From Submission to Acceptance: An Assessment of the Performance of the Nigerian Journal of Animal Production.

Duration of time to acceptance of articles for publication in the Nigerian Journal of Animal Production (NJAP) was examined in this study. A total of 448 articles in 12 volumes published between 1995 and 2006 were used for the study Results showed that mean number of days to acceptance was 442.76 days, with a range of 348.09 days in 2005 to 620.86 days in 2002. Articles on livestock diseases took the longest time of 522.15 days from submission to acceptance and this was significantly(P<0.05) longer than the number of days for articles in breeding and genetics (378.47days), livestock economics and extension (378.23days) and fisheries and wild life (316.55days). Based on the species of animal used for experimentation, mean number of days to acceptance was longest (P<0.05) for articles on cattle (536.04days) which was significantly higher (P<0.05) than for goat (366.25 days) and fish (295.45days). A significant (P<0.05) positive correlation (r= 0.109) was observed between days to acceptance and the distance between author and editor. This study alluded to the existence of other factors yet to be uncovered that can be militating against quick acceptance of articles in NJAP and offer suggestion for improvement.