ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences - Journal Policy

Health Sciences

1. Introduction 

The African Scientific Research and Innovation Council (ASRIC) as a Specialized Technical Advisory Institution to the African Union and its Commission for the implementation of Africa Science, Technology and Innovation Agenda and officially launched in 2018 in Abuja, Nigeria. ASRIC is mandated to promote scientific research and innovation across Africa, playing a key role in building the continent’s research capacity. 

In 2019, as part of this mission, the ASRIC Journals were created by 2nd ASRIC congress for African researchers to publish their work, with the goal to be “the Africa highest quality journal in the field, thereby attracting African Scientific excellence from the continent and the Diaspora” thereby making African research more visible on the global stage and contributing to solving Africa’s unique challenges through homegrown research and innovation. The ASRIC journals cover a range of scientific disciplines which are categorized in five thematic areas as follows: Agricultural Sciences; Engineering Sciences; Health Sciences; Natural Sciences; Social Sciences and Humanities. 

The African Scientific Research and Innovation Council (AU-ASRIC) is the Publisher of the ASRIC Journals, which cover the main domains of the sciences that are of particular relevance to African/international Researchers and Scientists. The Journals are named and abbreviated as follows: 

• ASRIC Journal of Agriculture Sciences (ASRIC J. Agric. Sci.)
• ASRIC Journal of Engineering Sciences (ASRIC J. Engr Sci.) 
• ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences (ASRIC J. Hlth. Sci.)
• ASRIC Journal of Natural Sciences (ASRIC J. Nat Sci.)
• ASRIC Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (ASRIC J. Soc. Sci) 

This journal's policy framework is linked to the ASRIC Congress, which is responsible for overseeing and advising on the journal's policies. The members of the Congress are the oversight body and is composed of distinguished national science academics from the African Union member states. Currently, 26 of these national science academies are active members, and the number grows every year.

There is a growing demand for high-quality African research to tackle the continent's pressing challenges highlights the urgency of capacity building in scholarly publishing. ASRIC journal of health sciences is a vehicle for advancing African health research by providing a dedicated, peer-reviewed platform for high-quality original studies, reviews, and research that address the continent’s unique health challenges. By aligning with the strategic priorities of the African Union, the ASRIC journal of health sciences enhances the visibility and impact of African health related research globally, fostering collaboration among scientists across the six regional blocks of the African Union, and promoting evidence-based policy and practice, ultimately contributing to the broader mandate of ASRIC and to improved health outcomes and sustainable development in Africa.

2. About the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences (ISSN: 2795-3637 print; 2795-3580 online) is a blind peer-reviewed online journal. ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences publishes original research work, reviews, and short communications that contribute significantly to further the scientific knowledge in the subject areas of Health Sciences. The website link to the African Journal of Health Sciences is  https://asric.africa/health-sciences. This Journal is registered in the international Identifier for Serials and other Continuing Resources in the Electronic and Print World at https://www.issn.org. 

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences is a platform committed to provide a scientific knowledge in the subject areas of Health Sciences globally. The journal purposes to develop and enhance the high-quality research of its authors with innovative services, creative collaboration, and transformative technology, toward solving global scientific challenges. 

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences platform offers search and retrieval functionality of published manuscripts which enables the user to maximize the effectiveness of their knowledge discovery process.

3. The Publisher 

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences are published by the African Union African Scientific, Research and Innovation Council (AU-ASRIC) which is a specialized institution of the African Union that was founded in 2018 (AU Executive Council decision (EX.CL/Dec.747 (XXII)) and is hosted by the African Union Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (AU-STRC). 

4. Official Address of the Journal 

The official address of the Journals is:

 ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences,

c/o AU-ASRIC Secretariat 

Plot 114 Yakubu Gowon Cres, Asokoro, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. 

