About the Journal
Publisher
The African Applied Researchers Association (AARA).
Peer Review
The Editorial Office will check whether the composition and format of the paper comply with the Guide for Authors, to ensure it includes the required sections and styles. If the manuscript fails to meet one or more requirements, the Editorial Office will return it to the authors for amendments.
Evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) and Assignment to an Associate Editor (AE)
The EIC performs pre-screening and may reject papers upfront and decide not to forward them to the peer-review process. This may occur in the case of submission of clearly plagiarized or previously published papers, as well as of papers that fall outside the scope of the Journal, are not innovative or are of low relevance for readers.
The study must meet all ethical requirements as outlined in the Journal’s Publication Ethics https://publicationethics.org. If the manuscript meets all requirements, the EIC will assign it to an Associate Editor with relevant expertise, who will be responsible for managing the peer-review process. Associate Editors may reject manuscripts that they deem highly unlikely to pass peer review.
Invitation to Reviewers and Response
The African Journal of Applied Research operates a double-blind review process. The quality of manuscript content is assessed by the AE and a minimum of two additional independent expert reviewers. The handling AE sends invitations to individuals he/she maintains would be appropriate reviewers. Potential reviewers consider the invitation in light of their own expertise, conflicts of interest and availability and are free to accept or decline the invitation. If possible, when declining, they may also suggest alternative reviewers. As responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until the required number of reviewers is obtained.
Review
The reviewers will rate several aspects of the manuscript, offer specific suggestions for improvement, and make a recommendation with regard to its suitability for publication. They are required to possess specific expertise in the field of the individual submission, have time to produce a report within the deadline established by the editor and be devoid of any conflict of interest with the Authors or the content of the submission. They are expected to be balanced and consistently fair in evaluating papers and their reports should be analytical and constructive.
The review is submitted to the journal, with a recommendation to accept or reject the paper or with a request for revision (major or minor), that should be well substantiated and justified.
If major issues are identified on first reading the manuscript, the reviewer may decide to reject the paper without further input. All information contained in the manuscript and acquired during the review process will be held in the strictest confidence.
Associate Editor evaluates the Reviews and makes a Decision
The handling Associate Editor considers all reviews received before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ considerably, the Associate Editor may invite additional reviewers in order to obtain further opinions before making a decision. The key parameters to be applied in the final evaluation of all types of submissions are:
- Innovation (Is the manuscript original? Does it provide new evidence or ideas capable of furthering knowledge in the given social-economic context?)
- Quality (clarity, logic, English language and grammar, thoroughness, layout etc.)
- Relevance (interest to readers, not too specific, applicability, the importance of the topic, impact on social life, economy, the scientific community, etc.)
Four possible decisions may therefore be reached:
- Accept – the manuscript satisfies all publication parameters and is worthy of publication
- Minor/Major Revisions – further revision of the manuscript is required in order to satisfy all parameters (a deadline for submission of the revised version is set)
- Reject and Resubmission Suggested – the paper fails to satisfy key parameters and substantial revision of the manuscript is required to address its shortcomings (no deadlines are set)
- Reject – the paper fails to satisfy key parameters and it is highly unlikely that further work can address its shortcomings.
Confirmation of the Decision and Communication to the Authors
All decisions are confirmed by the EIC prior to notification. The Editorial Office sends a decision email to the corresponding author including any relevant reviewer comments. All comments and related files will be provided in an anonymised form.
Final Steps
If accepted, the paper is sent to production. Authors will receive an email informing them of the outcome of their review. AJAR will make every effort to ensure articles are published rapidly and accurately: the corresponding author will receive an e-mail with a link to the online proofing system (implementation in progress), and he/she should submit all corrections within 48 hours. Following the implementation of the corrections and signing of the Copyright Assignment by the authors, the article is published online under the licence Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY).
This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. Credit must be given to the creator.
All authors publishing with the African Journal of Applied Research accept these as the terms of publication.
This work is licensed under https://licensebuttons.net/l/by/3.0/88x31.png
If the article is returned to the authors for major or minor revision, the Editorial Office will provide constructive comments from the reviewers to help the author improve the article and set a deadline for submission of the revised manuscript. Whenever possible, the revised manuscript will be assessed by the original Associate Editor and by the original reviewers. Should only minor changes be requested this follow-up review may be performed directly by the Associate Editor.
If rejected, the paper is removed from the online system. Reviewers will receive an email informing them of the final decision.
Appeals
If the author believes that the editorial decision reached for the manuscript is not fair, he/she may contact the Editorial Office, stating the manuscript number and describing in detail the reasons for the appeal. The EIC will evaluate all requests and make a final decision, consulting the handling Associate Editor and revising the previous decision, if necessary.
Retractions
Articles may be withdrawn, retracted, removed or replaced after publication if they contain substantial errors that cannot be corrected by publishing an Erratum or a Corrigendum, or if ethical violations become known after publication. For more information, please visit our Publication Ethics https://publicationethics.org
ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM
Authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism takes many forms, from passing off another's paper as the author's own paper, copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication
Authors should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
In general, authors should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper. Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g. translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Publication Scheduling
This journal publishes twice a year.
