Journal Policies

Publishing Policies

The publication shall be referred to as the African Journal of Science, Technology and Social Sciences (AJSTSS)
The frequency of publication shall be annual (one issue per year). The journal shall also publish special proceedings of scientific conferences.
Types of research papers: Original research papers, reviews and short communications
Subject Areas of Publication: Science, Technology and Social Sciences:

Agriculture and Food Science
Business and Economics
Computing, Informatics and Security
Education
Engineering and Technology
Health Sciences
Pure and Applied Sciences
Social Sciences

This Journal will use peer and double-blind review; that both the reviewer and author identities will be concealed.
Papers to be published in AJSTSS must be the original work of the author/s that has not been published previously in any manner.
Author/s should not submit their article simultaneously to other Journals.
All responsibility for a manuscript is incumbent on the authors, concurrence with other authors, clear on who the corresponding author is.
All submitted manuscripts will be subjected to a plagiarism check that will be done by AJSTSS. In a manuscript, sources should be cited. The similarity index report should not exceed more than 15% with no more than 30% from a single source.
Authors should not violate any existing local and international copyright laws. Authors retain the copyright of the published papers.

AJSTSS is committed to open access for articles. All of the AJSTSS articles are free to access from the date of publication.

Open access policy and licensing terms

Open access statement

AJSTSS is an open-access Journal whose content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is under the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

Licensing terms

AJSTSS publications are published under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. The license lets others 1. share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) 2. adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially under the following terms: 1. attribution (You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use) and 2. ShareAlike (If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original).

Copyright statement

Papers to be published in AJSTSS must be the original work of the author/s that has not been published previously in any manner. Authors retain the copyright of the published papers. Relook at other copyrights statement in open access journals.

Article Processing Charges

AJSTSSprovides immediate open access to all published articles. As an Open Access Journal, publishing an article in this Journal requires an Article Processing Charge (APC) that will be billed to the submitting author following acceptance. Apart from this Article Processing Charge, there are no other fees (for example submission charges, page charges, or colour charges). The Article Processing Charge for the Journal is Kenya shillings ten thousand (KES 10,000) or $100.

Privacy statement

The names and email addresses entered in this Journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this Journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Plagiarism policy

Papers to be published in AJSTSSmust be the original work of the author/s that has not been published previously in any manner. All submitted manuscripts will be subjected to a plagiarism check that will be done by AJSTSS. In the manuscript, sources should be cited. The similarity index report should not exceed 15%.

Editorial Policy

(i). Editorial Board structure:

The Editorial Board of the AJSTSS comprises of Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board members and Advisory Board members. Editor-in-Chief is the chairperson of the board and hence allowed the final decision in any regard.

The formation of the Editorial Board is done by incorporating global experts with excellent academic track records and expertise in the respective Journal subject. There is no restriction on the number of Editorial Board members.

Editorial board members must qualify as below:

Must have a PhD degree or equivalent in the relevant subject.
Must have a good publication record.

(ii). Editorial Board responsibilities and Editorial Workflow:

All Editorial Board members must work under the direction provided by the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.
All submitted manuscripts shall be assigned identifier numbers. Any submitted manuscript at the initial stage is assessed for the suitability of the subject within the scope of the Journal and the compliance of the article to a specific article type by the Editor-in-Chief.
Suitable submitted manuscripts will be subjected to plagiarism check by AJSTSS editorial office. The similarity index report should not exceed 15%. If the article is found plagiarized, it will be summarily rejected at this stage.
The Editor-in-Chief will assign Editor(s) based on their expertise to assess the submitted manuscript within a stipulated timeframe. If the editor declines the assignment, it should be communicated to the Editorial Office at the earliest possible time. Conflict of interest should also be declared.
The assigned Editor will initially assess the article for suitability of the subject and originality of the article within the scope of the Journal. At this stage, he/she can decide whether the manuscript is accepted for peer review or may be returned to the author for revision before peer review if the manuscript does not comply with the publishing policies of the Journal.
The assigned Editor will be responsible for further peer review process under the guidance of the Editor-in-Chief.
For any manuscript assigned, the Editor will be responsible for selecting two potential reviewers based on their expertise in the particular subject areas and thereafter monitor the review process. If required, the Editor may ask for support from the Editorial Office.
The assigned editor will send the manuscript together with the AJSTSS Peer Review Form to the reviewers for writing their evaluation report.
Manuscripts submitted to AJSTSS are subjected to a double-blind peer-review process. In this process, the reviewer's names and author names are hidden (i.e. the reviewer will not know who the author is and vice-versa).
Each Editor must keep in mind that the time required for reviewing the articles along with recommendations is 14 days.
The Editor must remember the policy of fast and effective peer review. He/she must communicate with the reviewers in case of any delay in the reviewer's evaluation report.
For any manuscript to be accepted it is required to have positive comments from the reviewers. Comments provided by the reviewers should convey their final decision within the following types:

