Author Guidelines
1 FORM AND CONTENT: Each author should ensure that the paper submitted is directly relevant to the African issues, values and reality in their complex forms, which include the socio-cultural, economic, political and historical aspects. The paper should be conveniently divided into relevant sub-topics, which are consistently arranged, with an introduction and conclusion. A monograph should be written in such a way that it is complete. In some cases a long monograph can be divided in issues.
An abstract of no more than 100 words should precede the introduction giving the problem being investigated, the method used and the summary of the findings. The Centre for African Studies (CAS) reserves itself the right to accept, edit or reject a paper. Articles are usually reviewed by at least two referees. They are assessed for their significance to African issues and values, and scholarly appropriateness.
2 APPROACH AND PRESENTATION: The CAS aims to provide authoritative knowledge and would like to contribute towards a systematic pursuit of knowledge, research and understanding about Africa, and for that reason insists on original approaches which give references where necessary. The authors are expected to explain the problem being investigated, the method of investigation being used, and the findings, which should manifest critical engagement and awareness of the scholarly debates on the subject of research.
3 LENGTH MODE OF SUBMISSION: The paper should be between 35-50 1.5-spaced A4 typed pages, using Times New Roman, of size 12, inclusive of footnotes, references and appendices. The paper must be submitted as a soft copy by e-mail.
4 LANGUAGE: Papers should normally be written in British English. However, papers written in French with a summary of not more than 1 page in English will also be considered for publication. Formal scholarly language should be used. Colloquial expressions are to be avoided, except where they are needed for illustration, and in that case they should be indicated as such, preferably between quotation marks. Foreign words and phrases should also be avoided, and if they must be used, they must be italicised and translated.
The author should use inclusive language: instead of writing he or she, the simpler form s/he is recommended. The language and content of papers should be non-sexist. Man, as a generic term to include women is now unacceptable. Alternatives are 'person', 'people', ‘human’ or 'human beings'. Use of 'he' and 'him' can be avoided by use of plural forms 'they' or 'their'. Examples of non-sexist formulations: The child…he.. -Children…they; Man's achievements - Human/Peoples' achievements; Headmaster - Headteacher/Head/Principal; manpower - personnel/workers; fireman - fire fighter.
Needless to add that the submitted paper can never be used to promote hatred, racism or any form of demeaning of individuals or of groups of people.
5 GRAMMAR: Authors are fully responsible for checking the proofs. Submissions, which have not been thoroughly proof-read, will be returned to their respective authors and will risk not being published.
6 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL: Illustrations, photographs and figures to accompany articles are welcome. These should be clearly drawn, captioned and credited to the originator where necessary. Illustrations should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. Tables should be kept to the minimum and include only essential detail.
7 SYMBOLS AND EQUATIONS: Scientific symbols should be clearly typed. Since they are often difficult and expensive for typesetting, the author using them should submit a reproducible artwork.
8 REFERENCES AND QUOTATIONS: Submitted articles must use the Harvard system of referencing. Long quotations should be avoided. Once they are used they should be indented, single spaced. The author must make sure s/he is not infringing on a copyright. References within the text must be specified: author(s), year of publication, and page number(s); (Mamdani, 1998:47).
All references used are to be given at the end of the paper, with the names of the authors listed in an alphabetical order. For books, give author’s surname, initials, year of publication. Title in italics. Edition (if not the first), Place of publication: Publisher. Reference to a contribution in a book: Contributing author’s surname, initials, year of publication, title of contribution followed by “in”: initials, surname of author or editor of publication followed by ed. Or eds. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher, page number(s) of contribution. When quoting an article in a journal the author should indicate volume number as well as pages. And for a newspaper article, the day, month, page numbers and column number should be indicated: ... Daily Nation, 8 September, p. 11a. Internet sources need to be acknowledged as well by clearly indicating the website and the date when the material was consulted.
Government reports and documents from organisations need to be treated as single authors and should also appear in alphabetical order. If using 'grey' or semi-published material, give full details of the nature of the material. Where possible, a list of works for further reading can be supplied but the author should guard against long lists of references.
9 FOOTNOTES: Footnotes should be used sparingly; they should be only explanatory and not for citations. Once used, footnotes should be serially numbered throughout the paper in small superscripts within the text and the explanations about notes should be given at the bottom of each page.
10 COPYRIGHT: The copyright of each individual published submission remains with the Research Directorate and the respective author. CAS reserves the right to reprint the material it receives, and the author is asked to inform the CAS when she/he intends to use that material for another publication. The opinions expressed in the monographs are those of the author.
11 BIOGRAPHY: A person who is submitting material for the first time is asked to give brief biographical notes about him/herself in about six lines indicating title and institution(s) of affiliation. S/he should send along with the paper his/her full postal address, telephone/fax number(s) and e-mail address if these are available.
12 POLICY STATEMENT: The CAS upholds a policy of participating in disseminating and sharing knowledge with as a wide public as possible, and therefore does not aim at profit making. Whatever revenue is got from the SPGSR publications is used for this purpose. The author of a publication will get 3 free complimentary copies.
13 CONTACT INFORMATION
For more information contact:
Mtafiti Mwafrika
Center for African Studies
Uganda Martyrs University
P O Box 5498 Kampala - Uganda
Tel +256-38-410611
Fax +256-38 410100
E-mail: cas@umu.ac.ug