Tel:  +234-8065891643  ;  Email address: ASRIC_JHlthSci@outlook.com ; asric.au@outlook.com ;  Website: https://www.asric.africa 

5. Aim and Scope of ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences (ASRIC J. Hlth. Sci.) is aimed at publishing high quality original, scientific information and research findings that address the Agriculture Research sector in Africa and the world

The scope of the ASRIC J. Hlth. Sci.  is to be publish the results of original research work, reviews, and commentaries in the scientific domains listed below: 

• Biomedical Sciences (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Immunology/Vaccinology Parasitology, Pharmaceutical Sciences);
• Clinical Sciences;
• Public Health;
• Health biotechnology; 
• and related medical sciences”. 

6. Publishing Categories 

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences welcomes four categories of papers namely: original research papers, technical papers, resource articles and special edition articles as follows: 

1. Original Research Papers:

Original Research Papers are papers with high quality science that address fundamental questions in one of the areas under the respective journals and their scope. The research conducted should provide insight into an as yet unknown mechanism or poorly understood process, which will constitute a highly significant contribution to the advancement of research and to the knowledge of the scientific community. 

2. Technical Advance articles 

Technical Advance articles must be useful to a large proportion of the community and not be narrow in scope. These articles should demonstrate how the Technical Advance has led to new insights into areas under the Journals and their scope. In addition, manuscripts that describe significant advances in the use of an already existing technology will be considered.

3. Resource Articles

Resource articles will typically be data-rich and provide an important, novel reference source for the field. As such, it should highlight significant technical advances and/or major informational databases that are of value and interest to the broad scientists under the Journal scope readership and help to start addressing important questions in a variety of research areas. 

4.  Special Issue articles

The ASRIC J. Hlth. Sci. may publish special issues comprising specially commissioned review papers on an emerging topic identified by the Editorial Board. Unsolicited review articles will not be considered.

7. Mode of Publication and Publication Periods

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences is an open-access journal which is be published online and in print with a frequency of one (1) issue per year. The journal publishes annually December. The entire contents of the journal are protected under CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This is a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. 

8. Fees and handling charges

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences has no handling or page charges. There are no article submission charges (ASC) and article processing charges (APC). Authors are not required to pay to publish their papers with the journal. 

9. Notes and Information to Authors 

    

   a. Submission policies 

    

   1. When an author submits an article/paper to ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences by email to ASRIC_JHlthSci@outlook.com, the understanding is that the article/paper has not been published or submitted elsewhere. If similar or related work has been published or submitted elsewhere, then the author must provide a copy with the submitted one. 

    

   2. In addition, under no circumstances, the author will submit the article/paper elsewhere while it is still under consideration by the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences.

    

   3. Any/all emails (personal communications) and/or personal information that are attached to the article/paper can be used by ASRIC in further actions and communications. 

    

   4. The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences reserve the right to reject any article/paper even after acceptance if there is evidence of problems with its scientific content, or a violation of ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences policy.

    

   5. The corresponding author is the scientist/researcher who takes primary responsibility for communication with Journal during the processing of the article/paper from submission to publication. He/she will be responsible to furnish the Journal with any needed information that may arise during the process including authors’ contribution statements.     

    

   6. The corresponding author is required to include with the submission, the author contribution statement “a statement that highlights the contribution of each co-author in the development of the article/paper” (annex 3).   

    

   7. The corresponding author will be required to sign a Copyright and License Declaration, before the final production of article/paper (annex 4).  

2. Style and Writing Guidelines  

Authors are requested to adhere solely to the Guideline for Authors to submit full Manuscripts “Articles/Papers” to the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences.  The Guideline for authors is annexed to this document (annex 1). Kindly note that if your submission is not in agreement with the Journals format, the Article/Paper will be disqualified and requested for re-submission.        

3. Publication Ethics 

The publisher, journal editors and board members, authors, reviewers and all stakeholders involved in the journal’s publishing process of the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences shall ensure integrity and standards of ethical actions in accordance with the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” https://publicationethics.org/media/609/download?attachment , “Code of Conduct for Journal Publisher” https://publicationethics.org/media/613/download?attachment and the COPE’s “Core Practices” https://publicationethics.org/about/what-we-do/our-story/core-practices. The roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders, shall include but not be limited to: ensuring publication ethics, biosecurity, permit for animal/human use and research; disclosure and conflict of interest; reporting research funding; ensuring adherence to COPE’s core practices in the peer-reviewing process, editorial independence, copyright issues, authorship, publication misconducts/fraud/plagiarism, article retraction, clarification or correction. 

