Host your journal on AJOL

AJOL is a web platform for African-published journals. It is a partnership of journals committed to increasing the international profile of Africa's scholarly work and improving access to African-originated knowledge. By joining together as a large group of journals, this service has attained great international recognition, and visibility on the internet.

What services does AJOL provide to partner journals?

AJOL provides the following services for each of its participating journals:

• Free journal home page on AJOL (includes contact details, editorial information and instructions to authors)
• Free meta-data hosting
• Free full text hosting (closed for subscription-based journals, free pdf article download of articles from Open Access journals)
• International exposure to over 100,000 researchers each month
• Potential extra revenue stream from article downloads (subscription-based journals only) Currently, the loading of journal content to the AJOL site is done by AJOL staff. Going forward, Publishers / Editors will be encouraged to take ownership and control of this process themselves.

Please email us at applications@ajol.info for these instructions on the application process.

What are the criteria for being included on the AJOL platform?
Applicant journals need to comply with various criteria for inclusion, including (but not limited to) the following:

1. The journal must be scholarly in content, actively publishing and contain original research articles
2. The journal’s content must be peer-reviewed and quality controlled
3. The journal must have a functional Editorial Board, with all people listed actively involved with the journal and up to date. Accurate names of all people listed as members of the Editorial Board and any Advisory Committee are required, as well as the primary institutional affiliation for each person, and the country in which they live. As part of the application, AJOL also requires full contact details for each person listed on the Editorial Board and Advisory Committee, as well as key journal staff. 
4. The journal must have a registered ISSN and eISSN
5. The journal agrees to upload or provide all content for inclusion on AJOL (tables of contents, abstracts, and full text) in electronic format and in a timely manner and agrees that the journal is responsible for ensuring their content AND all information about the journal on AJOL is accurate and up to date
6. The journal guarantees all requisite permissions are granted to allow AJOL to operate an article download service
7. The journal must be published by a clearly stipulated publishing entity (e.g. professional publishing company, scholarly research association, university, research institute, etc.) that is based in the African continent. Management of publishing strategy, peer-review, and production operation should be run from an African country or countries, and at least half of the Editorial Board should be based in Africa (ideally from multiple institutions… not all the same university, for example).

More detailed criteria for assessment can be found here: www.journalquality.info  If your journal meets the above criteria and is able to provide all necessary supporting documentation and information, you may submit an application to join the AJOL Pan-African partnership, and will then be able to access the various free support services AJOL provides.

To apply for your journal to be hosted by AJOL, the following items are required:

1. A completed AJOL Application Form (this form is available on email request to applications@ajol.info). The fully completed form should be emailed back to applications@ajol.info. This is vital for the journal evaluation process. Please make sure you provide as much accurate and detailed information as possible, and complete the entire form.

2. Full text article PDF access to your journal’s past issues:

• If your journal only publishes in hardcopy, we might require a print/hard copy of the most recently published issue. 
• If your journal is fully electronic with no hard copies, please make a note of this on the information form and provide us with the journal’s URL (and password if required) so we can view the online content. 
• Should the journal be approved for inclusion on AJOL, we require the full archive of all PDF articles from all past issues to be added to the AJOL platform. We prefer that partner journals upload their own content to the AJOL platform once accepted. Instructions on how to do so will be sent to you if your journal is approved.

Additional Journal information/documents required: 

• The journal’s Guidelines To Authors document
• A comprehensive, detailed and accurate explanation of your journal’s peer-review and quality control processes, including the type of peer-review, roles and responsibilities for implementation of peer-review, how reviewers are sourced, and each step of the peer-review procedure, and the methods the journal uses to detect plagiarism. There is a space for this information in the application form, but we encourage submission of a separate document to allow for all the detail required. 
• Guidelines for Reviewers (if the journal does not yet have guidelines for peer-reviewers this must be noted in the information form) 
• Full details of the journal’s Editorial Board Members and any Advisory Committee Members or similar (specifying full names, primary institutional affiliation, country and comprehensive contact information for each member including email addresses)
• Full information of any fees of any kind charged by the journal (subscriptions / page charges / APCs or any other charge levied by the journal 
• Any other policy and procedures documentation used by the journal, for example Open Access policy statement and license type, and policies on publishing malpractices.

Kindly note that the journal will not be assessed until all the above required information has been received by AJOL. Questions and queries to applications@ajol.info 

For suggestions on useful links that should be added to this collection, or to notify us about broken links, please contact AJOL at webmaster@ajol.info

Please note that AJOL is not responsible for the content, products or services offered by externally linked websites.

