Editorial & Publication Policy

Effective date: October 2026. Last reviewed: September 2026.

AfroStrategy’s credibility depends on the reliability, independence and transparency of the work it publishes. This Policy applies to the main AfroStrategy research and editorial platform. Individual journals may adopt additional peer-review and publication-ethics requirements.

Editorial responsibility

Final publication decisions are made by authorized AfroStrategy editors.

Editors may consider relevance, originality, evidence, analytical quality, methodological appropriateness, clarity, ethical and legal risk, duplication, timeliness and fit with the publication format.

Commercial relationships, institutional-access purchases, sponsorships, personal relationships or political pressure should not determine editorial conclusions.

Editorial workflow

Depending on publication type, material may move through the following workflow:

Drafting → Submitted → Screening → Under Review → Revision → Accepted → Scheduled → Published

Not every publication requires external peer review.

Research Papers, Policy Papers, Working Papers and selected Reports may undergo formal or specialist review. Commentary, analysis and shorter formats may be handled primarily through editorial review, source verification and fact-checking.

Accuracy and verification

Authors and editors should make reasonable efforts to verify factual claims before publication.

Specific statistics, dates, quotations, legal claims and consequential assertions should be traceable to credible sources.

Where information is uncertain, disputed or incomplete, a publication should say so rather than present uncertainty as fact.

Source quality

We prefer primary and authoritative sources where reasonably available.

Secondary sources may provide context and synthesis, but important claims should not depend solely on anonymous aggregation, unattributed reposting or unsupported social-media material.

Anonymous or confidential sources require heightened editorial scrutiny. The reason for anonymity should be clear to the editor and important information should be corroborated where possible.

Review and peer review

Peer or specialist review may be used when appropriate.

Reviewers should evaluate work fairly, disclose conflicts of interest, preserve confidentiality, avoid using unpublished information for personal advantage and provide constructive evidence-based assessment.

Journal-specific peer review is governed by each journal’s own policy.

Conflicts of interest

Contributors, reviewers and editors should disclose material financial, professional, institutional, personal or political relationships that could reasonably affect — or appear to affect — their judgment.

A disclosed conflict may be managed through transparency, independent review, reassignment or, where necessary, non-publication.

Plagiarism, fabrication and misconduct

AfroStrategy does not accept plagiarism, fabricated evidence, falsified data, invented quotations, manipulated citations, deceptive authorship or deliberate misrepresentation of sources or methods.

Substantial reuse of an author’s previous work should be disclosed. Republishing substantially the same work under a new title without disclosure is not acceptable.

Research involving people or sensitive data

Research involving interviews, surveys, confidential records, vulnerable groups or identifiable personal data should comply with appropriate ethical and legal requirements.

Where formal ethical approval or informed consent is required, authors should be able to document it.

Respectful and non-discriminatory writing

AfroStrategy supports rigorous disagreement and critical analysis.

We do not publish dehumanizing abuse, unlawful discrimination or incitement. Criticism of public institutions, political actors, ideologies, policies, religions, movements and other matters of legitimate public interest should remain relevant to the argument and supported by evidence.

Images, data and third-party material

Authors must have lawful authority to use copyrighted images, maps, datasets, tables or other third-party materials unless the use is otherwise permitted by applicable law or license.

Sources and credits should be stated clearly.

Editing and production

AfroStrategy may edit accepted work for clarity, structure, style, consistency, metadata, accessibility, citation formatting, legal safety and factual precision.

Substantive edits affecting the author’s core argument should ordinarily be discussed with the author.

Archiving and discoverability

AfroStrategy may preserve publications and bibliographic metadata for long-term recordkeeping and make them discoverable through search engines, scholarly systems, DOI services, archives and machine-readable discovery systems.

Corrections and retractions

Material errors should be corrected transparently. Serious problems affecting the integrity or legality of a publication may require an editorial note, withdrawal or retraction.

See Corrections, Complaints & Appeals for the detailed process.

Related policies

This Policy should be read together with: