Africa Spectrum

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Africa Spectrum

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/africaspectrum to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer-review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Africa Spectrum will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Africa Spectrum may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the editorial office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the pre-print in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the pre-print server while it is being peer-reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your pre-print to the final version of your paper.

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & Scope
   3.2 Article types
   3.3 Writing your paper
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer Review Policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research data
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Formatting
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplementary material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
   6.6 Language
   6.7 Biographical note
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 How to submit your manuscript
   7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
   7.3 Information required for completing your submission
   7.4 ORCID
   7.5 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.2 Online publication
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further information
10. Appealing the publication decision

1. Open Access

Africa Spectrum is an Open Access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons (CC BY), and it is recomended this is the licence which is selected. This allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced. 

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

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2. No Article processing charge (APC)

The journal is financially supported by the GIGA Institute for African Affairs, Hamburg, and therefore does not charge an article processing charge for Open Access publication.

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3. What do we publish?

3.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Africa Spectrum, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope. For five decades, Africa Spectrum has regularly provided in-depth analyses of current issues in political, social and economic life; culture; and development in sub-Saharan Africa, including historical studies that illuminate current events on the continent.

If authors submit quantitative data and statistical models, they should be presented in forms that are accessible to our multi-disciplinary audience and not in an overly technical manner. 

3.2 Article Types

Africa Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretion. The peer review process will be conducted in the submission language. However, accepted articles must be translated into English before publication.

Africa Spectrum accepts (a) Research Articles, (b) Review Articles, (c) Debate Articles, (d) Analytical Reports, and (e) Book Reviews. The journal also publishes (f) special issues, or special sections, focused on in-depth analysis of particular subjects.

Submissions must include a completely anonymous version of the text. The word limits including references are as follows: standard Research Articles 9,000 words, other article types are up to 4,500 words, and book reviews should be no longer than 1,000 words.

(a) Research Article

Manuscripts are diverse in content and structure. However, all research articles should adhere to the highest scientific principles, including sound theoretical framing, clear methodology, original (empirical) material, and precise arguments. If authors use discipline-specific methods (e.g., quantitative data and statistical models), they must be presented in forms that are accessible to our multi-disciplinary audience. For example, authors should present their findings in narrative forms and place their equations in appendices. See recent research articles as examples.

(b) Review Article

Authors that wish to clearly discuss the state of the art of a current debate can do so in the form of a review article. Authors should study all relevant published material on the topic of their choice and share the strands of knowledge discussed, their implications, as well as the remaining gaps. While submissions should adhere to the same scientific principles as for research articles, the focus is usually on theoretical contributions and less on empirics. See published Review Articles as examples.

(c) Debate Article

Africa Spectrum encourages authors to challenge “African Studies” itself by reflecting on its epistemologies, knowledge communities, and publishing landscape, among other things. We encourage authors submitting Debate Articles to engage with the reflections already advanced in published Debate Articles in Africa Spectrum.

(d) Analytical Report

Authors can provide preliminary analysis of current developments or new data sources by submitting Analytical Reports. Possible topics include recent elections, conflict events, regional policy developments, or important new survey findings. While submissions should adhere to the same scientific principles as for research articles, the focus is usually on empirics and less on a theoretical contribution. See published Analytical Reports as examples.

(e) Book Reviews

Authors can also review books. The review should be a critical appraisal of the book and it should explain the main research issues covered, the theoretical concepts and methodological approach, the book’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as discussing how the book contributes to the ongoing scientific or policy discussion.

The review should be titled with the following information: name and first name of the author(s), book title, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, ISBN, and number of pages. A Book Review should not contain footnotes or bibliographic notes.

(f) Special Issues

Guest editors can propose a thematic issue with multiple contributions to Africa Spectrum. Special issue inquiries should be directed to the editors and include a synopsis (maximum two pages) of the proposed issue, demonstrating its relevance to contemporary debates and literature in African Studies, and the theoretical, empirical and/or methodological contributions it makes to relevant fields. Requests should also include a document with author biographies and preliminary abstracts for each proposed submission. Guest editors are also expected to supply a document with at least two recommended peer reviewers for each manuscript. A template for the peer reviewer list can be requested from the journal editors. Guest editors are reminded that Africa Spectrum follows a double-blind peer review process, which means that their suggested peer reviewers should not be able to identify the author/s from their manuscript, for instance due to prior collaboration.

Special issues are composed of 5-7 articles plus an introduction, which is written by the guest editors after all manuscripts have been submitted and reviewed. For thematic issues with less than five articles, a “special section” can be proposed following the same process, but will not include an introduction.

