INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN LANGUAGE AND MEDIA STUDIES

 

IJALMS Guideline

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Introduction

At the International Journal of African Language and Media Studies (IJALMS), we are committed to the integrity of the academic culture of publishing quality articles for the global community. We, therefore, encourage our contributors to conduct their research in tandem with international best practices by following high ethical standards and a good code of conduct accepted by professional bodies relevant to their research areas.      

Research integrity

International Journal of African Language and Media Studies advocates a high ethical standard. We encourage our valued contributors to subscribe to the following principles meticulously:   

  1. Rigour and honesty in gathering materials
  2. Sincerity in the analysis and presentation of data  
  3. Honesty in all aspects of research;
  4. Obeying legal and professional frameworks, obligations, and standards in all aspects of the research
  5. Accurateness of information
  6. Research report communication with superb transparency and integrity;
  7. Respect for life, the law, and the public good
  8. Respect for all participants in the research work

Editorial Process

At IJALMS, we are committed to promoting high-standard research anchored on ethical practices. We are very transparent in our editorial process and ensure high interactively and synergy with our contributors. Our comprehensive editorial policies are expressed thus:

  1. Upon submission of the manuscript to our Journal, we start with a desk review as a preliminary check on the suitability of the topic as well as the article, and the submission can be rejected or accepted for peer evaluation.

2.      If the article scales through desk review, it means that the article fits automatically into the scope of the journal but does not also imply that the article qualifies for automatic publication.

  1. When a submission is made to the journal, qualified and experienced reviewers are contacted to review the manuscript. The team of reviewers is selected based on the topic and area relevant to each article.
  2. After careful assessment of the reviewers’ comments, editors will then compare the reviewers’ comments and decide on whether to accept or reject the submitted manuscript.
  3.  All accepted manuscripts are forwarded to authors for revision, and editors crosscheck again for a rerun of the review of the manuscript.  The returned manuscripts are re-evaluated to ensure strict compliance with the reviewers’ comments. Adopting this procedure, allows the editors to make a final decision on whether to accept or reject the revised manuscript.
  4. Nevertheless, if a manuscript is accepted in due course, attention will be paid to layout editing, author proofreading, format conversion, and language structure editing before publication. This is professionally handled by the publishing house and reverted to the Editorial Board for correction, comments and  approval

Peer Review

IJALMS uses double-blind peer review to assess submitted manuscripts. We recognize the important role thorough and careful assessment plays in the integrity of the scholarly journal. IJALMS clearly states the following ethical publication policies for peer reviewers:

1.      Reviewers are advised to accept a review of the manuscript that they have the subject expertise which will guarantee justice and fairness in the review process.

  1. Reviewers are told of the importance of confidentiality in peer review business and the non-disclosure of identity. All review processes and comments are treated with confidentiality.
  2. IJALMS informs the reviewers of the ethical implications of using article titles, details, and information obtained during the manuscript review for their own, other persons, or an organization’s advantage or interest.
  3. Reviewers are warned not to discuss or publish any part of the reviewed essays
  4. IJALMS policy on conflict of interest, alerts reviewers to state conflicting interests and solicit advice from the journal if they are not sure whether something adds up to a relevant interest or not.
  5. IJALMS reviewers should not let their reviews be influenced by the origin of a manuscript if, in the course of evaluating the manuscript, the reviewers discovered the origin of the manuscript. 
  6. The neutrality of the reviewers is sacrosanct to IJALMS. Nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender, commercial deliberations, or other characteristics of the authors are not to be entertained.
  7. IJALMS reviewers are schooled in the ethics of review language and communication. Reviewers are schooled on the need to be unprejudiced and positive in their reviews, abstaining from being aggressive or offensive, and from making derogatory personal comments. Phrases such as, ‘‘Are you blind’’. You are out of senses or words. ‘‘This author writes nonsense’’ is not allowed in our review process
  8. IJALMS reviewers are told of the dangers of impersonation of another individual during the review process. IJALMS considered this a criminal offence.

Authorship

IJALMS believes that we should be liable and accountable for every scholarly work. Subsequently, in enlisting authors for research work, potential authors must be acquainted with the following:      

  1. All submitted papers must contain contributors’ statements. This must be carried out to keep away from fraudulent authorship attribution.
  2. IJALMS defines authorship to include, a person who conceives the idea or conceptualises the topic, designs of the work, the acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data, and drafting of the work, editing, proofreading, referencing are all entitled to be listed as authors of the work.
  3. IJALMS sees a corresponding author as a member of the authorship team and not as a superior author to others rather, the corresponding author serves as a communication link between the authors and the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process.
  4. For those individuals whose contributions did not justify authorship, IJALMS  strongly advocates for a brief acknowledgement.

 

  1. Paper preparation template/Instructions to authors                                                                

IJALMS paper must have a well-structured abstract of between 250-300 words. The abstract is expected to have a title, in which case, the title of a manuscript should not exceed 20 words. The abstract should have clear information on methodology, findings and conclusion.

Introduction: In the introduction, the background of the study is well established. Authors are encouraged to give a vivid picture of the rationale behind the study and justify its relevance to the contemporary situation. The introduction should also declare the purpose of the study in a broader spectrum. Finally, the introduction should state why the study is worth conducting.

