Welcome to Africa Online & Publications Library
Sign In
e_AOPL journals are flagship scientific and technical publications of the Africa Online & Publications Library (AOPL), aiming to promote academic scholarship. e_AOPL Journals are published biannually and cover all academic specialisations, including the natural sciences, social sciences, applied sciences, arts and humanities with a focus on but not limited to the African continent. e_AOPL journals include:
1. e_AOPL Journal of Arts and Humanities
2. e_AOPL Journal of Social Sciences
3. e_AOPL Journal of Natural Sciences
4. e_AOPL Journal of Applied Sciences
5. e_AOPL Journal of Health Sciences
e_AOPL journals accept articles based on original research, reviews, special reports, opinion and analyses and brief communications. Original research reports should focus on substantive studies conducted on topics across all academic specialisms. Submitted works must follow the IMRAD format (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion) standard. Systematic reviews of relevant articles, reports, studies, or projects relevant to Africa. In addition, authoritative opinion papers, reflections, and analyses may be submitted on topics of interest, and brief communications describing innovative—or promising—techniques or methodologies or detail preliminary research results on topics of particular interest.
e_AOPL journals operate an anonymous and rigorous double-blind review system to ascertain the academic quality of all submissions. Manuscripts across a wide range of academic fields are accepted for review. If qualified after a rigorous double-blind study, the manuscripts are published in one of the editions of the journal. In addition, e_AOPL journals ensure diversity in its review and editorial policy by maintaining an active continent-wide editorial board.
Manuscripts undergo selection through a formal peer-review process. Initially, a manuscript that meets the general requirements for submission and complies with the subject scope of the journals will be reviewed by the Editors and Assistant Editors to determine if it has scientific merit and relevance for the journal's readership. If so, it will be sent for double-blind peer review to two or more referees. Upon receipt of all requested reviews, the Editors will prepare a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief to (a) reject the manuscript; (b) conditionally accept the manuscript (with either minor or major revisions), or (c) accept the manuscript.
In the case of a conditional acceptance, authors will be required to revise the manuscript to address the concerns and recommendations emanating from the peer review process or provide a detailed justification of the reasons for disagreeing with the observations made. The manuscript is again revised by the Associate Editors and by peer reviewers in some cases. Be advised that the text may undergo as many reviews as needed to ensure that authors have adequately addressed all issues raised.
The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the acceptance of manuscripts. All decisions are communicated in writing to the corresponding author.The time needed to process a manuscript varies depending on the complexity of the subject matter and the availability of appropriate peer reviewers.
a) be the author's original work.
b) Have not been published in part, both in print and electronically elsewhere.
c) Should not be under consideration elsewhere for publication.
Any instance of possible prior publication in any form must be disclosed when the manuscript is submitted, and a copy or link to the publication must be provided. Authors are solely responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any copyrighted material contained in the manuscript as submitted. The manuscript must be accompanied by an original letter explicitly granting such permission in each case. The letter(s) should specify the same table(s), figure(s), or text being cited and how it/they is/are being used, together with a complete bibliographic reference to the source (s).
In the case of papers containing translations of quoted material, a link or copy of that text in the original language must be identified and included as part of the manuscript's submission.
e_AOPL journals articles are open access and are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivs 3.0 IGO License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. No modifications or commercial use of the articles are allowed. In any reproduction of the article, there should not be any suggestion that e_AOPL journals or the article endorse any specific organisation or products.
Manuscripts should be submitted in English language only. However, formal names of institutions, either in texts or in the author affiliation data, should not be translated unless an officially accepted translation exists. Also, titles in references should be written in their original language.
Contributors must fully disclose information about any grant or subsidy to cover research costs received from a commercial or private entity, national or international organization, or research support agency. These disclosures help the reader better understand the relationship between the authors and various commercial entities that may be interested in the information reported in the published article.
e_AOPL journals are published in electronic format on the AOPL website. e_AOPL journals also deposit a complete version of the accepted manuscript in electronic form in the AOPL repository for information sharing. In addition, users may register at the AOPL website to receive monthly the table of contents of e_AOPL journals published articles. Database links lead directly to full-text versions of all published articles.
Authors will pay the sum of $30 after the review and acceptance of their manuscripts for publication.
The selection of material for publication in e_AOPL journals is based on the following criteria:
Suitability for the journal's subject scope.
- Scientific soundness, originality, salience, and timeliness of the information.
- Applicability beyond its place of origin and across Africa.
Manuscripts must comply with the specifications outlined in these Instructions and Guidelines to be accepted. Therefore, contributors should carefully read all sections before submitting papers through the online system to ensure the paper will meet the conditions for publication.
Manuscripts not following the standard format of e_AOPL journals will immediately be returned to contributors. The journal may also refuse to publish any manuscript whose contributors fail to answer editorial queries satisfactorily.
All manuscripts should be between 6000 and 9500 words, while Book Reviews and other submissions should range between 1000 and 1500 words, including footnotes. The works should be typed in Arial, 1.5 interline spaced, and 12 font size. The margin should be 2.5cm on all sides, while the first paragraph should be indented using the Tab key.
The manuscript's title should be clear, precise, and concise and include all the necessary information to identify the scope of the article. A good title is the first entry point to the article's content and facilitates its retrieval in databases and search engines.
