Author Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in submitting to this journal. Please carefully read the guidelines below to ensure you have all the essential information before submitting your manuscript. Note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be rejected.

Overview

The Pan-African Journal of Health and Environmental Science (AJHES) is one of the flagship journals of the Adventist University of Africa (AUA). Its main objective is to serve as an academic voice and a platform for sharing scholarly work in the fields of education and other social sciences in Africa and beyond.

Authors must submit their articles electronically through the journal's online submission system at https://journals.aua.ke/ajhes. Corresponding and all submitting authors who are first-time users of the journal webpage must first Register with AJHES before submitting an article.

Language

AJHES only publishes manuscripts in English. Hence, manuscripts submitted to AJHES must meet international English language standards. Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of the two). Before submitting, it is recommended that the paper should be edited for language, especially if English is not your first language. Journal editors and reviewers should fully understand the academic content of your paper.

Ethics

The Adventist University of Africa (AUA) and the AJHES are committed to the highest ethical standards at all stages of the publication process. We subscribe to the guidelines outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors must ensure that ethical standards in their manuscripts are upheld. They should also confirm that papers submitted to AJHES have not been published or are not under consideration elsewhere. We recommend that you review the publication ethics page.

Peer Review Process

AJHES operates a double anonymized review process. The Chief Editor initially assesses all contributions to determine their suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality and value of the paper. The manuscript may need revisions to address the concerns and recommendations emanating from the review process. The Chief Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles.

To ensure anonymity in the review of manuscripts, identifying material should be kept out of the manuscript. A front page giving authorship, institution affiliation, biographical statement, and acknowledgments is provided in a separate file. Only the title is provided for identification on the manuscript and abstract received by the reviewers.

Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the individuals' relative scientific or professional contributions, regardless of their status. In the case of a multi-authored publication that significantly stems from a student's dissertation or thesis, the student is typically listed as the principal author.

Changes to Authorship

Before submitting an article, the author(s) must carefully verify the list and the order in which the authors' names appear on the manuscript. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names after acceptance of the article must be approved by the journal's Chief Editor. To request such a change, the corresponding author must provide the following to the Chief Editor: (a) the reason for the change in the author list and (b) written confirmation (e.g., e-mail) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement. In the case of adding or removing authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. The Chief Editor will only consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted in exceptional circumstances. While the Chief Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended.

Copyright

For any manuscript submitted to AJHES, the authors must confirm that their submitted paper is their original work. Upon successful publication in the journal, the author(s) retain the copyright of the articles and grant AJHES the right to publish the article, declare itself as the original publisher, and use it for indexing and storing on the journal website for public access.

Using Third-Party Material

If you want to include any material in your paper that you don't have the copyright for and isn't covered by a Creative Commons open-access license, you must get written permission from the copyright owner before submitting it.

Artificial Intelligence Policies

The guidelines below outline the use of generative AI technologies in writing or editing manuscripts submitted to AJHES.

1. Accuracy: In preparing their manuscript, authors bear the responsibility for verifying the accuracy of information generated or analyzed by artificial intelligence tools and identifying potential errors or biases.
2. Ethics Compliance: Authors must ensure that using artificial intelligence tools adheres to ethical guidelines, including data privacy protocols and preventing plagiarism.
3. Acknowledgment: Any artificial intelligence tools employed should be duly acknowledged in the appropriate section of the manuscript (e.g., Acknowledgments or Methods).
4. Authorship: Artificial intelligence tools cannot be designated as authors.

Guideline for Manuscript Preparation

1. Formatting Style. Manuscripts must be submitted as Microsoft Word documents, double-spaced, and using the default margins on all sides.
2. Article Length. Articles should be 4000 to 6500 words long, in Times New Roman 12, excluding the references page.
3. Reference Style. AJHES uses the 7th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style. Cite at least 20 sources—mainly books and journal articles. Reference lists should list only those works cited in the text.
4. Quality of Reference Sources. At least 70% of sources must have been published within the last five years with at least 90% from published books and journal articles. Other sources should be used sparingly if they are the best sources for the topic under exploration.
5. Authors' Placement and Affiliation. Authors must present their names, institutional affiliations, and country. List authors in the order in which you'd like them to be published.
6. Turnitin Preliminary Checks. Papers submitted to AJHES will undergo screening using Turnitin plagiarism detection tools. Papers must have a similarity index level of less than 20% to be considered for publication.

Manuscript Template

To assist in preparing your paper, refer to the Journal Article Template. Only manuscripts meeting the standards and scope of AJHES will be reviewed.

Acknowledgment (optional)

Where authors believe that others have contributed considerably to the work but not at a level that satisfies authorship, the first author may recognize this input through acknowledgment in 60 words or less. This should come before the References.

Funding Statement

AJHES requires authors to specify any funding sources (institutional, private, and corporate financial support) in the manuscript in a sentence. This should come after the Acknowledgments (if any) before the References with the following suggested wording: "The research team acknowledges funding from the X, Y, Z, G." If there was no funding, the following wording should be used: "This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors."

 Declaration of Interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. If there are no conflicts of interest, please state this: 'Conflicts of interest: none.'

Submitting the Paper

AJHES online submission system guides authors through the process of entering the article details and uploading the source files.

1. If you are a first-time user of the journal webpage, you must create an account before submitting your article. Click hereto create an account. After registration, log in using your username and password. If you already have an account, log in with your username and password.
2. Once logged on to the site, click ‘MAKE SUBMISSION’ button and follow the steps provideduntil you submit your manuscript online.
3. Title Page document file (WITH ALL AUTHOR DETAILS).
   • You will also need to prepare a title page document file. Upload a full version of your manuscript as you would like it to appear when published. You must save this file as "Title Page."
   • Within this document, include the following: Article title, Full name and details of the corresponding author, the Full names and details of all co-authors of the paper, Acknowledgements, Abstract, Keywords, Main text, Figures and Tables, and References.
4. Main Article document file (WITH AUTHOR DETAILS REMOVED)
   • Upload another document file with abstract, keywords, main text, and references, which should be kept anonymous since the journal you are submitting to uses double-blind peer review. DO NOT INCLUDE AUTHOR NAMES OR AFFILIATIONS.
   • You must save this file as "Main Document."
   • Within this main document file, include the following: Article title, Abstract, Keywords, Main Text, Figures and Tables and References.

5. Also, upload the following files in the online system where applicable:
   • Figure files
   • Table files
   • Image files
   • Any other files such as supplemental materials.

Submission Checklist

To give your manuscript the best chance of publication, ensure that you have completed the manuscript submission checklist below. 

1. The template has been carefully followed
2. All the relevant sections are present in the paper
3. The length of the article conforms to limits set out in the Author Guidelines
4. One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details (e-mail),
5. All necessary files (text and figures) are available. Even if you have your figures (images) embedded in the paper, you must still provide the corresponding source files during the submission process.
6. Your manuscript has been "spell and grammar checked,"
7. All references mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa,
8. All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
9. Permission has been obtained for using copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet).

Article Processing Charges/ Publication Charges

The Adventist University of Africa covers the publication costs of AJHES. There are no article processing charges or submission/publication fees for submitted or accepted articles with the journal.

General Criteria for Manuscript Acceptance

Selected manuscripts for publication in AJHES are evaluated based on originality, relevance to the journal's scope and readership, scientific soundness and rigor, significance of results and contribution, adherence to submission guidelines, clarity, and organization of the manuscript.