The objective of the study: The objectives of the study should clearly state the problem to be solved.

Methodology: This should specify the research design with justification for the choice of that design in relation to achieving the study objectives. The population of the study is sacrosanct as well and the sample size, sampling techniques for the selection of respondents, and instruments for data collection as well as the validity and reliability should be clearly stated. The method(s) of data analysis utilized and the mode of data presentation should be indicated.

Results: Results should be presented in clear and simple language.

Contribution of the study: IJALMS believes that any good research work should have something to offer. The researcher therefore is expected to state the unique input of his/her article to existing knowledge by highlighting its scholarly, practical, and theoretical contributions.

Conclusion: The conclusion is viewed by IJALMS as the voice of the manuscript and it must create a lasting impression of the achievement and the contribution of the work done. The researchers are therefore encouraged to conclude strongly. The contributors should concisely sum up the study with a scientific statement.

Key Recommendation: Here, recommendations for further studies on the research topic should be stated.

Keywords: IJALMS accepts four to six keywords that are viable and can easily draw readers to identify and reference the work. However, these keywords should flow from the topic and be found useful in the discourse of the work.

 References: IJALMS adopts is APA 7th edition. IJALMS do not accept articles with omitted cited works in the reference list. We treat references as important data and an essential part of a manuscript. We encourage our contributors to cite reputable impact factor journals.

Plagiarism

IJALMS uses Turnitin to screen all submitted manuscripts. IJALMS strongly opposed excessive use of another author’s language, ideas, expressions, and or thoughts as one’s own. IJALMS similarity index threshold stood at 20% and below. IJALMS frowned at Self-plagiarism, a situation where an author modified a large portion of his/her previous publications.  

We therefore encourage authors to be:

  1. Original in their expression
  2. Avoid exact repetition of another person’s work;
  3. And if that must be done, it should be properly acknowledged and not over-stretched
  4. This also includes diagrams, pictures, songs proverbs and any other illustration
  5. We encourage original items and credit the sources

The average number of weeks between article submission & publication

It takes between 16 weeks from submission to publication

Research with animals or humans     

IJALMS encourage contributors to be careful when dealing with humans such as minors and other venerable set as well as animals. We demand that an ethical permit should be obtained from the relevant authority. The consent of the study subjects and participants to privacy must be respected. This implies proper explanation and understanding of the intent and purpose of the research to the subjects and participants. IJALMS also encourage contributors who may have encountered language problems to seek the help of an interpreter to properly educate the participants and subjects for the study.

Conflicts of Interest (COI) and funding

IJALMS states it clearly to contributors to make a declaration of interest as follows:

1.      Are all the authors accepted to publish the paper with IJALMS?

2.      Are there areas in the work that some authors are not comfortable with before publication?

3.      Are there funding for the publication and financial conflict?

IJALMS ensures that answers are provided to these questions before an article is published.

Libel, defamation, and freedom of expression

IJALMS frowned at false publications or statements that pose a danger to the personality of individuals, groups, and organizations. We deploy our legal expect in the event of such. Retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern

At IJALMS, We allow retraction, correction, and expression of concern for papers that are published in our journal. A retraction may be initiated by our editors, the author(s) of the papers, or their institution. In rare cases, retraction is accompanied by apologies for the previous error and/or expressions of gratitude to persons who disclosed the error to the author. Expression of concern is also recommended in the same manner as is the case with retraction or correction.   

Falsification, fabrication, and image manipulation

Every image presented and submitted to IJALMS is believed to be original. We do not condone falsification and manipulation of images. We are very much aware that originators and creators of images have rights over them and should be respected. These are their intellectual properties. For any reason, we asked that official permission and proof of such an image be solicited for and gotten before publication in IJALMS.

Fraudulent research and research misconduct

When we discover any fraudulent practice in any article submitted to us, the content will be retracted, or an appropriate correction or expression of concern will be issued.

Data and supporting evidence

Authors are encouraged to be transparent with data source, generation, analysis and storage

Copyright and License

By submitting manuscripts to IJALMS contributors are subscribing to the following agreement:

  • Copyright on articles published by IJALMS  is retained by the author(s).
  • By submitting manuscripts to the journal,  authors grant IJALMS a license to publish the articles and identify itself as the original publisher.
  • Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely provided that its integrity is sustained and its original authors, citation details, and publisher are identified.
  • Where an author is not allowed to hold the copyright, minor adjustments may be needed to accommodate the peculiarities.  It is mandatory for authors who require such variations to inform the IJALMS editorial team after their manuscripts have been accepted.

License agreement

In submitting an article to IJALMS, I certify that:

  1. I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
  2. I warrant, on behalf of myself and my co-authors, that:
    • ​​the article is original, has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration by any other journal, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights; 
    • I am/we are the sole author(s) of the article and have full authority to enter into this agreement in granting rights to IJALMS are not in breach of any other obligation;
    • the article contains nothing unlawful, libellous, or which would if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidence or commitment given to secrecy;
    • I/we have taken due care to ensure the integrity of the article. To my/our - and currently accepted scientific - knowledge all statements contained in it purporting to be facts are true and any formula or instruction contained in the article will not if followed accurately, cause any injury, illness, or damage to the user.
  3. I, and all co-authors, agree that the article if accepted for publication, shall be licensed in line with IJALMS policies.  

