Guidelines for Authors

JAPED welcomes original contributions that advance scholarly understanding of African political economy and development. Please read these instructions carefully before submitting. Manuscripts that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned before peer review.

How to Submit Manuscripts should be submitted by email to: Editor-in-Chief, Prof. George Bob-Milliar (gbobmilliar.cass@knust.edu.gh) and Managing Editor, Prof. Yegandi Imhotep Paul Alagidede (ipalagidede@ug.edu.gh). Electronic submission in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTeX (.pdf) is preferred. Authors will receive an acknowledgement of receipt within five (5) working days of submission.

■  The manuscript must be original and not previously published in any form (journal, book chapter, conference proceedings, or preprint without disclosure). 

■  The manuscript must not be under concurrent consideration at another journal. JAPED does not accept simultaneous submissions. 

■  All listed authors must meet the JAPED authorship criteria (see Publisher/Author Agreement). 

■  The research must comply with applicable ethical standards (see Research Ethics policy). 

■  Manuscripts must be written in English. Non-native English-speaking authors are encouraged to seek professional language editing prior to submission. 

Manuscript Length

■  Full-length articles:  5,000–10,000 words (including references; excluding abstract)

■  Research notes and policy commentaries:  2,000–4,000 words

■  Letters and brief communications:  1,000–2,000 words

■  Review articles:  Up to 12,000 words

Required Sections and Formatting

1.  Title page (separate file):  include the manuscript title; full names and institutional affiliations of all authors; corresponding author email, full postal address, and telephone number; ORCID for all authors (mandatory from Volume 11, 2026; required for corresponding author immediately); and Google Scholar handle where available.

2.  Abstract (main manuscript file):  unstructured abstract of maximum 300 words. The abstract must include: research objective or question; methodology or approach; key findings; and principal contribution or policy implication. Do not cite references in the abstract.

3.  Keywords:  minimum five (5) keywords, separated by semicolons, placed immediately below the abstract. Keywords should not duplicate the title.

4.  Author biographies:  a one-paragraph biography of each author, placed at the end of the manuscript before the reference list.

5.  Manuscript body:  structured with clear section headings and, where appropriate, numbered subsections. All figures and tables must be mentioned in the text, carry titles/captions, and be editable (not image files). Figures must be minimum 300 dpi (colour) or 600 dpi (grayscale).

6.  Acknowledgements:  include after the manuscript body; acknowledge funding sources, research assistance, and any other contributions not meeting authorship criteria.

7.  Funding statement:  provide full details of all funding sources using the standard format: "This research was funded by [Funder], grant number [XXXX]." If no funding was received, state: "This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors."

8.  Disclosure / Conflict of Interest statement:  declare any financial or non-financial interest arising from the research. If none: "The authors report there are no competing interests to declare."

9.  AI disclosure:  authors who used AI tools in manuscript writing, image generation, or data analysis must disclose the tool and describe its use. AI tools may not be listed as authors.

10.  Ethics declaration:  state whether the research required ethics committee approval and, if so, provide the approval reference and the name of the approving body. If the research did not require ethical approval, state this explicitly.

11.  Data availability statement:  specify where research data can be accessed (repository URL, DOI, or statement of restricted access with explanation). Data deposition in a recognised open repository is strongly encouraged prior to submission.

12.  ORCID identifiers:  all authors must provide their ORCID in the format https://orcid.org/XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. ORCIDs must be displayed on published articles. Authors without an ORCID may register free at https://orcid.org.

JAPED uses the Author-Date (Chicago) referencing style. References in the text take the form (Surname, Year) or (Surname, Year: page number) for direct quotations. The reference list is arranged alphabetically by first author's surname and is not numbered. All references must include a DOI where one is assigned to the cited work.

Journal article

Bob-Milliar, GM and Nyaaba, AY. (2022). Modernising Royals and Capitalists of Kumase: the Ashanti Turf Club, 1950–1980s. Journal of West African History 8(1): 45–76. https://doi.org/XXXXXXXXXX

Book

Iddrisu, A. and Alagidede, I.P. (2022). Monetary Policy and Food Inflation in Emerging and Developing Economies. Routledge, London. ISBN 9781032049663. https://doi.org/XXXXXXXXXX

Chapter in edited book

Bob-Milliar, GM. (2022). Africa's Contributions to World Civilization. In Oloruntoba, S.O. and Falola, T. (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Africa and the Changing Global Order. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 25–42. https://doi.org/XXXXXXXXXX

Website / Online content

Author, A. (Year). Title of page. Available at: [URL] (Accessed: Day Month Year).

DOI Requirement The inclusion of a DOI for all cited works where a DOI exists is a mandatory condition for publication at JAPED, effective from the current issue. Authors must verify that all DOIs are active and correctly formatted (https://doi.org/XXXXXXXXXX) before submission. Manuscripts submitted with missing or unverified DOIs will be returned for correction prior to peer review.

JAPED has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism in all forms. All manuscripts are screened using plagiarism detection software prior to peer review. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarised content — including self-plagiarism (re-use of the author's own previously published work without attribution) — will be desk rejected. Where plagiarism is identified after publication, the article will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines and may be retracted.

Acceptable text similarity with prior literature (exclusive of references, author names, and standard methodology descriptions) is below 15%. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Editor-in-Chief.

In the interest of transparency, JAPED displays the following dates on all published articles: (1) date of original submission; (2) date of acceptance for publication; and (3) date of online publication. These dates are registered in CrossRef metadata. This policy applies from Volume 11 (2026) onward.