Publish as it is
Consider after Minor Corrections

Consider after Major Corrections

Reject

Once the assigned Editor receives reviewers' evaluation reports, he/she will be responsible for providing the decision based on the comments and their relevance and suitability with the manuscript. In such circumstances the Editor's decision is final. The reviewers or authors are not entitled to raise any questions after the final decision.
If the assigned Editor decides to send the article for revision based on reviewers’ comments, it will be forwarded to the authors for revision.
The authors are liable to send back the revised manuscript to the Editorial Office within the stipulated time.
Once the revised manuscript is received, it will be further inspected for the incorporation of the specified points.
The assigned Editor may provide the decision or send it back to the reviewer once more depending on the comparative status and enrichment of the manuscript.
In every step of processing, the Editor-in-Chief has the right to be involved and make the final decision for any publication oriented issue.
It is the Editor’s responsibility to inform the selected reviewers that they are not entitled to use any part of the work in any form provided in the article they are reviewing. Reviewers should also be informed about the complete confidentiality of the assignments they are undertaking.
Editors will be responsible to convey the expectations of the Journal to the reviewers with the review scope, quality and timeliness for an effective, fair and constructive review for the assigned submission.
Editors must provide appropriate input regarding the targeted readers and their preferences. In other words, creative input from Editors will help in understanding the readers and their choices within the scope of the subject.
Editors are required to attend Editorial Board meetings scheduled by the Editor in Chief for discussions to improve the Journal.

(iii). Code of Conduct

The assigned Editor should not have any conflict of interest with any assignment. If so then he or she should decline the assignment, stating the proper reason to the Editorial Office.
Every Editor must treat each submission objectively and transparently.
Once the assigned Editor is notified by the Editor-in-Chief regarding any information at any stage of the publication process for an assigned manuscript, the Editor must respond as early as possible.
Editors must ensure the smooth functioning of the whole process in coordination with the Editor in Chief.
Along with the Editor in chief, the Editorial Board members are responsible for ensuring timely publishing of the accepted articles.
The Editor-in-Chief should ensure that all articles accepted for publication have been assessed by an editor.
The Editor-in-Chief should not make decisions regarding manuscripts about which he/she may have a conflict of interest. In such instances, a senior member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review and making decisions regarding acceptance or rejection.
The Editor-in-Chief must ensure Editorial Board members are not involved with the peer-review or decision-making process of any manuscript where they have a conflict of interest.
Although the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board members may publish in their Journal, the number of articles must be restricted to ensure the majority of publications come from other authors.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board members must provide a professional service to authors. Correspondence should be handled in a timely and respectful manner, and efficient and thorough peer-review carried out. Systems must be in place to ensure editorial staff absences do not result in a reduced service to authors.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial members must maintain the anonymity of peer reviewers.

(iv). Peer Review Policy

Reviewer’s responsibility

Important factors to be noted by a reviewer:

Manuscripts submitted to AJSTSS are subjected to a double-blind peer-review process. In this process, the reviewer's names and author names are hidden (the reviewer will not know who the author is and vice-versa). Up to two independent reviewers will be assigned per manuscript.
The article must match the area of expertise of the reviewer. As a reviewer, if you find that the article is not aligning with your subject expertise, please inform the editorial office without delay.
Timely review and timely publication give professional advantages. It is therefore important to meet the deadlines and send the report within the period. The process of reviewing the article along with recommendations must be done within 14 days. Exceeding that will lead to a delay in the editor's decision as well as a delay in publishing.
While accepting a reviewing assignment the respective reviewer agrees not to share any information provided in the manuscript with anyone. Confidentiality is mandatory for any reviewer.
Reviewer comments must be reasonable. You must hold your points with firm logical reasons.
The AJSTSS Peer Review Form and manuscripts will be submitted together to the reviewers for writing their evaluation report.
Assigned reviewers are responsible for scrutinizing a manuscript technically and the organization of the manuscript properly depending on the article type. Reviewer's comments should be brief to the point and understandable by the Editors and Authors.
Specifying and matching the article with the standards of the Journal is a must.
The evaluation report has to be shared with the editor.
After evaluation of the manuscript, the reviewers will decide:
Accept
Accept with minor revision

Accept with major revisions

Reject (Decline with Justification).
If the decision is classified as ‘Accept with Minor Revision’ or ‘Major Revision,’ the author shall have 7 or 14 days, respectively, to resubmit the revised manuscript from the date of official communication of the verdict.
Upon resubmission, and having been satisfied that such revision as may have been initially proposed has been made, the Editorial Board may choose to send them back to the reviewers, or may render a decision based on its expertise.
The Editorial Board has the discretion of rejecting a manuscript whose author fails to revise upon such recommendation.
In special circumstances, the contributors may be asked to suggest referees working in the same area for evaluation. However, the final choice of reviewers is a preserve of the Editorial Board.

Publication ethics

Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive credit for their work and ideas. The guidelines and core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are adhered to.

Article assessment

All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic excellence. If approved by the editor, submissions will be considered by peer reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors.

Advice will occasionally be sought outside standard peer review, for example, on submissions with serious ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications. We may consult experts and the academic editor before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.

Plagiarism

Authors must not use the words, figures, or ideas of others without attribution. All sources must be cited at the point they are used, and reuse of wording must be limited and be attributed or quoted in the text. All submitted manuscripts will be subjected to a plagiarism check that will be done by AJSTSS. In a manuscript, sources should be cited. The similarity index report should not exceed 15%. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will be rejected and the authors may incur sanctions. Any published articles may need to be corrected or retracted.

Duplicate submission and redundant publication

AJSTSSconsiders only original content, i.e. articles that have not been previously published, including in a language other than English. Articles based on content previously made public only on a preprint server, institutional repository, or in a thesis will be considered.

Manuscripts submitted to AJSTSS must not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration and must be withdrawn before being submitted elsewhere. Authors whose articles are found to have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere may incur sanctions.

If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they must cite the previous articles and indicate how their submitted manuscript differs from their previous work.

Corrections and retractions

When errors are identified in published articles, the publisher will consider what action is required and may consult the editors and the authors’ institution(s).

Errors by the authors may be corrected by a corrigendum and errors by the publisher by an erratum.

If there are errors that significantly affect the conclusions or there is evidence of misconduct, this may require retraction or an expression of concern following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

All authors will be asked to agree to the content of the notice.

Information for Authors

Publish with AJSTSS and benefit from:

An easy-to-use manuscript submission system
Dedicated editors who are active in their specific communities.
High editorial standards, ensuring all published manuscripts undergo an in-depth peer-review process.
Quick, efficient publication
The greater impact, reach, and visibility of your research through open access.
Retention of all ownership and copyright of your published research.

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript through the Online Journal System (OJS). Only electronic PDF (.pdf) or Word (.doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, .txt) files can be submitted through the manuscript submission system. The page limit for AJSTSS articles shall be 10 pages. Special characters should not be included in the file name of the main manuscript file. Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be accepted. The submitting author takes responsibility for the manuscript during submission and peer review. For technical help, please contact: journals@must.ac.ke

Terms of submission

Manuscripts must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and are only being considered by this Journal. The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that the article's publication has been approved by all the other coauthors. It is also the submitting author's responsibility to ensure that the article has all necessary institutional approvals. Only an acknowledgement from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the author(s) before publication unless otherwise indicated. It is a condition of submission that the authors permit editing of the manuscript for readability. All inquiries concerning the publication of accepted manuscripts should be addressed to journals@must.ac.ke

Peer review

All submitted articles are subject to assessment and peer review to ensure editorial appropriateness and technical correctness.