Titles may not exceed 15 words. Ambiguous words, jargon, and abbreviations should be avoided. Titles should also be separated by periods or divided into parts should also be avoided.
Inclusion of other persons as authors, out of friendship, acknowledgment, or additional non-scientific motivation, is a breach of research ethics.
When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. Names of institutions should not be translated unless an official translation exists.
Although the submission system includes fields for five contributors only, e_AOPL journals accept more than five contributors for a given manuscript. Therefore, all authors should be mentioned in the cover letter.
The full name, address, current status, institutional affiliation, ORCID, email address, and telephone contact of the author(s) should appear on the title page.
The abstract is the second point of entry for an article and must enable readers to determine the article's relevance and decide whether to read the entire text.
Original research articles or systematic reviews must be accompanied by a structured abstract indicating the research problems and objectives, methods, procedures employed and significant findings plus contribution to knowledge in the chosen academic specialism. All manuscripts should have an abstract of between 200 and 250 words.
The abstract should not include any information or conclusions that do not appear in the main text. It should be written in the third person and should not contain footnotes, unknown abbreviations, or bibliographic citations.
Keywords should not exceed five.
Original research articles and systematic reviews are usually organized according to the IMRAD (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion) format.
While subheadings may be needed throughout the body, typically, the paragraph that begins the body does not need to be titled 'Introduction', as this is usually eliminated during the editing process. However, the article's objective should be clearly stated at the end of the introductory section.
The “Results and Discussion” sections may require subheadings. And “Conclusions”, which must be included at the end of the “Discussion” session, may also be identified by a subheading
Review articles are usually structured similarly to original research articles but must include a section describing the methods used for selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. Brief communications follow the same sequence of original articles but usually omit subdivision headings. Other types of contributions have no predefined structure and may use other subdivisions, depending on their content.
When using abbreviations, give the full term the first time an abbreviation or acronym is mentioned in the text, followed by the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses. As much as possible, abbreviations should be avoided. In general, abbreviations should reflect the expanded form in the same language as that of the manuscript. Exceptions to this rule include abbreviations known internationally in another language.
For Citations/References, submission to e_AOPL journals should adhere to The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition. For details follow: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Tables present information—usually numerical—in an ordered, systematic arrangement of rows and columns. The presentation should be easy for the reader to grasp, supplementing, without duplicating, the information in the text. However, too much statistical information may also be hard to interpret.
Tables should be uploaded separately from text files and left in an editable format (preferably an Excel file) and not as objects extracted from other files or embedded in Word documents. Each table should have a brief, but a complete title, including place, date, and source of information. The column headers should also be as brief as possible and indicate the unit of measure or the relative base (percentage, rate, index).
Missing information should be indicated by an ellipsis [...]. If the data do not apply, the cell should be marked `N.A.` (not applicable). If either or both of these devices are used, their meaning should be indicated with a footnote to the table.
Vertical rules (lines) should not be used in tables. There should only be three full horizontal rules: one under the title, a second under the column heads, and a third at the end of the table, above any footnotes.
Footnotes to a table should be indicated with superscript lowercase letters, alphabetically, in this way: a, b, c, etc. The superscript letters in the body of the table should be in sequence from top to bottom and left to right.
Contributors must be sure to include “call-outs”—points of reference in the text that correspond to the data—for all of the tables in the text.
Tables or data from another published or unpublished source must be acknowledged, and authors must obtain prior permission to include them in the manuscript. See `Copyright` section 1.8 for further details.
Figures include graphs, diagrams, line drawings, maps, and photographs. They should be used to highlight trends and to illustrate comparisons clearly and precisely. Figures should be easy to understand and should add information, not repeat what has been previously stated in the text or the tables. Legends should be as brief as possible but complete and inclusive place, date, and source of information.
Figures should be sent in a separate file, in their original editable format, following standards of the most common software programs (Excel, PowerPoint, Open Office, .eps).
Suppose the figure or table is taken from another publication. In that case, the source must be identified, and permission to reproduce it must be obtained in writing from the copyright holder of the original publication.
Manuscripts should be submitted only through the AOPQ online manuscript management system accessible through the AOPL website.
Authors will be notified by email that their manuscript has been received. In addition, authors can view the status of their manuscripts by entering their `Author Center` at any time throughout the process.
All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter which should include:
∙ Information about all previous reports and submissions
∙ Possible conflicts of interest
∙ Permission to reproduce previously published material
∙ Confirmation that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the contributors, and each author's contribution is listed.
Additional information that may be helpful to the Editors, Assistant Editors, and the Editor-in-Chief. The cover letter should be uploaded as a separate file from the rest of the manuscript.
Would you please review the files and aspects mentioned in these instructions before submittal to ensure your manuscript will comply with all of the Conditions for Publication should it be accepted?
Manuscripts are accepted to understand that the publisher reserves the right to make revisions necessary for consistency, clarity, and conformity with the style of e_AOPL journals.
Manuscripts accepted for publication will be edited and then sent to the corresponding author to respond to the editor's queries and approve any revisions. If the author does not satisfactorily respond to the editor's questions during this stage, the journal reserves the right not to publish the manuscript. To avoid delay in the publication of the corresponding issue, authors are urged to return the edited manuscript, with their approval, by the date indicated in the accompanying message.
The final PDF version will be sent to the corresponding author for approval after publishing.