About the Journal
African Anthropologist provides a forum for African and Africanist anthropologists, researchers, social scientists, writers, thinkers, philosophers, and artists to explore what it means to be human.
AA seeks to stimulate conversation on culture, diversity, ideas, life processes, and complex webs and fabrics while developing anthropological conceptual and theoretical frameworks and research methodologies.
AA is committed to advancing anthropological research and practice developments, initiating and sustaining multidisciplinary collaboration, and protecting human life and human rights.
Cover art: Virtud Femenina, by artist Mene Manresa Bodipo.
Publisher
AA journal is published biannually by the Pan African Anthropological Association (PAAA).
The birth of the PAAA goes back to the 12th Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), which took place in August 1988 in Zagreb, present-day Croatia. The congress, which was attended by over 1200 anthropologists from all over the world, had a meager presence of 15 Africans, though Africanist anthropologists did not seem to be visible. The fifteen came from seven African countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, and Zambia).
As an initial step, a steering committee has been constituted composed of five members from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal to organize the first conference of the Pan African Anthropological Association.
The PAAA established a journal with the name “The African Anthropologist." Its first volume was published in 1992, and its focus has been largely on the current state of anthropological research on the continent.
Pan-African Anthropological Association—a synopsis
By: Professor P-J Ezeh, formerly President
Open access policy
AA provides free and open access to all of its research publications online. For more information, click here.
License
The journal content is published under a CC BY-ND 4.0 License.
Authors retain the full publishing rights for redistribution, commercial, and non-commercial use and deposit their publication in any repository provided that appropriate credit is given and any changes specified.
African Anthropologist © 1999 by Paul Nchoji Nkwi.
Peer review
AA peer review system includes editorial review, peer review, anonymous peer review, and double anonymous peer review.
Submission of paper
In the cases of peer review, anonymous peer review, and double anonymous peer review, the corresponding or submitting author submits the paper to the journal. This is usually done by emailing the journal editorial team.
Editorial assessment
The editorial team reviews the paper’s composition and arrangement according to the journal’s Author Guidelines to ensure it includes the required sections and stylizations. The editorial team reviews that the form is appropriate for the journal and is original. If not, the article may be rejected without being reviewed any further.
Invitation to reviewers
The editorial team sends invitations to two reviewers. As responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until the required number of acceptances is obtained – commonly, this is two.
Response to invitations
Potential reviewers consider the invitation according to their expertise, conflicts of interest, and availability. They then accept or decline within a week of receiving the invitation. When declining, they might also suggest alternative reviewers.
Review process
Reviewer (s) will be given one month and a half to review the paper. Reviewer (s) set (s) time aside to read the article several times. The first read is used to form an initial impression of the work. The paper might be rejected without further work if significant problems are found at this stage. Otherwise, they will read the article several times, taking notes to build a detailed point-by-point review. The review is then submitted to the journal’s editorial team within one month and a half upon receipt, with a recommendation to accept or reject it – or else with a revision request (usually flagged as either major or minor) before reconsidering.
Journal evaluates the reviews
The handling editor considers all the returned reviews before making an overall decision. If the studies differ widely, the editor may invite an additional reviewer to get a different opinion before deciding.
The decision is communicated
The editorial team sends a decision email to the author, including any relevant reviewer comments. The comments are anonymous.
Next steps
If accepted, the paper is sent to production. If the article is rejected or sent back for major or minor revision, the handling editor should include constructive reviewer comments to help the author improve the article. At this point, reviewers should also be sent an email or letter letting them know the outcome of their review. If the paper were returned for revision, the reviewers would have another month and a half to complete the second/third revisions (if needed). The reviewers should expect a new version unless they have opted out of further participation. However, the handling editor might do this follow-up review where only minor changes were requested.
Authors and librarians
If you are interested in submitting to this journal, we recommend you review the journal's Author Guidelines.
We encourage research librarians to list this journal among their library's electronic journal holdings. It may also be worth noting that this journal's open source publishing system is suitable for libraries to host for their faculty members to use with journals they are involved in editing.
