Are you interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

1. Introduction

The Pan-African Journal of Health and Environmental Science (AJHES) is one of the flagship journals of the Adventist University of Africa (AUA). The main objective of the journal is to publish scholarly work in the areas of health, environmental sciences, and other related disciplines. Topics covered in the journal include environmental issues, public health, occupational health, epidemiology, global health, among others.

Authors shall submit their articles electronically through the journal's online submission, and the tracking system available at https://journals.aua.ke/ajhes.This system will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. Authors will be required to upload the sources files of their articles in the preferred format of Microsoft Word for the text and PNG or EPS for figures. The system automatically converts the sources files into a single PDF file which is used in the peer-review process.

2. Structure and Format of Articles

The paper should have a descriptive title meaning that the title should be as informative as possible and should clearly identify both the general field of the paper and the branch of it under consideration.

The default structure and format of the papers will be Abstract (about 200 words), Introduction, Review of Literature, Methodology, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, References (according to APA style), Appendices (if needed). However, authors publishing conceptual or theoretical papers can use the following organization and order: Abstract, Introduction, Literature, Conclusion, and References.

A template is provided in Word format. The Journal Article Template provides a brief explanation of each section of the paper and the text formatting and styles to use.

3. Peer Review

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.

AJHES applies a double-blind review process. The Chief Editor initially assesses all contributions for suitability for the journal. Papers that pass the Chief Editor assessment are sent to at least two experts reviewers to evaluate their scientific quality. The evaluations from the reviewers are received by the editorial board, which makes the decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles.

4. Submission and Checklist

The online submission system guides authors step by step through the process of entering the article details and uploading the sources files.

Before sending your paper to the journal for review, check the following:

1. All the relevant sections are present in the paper,
2. The template has been carefully followed,
3. Length of 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, full postal address),
5. All necessary files (text and figures) are available. Even if you have your figures (images) embedded in the paper, you are still required to 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 the use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet).

Ethical Issues

We recommend that you review the publication ethics page. In case of any ethical concern on a paper, whether published or in review, the Chief Editor should be contacted in the first instance. The Chief Editor will then follow due process according to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines

5.1 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, then please state this: 'Conflicts of interest: none.'

5.2 Submission Declaration and Verification

The author should declare on honor that the work he/she is publishing . . .

• Has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis),
• Is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
• Has been checked for plagiarism,
• Is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out,
• If accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright holder,

5.3 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 Chief Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in the author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Chief Editor consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Chief Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Chief Editor will result in a corrigendum.

5.4 Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a Journal Publishing Agreement. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with the Journal Publishing Agreement form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

6. Evaluation Criteria

Your paper will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• Content completeness, accuracy, and originality: 30%
• Paper results and contributions: 40%
• Organization (proper abstract, good title, appropriately numbered sections, sub-sections and sub-sub-sections with descriptive titles, good transition between sections, use of diagrams and tables, good English): 20%
• Appropriately chosen and annotated bibliography items: 10%

Article Processing Charges

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