Important

We encourage our contributors to read and understand our license agreement since it applies to all articles published by IJALMS

Licensing

All articles published by IJALMS are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  This licensing, therefore, allows noncommercial use of works published by IJALMS. Readers are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of our published articles and to use them for any other lawful purposes. Readers must acknowledge sources accordingly. 

Self-Archiving policies

As an open-access journal, IJALMS allows authors to archive the published versions of their articles in databases that are freely available to the general public.  There are no limitations as to the number of databases where authors can archive their works.

 

 

SUBMISSION 

The official site of the journal is www. rhycekerex.org. From this web address contributors will be able to submit their papers to the journal through a link or alternative email: ijalmsjournal@gmail.com.

Articles should be original and not under consideration by any other journal.

All contributions should be submitted via the International Journal of African Language and Media Studies (IJALMS) manuscripts site (https://www.rhycekerex.org/Journal?j=Mg==). Once a user is logged onto the site, submissions should be made via the link provided.

Online user guides and access to a helpdesk will be available on this website. For every successful submission, the corresponding author receives an automatic e-mail of confirmation within 24 working hours. 

Authors should prepare and upload at least two files: The title Page and Main Document. Main Document should be an anonymous complete text, in which all information identifying the author(s) should be removed in order to allow anonymous peer review. The title page may include the article’s title, the author’s short biography, and contact information. 

Please feel free to e-mail us at (ijalmsjournal@gmail.com) if you have any questions regarding your submission.

Contributions should be submitted in English. If authors are not native English speakers they should seek the help of an English editor for language editing prior to submission. Contributions will be formatted as A4 Microsoft Word files (Mac files must be converted), double-spaced, and with ample margins. All pages, including those containing only diagrams and tables, should be numbered consecutively. Biographical information of a maximum of 80 words should be included on the title page, indicating the author’s institutional affiliation, research area, representative writings, phone number, and email address. 

It is the duty of the author to obtain permission to reproduce any illustrations that may be subject to copyright, and sources should be indicated appropriately in the accompanying captions. All submitted articles for publication in IJALMS covey the opinions, thoughts or philosophy of the contributor(s). 

The use of figures (diagrams, charts, and graphs) and tables should be kept to a minimum, with only essential data presented. Each should be numbered consecutively, titled, and mentioned in the main text. Tables must contain editable text. Figures should be supplied as separate editable files where possible and not in color except if the author is willing to pay additional processing fees. Picture files or jpegs are unsuitable for figures, but can be supplied for photographs if they are of good quality. Mathematical formulations should be kept to a minimum. Equation editing program should not be used for anything that can simply be typed on the keyboard in Word (such as d2 + x1 = y2).

Peer Review

All manuscripts will be subjected to double-blind system peer-review. The reviewer(s) identities will remain anonymous to authors. The paper will be peer-reviewed by two experts. But the final decision as to whether a paper will be published is left with the Editorial Board. The review process may take 60 working days. Decisions will be made known to authors as soon as the Editorial Board reaches a decision and reviewer(s') comments sent to the authors immediately.

Original Research Articles

These should describe new and carefully analysed and confirmed findings, backed with convincing  research procedures. Articles should be given in sufficient details for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper should be concise, mandatory to describe and interpret the work clearly. Article should be between 4,500 and 7000 words.

Articles can be empirical or non-empirical within the scope of the journal. However, empirical articles are likely to attract acceptance more than non-empirical if the research procedures are well stated and much more if the research has proof of scholarship and or sponsorship.

Manuscript preparation

The original manuscripts should be submitted as MS Word document and must be typed one and half line spacing; uses a 12-point font on Times New Roman; all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end; uses 8½” x 11” (A4) white bond paper. Margins must be at least 1 inch.

Abstract

An abstract should not exceed 250 words with a brief introduction, summarizing background of the work; research methods, results, implications and recommendations. Keywords must flow from the last word of the abstract and must not be more than five words that make the topic of the research work.

Author(s)

Are advised to carefully consider the preparation of papers to ensure that they communicate efficiently. Authors are advised to use Grammarly to edit their works before submission and Mendeley for accurate referencing. Papers are much more likely to be accepted, if they are carefully designed and religiously followed our guidelines with fewer or no errors. Author(s) are advised not to do self- citation of previous study more than twice in one entire paper in order to uphold the credibility of their paper and avoid technical recycling of their previous works.

Article Processing Charges

Upon submission, non-African authors will pay review charge of $10 while all African authors will pay N5000. Upon acceptance of manuscripts for publication, non-African authors will pay an Article Processing Charges of $100 while African authors are to pay N40,000.00 into our account (UBA) given below.

African Journal Series

2235971748

United Bank for Africa (UBA)

Copyright

Submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been published before; (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis) that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to an automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher. Open Access authors retain the copyrights of their papers, and all open access articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.

Documentation