March, June, September, and December. "Grassland" encompasses rangeland, including forest rangeland; sown pasture; and amenity and turf grasses. Grassland Research is to be comprised of three sections: rangeland; forage, turf, and bioenergy crops; ecosystems. All submissions to Grassland Research should focus on topical research, provide new insight into some aspect of grassland science, and be of interest to our readers.
Grassland Research is an international journal for all scientists, students, production managers, technical officers, stakeholders, and policy makers involved with the many dimensions of grassland science. The strength of the journal is its incorporation and integration of grassland research from genes to ecosystems. For the development of Grassland Research as a respected and truly international forum in grassland science, we are relying on the international grassland family. We look forward to receiving your strong support and above all your contributions, especially in the establishment phase of the Journal!
Currently, the journal has been indexed in Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and SCOPUS (Elsevier).
Perspective: Personal opinion on a topic in grassland systems, often with a novel/imaginative approach to a provocative question, with an engaging though rigorous investigation, including new developments, and moderate referencing.
Research Article: A full-length research paper of novel research findings that make a significant contribution to grassland systems knowledge.
Review Article: Critical reviews of the most recent literature in grassland systems, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Review article should offer new insights or perspective to guide future research efforts.
Short Communication: A short communication is a short paper that describes preliminary but novel findings of research in progress or a case report of particular interest.
Technical Note: Extensions or updates to previously published research, reporting additional controls; projects that did not yield publishable results but represent valuable information regarding protocol and data collection; additions to established tools, experimental or computational methods; description of a specific development, technique or procedure, or a modification of an existing technique, procedure or device; new experimental method, improved version of an experimental protocol.
Commentary: Expert opinion from one or more people (who may agree or disagree) on a published work, current understanding/status of an area, or how practice should be undertaken.
Editorial: To convey an opinion, or overview of an issue, by the Editor or someone invited by the editor.
Correction: To correct an inadvertent error or omission in an article, where no foul play has been detected or reported, and the conclusions of the study remain intact.
Obituary: Celebration of the life of a deceased researcher of significance, by giving an account of the work and influence of that individual.
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Abstract/Popular Science Summary (with Graphical Abstract)/Acknowledgments/Conflict of Interest Statement/Author Contributions/Data Availability Statement |
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Perspective |
Yes |
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Research Article |
Yes |
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Review Article |
Yes |
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Short Communication |
Yes |
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Technical Note |
Yes |
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Commentary |
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Editorial |
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Correction |
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Obituary |
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For the first time of submission, the journal expects the authors to follow the Author Guidelines to prepare the manuscripts. While, for the manuscripts passed the first review, as a precondition for performing further article process workflow, the manuscripts must be formatted strictly following the Author Guidelines.
Manuscripts should be prepared as a Word (.doc or .docx) file, 1.5-line spaced with settings for A4 (210 by 297 mm) paper with wide margins. Please use only standard fonts, such as 12-point Arial or Times New Roman font for text. All pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page. Text pages should have numbered lines. Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) and figures (each figure complete with legend) should be placed in the proper positions close to the first citation in the text. Figures should also be uploaded as separate files when submitting the manuscript. All tables and figures should be numbered in the order they first appear in the text. All non-standard abbreviations must first appear in parentheses, following their meaning written in full at first mention in the abstract, main text and each table and figure legend. Avoid abbreviations if possible in the title, headings and abstract.
Researchers should consult a statistician before designing an experiment and when analyzing results to avoid inappropriate descriptions. Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable the reader to verify the reported results. Indicate the computer program used, if any.
When denoting letters to mark significant differences, it should run from a = highest to n = lowest.
When reporting probability, it should be written as "p ", the "p" is in lowercase and italicized.
“t” for t-test; “n” for small sample; “N” for large sample.
Significance level declaration method: *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.
R2 for the coefficient of determination.
The main text file should include:
Authors must submit an abstract figure (diagram or illustration selected from the manuscript or an additional "eye-catching" figure) with a brief popular science summary (less than 50 words) summarizing your article to the online submission system during the initial manuscript submission process (submit popular science summary text in step 1, upload the abstract figure in step 2). Do not include Popular Science Summary in the manuscript.
The image supplied should fit within the dimensions of 50 mm x 60 mm and be fully legible at this size.
Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) should be placed in the proper positions in the text close to the first citation. Number all tables in the order they first appear in the text. Refer to them in the text by their number. All tables should use three-line table. Tables must be self-explanatory. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Titles should be concise but comprehensive. The table, title, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes.
Table footnotes example:
Figures (each figure complete with legend) should be placed in the proper positions in the text close to the first citation. Number all figures in the order they first appear in the text. Refer to them in the text by their number. Figures should also be uploaded as separate files when submitting the manuscript. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the axis caption. Figure part labels should be in lowercase with parenthesis, such as, '(a)'.You should review the basic figure requirements for manuscripts for peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.
Few examples of the use of figure citations in text are given below:
For all articles, the journal mandates the CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy)—more information is available on Wiley’s Author Services site. Please select proper contributor roles for each author during submission in the online submission system.