Research published in the Journal must be:

Scientifically valid – adhering to accepted community standards of research.
Technically accurate in its methods and results.
Representative of a specific advance, replication, or null/negative result, which is worthy of publication.
As reproducible as possible – sharing underlying data, code, and supporting materials wherever able.
Ethically sound and transparent – adhering to best practices in animal and human studies, consent to publish, and clear declaration of potential conflicts of interests, both real and perceived.

For an article to be accepted for publication, the assigned editor will first consider if the manuscript meets the minimum editorial standards and fits within the scope of the Journal. If an article is considered suitable for the Journal, the article will undergo a double-blind review process, where the editor will ideally solicit at least two external peer reviewers (who will remain anonymous to the authors unless they choose to disclose their identity by signing the review report) to assess the article before confirming a decision to accept. Decisions to reject are at the discretion of the editor.

Our research integrity team will occasionally seek advice outside standard peer review, for example, on submissions with serious ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications. We may consult experts and the editor before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to: recruiting reviewers with relevant expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.

Article-processing charges

The Journal is open access. Article processing charges (APCs) allow the publisher to make articles immediately available online to anyone to read and reuse upon publication. The journal shall charge article processing fees of KES 10,000 or $100.

Preprints

AJSTSS upports the deposition of manuscripts in preprint servers and does not consider this to compromise the novelty of the results. Articles based on content previously made public only on a preprint server, institutional repository, or in a thesis will be considered. The preprint should be cited.

Article types (consider more article types)

The Journal will consider the following article types:

Research articles

Research articles should present the results of an original research study. These manuscripts should describe how the research project was conducted and provide a thorough analysis of the results of the project. Systematic reviews may be submitted as research articles.

Reviews

A review article provides an overview of the published literature in a particular subject area.

Other Manuscripts

Letters and viewpoints: Debates on policy issues relating to AJSTSS disciplines; personal views and experiences relevant to important policy issues will be considered.
New technologies and products: Evaluation of new products and technologies developed for or relevant to global markets will be considered.
Announcements: Information on scientific conferences, training programmes, industrial exhibitions, and awards of interest to the global scholarly community will be considered.

Language of Publication

The Journal publishes papers in UK English only. The use of complex jargon must be avoided.

Footnotes

Footnotes must be avoided in the main body of the manuscript. Use the APA referencing guide.

Parts of a Review Manuscript

Review manuscripts should range from 3,000 to 4,000 words and contain extensive literature citations. Include a title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, literature review, discussion/application, conclusions and references.

Page-Proofs

Page proofs will normally be sent to the corresponding author through email for correction within a specified timeframe. Failure to comply with the deadline will result in the exclusion of the manuscript from the publication schedule.

Copyright Notice

Privacy Statement

The personal information such as names, email addresses and other contacts entered in the Journal will be used exclusively for the stated purposes and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other third party.

Author Checklist

Authors submitting manuscripts for publication should use the checklist shown below to ensure that their manuscript is in the correct format and to facilitate processing and publication

Tick	*Item*
	One soft copy
	Manuscript pages are numbered throughout
	The title page with the title of the manuscript, followed by authors' names, addresses, and contacts of the corresponding author is clearly indicated
	Abstract with keywords is provided
	Citations in text conform to specifications in author guidelines
	References in the text and in the reference list correspond exactly
	Journal titles are given in full
	Tables and figures are properly captioned and placed correctly within the main text.
	All magnifications of figures are indicated by scale bars
	Metric standard international units are used
	Manuscript processing fee payment evidence is enclosed

Information for Reviewers

Applications to review

We appreciate applications to join our community of peer reviewers.

You may apply or be contacted with requests to review for AJSTSS in your subject area.

Applications to be a reviewer may be sent to . Reviewers are selected on a manuscript-by-manuscript basis.

How to peer review for AJSTSS

AJSTSS encourages the publication of findings of various researches conducted by scholars to facilitate sharing and dissemination of knowledge. The manuscripts acceptable cover a wide range of areas in regard to the scope identified for AJSTSS publications.

Manuscripts are reviewed, in accordance with the following criteria and guidelines: consider google form.

