African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development

Instruction for Authors

These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal’s requirements. For general guidance on the publication process at Taylor & Francis please visit our Author Services website.

Aims and Scope: African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID) is a multidiscipline journal, which publishes original research covering economics, science, engineering, and technology, but with a focus on the economics of innovation and development. The journal targets policy makers, practitioners, as well the academic researchers concerned with the impact of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation process on industrial, economic, social and sustainable development, including venture creation, social innovation, economic and social entrepreneurship, innovative engineering, and business management. Contributions detailing novel theories and approaches for engineering innovation for social inclusion and green economy are very welcome. The main focus of AJSTID is Africa, but contributions from elsewhere that have implications for all developing economies are encouraged. The journal publishes full-length papers (up to 8 000 words), research commentaries and research notes (2 500 words), and book reviews. Critical reviews (up to 10 000 words) will be considered.

Peer Review: This journal uses Editorial Manager to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for Editorial Manager authors
before making a submission. AJSTID considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that:
• the manuscript is your own original work, and does not duplicate any other previously published work, including your own previously published work; and
• the manuscript has been submitted only to African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation & Development; it is not under consideration or peer review or accepted for publication or in press or published elsewhere.

By submitting your manuscript to AJSTID you are agreeing to any necessary originality checks your manuscript may have to undergo during the peer-review and production processes. Any manuscript which fails to adhere to the above conditions can be rejected at any stage during the peer-review and production processes. All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editors-in-Chief, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. AJSTID follows the policy of double blind review system, but it issingle blind in some exceptional cases. Read more  information regarding anonymous peer review here. 

Citations: Please note that all papers accepted for this journal are subject to originality checking. To avoid potential problems, please ensure that all citations are fully disclosed at the point of submission.

Copyright and authors' rights: This journal uses the Electronic Copyright System (ECS) and emails with the link to confirm the authors copyright requirements will be sent separately when their article enters production. To assure the integrity, dissemination, and protection against copyright infringement of published articles, you will be asked to assign us, via a Publishing Agreement, the copyright in your article. Your Article is defined as the final, definitive, and citable Version of Record, and includes: (a) the accepted manuscript in its final form, including the abstract, text, bibliography, and all accompanying tables, illustrations, data; and (b) any supplemental material hosted by Taylor & Francis. Our Publishing Agreement with you will constitute the entire agreement and the sole understanding between you and us; no amendment, addendum, or other communication will be taken into account when interpreting your and our rights and obligations under this Agreement. Copyright policy is explained in detail here. 

Submitting an article:  Papers for consideration should be submitted via the Editorial Manager submission site once you have read the preparation guidelines. New users should first create an account. Once logged on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Main Menu. 

Manuscript preparation: Articles may be up to 8 000 words excluding notes, figures, tables and references. Tables and Figures should go at the end of the text. Please check and make sure your final article submission contains the following items which are required before publication:
• Title
• Author(s) names of all contributing authors exactly as you wish them to appear in the published article.
• Affiliations: List the affiliation of each author (department, university, city, country)
• Correspondence address and email address for all authors
• Abstract (200 words)
• Keywords, in alphabetic order, not in title (maximum 6)
• JEL classification codes

If your article is accepted for publication, it will be copy-edited and typeset in the correct style for the journal.

Some general style guidelines: The author’s spelling preference will be upheld but where there is inconsistency, the editors will apply the most used spelling style. Manuscripts should be written in clear English. Consult the Oxford English Dictionary for spelling, capitalisation, hyphenation and abbreviation conventions.

Headings: Headings should not be numbered unless this is absolutely essential for clarity. Please indicate the level of the section headings in your article:
• First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, sentence case
• Second-level headings should be in bold italics, sentence case
• Third-level headings should be in italics, sentence case.
• Fourth-level headings should also be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.

Quotations: Quotations should appear in double quotes with singles within. Quotes exceeding 40 words should appear in a block quote, i.e. they should start on a separate line and be indented.

Endnotes: Endnotes (not footnotes) should be used only where necessary. They should be numbered consecutively using superscript Arabic numerals. They should appear at the end of the main text, immediately before the list of references.

Referencing style: The Chicago author-date system is used and can be viewed here.
Authors are reminded that previous work must be comprehensively cited and all manuscripts are screened for originality. To avoid potential problems later, please consult the guide to citation, available here. 

Tables and figures
Indicate in the text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by inserting [Table 1 near here]. The actual tables and figures should be supplied either at the end of the text or in a separate file as requested by the Editor. Ensure you have permission to use any figures you are reproducing from another source.

Figures
• Provide the highest quality figure format possible. For digital photographs or scanned images the resolution should be at least 300 dpi for colour or greyscale artwork and at least 600 dpi for black line drawings. These can be saved (in order of preference) in PSD, JPEG, PDF or EPS format. Graphs, charts or maps can be saved in AI, PDF or EPS format. MS Office files (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) are also acceptable but DO NOT EMBED Excel graphs or Powerpoint slides in a MS Word document, rather send the original Excel or Powerpoint files. More detailed technical information is given in Figure Guidelines for Authors available for download below. 
• Figures must be saved separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the manuscript file.
• All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the manuscript (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. Figure 1(a), Figure 1(b)).
• Every figure must have a caption. These must be included at the end of your manuscript. The filename for a graphic should be descriptive of the graphic (for example, Figure 1, Figure 2a).

Supplemental material for Online Version: Supplemental material can mean anything from tables to datasets, filesets to presentations, etc. Including supplemental material with your article makes it more discoverable, and Taylor & Francis has implemented a number of initiatives to ensure it is effectively included, or linked to, within the article abstract.

Reproduction of copyright material: If you wish to include any material in your manuscript in which you do not hold copyright, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner, prior to submission. Such material may be in the form of text, data, table, illustration, photograph, line drawing, audio clip, video clip, film still, and screenshot, and any supplemental material you propose to include. This applies to direct (verbatim or facsimile) reproduction as well as “derivative reproduction” (where you have created a new figure or table which derives substantially from a copyrighted source).
You must ensure appropriate acknowledgement is given to the permission granted to you for reuse by the copyright holder in each figure or table caption. You are solely responsible for any fees which the copyright holder may charge for reuse.
The reproduction of short extracts of text, excluding poetry and song lyrics, for the purposes of criticism may be possible without formal permission on the basis that the quotation is reproduced accurately and full attribution is given.
For further information and FAQs on the reproduction of copyright material, please consult our guide here. 

Open Access: AJSTID is a hybrid journal, which allows authors the option of publishing their article Open Access for a set fee. Further details on Open Select are available here. 

Electronic reprints: Authors will be notified when their article is available for download from the journal website.

 Downloads