All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.
This journal encourages ORCID. Please refer to Wiley’s resources on ORCID.
Refer and Transfer Program
Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.
Please provide any acknowledgements for your manuscript only in the online submission system. The Acknowledgments section may acknowledge contributions from nonauthors and list all funding sources. When the research is carried out in areas for which research permits are required (e.g. nature reserves), or when it deals with organisms for which collection or import/export permits are required (e.g. protected species), the authors must clearly detail obtaining these permits in the Acknowledgements.
In taxonomic papers, type specimens and type depositories must be clearly designated and indicated. Authors are required to deposit the name-bearing type material in internationally recognized institutions (not private collections).
When the research is carried out in areas for which research permits are required (e.g. nature reserves), or when it deals with organisms for which collection or import/export permits are required (e.g. protected species), the authors must clearly detail obtaining these permits in the Acknowledgements section in the online submission system.
You should list all funding sources in the Funding section and the Acknowledgements section in the online submission system. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.
Grassland Research requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or indirectly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker’s fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication in this journal.
It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to collectively list in the cover letter and in the online submission system ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.
If the author does not have any conflict of interest the following statement should be included: “The author(s) declare(s) no conflict of interest.”.
This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing Policy where you will be able to see and select the Data Availability Statement that is right for your submission. The Data Availability Statement should be provided in the online submission system.
This journal uses APA Reference Style 7th edition. See the style manual for guidance (in-text citations (Name and Year) were on page 101 and punctuation and style of entries in the reference list were on page 114). For in-text citations, several studies within the same parentheses should be listed alphabetically by first author's surname: (Miller, 1999; Shafranske & Mahoney, 1998). For works which have a DOI, present DOIs in the reference list. In the format: https://doi.org/xxxxx. The string “https://doi.org/” is a way of presenting a DOI as a link, and “xxxxx” refers to the DOI number.
Supporting information, and appendices should be supplied as separate files. View Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.
Papers are accepted for publication in the Journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the cover letter.
The cover letter must also contain an acknowledgment that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.
Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.
If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorization to reproduce the material, must be attached to the cover letter.
This journal operates under a single-blind peer review model. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.
In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the title, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.
Wiley’s policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.
This journal participates in Wiley’s Transfer Desk Assistant program.
Undergoing initial checking – Editorial office is checking original and revised manuscripts on submission.
Awaiting EIC Assignment – Editorial office has completed initial checking and will assign the EIC.
Pending Editor Assignment – EIC will assess the manuscript and assign the Associate Editor.
Under Review - Submission has been screened and is undergoing peer-review.
Pending Recommendation – Manuscript is with the Associate Editor for recommendation stage.
Pending Decision – Manuscript is with Editor-in-Chief for decision.
Accept – the paper is suitable for publication in its current form, Minor Revision – the paper will be ready for publication after light revisions, Major Revision – the paper needs substantial changes, or Reject – the paper does not meet the criteria for publication in Grassland Research.
Complete Final File Updates – Accepted Manuscript files are assessed to determine whether all requirements are met. Manuscript files are returned to the author for any final adjustments corrections before being sent to production.
Pending transfer to production – Final and complete manuscript files are exported to the production system.
This journal is a Gold Open Access title. The journal does not charge submission fees. And the Article Publication Charge is waived for accepted manuscripts from 2022 to 2024. The Article Publication Charge will be covered by Lanzhou University in this period of time. For more information about this Journal's APC's, please visit the Open Access Page.
Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.
Grassland Research will consider articles that have been submitted in part or in full to preprint servers. You may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.
Please review Wiley’s Data Citation Policy.
By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication. Please review Wiley’s Data Protection Policy to learn more.
If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ.
The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and other media" from the publisher of the original source, and for supplying Wiley with that permission upon submission.
The journal requires that you include in the manuscript details IRB approvals, ethical treatment of human and animal research participants, and gathering of informed consent, as appropriate. You will be expected to declare all conflicts of interest, or none, on submission. Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, animal studies, clinical trial registration, biosecurity, and research reporting guidelines.
This journal follows the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and handles cases of research and publication misconduct accordingly (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).
This journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors and Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines.
Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools—such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLMs)—cannot be considered capable of initiating an original piece of research without direction by human authors. They also cannot be accountable for a published work or for research design, which is a generally held requirement of authorship (as discussed in the previous section), nor do they have legal standing or the ability to hold or assign copyright. Therefore—in accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools—these tools cannot fulfill the role of, nor be listed as, an author of an article. If an author has used this kind of tool to develop any portion of a manuscript, its use must be described, transparently and in detail, in the Methods or Acknowledgements section. The author is fully responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by the tool and for correctly referencing any supporting work on which that information depends. Tools that are used to improve spelling, grammar, and general editing are not included in the scope of these guidelines. The final decision about whether use of an AIGC tool is appropriate or permissible in the circumstances of a submitted manuscript or a published article lies with the journal’s editor or other party responsible for the publication’s editorial policy.
