Asian Journal of African Studies – AJAS
Article Submission and Review Process
Article 1 – Purpose
The purpose of this regulation is to give guidelines about manuscript submission and the review process for submissions to the Asian Journal of African Studies (hereafter referred to as “the Journal”) published by the Institute of African Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
Article 2 – Publishing time
The journal is published twice a year, in February and in August.
Article 3 – Type and content of Article
- Manuscripts should be original work and academic contributions to African studies or Africa related field of studies. The submitted article should be of core academic values and should have originality which has not been submitted or published in any other journal.
- The article could be a research paper or a review paper. A research paper is a paper with a theoretic analysis based on an experiential field study and literature materials. A review paper introduces the trend of research about particular issues and includes interviews and a book review.
Article 4 – Structure and activities of the editorial Board
- The editorial board will be appointed by the director of the Institute of African Studies through discussion with the steering committee of the institute, and should be announced in the second half of the year’s general meeting of the institute. The editorial board will consist of one chairman of the board and a number of other board members from various academic disciplines. The director will consider first, whether their final degree matches with the field of study for review, and second, their 5 years research achievement.
- The board members can be re-appointed to serve up to 4 years without pre-notifying reasons.
- The editorial committee will assign reviewers for the submitted manuscripts and accordingly make the final decision whether to publish the article.
- The board members can independently suggest for modifications and supplements of the submitted manuscripts.
Article 5 – Submitting manuscripts
- Application and submitting the manuscript
Authors wishing to publish their manuscripts need to fill out and submit the application form prepared by the institute and submit their manuscripts before the deadline. The manuscripts will have to be submitted either by email to the chief editor (the chairman of the board) or through the online system. Manuscripts should strictly be submitted in MS Word (latest version than ’97) file format. The editorial board will reply by email upon reception of the manuscript. The detailed deadline for manuscript submission and the review schedule is explained in Article 7.
- Identification of authors in co-authored papers
For co-authored manuscripts, details about the first author should be filled on the application form. And information about the first and second authors should be noted in order on the submitted manuscript.
- Amount of the manuscript
Manuscripts, not exceeding 11,000 words in length, must be typed in MS Word. A title page includes the author’s name, current position, postal address, telephone number, e-mail address and description of scholarly backgrounds and research interests.
- Abstract and title
In principle, a manuscript written in English need to consist of a Korean abstract and a Korean title and vice versa. However, if the manuscript is submitted from overseas countries, there is no need to include the abstract and title in Korean. The abstract should not be more than 250 words while Korean abstract should not be more than two pages.
- Designation of keywords
Manuscripts should contain 5 to 8 keywords revealing important concepts of the study both in English and Korean languages.
- Submitted manuscripts will not be returned to the authors.
- Refer to the guidelines of manuscript writing about the editorial policies for submission of manuscripts.
Article 6 – Reviewing policy
- Gathering of the editorial board and manuscript review
The editor-in-chief will call for the first gathering of the editorial board within one week after the deadline of manuscript submission. Submitted manuscript will pass through the review process in order to decide whether to publish it and the publishing of book reviews will be decided by the editorial board.
- Appointment of reviewers
The task of reviewing the manuscripts will be done by reviewers designated by the editorial board or through the board meeting. The first board meeting will assign two reviewers for one manuscript. In principle, a person from the same institution or the same department with the manuscript submitter cannot be appointed as a reviewer.
- Guarantee about anonymity of the review process
The review process needs to be fairly conducted by removing any clue about the identities of both the author and the reviewer.
- The appointed reviewers need to conduct the manuscript review and submit their suggestion for modification to the editorial board based on the chapter 6 of the institute’s regulation about the details of evaluation criteria.
- The evaluation criteria will be 30% for originality, 40% completion, and 30% for contribution of the paper. In order for the paper to be accepted for publishing, the result must be with a score more than 15% points in each category with 60% points in total.
- Judgment of the editorial board
The editor-in-chief calls the editorial board for the second board meeting within one month from the first board meeting and will judge on the final acceptance of the manuscript for publishing.
| Reviewer (A) | Reviewer (B) | Evaluation Criteria |
| Pass | Pass | Publish |
| Pass | Partial modification | Publish after modification |
| Partial modification | Partial modification | |
| Pass | Fundamental modification | Second review after modification |
| Partial modification | Fundamental modification | |
| Pass | Fail | Modify or Fail after review by a third person |
| Partial modification | Fail | |
| Fundamental modification | Fundamental modification | Not publish |
| Fundamental modification | Fail | |
| Fail | Fail |
- Notification of the results
The editorial board will notify the final decision to the authors of the manuscripts.
1) Manuscripts with a “Not publish” decision could be resubmitted to the journal with the same topic and the same content.
2) Manuscripts with a “Modify or Fail after review by a third person” or “Second review after modification” decision will not be published on the corresponding volume of the journal. The author could submit a new application form after making a complete modification to the manuscript and subsequently decision will be made whether to publish it on the next volume through a review process.
3) Manuscripts with a “Publish after modification” decision will be published after the author’s modification and final judgment by the editorial board. The author is expected to submit the modified paper by the deadline set by the editorial board. If the author fails to accept the modification or supplementation request, the editorial board may cancel the publishing decision.
4) Manuscripts with a “Publish” decision will be published on the corresponding volume without any modification.
- Final decision about publishing the paper
The editor-in-chief will call for the third board meeting within three weeks of the end of the second board meeting. The third board meeting will examine and make a final decision whether the modified manuscript submitted by the author is worth publishing it.
Article 7 – Detailed timetable of publishing the journal (manuscript submission, review day, end of review)
| First half of the year volume (Feb. 28) | Second half of the year volume (Aug. 31) | |
| Application deadline | Dec. 15 | Jun. 15 |
| Manuscript submission deadline | Dec. 30 | Jun. 30 |
| First editorial board meeting | Jan. 4 | Jul. 4 |
| Manuscript Review | Jan. 5- Jan. 31 | Jul. 5 – Jul. 30 |
| Second editorial board meeting | Feb. 1 | Aug. 1 |
| Request for modification | Feb. 2 – Feb. 15 | Aug. 2 – Aug. 15 |
| Third editorial board meeting | Feb. 16 – Feb. 25 | Aug. 16 – Aug. 25 |
| Publishing | Feb. 28 | Aug. 31 |