Author Guidelines
Aims and scope
African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology (AJCEM) is the official Journal of the African Association of Clinical Microbiologists. It publishes original research, review papers, case reports/series, short communications and letters to the editors, in all aspects of Medical Microbiology including Bacteriology, Virology, Rickettsiology and Chlamydiology, Mycology, Mycobacteriology and Actinomycetes, Parasitology, Molecular Genetics in relation to microorganisms and humans, Clinical Microbiology, Clinical Veterinary Microbiology, and Public Health Microbiology.
Subscription information
African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL published under the Creative Commons Attrition 4.0 International License <arel="license"href= "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"; and from 2016, has been publishing four times a year: January, April, July and October.
Free downloads can be made from the website of the world’s largest online library of peer reviewed, Africa-published scholarly journals, African Journals OnLine (AJOL): https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajcem OR from the Journal website https://www.afrjcem.org. Subscription is however still open to individuals, libraries, University Departments, Research Institutes and other Multi-reader institutions who may want to have hard copies of the Journal.
For each volume (4 issues), subscription rate is ₤400 (United Kingdom), US $800 (USA/Canada), US $600 (African Countries), US $800 (Other Countries), N28,000 (Nigeria). Additional charges will be made for postage and packaging. A copyright for these is with African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology.
Subscription enquiries and all other matters relating to the Journal including manuscripts, adverts booking and sponsorship should be addressed to:
Prof Samuel S. Taiwo (MD; FMCPath)
Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology,
Department of Medical Microbiology, LAUTECH Teaching Hospital,
PMB 4007, Ogbomoso, Nigeria
Mobile Phone: +234 (0) 8033436344
Email: afrjcem@gmail.com
Indexing
African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology is indexed at the following bodies; (i) African Journals Online (AJOL) https://www.ajol.info/ with TWO STAR rating (out of a possible three) in the Journal Publishing Practices and Standards (JPPS) Framework assessment https://www.journalquality.info (March 2019); (ii) Index Copernicus International (ICI) Journal Master List www.indexcopernicus.com (ID 35531) with Index Copernicus Value (ICV) for 2019 of 93.10, and for 2020 of 71.43; (iii) Society of African Journal Editors (SAJE) Library https://africaneditors.org; with 2020 Journal Ranking of ‘A’, Impact Score of 1.092, h5 Index of 6, Citation of 119; and 2021 Journal Ranking of ‘A’, Impact Score of 1.143, h5 Index of 6, and Citation of 154; and (iv) African Researchers (AR) Index (https://www. africanresearchers.org/arindex/african-journal-of-clinical-and-experimental-microbiology/)
Guidelines to authors/contributors
It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this Journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted to be published elsewhere except as conference abstracts, for which authors must disclose at the point of manuscript submission. Authors should be aware that electronic journals issues/articles can be accessed free (Open Access) online at the AJOL website: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajcem OR at the Journal website: https://www.afrjcem.org
Responsibility for accuracy of manuscripts lies entirely with the authors. All submissions must conform to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) uniform recommendations for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) and follow the guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines.
Manuscripts should be typewritten with double line spacing and wide margins, following the conventional form: Title, Authors’ names in agreed order of arrangement, full address of the corresponding author including e-mail, phone number and ORCiD number (if available), Abstract (Structured), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgment(s), References, Tables, Figures and Legends to Figures. Short Communications and Letters to The Editor are also entertained, but need not follow the above format.
French abstracts:
The Journal has, since May 2014, be including French translations of abstracts. Authors should therefore include French translations of their titles, their addresses and abstracts of their manuscripts. If they are not included, it will be done by the Journal at a nominal fee to be paid as part of handling charges. If the research involves the use of human subjects, including collection of human blood or other human specimens, an institutional ethical clearance document should be submitted with the manuscripts. Alternatively, a statement should be made in the “Materials and Methods” section that informed consent of the experimental subjects and the approval of the appropriate ethical committee had been obtained. All necessary illustrations should accompany the manuscripts, but should not be in the text. The illustrations should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are referred to in the text. The top of illustration should also be indicated if this is not clear. All x-ray films must be clear and should be in photographic prints. Legends to figures should give sufficient information to make the illustration comprehensive without reference to the text.
References should be listed in their order of appearance in the text; and be indicated in the text by Arabic numbers in brackets e.g. (1), (2, 3, 4), etc (Modified Vancouver style). Accuracy of the references is the responsibility of the authors. The authors’ names and initials should be followed by the title of the paper, abbreviated name of the journal, which should conform to those used in Index Medicus, year of publication, volume, and the first and last page numbers. The digital object identifier (DOI) number of each cited article should be included if available. Note the following examples.
