Journal of Precision Agriculture · Aims and Scope
Aims and Scope
The journal publishes research that advances how agricultural systems are measured, understood and managed with precision — from sensing and analysis to machinery, adoption and the economics of putting it to work.
- Sense
- Analyze
- Model
- Automate
- Apply
- Adopt
Observation and sensing
How the state of a field, a crop, a soil or a herd is measured, and whether the measurement can be trusted.
- Proximal, aerial and satellite sensing platforms
- Multispectral and hyperspectral imaging for crop and soil assessment
- Thermal imaging, LiDAR and three-dimensional structure
- Soil and in-field sensor networks for real-time monitoring
- Sensor calibration, validation and uncertainty reporting
- Sensor integration and data-acquisition systems
- Individual-animal sensing and automated monitoring of livestock health, behavior, welfare and production
Spatial and temporal variability
How variation across a field and through a season is described, sampled and reduced to something a manager can act on.
- Characterization of soil and crop spatial variability
- Precision sampling design and geostatistical methods
- Interpolation, management-zone delineation and zone validation
- Yield mapping and spatial yield analysis
- Within-season and between-season change
- Scale and grain of observation, and the limits each imposes
Modeling, analytics and decision support
How measurements become an interpretation, a prediction or a recommendation, and how that interpretation is tested.
- Process-based crop growth and soil-crop models
- Yield prediction, forecasting and climate-crop interaction
- Model calibration, validation and transferability
- Machine learning and deep learning for prediction and image-based assessment
- Multi-sensor data fusion
- Prescription-map generation and optimization
- Decision-support systems and scenario analysis
- Farm data management, interoperability, and edge or cloud processing
Machinery, automation and application technology
How a recommendation is executed in the field, and how accurately the machine delivers what was specified.
- Precision equipment design, control and optimization
- GNSS and RTK positioning, guidance and controlled traffic
- Implement control for variable-rate application
- Autonomous navigation and field robotics
- Machine vision for crop and weed assessment
- Precision planting, seeding and selective harvesting
- Automated irrigation control and distributed field operations
- Field capacity, application accuracy and operational evaluation
Agronomic intervention
What changes in the field as a result, and what the agronomic outcome of acting site-specifically actually is.
- Variable-rate nutrient, crop-protection and irrigation management
- Site-specific weed, pest and disease management
- Precision irrigation scheduling and soil moisture networks
- Evapotranspiration modeling, deficit irrigation and water-use efficiency
- Precision phenotyping and trait analysis
- Soil health indicators, carbon quantification and conservation practice
- Comparative evaluation against uniform management
Agricultural systems and application
How precision methods behave in whole production systems, and what adopting them costs and returns.
- Whole-farm and cropping-system studies
- Precision feeding, grazing and herd-level decision support
- Specialty systems: viticulture, horticulture and orchards
- Greenhouse automation and controlled environment production
- Adoption, economic evaluation and return on investment
- Policy, governance and socio-technical questions in precision agriculture
- Environmental outcomes of site-specific management
- Traceability and data governance in production systems
- Extension, advisory practice and transfer between systems
What makes a submission assessable
Work is assessed on evidence appropriate to the claims it makes and to the design it uses. A field experiment, a sensing method, a simulation study, a synthesis and an adoption survey each owe a different account of themselves, and each is judged on that account rather than against a single template. The journal sets no universal requirement for measured field data, for an immediate operational recommendation, or for technical novelty.
Routine article types: Research Article; Review Article; Systematic Review and Meta-analysis; Methods/Technology Article; Data/Resource Article; Short Communication; Application/Case Study.
Invitation-only formats: Editorial — invitation only; Perspective/Commentary — invitation only.
Theory, methodological development, frameworks, syntheses and reviews are eligible in their own right, as are validation and comparison studies of existing precision-agriculture technologies. Research in newer areas — sensor networks for real-time monitoring, artificial intelligence for agronomic decisions, traceability, digital twin modeling, edge computing and connectivity — is welcome on the same terms.
Single-discipline work, replication, and negative or null results are assessed on the same footing as applied field studies. Manuscripts are assessed for scope, scholarly quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and research integrity.
Where a manuscript belongs elsewhere
A manuscript is a fit when it makes a substantive contribution to the understanding, measurement, analysis, modeling, development, validation, application, adoption, governance, economics or implementation of precision agriculture. Policy, economic, implementation and socio-technical research qualifies on the same basis as technical development, provided its contribution is genuinely to precision agriculture.
What falls outside is work with no meaningful connection to precision agriculture: general agronomy, agricultural policy, economics, data science, artificial intelligence, sensing or machinery studies that neither address precision-agriculture technologies and practices nor bear on spatial or temporal management of agricultural systems. Manuscripts whose main contribution lies in clinical veterinary medicine, human health outcomes or food processing technology belong with journals in those fields, and the editorial office is glad to suggest where to send them.
A topic that has not appeared in the journal before is not outside its scope for that reason. The published record illustrates eligible work rather than bounding it.
Related reading: About the journal, Instructions for Authors and Editorial Policies.
Submitting to this journal
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
- Primary routeManuscriptZone
- Alternative routeSimple manuscript submission form
- Assisted route[email protected]
Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.
Journal of Precision Agriculture · ISSN 2998-1506 · Published by Open Access Pub · CC BY 4.0