Click here to find out how to increase your journal's international visibility

After you've read that, start here:

• The Publishers Learning and Community Exchange (PLACE) helps publishers who need a little extra support in understanding publishing processes and standards to find the information and networks they need to succeed. It includes information on publishing ethics, metadata, choosing a platform, and how to get started as a scholarly publisher.
• AJOL strongly recommends that journals give specific guidelines to their peer-reviewers. This document gives guidance on what a peer review policy should include.
• The ISSN International Centre Home Page gives information on the various types of ISSN required for your journal.
• Starting a new Scholarly Publishing Journal in Africa is a useful guide published by the Public Knowledge Project, and a must-read for all new journal editors. (Please note, this is a large download and may affect slower internet connections.)
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI)s are permanent identifiers for content objects in the digital environment. DOI's can be assigned to any entity — articles, data sets, and so on — for use on digital networks. For more information on DOIs from Crossref, see Crossref's website.
• This Crossref-DataCite guide on metadata explains why it is crucial for preserving research integrity.
• Free anti-virus software is available from AVG and free anti-spyware software is available from Spybot. 
• The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is an organization of journal editors concerned about dealing with possible breaches in research and publication ethics. It includes guidelines on good practice, articles about specific topics, and statistics and case studies on fraud and misconduct.
• African Books Collective (ABC), founded, owned and governed by African publishers, seeks to strengthen indigenous African publishing through collective action and to increase the visibility and accessibility of the wealth of African scholarship and culture. Print on Demand is among the services offered.
• World Association of Medical Journal Editors (WAME) is a voluntary association of editors from countries throughout the world who seek to foster international cooperation among editors of peer-reviewed medical journals.
• The website of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) is a very useful resource for the publishers and editors of medical journals and those in related fields. 
• ResearchGATE is an online social networking platform where researchers can network, form groups, upload papers, hunt for jobs, find info on conferences, use the unique self-archiving repository to connect with one another. ResearchGATE is a free-of-charge service, hosting meta-data of around 35 million articles and publications and tens of thousands of full-texts, focused on the sciences but open to all disciplines.
• OASIS aims to provide information on all things Open Access, covering the concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieve it. The site highlights developments and initiatives from around the world, with links to diverse additional resources and case studies.
  
  

Links to relevant Open Source Software

• Open Journal Systems (OJS) is free internet-based publishing software developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) in Canada. Journals with a decent internet connection can install and run this software easily, using the site's resources on how to use it. AJOL uses amended OJS as part of its own software platform!
• The PKP resource for online courses in how to use Open Journal Systems software for Editors.
• Statistics Software is also available:
• StatCrunch is a powerful, conveniently accessible, multi-platform statistical software package.
• Graphpad software offers a selection of free online calculators for doing quick statistical calculations.

Links on Diamond Open Access (Diamond OA, no-fee OA)

The European Diamond Capacity Hub has devised and released the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS), which includes a toolsuite to support journals that may wish to become Diamond Open Access.

Links on Open Access (OA)

• This is a link to a comprehensive overview on Open Access, with links to other resources on the subject.
• The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) have developed the Open Access Journals Toolkit, giving a set of useful and easily-used guidelines for operating an OA journal
• Open Access goes hand in hand with the Creative Commons, and this resource is helpful when it comes to choosing a CC licence that is right for your journal. 
• SPARC's Open Access Journal Publishing Resource Index — a collection of resources useful to OA publishers. The SPARC website also has an excellent and comprehensive outline of income models for Open Access.
• The Open Access Scholarly Publishers’ Association (OASPA) offers a forum for bringing together the entire community of Open Access journal publishers. OASPA’s mission is to represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journal publishers globally in all scientific, technical and scholarly disciplines.
• The Open Society's OA journal business plan templates to help journals plan a viable move from a subscription-based to an Open Access publishing model, or to launch a new OA journal.
• Listing in the international Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is greatly helpful in improving journal quality and credibility. Instructions on how to apply for listing can be found here. 
  

AJOL plans to add resources and links to this section, with a particular emphasis on the viability of Open Access publishing in Least Developed Countries. Suggestions would be most welcome!

Links on Copyright and Access to Knowledge Issues

• This Libguide is a useful guide on international, regional and South African copyright and related issues.
• This explainer from Creative Commons handles the question of how Creative Commons and copyright co-operate.

Links on Detecting and Preventing Plagiarism

This is an area of concern to many African educators and journal editors. The internet may be used as a tool to prevent plagiarism. These links can provide some ideas of how to do that.