For Journals:
1. Nsanze, H. Recommendation for management of gonorrhoea and genital ulcers in Africa. Afr J Sex Transm Dis. 1984; 1:5-7
2. Odugbemi, T. O., Akinsulire, O. R., Aibinu, I. E., and Fabeku, P. O. Medicinal plants useful for malaria therapy in Okeigbo, Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria. Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2006; 13; 4 (2): 191-198. doi: 10.4314/ajtcam.v4i2.31207
3. Bakare, R. A., Oni, A. A., Okesola, A. A., et al. Efficacy of pefloxacin on acute uncomplicated gonococcal urethritis. Nig Qt J Hosp Med. 1996; 6: 335
For books:
1. Arya, O. P., Osoba, A. O., and Bennett, P. Tropical Venereology, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1980
When referring to a chapter in a book and where the names of authors are also given, the reference should be;
2. Easmon, C. S. F. Host-Parasite relationship in experimental staphylococcal infections. In: Macdonald, A., and Smith, G. (eds). The Staphylococci. University Press, Aberdeen 1981: 63-72
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with AJCEM must agree to the following terms;
1. Authors transfer the copyright to AJCEM who publishes under CC BY license 4.0 that allows authors and others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the works’ authorship and initial publication in AJCEM
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive and non-commercial distribution of AJCEM published version of the work (e. g. posting it on institutional repository or publishing it in a book), with acknowledgement of its initial publication in AJCEM
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e. g. institutional repositories or on their websites) prior to or during the submission process as it can lead to productive exchanges as well as earlier and greater citation of published work
4. Authors must agree to the terms of this Copyright Notice, which will apply to the submitted manuscript if and when it is accepted and published by AJCEM. This agreement should be stated within the text of the manuscript at the time of submission.
Plagiarism Prevention Policy
The rights of all authors who publishes with AJCEM are protected and the integrity of the Journal is upheld in the highest possible form. Issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism and other breaches of publication best practices are carefully handled and investigated. All submitted manuscripts are checked with plagiarism software. Where there are errors in the published articles or where issues of plagiarism or copyright infringement are detected by the Journal or allegation of iimpropriety or authorship of a manuscript is contested, the Journal reserve the right to take actions which may include but not limited to; publishing an erratum (for publication errors) or corrigendum (for authors errors); retraction of the article; reporting cases of malpractices to heads of authors institutions and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or instituting appropriate legal action.
Manuscript submission
All manuscripts should preferably be submitted through the Journal’s website at “Submit Your Manuscript” page (https://afrjcem.org/submit/) but alternatively, manuscripts could be submitted through the e-mail of the Journal (afrjcem@gmail.com). Manuscript submission should be accompanied by a Cover Letter signed by the corresponding author on behalf of other authors, and stating that all authors agreed to the preparation and final copy of the manuscript submitted, as well as agreeing to the terms of Copyright of the Journal.
Peer Review Process
The peer review process of the Journal can be accessed on the Journal’s website at https://afrjcem.org/ajcem/. All manuscripts submitted to the Journal are first scrutinized by the Editorial Board for suitability of publication within the scope of the Journal and for manuscript preparation in line with the Journal guideline. Successful manuscripts are then sent to a minimum of two independent assessors for peer review in a “double blind” manner. Two assessors’ reports must agree for the Board to make a decision concerning acceptance or rejection of a manuscript, however the final decision on any manuscript is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief. The review process takes between 4 to 6 weeks for completion but there is room for expedited review of any perceived ground-breaking manuscript.
Article Processing Charge
African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology is open access; therefore, authors are charged based on number of print pages (double column) of their published articles (not number of pages of their submitted manuscripts). The charge per print page is ₤10 (UK), €12 (Europe), $15 (US/Canada) and N 5000 (Nigeria). An estimation of page charges will be mailed to the author(s) after acceptance of article for publication.
Waiver on Article Processing Charge
Authors based in some countries may enjoy some percentage waiver on article processing charge for their accepted manuscripts. Waivers are not automatic but given at the discretion of the Editorial Board and according to the World Bank Atlas classification of countries based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (https://data.worldbank.org/country). The following percentage waiver may be given; High-Income-Countries – 0% waiver; Upper-Middle-Income-Countries – 0% waiver; Lower-Middle-Income-Countries – up to 25% waiver; Low-Income-Countries – up to 40% waiver. Authors from countries entitled to waiver should request for this at the time of manuscript submission, and not after manuscript acceptance.
