Ethical Guidelines

The International Journal of African Higher Education (IJAHE), is an international, open access, double-blind peer-reviewed Journal published in English, with abstracts both in English and French.  The Journal is committed to maintain the highest ethical standards in all aspects of the publication of the Journal. 

I. General

  1. All personnel involved in securing, reviewing and editing manuscripts are expected to carry out their duties with utmost care, responsibility and professional ethics.
  2. The Editor-in-chief has the sole responsibility for accepting or rejecting of a manuscript on the account of relevance to the Journal, non-adherence to the Journal’s guidelines (such as style, word count), or poor quality, among others.
  3. The Journal does not disclose information on submitted manuscripts except to those involved in the process of publication of the Journal such as reviewers, editors, guest editors, as may be relevant and deemed necessary. 
  4. The Journal solicits consent from potential reviewers of considered manuscripts to prevent a conflict of interest construed as friendship, close research partner or colleague or past or current controversy, among others. 
  5. The Journal seeks to rectify identified faults or meaningful lapses as may be relevant and appropriate and records them accordingly, by publishing an errata or addendum. 

II. Authorship

  1. Manuscripts should be original works not published previously or under consideration in any form elsewhere.
  2. Manuscripts should contain proper citation of works in compliance with the established Journal style and guidelines. Fabrication of data, results, selective reporting of data, and plagiarism are unethical practices and are unacceptable.
  3. Manipulating citations is unethical and includes introducing irrelevant own or colleague’s published and unpublished work.
  4. Authorship should be limited to those who have made significant contributions to the concept, design, execution, interpretation or writing of the work as reported in a manuscript; other contributors may be acknowledged.
  5. The order in which authors’ names appear should be informed by the contributions made during the course of the development of the manuscript. Any changes to the order, following submission or revision, should be submitted to the Journal, signed by all involved.
  6. All contributors—authors and co-authors—are responsible for the accuracy and validity of their work prior to submission and following revision, as appropriate.
  7. Authors are encouraged to disclose funding sources for reported research to help establish conflict of interest and ensure the integrity of the work.  
  8. Multiple submissions to the Journal are strongly discouraged.
  9. Any allegations of misconduct by authors as regards published works are investigated guided by COPE’s guidelines.
  10. The Journal reserves the right to impose sanctions, including retraction of work and embargo, on authors who wilfully breach its guidelines and established ethical and professional practices.

III. Reviews

  1. Reviewers are required to disclose real or perceived conflict of interests prior to agreeing to undertake a review. 
  2. Reviewers are required to decline to review a manuscript if technically unqualified or not meet the terms of the review. 
  3. Reviewers are required to sign own reviews; but the Journal maintains anonymity as it communicates feedback with author/s. 
  4. Reviewers should provide a meaningful commentary, in writing, to help determine the quality and relevance of the manuscript.
  5. Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential.
  6. Reviewers must not use or share information, data, theories, or interpretations of the manuscript while it is in production.