When authors submit their individual manuscripts, they should select “Special Issue” as the type of manuscript. Please instruct authors to note to which special issue their contribution belongs. Each manuscript is individually reviewed and must pass the review process on its own merit. Upon acceptance, the articles are published online first and collated into a print Special Issue when all manuscript are completed and published.

Guest editors are encouraged to support their Special Issue through writing workshops and pre-review among contributing authors. The Africa Spectrum team may also call on guest editors to ensure authors’ timely response to revision and production requests.

3.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

3.3.1 Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Due to the high number of submissions, we are only able to review one article per author at a time. 

Africa Spectrum utilizes a double-anonymize peer review process in which the reviewer and author’s names and information are withheld from the other. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision.

The editor or members of the editorial team may not submit research articles to Africa Spectrum . However, they may occasionally submit their own analyses and reports as well as book reviews for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, alternative members of the board will manage the review process, and the submitting editor/team member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

Africa Spectrum is committed to delivering high-quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third-party service that seeks to track, verify, and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Africa Spectrum can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision, and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.

4.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and to identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed on the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

4.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company, and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose the use of language-polishing services.

4.4 Funding

Africa Spectrum recommends all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding.

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Africa Spectrum encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

4.6 Research data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Africa Spectrum and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Africa Spectrum publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons (CC BY), and it is recomended this is the licence which is selected. This allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page.

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Formatting

The submission file should not exceed 9,000 words including references (Research Articles), 4,500 words (Analytical Reports, Debate Pieces, Review Essays) or 1,000 words (Book Reviews), respectively.

Send the text as an anonymous Word file. Please use a standard font (e.g., Times New Roman or Calibri, 12 pt., and 1.5 line spacing).

Do not use justification and syllabication in your text.

Include footnotes for digression or further argumentation sparingly. Use British English throughout text, and please be sure to write clearly and use correct punctuation; we recommend that non-native authors have their contributions proofread. If you require proof-reading but your institution does not provide this service, please indicate so in your cover letter – we will consider this during review and provide proofreading support in-house for a limited number of submissions annually. In-house language editing is reserved, particularly, for scholars based at Global South institutions that do not offer these services.

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and LaTex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

Tables, diagrams, and images should be used in moderation.

They are to be numbered and provided with an individual title and an exact reference; they should be placed within the text at the appropriate points.

Please make sure you are in possession of the appropriate copyright permissions when including images and keep written records of permissions to be produced on request. Authors are solely responsible for obtaining reprint authorisation.

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online but will appear in black and white in print (unless otherwise arranged). Therefore, it is important that you supply images that are comprehensible in black and white as well (i.e. by using colour with a distinctive pattern or dotted lines). The captions should reflect this by not using words indicating colour.

6.3 Supplementary material

This journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files. 

Please note that for our reviewers’ ease, we ask that any supplementary tables of data are submitted to us in PDF, Word, or PNG file formats and not as a LaTex file. 

6.4 Reference style

Africa Spectrum adheres to the Sage Havard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style. If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.

6.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

6.6 Language

Africa Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request (at the editors’ discretion). The peer review process is conducted in the submission’s language. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretion. While the peer review process will be in the submission language, accepted articles must be translated into English for publication. Africa Spectrum can provide this service for a limited number of articles per year where authors are unable to access this service through their host institutions. Translation services are subject to funding availability.

6.7 Biographical note

All authors are asked to provide a biographical note, which should state the following: current occupation, scientific discipline, research fields, and projects (maximum 100 words).

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7. Submitting your manuscript

7.1 How to submit your manuscript

Africa Spectrum is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http//mc.manuscriptcentral.com/africaspectrum to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help

7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts

Please supply a title, short title, an abstract, and keywords to accompany your article. The abstract should consist of a maximum of 150 words. Please add three to five keywords. If possible, please also translate the abstract and keywords into French and a fitting third language (e.g., an appropriate language in the case/s studied) please include the translated version of the word “Abstract” on your translated abstract file as a title, or for French abstracts, please ensure “ Résumé ” is included. The title, keywords, and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract, and select your keywords by visiting the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

7.3 Information required for completing your submission

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

You will be asked to provide full contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.4 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer-review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.5 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement

8.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Please do let the editorial office know of any instances where there may be a delay.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

8.2 Online publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an Open Access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. In addition, Sage is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.

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9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Africa Spectrum editorial office as follows:

Email: africa-spectrum@giga-hamburg.de

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10. Appealing the publication decision

Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com

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