The African Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Technology is committed to maintaining a rigorous, fair, transparent, and academically constructive peer-review process.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are subject to an initial editorial assessment. During this stage, the editorial team considers the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, scholarly quality, methodological soundness, ethical considerations, completeness, presentation, and compliance with submission requirements.

Manuscripts that are clearly outside the journal’s scope, substantially incomplete, or unsuitable for scholarly consideration may be declined at the editorial assessment stage without external peer review.

Manuscripts that pass the initial assessment may be sent to qualified reviewers with relevant expertise. Reviewers are expected to evaluate manuscripts objectively and provide constructive comments that assist editors and authors in reaching and implementing an appropriate editorial decision.

Depending on the nature of the manuscript, reviewers may be asked to assess:

Originality and significance
Relevance to the journal’s scope
Theoretical contribution
Methodological rigor
Data quality and analytical procedures
Validity of results and interpretations
Technical soundness
Ethical considerations
Transparency and reproducibility
Appropriate use of artificial intelligence or computational methods
Quality of references and scholarly positioning
Clarity and organization
Overall contribution to knowledge

The journal may request revisions following peer review. Authors are expected to respond carefully and transparently to reviewer comments and to provide appropriate explanations where recommendations are not adopted.

The final decision regarding publication rests with the editorial team and may include acceptance, minor revision, major revision, rejection, or other appropriate editorial outcomes.

The journal recognizes that different types of manuscripts require different forms of evaluation. Technical articles, software or tool papers, data articles, methodological papers, reviews, and conceptual contributions may therefore be assessed using criteria appropriate to their specific scholarly purpose.

The journal also recognizes the importance of responsible evaluation of artificial intelligence research. Reviewers and editors should consider issues such as reproducibility, data provenance, model limitations, bias, transparency, privacy, security, and responsible deployment where relevant.

The African Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Technology is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity and publication ethics.

The journal expects authors, reviewers, editors, and other participants in the publication process to act honestly, transparently, responsibly, and professionally.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted work is original, accurately reported, appropriately referenced, and free from fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate duplication, and other forms of academic misconduct.

All individuals listed as authors should have made meaningful contributions to the work and should have approved the submitted version. Individuals who have not made an appropriate contribution should not be listed as authors.

Authors are expected to disclose relevant funding sources and actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest.

Where research involves human participants, personal data, animals, sensitive information, or other ethically regulated activities, authors must provide appropriate information regarding ethical approval or relevant ethical oversight.

Particular attention should be given to ethical issues associated with artificial intelligence and data science, including privacy, data protection, algorithmic bias, discriminatory outcomes, inappropriate surveillance, data provenance, transparency, accountability, and responsible use.

The journal does not consider the use of artificial intelligence or AI-assisted tools, by itself, to constitute misconduct. However, authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, citations, interpretation, and final content of their manuscripts. Where required by journal policy, substantive use of AI-assisted tools should be disclosed.

The journal may investigate allegations of misconduct or ethical concerns arising before or after publication and may take appropriate corrective action where necessary.

Author Guidelines

Authors submitting manuscripts to the African Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Technology should ensure that their submissions are original, clearly written, appropriately referenced, ethically conducted where applicable, and relevant to the scope of the journal.

Manuscript originality

Manuscripts must represent original scholarly work and must not have been published previously in substantially the same form or be simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Manuscript preparation

Manuscripts should be prepared in a clear and professional format and should follow the structure appropriate to the type of article being submitted. Authors should ensure that the manuscript is complete and that tables, figures, references, supplementary materials, and other supporting information are clearly identified.

Research reporting

Authors should provide sufficient methodological information to allow readers to understand how the study was conducted and, where appropriate, to facilitate replication or independent evaluation.

Research involving datasets, computational models, algorithms, software, or artificial intelligence systems should provide sufficient information about the data, analytical procedures, computational methods, model development, evaluation procedures, and relevant limitations.

Data and computational transparency

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to provide information concerning data sources, data preparation, analytical procedures, code, computational environments, model specifications, validation procedures, and other materials necessary to understand or reproduce the research.

Where data or code cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, confidentiality, licensing, security, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should clearly state the applicable limitations.

Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools

Authors who use artificial intelligence or AI-assisted tools in preparing their manuscripts remain fully responsible for the submitted work. AI-assisted tools should not replace appropriate scholarly judgment, verification, methodological rigor, or author responsibility.

Authors should carefully review and verify AI-assisted content for accuracy, completeness, originality, inappropriate attribution, fabricated references, and other potential errors.

Where substantive AI assistance is used in manuscript preparation or research, authors should disclose such use in accordance with the journal’s requirements.

Ethical considerations

Authors must report relevant ethical approvals, informed consent procedures, data protection measures, or other ethical safeguards where applicable.

Authorship

All listed authors should have made appropriate contributions to the work and should have approved the final manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and should ensure that all authors are aware of and agree to the submission.

Funding and conflicts of interest

Relevant funding sources and conflicts of interest should be disclosed.

References

Authors should ensure that all sources cited in the manuscript are appropriately acknowledged and that the reference list accurately corresponds to the citations in the manuscript.

Authors should follow the referencing style specified by the journal at the time of submission.

Editorial and peer-review process

Submission does not constitute acceptance or guarantee publication. Manuscripts may undergo editorial assessment and, where appropriate, external peer review before a final editorial decision is made.