Ethics and Disclosures
Discoveries in Agriculture and Food Sciences
Ethics and Disclosures
Authorship, conflicts of interest, research and safety ethics, data sharing, AI use and originality requirements for authors.
DAFS is a COPE member and expects all submissions to meet recognised standards of research and publication ethics. The declarations below must appear in your manuscript after the main text, before the references; state “None” or “Not applicable” where relevant, but do not omit them. The journal’s full policies are available under the Policies menu.
Authorship and contributor roles (CRediT)
Authorship requires a substantial contribution to the work, involvement in drafting or revising it, approval of the final version and accountability for the work. Record each author’s role using the CRediT taxonomy. Contributors who do not meet the criteria should be acknowledged. The corresponding author warrants that all co-authors have approved the submission. Generative-AI tools cannot be authors. The corresponding author must provide an ORCID iD; co-authors are strongly encouraged to do so.
Conflicts of interest and funding
Declare any financial or non-financial interest that could be perceived to influence the work — for example industry or agribusiness funding or consultancy, patents on varieties, products or processes, shareholdings or advisory roles — or state that none exists. Disclose all funding sources, including grant numbers, and the funder’s role (if any) in the study.
Research ethics, consent and safety
Agricultural and food research carries particular ethical, safety and biosecurity obligations. As applicable to your study, address the following and state the approving body and reference number:
| ▸ | Human participants: for farmer surveys, sensory or consumer panels, dietary or on-farm studies, obtain ethics-committee or IRB approval where required and the informed consent of participants; for sensory and consumer studies, address food safety and the disclosure of allergens. |
| ▸ | Animals and livestock: comply with relevant welfare legislation and obtain institutional animal-care approval, with reporting consistent with the ARRIVE guidelines. |
| ▸ | Field, soil and plant research: confirm any permits, land-access approvals and permissions for the use of agrochemicals, and for the collection of plant, soil or biological material, and comply with phytosanitary and conservation requirements. |
| ▸ | Genetic resources and access: confirm compliance with access-and-benefit-sharing requirements (for example the Nagoya Protocol) and the lawful transfer of germplasm and biological materials. |
| ▸ | Genetically modified organisms and biosafety: confirm the necessary biosafety approvals and containment for work involving GMOs, pathogens or other hazards, and disclose any GM materials. |
| ▸ | Biosecurity and dual use: consider whether the work could facilitate harm to agriculture, food systems or the environment, and describe the risk-management measures taken. |
Data availability
Include a Data Availability Statement describing whether, and how, the data (and code) supporting the results can be accessed. Deposit data, and where relevant sequence data, germplasm accessions and code, in a recognised, citable repository with a persistent identifier, wherever ethics, safety and law permit, and explain any restrictions.
Use of generative AI
Disclose any substantive use of generative-AI tools, naming the tool and version and describing how it was used. Authors remain fully responsible for all content, must verify AI-assisted output, and must not use AI to fabricate or manipulate data, results or images.
Originality and integrity
Manuscripts must be original and properly attributed, and are screened with similarity-detection software. Plagiarism, text recycling, duplicate or redundant publication, and data or image manipulation are not permitted and are handled under the journal’s Publication Ethics policy.
