About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The journal Rangifer was first published in 1981. Rangifer is the world's only scientific journal dealing exclusively with biology and management of arctic and northern ungulates, reindeer and caribou in particular. Rangifer publishes original research papers, review articles and brief communications in all themes and fields related to the animal reindeer/caribou and reindeer husbandry as culture and industry, and also papers on other northern ungulates. Further information about the background and history of Rangifer is available on the pages of the Nordic Council for Reindeer Husbandry and Research (NOR)

Rangifer paper edition (Normal Issue ISSN 0333-256X) was published regularly from 1981 to 2007. As from Vol. 28 (2008), Rangifer is an online open access journal (ISSN: 1890-6729) published only as an electronic version.

Rangifer Special Issue ISSN 0801-6399 was issued for the first time in 1986 and includes peer-reviewed conference material (articles and brief communications), theses, and other monographs.

Rangifer Report ISSN 0808-2359 was published between 1995 and 2010. The contents were mainly non-peer-reviewed material (programs, abstracts, poster summaries and articles) from the Nordic Conferences/Workshops on Reindeer and Reindeer Husbandry Research. From 2023 Rangifer Report is being published again with similar contents, however popular science summaries of material published elsewhere are also welcomed.

Rangifer is today registered in international scientific databases, including BIOSIS Previews, Biological Abstracts, Zoological Abstracts, CAB Abstracts and Agris. All published material in Rangifer is available in the Archive

Rangifer's logo

The logo was kindly permitted use by its originator the artist Terje Grøstad and has been Rangifer's logo since 1981. It was originally designed for the International Reindeer/Caribou Symposium at Røros, Norway, in 1978.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts are sent for independent peer reviews. Each submitted manuscript will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. Authors are encouraged to suggest relevant candidates to reviewers for their submitted manuscripts.

Publication Frequency

As from Vol. 28 (2008), Rangifer is issued as one number per year using consecutive publishing of accepted material. Rangifer Special Issues and Rangifer Report are published on a non-regular basis (depending on request). Publication as Rangifer Special Issue or Rangifer Report normally entail a publication fee.

Open Access Policy

From Vol. 28 (2008), Rangifer is an online open access journal (ISSN: 1890-6729). The journal provides immediate open access to all of its content. Authors retain copyright and grant Rangifer irrevocable and non-exclusive right of publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). This means, among other things, that anyone is free to copy and distribute the content, as long as they give proper credit to the author(s) and the journal. For further information, see Creative Commons website for human readable or lawyer readable versions.

The journal has no article submission charges or article processing charges.

Publisher 

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare
P.O. Box 7024, 750 07 Uppsala
Sweden

Email: rangifer@slu.se

Website: www.rangiferjournal.com

ISSN number

Rangifer has the following ISSN numbers:

1890-6729 Electronic edition
0333-256X Paper edition
0801-6399 Special issues (paper edition)
0808-2359 Reports (paper edition)

Journal archiving

The journal is included in the PKP Private LOCKSS Network.

Plagiarism screening

The journal has started using Similarity Check, a plagiarism screening service. From 2016 all submitted manuscripts will be scanned for plagiarism.

Sponsor

The journal belongs to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Short history of Rangifer

The editorial organisation of Rangifer was established in 1981, and the first issue was published that same year with NOR’s secretary general Sven Skjenneberg (1923-2009) being the editor located in Harstad, northern Norway. He was assigned the mandate for Rangifer to give primarily Nordic researchers in reindeer and reindeer husbandry possibilities to publishing results relatively fast and to function as a connecting link for researchers and advisers in reindeer husbandry to the best of the industry. The latter was achieved by having extensive abstracts in three languages. There was also a wish to publish in English but the transition to complete English editions happened not before 1991. The journal extended its scope successively and in 1993 changed to a completely new sub-title: Research, Management and Husbandry of Reindeer and other Northern Ungulates. This new rubric signified the journal’s new perspective but also reaffirmed its roots in reindeer science and reindeer husbandry. The first papers on caribou and on non-Rangifer cervids appeared already in 1985 and in 1986 the proceeding of the 4th International reindeer/caribou symposium were issued. Within the first ten years, Rangifer had become a journal of circumpolar Rangifer. The next stage to be a journal for all northern ungulates was natural and NOR’s board agreed to allow Rangifer to accept and publish papers also on northern ungulates. The main goal publishing four issues a year proved too ambitious and the journal issued mainly two issues per year until 2008 when the normal issue changed to an online edition with consecutive publishing of accepted articles.

The development of the journal was motivated in creating a high quality forum for scientific publishing in all themes and fields related to the reindeer animal and reindeer husbandry as a culture and industry, including papers on other northern ungulates, to increase the accessibility of such research.

Rangifer Special Issue was issued from 1986. Twenty special issues have been published so far. The first Rangifer Report was published in 1995 and after No. 14 in 2010 the publication was discontinued, until resumed again with No. 15 in 2023. Sixteen Nordic conferences on reindeer and reindeer husbandry research have been arranged so far. NOR's original mandate from 1981 was modified in 1989, 1992 and 2003. The secretariat moved in 1994 to the city of Tromsø, which is northern Norway's cultural and academic centre.

From 1981 to 2001, the editions of Rangifer were printed mainly in Harstad and after that, mainly in Tromsø. After Skjenneberg’s retirement in 1994, the secretariat of the Nordic Coucil for Reindeer Husbandry Research (NOR) moved to the city of Tromsø, northern Norway’s cultural and academic centre with Rolf Egil Haugerud being NOR’s secretary general and editor of Rangifer including volume 32 (2012). Further information about the background and history of Rangifer is available on the pages of the Nordic Council for Reindeer Husbandry and Research (NOR)

At NORs annual general meeting in October 2012 the formal closure of NOR was announced. However, it was decided that the publication of Rangifer will continue. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Reindeer Husbandry Unit, has now taken over the publication responsibility. Editor in chief from 2013-2022 was Birgitta Åhman (Professor in Reindeer Husbandry, SLU) and from 2023 Anna Skarin (Professor in Reindeer Husbandry, SLU) has taken over that position. Eva Wiklund (Associate Professor in Meat Science, SLU) has been the technical editor since 2013. Since 2008, Rangifer is an open-access journal based at a web platform at The University Library of Tromsø , Norway, an arrangement that will continue as before.

The logo of NOR and Rangifer was kindly permitted used by its originator the artist Terje Grøstad and has been the logo since 1981. It was originally designed for the International Reindeer/Caribou Symposium at Røros, Norway, in 1978.