Clockwise from top left: Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA Director, and Dr. Desta Wirnas, SABRAO Secretary General, signed with MOU between SEARCA and SABRAO, with Dr. Che Xin, SABRAO First Vice President, and Mr. Joselito G. Florendo, SEARCA Deputy Director for Administration, as witnesses.
The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has agreed to be co-publisher of the 52-year-old SABRAO Journal of Breeding and Genetics.
This was formalized in a one-year memorandum of agreement signed by the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) and SEARCA on 15 September 2021.
An international society devoted to basic and applied aspects of breeding research in economically important plant species, SABRAO has been publishing the SABRAO Journal of Breeding and Genetics since 1969.
For most of its history, the journal was published once or twice each year. However, in recent years there has been a strong increase in the number of manuscripts to the journal.
Dr. Desta Wirnas, SABRAO Secretary General, expressed her optimism that the cooperation between SABRAO and SEARCA will improve not only the journal’s quality, but also its promotion.
This was affirmed by Dr. Naqib Ullah Khan, Professor, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Peshawar in Pakistan and SABRAO Journal Editor-in-Chief since 2016, who said “I wish more improvement through this merger of SABRAO and SEARCA, especially for the journal.”
“With this memorandum of agreement, I hope that we may boost the journal more and more to serve the science, specifically serve the authors who are interested to publish their research, including the younger doctoral and post-doctoral students,” Dr. Khan stressed.
Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio, SEARCA Director, thanked Dr. Khan for sharing highlights in the history of SABRAO Journal and his positive outlook for the partnership. Dr. Gregorio expressed his appreciation that both SABRAO and SEARCA are “determined to take the challenge of being the frontliners for education and agriculture.”
As co-publisher, SEARCA takes over the administration of the SABRAO Journal in cooperation with the SABRAO Journal Editorial Team. SEARCA will also host, manage, and improve the SABRAO Journal website.
Meanwhile, SABRAO will provide articles and content for forthcoming journal issues and review the layout before going to press.
SEARCA Applied Knowledge Resources Unit Head Benedict A. Juliano noted that “SABRAO already has a solid foundation and community of experts” and that the journal is well-established and SEARCA only has to strengthen the administrative and operational aspects of the journal.
While SABRAO will continue to finance all the journal publication-related costs, SEARCA will cover any deficit up to the level of SABRAO's funding support.
Dr. Gregorio stressed that “SEARCA believes that in order to maximize our potential we must go out of our comfort zone like what we are doing now. We must think out of the box, how to collaborate to make us more efficient like what we are doing in this promising collaboration… to bridge the gap in the food system through timely and relevant publications.”