African Journal of Political Science and International Relations (ISSN 1996-0832) is an open access journal that publishes rigorous theoretical reasoning and advanced empirical research in all areas of the subject. We welcome articles or proposals from all perspectives and on all subjects pertaining to Africa, Africa's relationship to the world, public policy, international relations, comparative politics, political methodology, political theory, political history and culture, global political economy, strategy and environment. The journal will also address developments within the discipline. Each issue will normally contain a mixture of peer-reviewed research articles, reviews or essays using a variety of methodologies and approaches.

Manuscripts must be sent as e-mail attachment to ajpsir@academicjournals.org. AJPSIR editorial board makes an objective and quick decision on each manuscript. If accepted, the article is published online in the next issue.

AJPSIR is an open access journal and all articles published are available online without restriction to scientific researchers in the public and private sectors, government agencies, educators and the general public. The journal also provides a medium for documentation and archiving of scientific research. AJPSIR papers are exposed to the widest possible readership.

Electronic submission of manuscripts is strongly encouraged, provided that the text, tables, and figures are included in a single Microsoft Word file (preferably in Arial font).

Click here to Submit manuscripts online

Review Process

All manuscripts are reviewed by an editor and members of the Editorial Board or qualified outside reviewers. Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible, and the journal strives to return reviewers’ comments to authors shortly. The editorial board will re-review manuscripts that are accepted pending revision. It is the goal of the AJPSIR to publish manuscripts shortly after submission.

Original articles 

All portions of the manuscript must be typed double-spaced and all pages numbered starting from the title page.

The Title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper. The Title Page should include the authors' full names and affiliations, the name of the corresponding author along with phone, fax and E-mail information. Present addresses of authors should appear as a footnote.

The Abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the research, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. The Abstract should be 100 to 200 words in length.. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited. 

Following the abstract, about 3 to 10 key words that will provide indexing references to should be listed.

A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelled out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text.

The Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of disciplines.

Materials and methods should be clearly explained to allow possible replication of the research. However, only truly new research method should be described in detail; previously published methods should be cited, and important modifications of published methods should be mentioned briefly. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail. 

Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing author's findings. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section.

The Discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

The Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc should be brief.

Tables should be kept to a minimum and be designed to be as simple as possible. Tables are to be typed double-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the research methods should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph form or repeated in the text.

Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint before pasting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

References: In the text, a reference identified by means of an author’s name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author‘s name should be mentioned, followed by ’et al‘. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ‘a’ and ‘b’ after the date to distinguish the works.

Examples:

Cohen (2000), Steddy et al. (2003), (Kelebeni, 1983), (Bauer and Smith,1992), (Chege, 1998; Kan, 1987a,b; Cole, 1993, 1995), (Kumasi et al., 2001)

References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Kingori, University of Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication). Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Examples:

Bratton M (1998). Second Elections in Africa. J. of Democracy 9(3): 51-66.

Bueno M, Bruce, Morrow JD, Ranolph MS, Alastair S (1999). Policy Failure and Political Survival: The Contribution of Political Institutions. J. Conflict Resol. 43(2): 147-161.

De Villiers JW, Roger J, Mitchell R (1993). Why South Africa Gave Up the Bomb. Foreign Affairs. 72(5): 98-109.

Doyle MW (1986). Liberalism and World Politics. Am. Pol. Sci. Rev. 80(4): 1151-1169.

Mundree SG, Farrant JM (2000). The politics in the carribean. In Cherry et al. (eds) Politics again: The cry of a nation, Kain Academic Publishers, Finland, pp 201-222.

Smith B (2002). Interactions in politics  and intervention of  democratic rule  in  South Africa. PhD dissertation, University of Fort Hare, South Africa.

Critical Reviews, Surveys, Opinions, Commentaries and Essays

Submissions of critical reviews, surveys, opinions, commentaries, essays and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged.

Proofs and Reprints: Electronic proofs will be sent (e-mail attachment) to the corresponding author as a PDF file.  Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript at the proof stage.  Because AJPSIR will be published  online without access restriction to the full text (PDF), authors will have free electronic access to the full text ( PDF) of the article. Authors can freely download the PDF file from which they can print unlimited copies of their articles.

Copyright: Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis) that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.

Fees and Charges: Authors are charged a $550 handling fee. Publication of an article in the African Journal of Political Science and International Relations is not contingent upon the author's ability to pay the charges. Neither is acceptance to pay the handling fee a guarantee that the paper will be accepted for publication. Handling fee is accepted only after a manuscript has been reviewed and accepted for publication. Authors may still request (in advance) that the editorial office waive some of the handling fee under special circumstances.