Overview

The following pages contain information about the editorial policies of the International Journal of African Studies. This policy outlines the rules that govern the publication process of our journal. A careful adherence to the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE) is maintained in this policy.

Authorship

Authorship gives a researcher accountability and recognition for their contributions to a study. The following standards, which are set by the ICMJE, should be met by authors of the International Journal of African Studies.

• It is anticipated that every author will have contributed significantly to the idea or design of the study as well as the gathering, processing, and interpretation of data; AND
• Creating a draft or making significant critical revisions for the work's intellectual content; AND
• Final clearance of the version that will be published; AND
• Assumes personal responsibility for all aspects of the work, agreeing to personally examine and address any issues pertaining to the accuracy or integrity of any portion of the work, even those in which the author was not directly involved—and to see that these issues are duly investigated, resolved and recorded in the literature.

When a researcher satisfies all of the requirements listed above for authorship, the International Journal of African Studies expects them to be included as co-authors and welcomes collaboration with peers in the research location. Authors who do not meet all the requirements should be included in the Acknowledgments section.

The International Journal of African Studies does not enforce an author list order or demand a letter of submission from each author. When a manuscript is submitted to an International Journal of African Studies, it signifies that every stated author has approved the whole document, including the author contribution statements and author list. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to confirm that this agreement has been reached, that all authors have given their consent to be named in this way, and that they have all approved the content. The corresponding author is also accountable for submitting a competing interests' on behalf of all manuscript authors. For further information, please refer to our conflicts of interests' policy.

Acknowledgment

The manuscript should provide a list of all contributors who do not fit the requirements for authorship in the "Acknowledgments" section. They list the names of those people who provided technical aid, helped with scientific writing and manuscript preparation, provided material or financial support, and access/permissions support from department/institution heads, etc. It is important to recognize the organizations that offered financial assistance or other resources.

Changes in authorship

Changes pertaining to authorship (such as additions, deletions, name changes, or adjustments to contributions) require the approval of all authors after the work has been submitted. The editor will need written confirmation from the relevant author that all authors have given their agreement for the change in authorship if the modifications are appropriate and acceptable. In order to find out if the authors have approved of the change in authorship, the editor also has the right to get in touch with any or all of them. The modifications will be put into effect in compliance with COPE guidelines.

Conflicts of interest

When submitting work to an International Journal of African Studies, authors are expected to disclose any funding sources, affiliations, and competing interests that could be viewed as potential sources of bias in relation to the research being reported or the content being presented.

It is the responsibility of the authors to declare all financial and non-financial competing interests, as well as financing and contributions.

Funding and Contributions

Regarding any and all financial contributions to the work being reported, each author is required to provide full and accurate disclosures. To maintain transparency throughout the review process, this information should be provided in the Funding statement found in the manuscript's Acknowledgments section. It will also be incorporated into the final publication. If applicable, non-monetary contributions of goods or services may be mentioned in the paper's published acknowledgments.

Among the competing financial interests are, but are not restricted to:

• Getting reimbursements, fees, funding, or honoraria from a company that stands to profit or lose money from the manuscript's publication now or in the future
• Owning stock or shares in a company that stands to profit or lose money now or in the future from the publication of the manuscript
• Having patents related to the content of the manuscript, or presently seeking for them

Non-financial competing interests

• Political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests are examples of non-financial competing interests, though they are not the only ones.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts that are submitted are considered confidential. Only those involved in processing and preparing the manuscript for publication (if accepted) will be able to access submitted manuscripts, according to the International Journal of African Studies. These people include editors, corresponding authors, prospective reviewers, and real reviewers in addition to editorial personnel.

All information on the editing and peer review process for submitted manuscripts must be kept confidential by editors, authors, and reviewers. The peer review procedure is anonymous and confidential; reviewers' identities are kept private until specifically stated as part of open peer review. Manuscript confidentiality must be upheld by reviewers. Reviewers should understand that we take great care to maintain the anonymity of their identities and that it is our policy to do so. However, in circumstances where misconduct is suspected, a manuscript may be disclosed to the ethical committee of the International Journal of African Studies as well as other institutions or organizations that would need it in order to address the misconduct.

