Research in African Literatures (RAL) is dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions. The prevention of publication malpractice is one of the important responsibilities of the editorial board. Any kind of unethical behavior is unacceptable, and RAL does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors submitting articles to RAL affirm that manuscript contents are original.
The following duties outlined for editors, authors, and reviewers are based on the AACE guidelines, which are in turn based on the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. Editors, authors, and reviewers will also adhere to the AACE and SITE submission guideline policies.
Duties of Editor
Publication Decisions: Based on the review report of the external evaluators, the editor can accept, reject, or request modifications to the manuscript.
Review of Manuscripts: The editor must ensure that each manuscript is initially evaluated for originality. Following desk review, the manuscript will be sent out for blind peer review, which the editor will use to determine whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript.
Fair Review: The editor must ensure that each manuscript received by RAL is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc. of the authors.
Confidentiality: The editor must ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by the authors is kept confidential.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: The editor of RAL will not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research without written consent of the author.
Duties of Authors
Reporting Standards: Authors should present an accurate account of their original research as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Manuscripts will follow the submission guidelines of the journal.
Originality: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original work.
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publications: Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently. It is also expected that the author will not publish redundant manuscripts or manuscripts describing the same research in more than one journal.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors should acknowledge all sources of data used in the research and cite publications that have been influential in the research work.
Authorship of the Paper: Papers should include the names of all authors at the time of submission. Authors also ensure that all the co-authors have agreed to the submitted version of the manuscript and their inclusion of names.
Data Access and Retention: Authors should provide raw data related to their manuscript for editorial review and must retain such data.
Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If at any point of time, the author(s) discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in submitted manuscript, then the error or inaccuracy must be reported to the managing editor.
Duties of Reviewers
Confidentiality: Information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors should be kept confidential and be treated as privileged information.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Manuscript reviewers must ensure that authors have acknowledged all sources of data used in the research. The reviewer should notify the managing editor if the paper under consideration bears strong similarities to other published papers of which the reviewer has personal knowledge.
Standards of Objectivity: Review of submitted manuscripts must be done objectively and the reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Promptness: In the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for him/her to complete review of manuscript within stipulated time then this information must be communicated to the managing editor, so that the manuscript could be sent to another reviewer.
