Submission Guide

Research hosted on AfricArXiv allows for free and quick dissemination and global engagement.

All published articles and data items will receive an open license allowing reuse (e.g. CC BY 4.0 license for manuscripts) and a DataCite DOI (digital object identifier) and be indexed in scholarly databases.

Please note: AfricArXiv is not a journal and does not evaluate the scientific accuracy and quality of submitted items. Once a research item is submitted and accessible on the platform, it persists in the system indefinitely. We reserve the right to withdraw submitted items if fraud or plagiarism is identified after careful investigation and correspondence with the submitting authors.

The following guideline provides information on the submission process for research items to be archived and disseminated on the Africarxiv repository. Before starting your submission, please read these guidelines carefully to fill out the metadata fields as necessary. 

Submit your work 

Who should submit

We invite submissions from:

  • African researchers based on the African continent or based at a host institute outside of Africa
  • Non-African researchers reporting on research conducted on African territory, preferably with African co-authors listed and/or reporting on research relevant to African affairs
  • Non-academic institutions governmental institutions, non-governmental institutions, organizations with scholarly affiliation and/or focus and methodology, community-based organizations who wish to share their knowledge and protect it from misappropriation.

What to submit

We accept the following types and formats:

  • Text files
    • Research manuscripts
    • Review papers
    • Project proposals
    • Case studies
    • Methods descriptions
    • Technical notes‘
    • Negative’ results and ‘null’ results (i.e., results that do not support a hypothesis)
    • Peer review reports
    • Policy papers
    • Annual reports
    • Translations of any of the above
  • Data and other file types
    • Simple datasets
    • Code
    • Presentations
    • Audio/video recordings
  • For anything else, contact us at info@africarxiv.org.

The Submission Process

Please upload your manuscript via our platform at https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/.
The process is straightforward, explained below.

Register an account:

  • Go to https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/register and enter your email or signup and login with your ORCID iD
    (ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier known as ORCID iD which allows you to connect and share your professional information (affiliation, grants, publications, peer review, etc.) with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your scholarly contributions.
  • Check your inbox for the email that was sent to you and follow the instructions.
  • Read and sign the end-user agreement.
  • Link your AfricArXiv account with your ORCID profile to log in through your ORCID account for submissions. 
  • Set a password for your account. Now you can log in to AfricArXiv. 

Submit an item

  • Start your submission by clicking on +New.
  • Choose Item from the dropdown menu.
  • Choose Community Collection: In the pop-up window, select the community collection where you want to create your new item. For general individual submissions, please choose “General Repository.”
  • If your submission belongs to a dedicated community collection hosted on AfricArXiv, please ensure you have access to it; otherwise, contact our support team at submit@africarxiv.org to assist you.

Add item information (metadata)

Plase fill in all relevant fields that apply to your work. Mandatory fields are highlighted with an asterisk (*)

  • * Upload your file: If the file upload is denied, please refresh your browser and then re-upload the file.
  • * Author/Authors: Add the authors of the item. Please click on “+ add more” to list contributing authors separately. Use the format: [Surname, Given Name/s] e.g., [Akinyi, Wambui].
  • * Title: The title for the submitted item should be entered.
  • Other titles: This is a non-mandatory field where you can add an alternative title, e.g. a translation of the title in your local language or a language relevant to the research topic or geographic region)
  • * Date of issue: Enter the date, at least the year. Please add today’s date or the date the work was originally published if previously distributed
  • * Identifiers: The digital identifiers of the item(s) can be entered here. Please keep the listed Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); upon deposit of your submission, the system will allocate a DOI to your item to increase its discoverability. Please add another Identifier (url, ARK, Handle, DOI), in case you are submitting a file that was previously distributed elsewhere.
  • Other Identifiers: If there are other existing related items for instance blog posts, you can add their links as other DOI. If translations of the uploaded item exist in the repository, please add their DOIs.
  • * Type: Select what kind of item is being submitted. Please select the type of your file that applies (article, book chapter, dataset, presentation, preprint, poster … )
  • * Language: This is a mandatory field where you can select the language that applies.
  • * Subject keywords: Add keywords to the item. Start typing a research subject that applies to your work, you should see a list of words to choose from. Add any relevant keywords manually that you do not find in the listing.
  • Abstract: The item’s abstract can be entered. If the item does not have an abstract it can be ignored.
  • Sponsors: This is a non-mandatory field that can be used to add funding information related to the materials in this item. Please list any funders and funding codes that supported your work.
  • * Description: Here you can add any other information you would like to add and point to related work this item might refer to.
  • * Contact email: Include the email address of the person to whom questions about the item should be directed. 
  • * Deposit license: Please read and confirm the deposit license, enabling us to archive and disseminate your files on your behalf. 

Contact us should you experience any issues during the submission process. Our email address in info@africarxiv.org

Upload your manuscript via our new platform at https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/.

Submit your work

How to submit research articles

At AfricArXiv, you can upload your articles, presentations, posters, images, and other research outputs via https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/. 
If other people contributed to the work, please ensure that all agree to have the item shared on the AfricArXiv repository platform.

Please make sure to only upload materials of which you hold the copyright, i.e. for example, the latest version of a manuscript before submission to a journal for peer review. Upon submission, you can include a link to the article published in the journal.

If the article is Open Access and you hold the copyright to it, depending on your agreement/contract with the journal, you might be entitled to share the Version of Record. 
Check for journal compliance: Use the JISC Open Policy Finder to check journal Open access policies for further details on self-archiving options for the journal in which you plan to publish your article.

For consecutive journal submissions, check Think. Check. Submit. and explore journals indexed at DOAJ and AJOL, where you can find information about the respective publishing costs, if any.

How to edit your metadata

For detailed instructions on how to edit your metadata, please refer to the following guide: https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC7x/Edit+Metadata

Support

Should you experience any issues that prevent you from uploading your work to our platform, please email us at info@africarxiv.org.
Our team will get back to you as soon as possible.

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