In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, the International Journal of African Studies retains the right to get in touch with funders, organizations, regulatory bodies, journals, and the institutions of the authors.

Originality and duplication of publication

Submissions to an International Journal of African Studies must be original, or at least a significant portion of them, and they cannot be pending review by another publication. In any case, we require authors to be open and honest where there is a chance of overlap or duplication. In order for the editors to assess the originality of the content and its suitability for publication, authors should disclose any potentially overlapping publications at the time of submission. Copies of previous manuscripts containing overlapping or duplicated material should also be submitted as supplemental data files along with the manuscript. Submitting redundant content that has previously been published elsewhere will be viewed as unethical behaviour and will result in harsh penalties. Refer to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work, section III.D. “Overlapping Publications”

Plagiarism

International Journal of African Studies verifies the originality of submitted publications using plagiarism detection software. The manuscript will be rejected if plagiarism is found during peer review. If plagiarism is found after the work has been published, we will either retract the paper or make the necessary corrections. We define plagiarism in accordance with COPE.

Peer-review policy

Reviewers are essential to the publication of scientific works. The purpose of peer review is to make sure that journals publish high-quality research that benefits the whole scientific community. International Journal of African Studies publishes research/review articles as well as other sorts of publications that are subjected to a rigorous double-blind peer review process. Usually, two independent peer reviewers are involved in this process.

Availability of data and materials

When an article is submitted to an International Journal of African Studies, it is assumed that all relevant raw data and resources detailed in the publication will be publicly accessible to any scientist who wants to utilize them for non-commercial purposes.

Wherever possible, we urge authors to make sure that their datasets are given in machine- readable format (such as spreadsheets instead of PDFs) and either uploaded to publicly accessible repositories or included in the primary publication or supplementary supporting files. Authors can contact the journal editorial office for more information on how to cite the source of data, and readers who are having trouble accessing or acquiring materials may get in touch with the office.

Misconduct

We take seriously any claims of misbehaviour related to research or publications. We will thoroughly look into any accusations, and we reserve the right to get in touch with the publishers, funders, or authorities in question if necessary. A transgression of the editorial policy, journal policies, publishing ethics, or any other relevant rules or regulations as stipulated by COPE and ICMJE is considered misconduct. Potential misconduct includes any further actions that jeopardize or undermine the integrity of the publication or research processes. Cases of suspected misbehaviour shall be looked upon in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Ethics and consent

A suitable ethics committee must have approved any research involving human subjects, human materials, human data, or animal experiments and it must have been carried out in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All manuscripts reporting such research must include a statement indicating this, together with the name of the ethics commission and the reference number, if applicable. The article should also include information on any exemptions from ethics approval that have been granted for the study (including the name of the ethics committee that made the exemption). If the editor determines that the research has not been conducted within a suitable ethical framework, the manuscript may be rejected. The Editor may, in exceptional circumstances, request more information from the ethics committee.

Self-archiving and license to publish

Manuscripts accepted for publication in the International Journal of African Studies are encouraged to self-archive. For publications we publish, the International Journal of African Studies uses the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. With this license, users can copy, distribute, and transmit an article as long as they provide credit to the original author. Both commercial and non-commercial reuse are allowed under the CC BY license.

Corrections and retractions

In rare instances, the International Journal of African Studies may need to retract or make modifications to articles that have been published in order to preserve the credibility of the academic record. An article published in a journal may be corrected with permission from the editor of the journal. Editors will choose how significant the edits should be. A few minor edits are made to the original article. If significant changes are made, though, the original article will not be altered and will still be published alongside the updated version. The original and updated versions will be connected to one another. There will also be a statement released explaining the reason behind the significant revision to the article. Articles will be retracted in accordance with COPE retraction guidelines. when needed.