4. Plagiarism

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences adopt a strong antiplagiarism policy where any author guilty of plagiarism will be prohibited from using ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences for his/her publication, while the relevant authority of his/her institution will be informed on the case after thorough investigation by the Editorial Board of the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences. Plagiarism can be defined as willingly or unwillingly using and/or presenting somebody else’s work without proper acknowledgment or citation. Other ways of plagiarism include recycling existing published articles/papers which the Journal shall refrain from.

5. Corrigendum 

Authors and Editors can correct errors, if noticed in the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences articles. The corrigenda are published both in online and print. The original article remains while the corrections are mutually linked to the corrigenda.

6. Retraction 

Whenever an infringement of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, irrational claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data among others will warrant retraction in publication in accordance with the international best practices the plagiarized paper will be retracted. The retraction notice will be published in the next issue of the journal and widely publicized.

7. Processing of contributions 

All manuscripts submitted to the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences will be subjected to a blind peer review process to determine their suitability for publication to ensure they fulfill the requirements of the journal. Manuscripts will first be scrutinized for compliance with the journal’s Author Guidelines, with any that fall short returned to the authors. Manuscripts that pass this initial review will undergo a blind peer review to evaluate originality, contribution, technical excellence, clarity, and research depth.  Accordingly, the reviewers shall recommend either of the following decisions: Recommend with major corrections, Recommend with minor corrections or Not recommended. 

After review, manuscripts will be returned to the author along with reviewer’s and/or editor’s comments for his/her revision and resubmission. Finally, accepted manuscripts in the pdf file format will be sent to the corresponding author for final proofreading. Authors are requested to check and proofread the pages carefully against the manuscript and to send the filled correction format to the editor.  The Editor will make the final decision based on these reviews, and authors corrections to their work accordingly.

Requests for modifications and/or changes in the manuscript will generally not be entertained once the manuscript is published, though a corrigendum of material errors may be published in the next issue at the motivated request of the authors.

8. Reviewers 

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences has a strong database of reviewers that has been tapped from the African Union Network of Sciences, Science Academies and Research Councils among other members of ASRIC from where the Editorial Board to identified the most relevant ones. All articles/papers will be peer reviewed before publication. Throughout the process, the anonymity of authors and reviewers are observed to ensure and preserve the blind peer-review. The minimum number of reviewers for any submitted articles/papers is two (2) reviewers and their review will be captured in the reviewer’s report which is annexed to this document (annex 2).

10. Editorial Board

The Editorial Board of the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences is composed of: 

1. The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences’ Editor-in-Chief

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences’ Editor-in-Chief shall oversee the administration of the Journal; Call and chair the Editorial board meeting virtually or in person; coordinate the meetings of the Editorial advisory Committee of the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief shall be appointed by the ASRIC Bureau after consultation with the ASRIC Journal’s Advisory Committee. The Editor-in-Chief shall attend to all the editorial responsibilities of the thematic Journal concerned.  The Editor-in-Chief will be assisted by a cluster of Associate Editors and Invited/Guest Reviewers   to be identified by the Editors in Chief of ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences and the cluster is to be endorsed by the ASRIC Bureau and the ASRIC Journals’ Advisory Board.

2. ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences’ Associate Editors

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences’ editorial board will be assisted by a cluster of Associate Editors who are “mid-career Scientists i.e., Associate or Assistant Professors”, to be identified by the Editors in Chief of the Journal and the cluster is to be endorsed by the ASRIC Bureau and the Journals’ Advisory Board.

3. The Managing Editor of ASRIC Scientific Journals 

The Managing Editor of the ASRIC Journal of Health Scientific Journals is the Executive Director of ASRIC and/or his/her representative. The Managing Editor shall attend to the day-to-day running of the ASRIC Journal of Health Scientific Journals including, but not limited to publishing the print and e-version of the Journals; perform the secretariat work for the ASRIC Bureau and the Journals’ Advisory Board. 