After your paper is accepted, your files will be assessed by the editorial office to ensure they are ready for production. You may be contacted if any updates or final files are required. Otherwise, your paper will be sent to the production team.
When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication license at this point as well as pay for any applicable APCs.
Grassland Research is a Gold Open Access journal: accepted papers are published under a Creative Commons license. This journal uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used.
Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online with their proofs included as a pdf. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 2 work days of receipt of the email.
The Early View service presents full-text, peer-reviewed, copyedited articles as soon as they are complete, before the release of the compiled print issue. Articles are posted following receipt of the author's corrected proofs. They include all figures and tables and are fully citable.
Since Early View articles are fully integrated within Wiley Online Library, they may be retrieved using the search and browse functions, delivered to your desktop via Content Alerts, and viewed at the journal's home page. Every Early View article carries an online publication date and a DOI for citations.
Please review Wiley’s guidelines on sharing your research here. The submitted version of the manuscript, the accepted version, and the published version (Version of Record) can all be deposited on an institutional or other repository of the author's choice without embargo.
When the article is published online:
Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of the service does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.
The Publisher shall deposit all Contributions with a non-profit dark archive such as CLOCKSS (https://www.clockss.org/clockss/Home) or Portico (http://www.portico.org/digital-preservation/) (or an equivalent preservation service) for archiving, in order to guarantee long-term survival of the Contributions.
This journal is part of Wiley’s Open Research Badges program.
There are no color charges and we welcome color figures, which will be published in full color. Figures submitted in black-and-white will be published as such in the online article. Please ensure that where color figures are submitted, that their legends make reference to color where necessary. To ensure optimal reproduction of your color figure, please ensure that the file is provided in RGB format.
The journal supports the Resource Identification Initiative, which aims to promote research resource identification, discovery, and reuse. This initiative, led by the Neuroscience Information Framework and the Oregon Health & Science University Library, provides unique identifiers for antibodies, model organisms, cell lines, and tools including software and databases. These IDs, called Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs), are machine-readable and can be used to search for all papers where a particular resource was used and to increase access to critical data to help researchers identify suitable reagents and tools.
You will be asked to use RRIDs to cite the resources used in your research where applicable in the text, similar to a regular citation or Genbank Accession number. For antibodies, you should include in the citation the vendor, catalogue number, and RRID both in the text upon first mention in the Methods section. For software tools and databases, please provide the name of the resource followed by the resource website, if available, and the RRID. For model organisms, the RRID alone is sufficient.
Additionally, you must include the RRIDs in the list of keywords associated with the manuscript.
To Obtain Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs):
Example Citations:
Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses (e.g. soybean (Glycine max)). For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.
Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.
Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL, or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL, and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: ‘These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345’. Addresses are as follows:
Proteins sequence data should be submitted to either of the following repositories:
For papers describing structural data, atomic coordinates and the associated experimental data should be deposited in the appropriate databank (see below). Please note that the data in databanks must be released, at the latest, upon publication of the article. We trust in the cooperation of our authors to ensure that atomic coordinates and experimental data are released on time.
This journal accepts artwork submissions for Cover Images. This is an optional service you can use to help increase article exposure and showcase your research. For more information, including artwork guidelines, pricing, and submission details, please visit the Journal Cover Image page.
Wiley Editing Services offers a professional cover image design service that creates eye-catching images, ready to be showcased on the journal cover. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of the service does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.
Graphics that do not adhere to these guidelines will be recommended for revision or will not be accepted for publication.
This journal has the option for authors to embed rich media (i.e. video and audio) within their final article. These files should be submitted with the manuscript files online, using either the “Embedded Video” or “Embedded Audio” file designation. If the video/audio includes dialogue, a transcript should be included as a separate file. The combined manuscript files, including video, audio, tables, figures, and text must not exceed 350 MB. For full guidance on accepted file types and resolution please see here.
Ensure each file is numbered (e.g. Video 1, Video 2, etc.) Legends for the rich media files should be placed at the end of the article.
The content of the video should not display overt product advertising. Educational presentations are encouraged.
Any narration should be in English, if possible. A typed transcript of any speech within the video/audio should be provided. An English translation of any non-English speech should be provided in the transcript.
All embedded rich media will be subject to peer review. Editors reserve the right to request edits to rich media files as a condition of acceptance. Contributors are asked to be succinct, and the Editors reserve the right to require shorter video/audio duration. The video/audio should be high quality (both in content and visibility/audibility). The video/audio should make a specific point; particularly, it should demonstrate the features described in the text of the manuscript.
Participant Consent: It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to seek informed consent from any identifiable participant in the rich media files. Masking a participant’s eyes, or excluded head and shoulders is not sufficient. Please ensure that a consent form (https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/licensing-info-faqs.html) is provided for each participant.
Grassland Research Editorial Office
Managing Editor: Cory Matthew
Editorial Staff: Yanpei Wu, Jinglun Peng
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Tel: +86 931 8915932
Address: No. 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu Province, China
Author Guidelines last updated: December 2023