Time to Online Publication

The African Journal of Applied Sciences and Humanities adheres to international publishing standards as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We maintain strict timeframes to ensure a transparent and efficient peer-review process, allowing authors to easily track the status of their manuscripts through our online submission system.

Duration Breakdown

The overall duration of the publication process is divided into several key stages:

3 - 7 working days

1. Initial Screening & Plagiarism Check

Technical Compliance Verification:
  • - Proper formatting and structured abstract (purpose, methods, findings, originality).
  • - Verification of keywords (3-6 terms).
  • - Adherence to referencing style: APA 7.
Similarity Screening:
  • - Conducted using iThenticate (≤20% overall, <5% from a single source).
  • - Manuscripts exceeding thresholds will be desk-rejected.
7 - 30 working days

2. Peer Review

Review Process:
  • - Double-blind review by a minimum of two independent experts.
Additional Review Period (7-14 days) if:
  • - There are conflicting reviewer reports.
  • - Ethical concerns arise (e.g., authorship disputes or data fabrication).

3. Ethical Compliance

  • Authorship Confirmation: Must strictly meet the ICMJE criteria.
  • Data Availability Statement: Must adhere to the FAIR principles.
2 - 4 weeks

4. Revision Period

Decision Types:
  • - Accept (with Minor or Major revisions).
  • - Reject (with detailed reviewer comments).
Author Obligations:
  • - Submit a revised manuscript with highlighted changes and a point-by-point response letter.
  • - Maximum of 30 days for resubmission; extensions require approval.
1 - 2 weeks

5. Final Editorial Review

Validation of Revisions:
  • - Conducted jointly by the Associate Editor (content) and Copy Editor (language).
  • - CrossCheck will be performed on the revised sections to detect text recycling.
7 - 14 days (post-acceptance)

6. Publication

Pre-production:
  • - DOI assignment (via Crossref).
  • - Integration of ORCID for all authors.
  • - Proofreading (authors receive galley proof for final approval).
Post-production:
  • - Early Online First publication within 48 hours.
  • - Notification email with citation details, PDF version, and shareable link.
Publication Ethics

This document and timeframe structure is based on the COPE Code of Conduct, the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, and the Publisher’s Code of Conduct.