About the Journal

1. Aims and Scope

Pan-African Conversations: An International Journal is the flagship publication of the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. It publishes original high-quality academic research articles, review articles, and commentary twice a year. It is an open-access and strictly peer-reviewed academic journal principally dedicated to the study of the political in all its dimensions and permutations in African and black societies. The journal targets both academic and non-academic readers, practitioners and civil society actors interested in various perspectives on political, economic, and social questions facing Africa and the black world. All submissions are subject to a double-blind peer-review process overseen by a team of editors, and the Editorial Group. The journal is an open-access periodical licensed under creative commons. Special editions are considered once a year. A proposal must outline the edition’s focus, its potential contribution to debates, the number of articles planned, and confirm double-blind peer reviews and timelines. Pan-African Conversations: An International Journal aims to substantively contribute to growing, strengthening and, diversifying the studies of political phenomena in every way desirable through the publication of critical, innovative, and cutting-edge research. It supports the Institute’s objectives for the rigorous production and dissemination of Pan-African knowledge and culture and will from time to time publish out of the Institute’s colloquia and conferences.

2. Submissions

The journal publishes two issues a year in April and in September and a special edition may be considered from time to time. Issues are available as open access. The journal invites manuscripts all throughout the year, submitted online through its website in two versions, one being anonymous. Research articles must be between 5,000 and 7,000 words long (excluding references), while essays must be between 4,000 and 5,000 words. Commentary, debate articles, and policy briefs must be between 3,000 to 4,000 words, responding to a debate, topical, and policy issues. The journal has a dedicated space for the voices of emerging scholars or students. Emerging scholars’ essays must be 1,500 to 3,000 words long. All submissions must be prepared according to the author’s guidelines. We encourage the submission of book reviews of up to 1,500 words in length. Longer review articles that debate the book will also be considered at 2,000 to 4,000 words in length. Authors are asked to write clearly and economically and to avoid academic or technical jargon as Pan-African Conversations: An International Journal spans a wide range of fields and is also aimed at practitioners.

3. Author Fees

The journal subscribes to the principle that results of largely public-funded research must be published without article processing charges (APCs) on contributors. As such, no fees or fiscal influence will be applied to the publication of articles

4. Open Access

The journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-Share alike 4.0 International License.

5. Publishing, Archiving and Indexing

The articles published are archived and indexed accordingly through LOCKSS, CLOCKSS and the PKP PN.

6. Peer Review Policy: Process and Guidance

All research articles undergo a double-blind peer review process. Once articles have been reviewed by the journal editors, they are sent to the external reviewers who have expertise in the areas that they review on. The decisions on publication are based on the balance of the views of reviewers by the journal editors and its editor’s board. Those who are interested in being reviewers must send a note to the editor.

7. Authorship

Authors are those who have made a substantive intellectual contribution to a submission or have had a significant role in the writing, revision, acquisition of data or study design of the article. The author who makes more contribution than another must appear first in the authors list in the submission, regardless of their positions or status. The author will be responsible and accountable for the published work. A student must be listed as principal author in multiple- authored publications that substantially derive from their research work.

8. Funding

Authors must include a funding acknowledgement statement under a separate heading titled “Funding Acknowledgments”

E.g. “The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Institute for Pan- African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) [grant number xxx]…”

9. Conflict of interest

Authors are required to include a conflict-of-interest statement under a separate heading titled “Declaration of Conflicting Interests”. Journal editors must declare a conflict of interests and recuse themselves from managing submissions where such conflict of interest is present. The conflict-of-interest matters relating to board members will be declared. The editorial board will serve as an appeal body in cases of disputes.

E.g.”Having been employed by a related company…”

10. Publishing ethics

The journal commits to maintaining the academic integrity of all the submissions it publishes. We respect the rights of our authors and act firmly on any suspicion or evidence of plagiarism or the misuse of published articles.

11. Privacy Statement

The confidentiality of the names and addresses of the authors specified when registering will be maintained. Such information will be used solely for the purposes of corresponding with the author, journal editors and external reviewers when preparing the article for publication.

No private data will be shared with other individuals and organizations without first seeking permission from the owners of such data.

12. Editor’s Code of Conduct

The editors of this journal will:

  1. Maintain a high quality assurance and ethical standards in the submissions published in the journal;
  2. Ensure the integrity of the peer review process;
  3. Promote equal and equitable access to publishing opportunities for authors;
  4. Maintain cordial relations among all stakeholders including authors, reviewers, editors and the board;
  5. Attend expeditiously to all complaints;
  6. Treat all submissions fairly and justly on the merits of their content;
  7. Maintain and improve the journal’s

13. Role of Editorial Committee

The committee is made up of the editor-in-chief, editors and editorial assistants of the journal who are responsible for the day-to-day editorial management of the journal production. The committee is responsible for soliciting or receiving submissions, quality checking submissions, assigning reviewers, overseeing the revision of the submissions, and supervising the production process. The editor-in-chief leads the editorial committee as a whole and advances the mission and scope of the journal. It is the responsibility of the editor-in-chef to assign article submissions to editors for revision, convene discussions, where necessary, oversee peer reviewers, provide support to authors, and ratify editorial decisions in line with the journal editorial policies. The final decision rests with the editor-in-chief.

14. Duties of the Board

The editorial board is an advisory and governance structure appointed by the Institute in line with best practices in the governance of the Pan-African Conversations: An International Journal. It brings together scholars representing various areas of expertise within the scope of the journal’s focus. Board members serve voluntarily for a three-year term subject to renewal. The Board functions include:

  1. Promoting the journal in their networks;
  2. Providing advice related to the publication of high-quality manuscripts;
  3. Serving as a mechanism for authors to appeal against editorial
  4. Receiving an annual report from the Editor-in-Chief detailing the status of operations and including such statistics and other relevant information;
  5. Make recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief based on the annual

15. Copyright

Authors retain the copyright of their articles.

Online ISSN
2957-434X