About IJSSAR

International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR) is a multidisciplinary open-access journal from the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, South-East Nigeria. Dr. Kenneth Adibe Nwafor, a Senior Lecturer in the department, founded the journal in 2023. It publishes peer-reviewed, original, academic research articles that seek to promote research as a means of developing solutions towards addressing peculiar challenges of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Aims and Scope

IJSSAR is a journal of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa for the people of Sub-Saharan Africa. It aims to publish well-researched manuscripts that have value for Sub-Saharan Africa in the areas of Communication and Media Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, International Relations and Diplomacy, Peace and Conflict Studies, Health, Education, Agriculture, Environment, Technology and Public Policy.

Open Access Policy

The International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR) provides immediate and open access to its contents on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The contents are therefore openly accessible to readers worldwide under the Creative Common CCBY-NC-SA 4.0 International Open Access License Policy.

Publication Schedule

The journal publishes quarterly in the months of March, June, September and December. 

Focus: Multidisciplinary

Charges
There is no submission fee or paper assessment charges. However, there is article processing charge (APC) of $35 for accepted manuscripts only. The APC is for the sole purpose of ensuring smooth and consistent running of the journal. It is also the only source of revenue for the Journal. IJSSAR is NOT subscription based and does not accept paid advertisements on its website. Additionally, the journal publishes limited number of articles per issue in order not to compromise quality.  

Peer Review

IJSSAR adopts a double-blind peer review system. Before the blind peer reviews which are assigned to external assessors, every manuscript received is first assessed internally by members of the Editorial Board on the basis of adherence to scope, house style and authors’ guidelines. Manuscripts that do not meet the criteria are returned to the author(s) while successful ones are assigned two external peer reviewers on blind basis. Reviewers are provided with review guidelines and given a time limit of 21 working days within which to review and return the manuscript with their comments to the journal Editor. Reviewers have the option to either recommend:

  1. ‘Publish as it is’
  2. ‘Publish with minor revision’
  3. ‘Publish with moderate revision’
  4. ‘Requires major revision’ or
  5. ‘Reject on grounds of …  (Please be specific)’

If the decision is for revision, authors are allotted 14 working days to send back their revised manuscripts to the Editor. If the authors or reviewers need more time, the time could be extended. Our reviewers are Professors (or at least Associate Professors or Readers) drawn from reputable universities in Africa and the Diaspora who are specially selected in consideration of their areas of specialty.  To ensure quality job, reviewers are paid a stipend of $10 for each manuscript well reviewed. No reviewer reviews more than one manuscript in an edition of the journal. The entire process of review and revision takes 8-10 weeks. The Editorial team reserves the right to make any necessary changes in the manuscript until they are satisfied with the state of the paper. Once the final version of the paper has been accepted, author(s) are requested not to make further changes to the text.

Ethical Considerations

All manuscripts reporting experiments on human subjects should be accompanied with a statement in the methods section that all authors have complied with the requirements of the ethics committee of the institution in which the work was done. Information that may identify a patient will not be published in any form unless such information is essential, and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given written informed consent for such publication. If full-face photographs are to be used, such photographs must be accompanied with a signed or thumb printed informed consent of the subject. Animal experimentation must also follow institution’s guidelines and/or national laws in the use of laboratory animals in research.

Originality of Submissions

A condition of submission of manuscripts to IJSSAR is that the work is the author’s own; all listed authors approve the submitted manuscript; the work must be original; and the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. As a means of ensuring originality, all manuscripts received are subjected to plagiarism and similarity checks. If the similarity level with previously published works is more than 20% without the references, it shall be rejected even where it passes the reviewers’ assessment.    

Publisher's Details

Office Address:
Office No 12, Block B, Ground floor,
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities Building,
Ebonyi State University Permanent Site,
Abakaliki-Enugu Highway, P.M.B.053, Abakaliki,
Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
Email: editorijssar@gmail.com, adibe.nwafor@ebsu.edu.ng
Phone number: +2348032642595


Journal Identifiers
eISSN: 3043-4459
pISSN: 3043-4467