QUESTION		TICK AS APPROPRIATE
1. Write the title of the paper here:
2. Is the content of this manuscript original?		YES		NO
3. Does this paper address any of the areas listed in the scope?		YES		NO
4. Rate the length of this paper. The ideal length is 10 single-spaced pages, font size of 10		TOO LONG	TOO SHORT	JUST RIGHT
5. You recommend it be:
a	Published as it is
b	Published subject to MINOR corrections
c	Published subject to MAJOR corrections
d	Rejected

Write corrections you would wish the authors to effect to improve the paper.

The reviewer report should comprehensively critique the submission and consist of much more than a few brief sentences. We encourage reviewers to help authors improve their manuscripts. The report should give constructive analysis to authors, particularly where revisions are recommended.

Some core aspects that should be critiqued by reviewers may include:

Are the research questions valid?
Is the sample size sufficient?
Is there necessary ethical approval and/or consent and was the research ethical?
Are the methods and study design appropriate for answering the research question?
Do the experiments have appropriate controls?
Is the reporting of the methods, including any equipment and materials, sufficiently detailed that the research might be reproduced?
Are any statistical tests used appropriately and correctly reported?
Are the figures and tables clear and do they accurately represent the results?
Has previous research by the authors and others been discussed and have those results been compared to the current results?
Are there any inappropriate citations, for example, not supporting the claim being made or too many citations to the authors' articles?
Do the results support the conclusions?
Are limitations of the research acknowledged?
Is the abstract an accurate summary of the research and results, without spin?
Is the language clear and understandable?

To help authors receive timely reviews, reviewer reports should be submitted via the manuscript tracking system on or before the agreed deadline. Reviewers should contact AJSTSS if they are unable to meet the deadline so an alternative date can be arranged.

We encourage reviewers to focus their reports on objectively critiquing the technical aspects of the submission, including the soundness of the methodology and whether the conclusions can be supported by the results. At the end of their review, we ask reviewers to recommend one of the following actions:

Publish as it is
Consider after Minor Corrections
Consider after Major Corrections
Reject

However, it is important to note that the overall decision will be made by the Editor in Chief.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts under peer review should be strictly confidential. Reviewers must not share manuscripts or discuss their content with anyone outside the peer-review process. Reviewers will be anonymous to the authors unless they choose to disclose their identity by signing the review report.

Conflicts of interest

Reviewers should decline to review a manuscript from an author if: -

Have a recent publication or current submission with the author
Share or have recently shared an affiliation with the author
Collaborate or have recently collaborated with the author
Have a close personal connection to the author
Have a financial interest in the subject of the work
Feel unable to be objective in reviewing the submission

Consent for identifying information

The AJSTSS conforms to the requirements stipulated by COPE with regard to consent to publish identifying information. Manuscript having datas or images or information which can identify the individual will not be accepted for publication.

Language of Informed Consent Documents:

a) We acknowledge that we live in a multi-lingual society. We underscore that informed consent to participation in research is a process that is distinct from its affirmation in an informed consent document. Consequently, the language in which informed consent process is conducted may not always be the language in which the informed consent document is written. The flexibility to use the language that is most effective in communication or even more than one language to obtain consent and its written affirmation is considered congruent to and required in a multilingual society, and should be seen and deployed as providing added value rather than being a compromise (as it may appear when judged from a unilingual context).
b) If research participants by virtue of research selection, all speak the same language at home, we strongly advise that the informed consent document be in that language. However, we appreciate that most studies are not restricted to people who all speak the same language, hence we acknowledge that English and Kiswahili as the lingua franca in where we are dormained will usually be the most practically appropriate language in which an informed consent document will be written, reflecting the local realities as expressed in point (a) above.
c) We encourage that (but do not insist upon) informed consent documents be made available in English, Kiswahili and Local Languages (as appropriate) from which a specific research participant may choose. Note that translations of informed consent documents from English must be accurate. (if any other language is used, then translation to English and Kiswahili will be required)
d) In case an informed consent document is available in more than one language, we underscore that research participants may choose to use an informed consent document in a language that is different from their home language.

General requirements

The information that is given to the participants needs to be presented in a language that promotes their understanding of the proposed research study. Translated Informed Consent Form or Translators can be used.

Journal Policies

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