4. The Editorial Advisory Committee of the ASRIC Scientific Journals 

The ASRIC Scientific Journals’ Editorial Advisory Committee shall be drawn from Africa’s most renown Scientists and members of the ASRIC Bureau; Chairpersons of African national academies and research centers; and the Editors of the five (5) thematic ASRIC Scientific Journals. The ASRIC Journals’ Advisory Committee shall oversee the ASRIC Journals’ policy including Editorial Policy and shall advice the ASRIC Bureau on any matters submitted to it.

11. Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

12. Modification of Policy

The ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change the terms and conditions of this agreement from time to time and your access of the Journal will be deemed to be your acceptance of and agreement to any changed terms and conditions.
  

13. ANNEXES

Annex 1 

Guidelines for Authors for the Submission of Manuscripts to The ASRIC Scientific Journals 

1. Manuscript Preparation

This guideline is developed for the authors for the submission of a full manuscript. The APA referencing style is adopted for the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences.

 Kindly note the following: 

1. Title of the paper should be in bold Times New Roman with font size 14 and centered to the page.
2. Authors 

• Author #1: full name, institutional address, email address
• Author #2: full name, institutional address, email address
• Author #3: full name, institutional address, email address
• Author #4: full name, institutional address, email address

3. For multi-authored papers, the submitting author will be identified as the Corresponding Author unless otherwise indicated. Submission of such papers is on the basis that the corresponding author has the agreement of all authors for submission and publication of the paper. 
4. The text of manuscripts should be prepared in English, using Times New Roman with font size 12.
5. Papers should not exceed 15,000 words. The manuscript may contain illustrations including both figures and tables. In exceptional circumstances longer papers can be considered.
6. Papers will be reviewed anonymously by at least two referees. The paper will be accepted if both refers recommend it. In case of disagreement a third opinion, usually that of an associate editor or another reviewer will be required to break the tie.  Papers submitted by members of the Editorial Board ASRIC, Bureau, ASRIC Congress will be subjected to the same review process as papers from other authors.

2. Text
3. Manuscripts should be organized in following order: 

   1. Experimental Work:

(1) Title; (2) Author (s), and affiliation(s) of author(s); (3) Abstract (no more than 200 words); (4) Keywords (3 to 7 key words); (5) Introduction; (6) Materials and Methods; (7) Results; (8) Discussion; (9) Conclusions; (10) Acknowledgments; (11) References cited in alphabetical order of last names of first authors (12) Authors’ Responsibilities, (12) Declaration of Conflict of Interest 

1. Theoretical Articles

(1) Title; (2) Author (s), and affiliation(s) of author(s); (3) Abstract (no more than 200 words); (4) Keywords (3 to 7 key words); (5) Introduction

(7) Statement of the Problem (8) Definitions, Approach, Assumptions (9) Solutions or Proofs (10) Discussion; (11) Acknowledgments; (12) References cited in alphabetical order of last names of first authors. (13) Conclusions; (14) Authors’ Responsibilities, (15) Declaration of Conflict of Interest

2. Reviews, and articles 
3. (1) Title; (2) Author (s), and affiliation(s) of author(s); (3) Abstract (no more than 200 words); (4) Keywords (3 to 7 key words); (5) Introduction; (6) Scope of the Review or article (7) The review itself with suitable headings (8) Conclusions (11) Acknowledgments; (12) References cited in alphabetical order of last names of first authors;  (13) Authors’ Responsibilities, (14) Declaration of Conflict of Interest
4. Acknowledgments should follow in the main text and be headed ACKNOWLEDGMENT(S). In case of a project/research work which was funded or sponsored by a funding agency, funding name (sponsor) and funding or grant number should be indicated. 
5. In the text, references should be cited by the year and the name(s) of the author(s) in brackets, from the newest to the oldest. If two references have the same year, they should be arranged in alphabetical order; if there are more than three authors, the name of the first author should be given, followed by “et al.”, if there are two authors, use “and” between the two names; such as “(Smith et al., 2012; Green and Jin, 2008; Kusky, 2000)”.
6. Tables should not be double spaced, but be single spaced. Units should be given once at the column heads and not throughout the table. While the table should be placed within the text and use the cited references as source of your table if it is not yours.
7. Figure should be placed within the text and use the cited references as source of your figure   if it is not yours. All illustrations must be called Figures, and should be referred as Figure 1 – if this is at the beginning of the sentence, and as Fig. 1, or Figs. 2 and 3 – if these are in the middle/end of the sentence.
8. SI units are recommended.
9. Variables, such as temperature (T), pressure (P), length (L), etc., should be italic type, for example, T, P, L, ….; vectors should be bold and italic.
10. Footnotes should not be used.
11. If abbreviations are used in the text, they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should be provided.