• The Plagiarism Portal on the Wits University Library website has a large number of excellent online resources, including links on plagiarism definitions, referencing styles and detection software.
• "Viper"  is a free-to-download anti-plagiarism and detection tool, useful for editors and authors alike. Likewise, Grammarly is a useful and free way of checking many international databases for plagiarised text.
• This is a comparison of various anti-plagiarism tools. Not all of these tools are free, and all of them need careful checking and verification after use - they are not perfect.
• CrossRef has now launched 'CrossCheck', a new initiative to aid publishers in verifying the originality of scholarly content. Following on the success of CrossRef's recent pilot of CrossCheck, this service is now open to all CrossRef member publishers.
• This page from the University of Oxford is very helpful for understanding, detecting and preventing plagiarism. Interesting facts as well as useful tools, tips and resources are also available here.
• This resource from the San Jose State University Library is a useful guide on how to navigate the role of AI in plagiarism.
  

  Online training for editors and journal staff

  Establishing and sustaining a scholarly journal requires working knowledge of many different components of academic publication and scholarship more generally. Short courses may be beneficial for time-constrained editors who wish to develop in their roles. Please note that AJOL has no affiliation to any of the course providers listed below. 

• The Canadian Research Knowledge Network's six-part webinar series on Persistent Identifers can be found online here. (The same organisation's assessment guidelines for OA publishers can be found here.)
• Stellenbosch University (South Africa) offers Academic Editing I and Academic Editing II, to upskill editors in editing academic texts.
• The University of Cape Town (South Africa) offers short courses on copy-editing, UX design, web design, AI ethics and policy in Africa, research integrity and public relations.
• Library Juice Academy offers a month-long online course, Introduction to Metadata, that covers the different types and basic principles of metadata. Although this course is aimed at librarians, journal editors unfamiliar with metadata would benefit. LJA also offers courses on digital repository fundamentals, and Creative Commons and Copyright.
• The Publisher Training Centre offers courses on editorial project management, copyright, rewriting and substantive editing, and copy-editing.
• Coursera offers online courses on data management and sharing for researchers, data protection, writing and publishing a scientific paper, ethics and AI, and copyright.
• FutureLearn offers online courses on AI and data law, AI and ethics, academic freedom, translation, open science and technical writing.
• WitsPlus, the lifelong learning arm of the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), offers a three-month course in copy-editing and proofreading.

   Impact Factors and Metrics: Avoiding Misleading Metrics in Journal Communication

  As editors, you play a central role in upholding the credibility and integrity of our journals. Part of that responsibility includes ensuring that the journal does not rely on, advertise, or become associated with misleading or non-transparent metric providers.

  A number of private companies market proprietary “impact factors” or “quality scores” that are not recognised by the international bibliometrics community. These metrics often mimic legitimate indicators but lack transparent methodology, independent verification, or established scholarly credibility. Their use is frequently associated with predatory or low-quality publishing practices.
  
  Why editors should avoid these metrics: 
  1. They can mislead authors and readers. These services often use terminology similar to established bibliometric indicators, which can create a false impression of journal prestige.
  2. They risk reputational damage. Association with non-transparent metrics may cause authors, reviewers, and institutions to question a journal’s editorial rigour, even unintentionally.
  3. They undermine responsible research assessment. Global frameworks such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics, and the Hong Kong Principles for Assessing Researchers emphasise transparency, methodological soundness, and article-level merit—standards incompatible with non-transparent numerical scores.
  4. They are commonly used by predatory journals. Studies consistently show that questionable journals rely on these metrics to create an appearance of legitimacy. Editorial teams should avoid practices that mirror those signals.

  What can editors do?

  1. Remove or avoid all references to non-transparent metrics from the journal's website and other material.
  2. Do not include such metrics on the journal website, in calls for papers, author guidelines, or promotional materials.
  3. Do not respond to solicitations from metric providers. These companies often solicit journals directly. Editors should decline participation and avoid enrolling the journal in their scoring schemes.
  4. Communicate your journal's values clearly to authors. When authors enquire about journal “impact”, emphasise article-level strengths, readership and community relevance, editorial quality and peer-review standards, and/or open-science practices (where appropriate).
  5. Model responsible assessment practices. Use and promote evaluation criteria that reflect the quality, contribution, and relevance of research rather than reliance on journal-level metrics.

  Please see these links for further information:

  • COPE guidance on responsible practice and citation manipulation: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines

  • Think. Check. Submit. – Guidance on identifying trustworthy journals: https://thinkchecksubmit.org/.

    
    Editors are stewards of the scholarly record. By avoiding misleading metrics and adhering to responsible research-assessment principles, you help strengthen:

    • the credibility of your journal,

    • trust among authors and reviewers,

    • the standing of the scholarly community we serve.

    Together, we promote a publishing environment where quality, transparency, and integrity matter far more than any numerical score.