3. Illustrations
4. All artwork and photographic images should be supplied in electronic form. The following file formats can be accepted:

• PDF (preferred format for diagrams)
• DOCX/DOC (single page only)
• PPTX/PPT (single slide only)
• EPS
• PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
• TIFF
• JPEG

2.  All font should be “Times New Roman”, font size should be 8, and Variables, such as temperature (T), pressure (P), length (L), etc., should be italic type, for example, T, P, L, ….; Please supply images as near as possible to the actual size that you expect they may be printed. 

4. References

   All literature cited in the text should be arranged in alphabetical order of the last names of first authors at the end of the text under the heading REFERENCES CITED. 

   If the reference is in any other language except English, such as in Arabic, a statement should be added like “(in Arabic with English Abstract)”. The APA referencing style is will be used for references and intext citations. The following system should be used for arranging references. 

    

5. Article within a journal

Ahmed, H. M., Mohammed, K. (author name), 2015 (year). The Impact of Climate Change on the African Economy (article name), ASRIC Geology (journal name), 5(volume Number): 45–58 (pages).

2. Book chapter, or an article within a book

Suido B, Hamdy M (author name) (2001) (year) The STI politics in Africa (chapter name) In: Hamdy A (editor of the book) The rise of modern geodynamics (book name), 3rd edn (edition). STRC (publisher house), Abuja. 

3. For online references 

World Health Organization Guidelines for good clinical practice (GCP) for trials on  pharmaceutical products (article or book name). Pp (19-25); accessed on 26/2/2018, http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/pdf/whozip13e/whozi p13e.pdf 

Annex 2 

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences

REVIEWER’S REPORT

Title of the Article:

Article Number:

Reviewer’s Recommendation: (do you recommend this Article)

Reviewer’s Signature:                                                                                  Date: 

Annex 3

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION STATEMENT

Title of the Article:

 List of authors(s) and their contribution to the article/paper in the order that they appear on the paper.

Any other remarks

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Annex 4

COPYRIGHT OF THE ARTICLES/MANUSCRIPT/TECHNICAL REPORT SUBMITTED TO ASRIC JOURNAL OF HEALTH SCIENCES

FOR PUBLICATION

ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences is published both online and/or print formats, making them available through a variety of methods of access. By online, we mean the simultaneous publication of the tables of contents, abstracts (where applicable) as well as the full text of the journal in PDF/Word and/or HTML formats on the Web. The journals are used by individuals and institutions in the format of their choice: print and online. The journal remains an open access hence:

I, ..................................................................................as the corresponding author by signing this form here by assign worldwide copyright of the work in all forms and media (where now known, or hereafter developed), in all languages for the full terms of copyright and all extension and renewal thereof to publish in an open source my (our) article/technical report titled;

…...........................................................................................................................…

                                                 (Insert the title of the article/report above)

All the works, text, data, pictures, graphics are duly the work of the authors and references were cited on proprietary works of others and the author is responsible for all these NOT the publisher or the ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences in whatsoever.

Hence, I the undersigned agreed to all terms herein for ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences and I am liable for any breach of proprietary works of others in our articles or technical reports ASRIC Journal of Health Sciences.

Name………………..…………        Signature……………………..…..                    Date……………………..

Health Sciences

Guideline for Authors for the Submission of Full Manuscripts

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