Submissions

INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS
The Journal of Afrocentric Governance of Public Affairs is published by the North-West University, South Africa. Contributions from Public Administration, Political Science, Development Studies, Public Policy, Diplomacy, Security Studies, International Relations, and Local Governance and other relevant fields will be considered for publication. The submitted articles will be handled by the appropriate Subject Review Editor and evaluated by two or more referees. The decision as to whether a particular article will be published rests with the Editorial Board.

SUBMISSION
Manuscripts that do not comply with the following process, style and format requirements will not be handled.

Manuscripts should be typed with SINGLE spacing in 10-point Times New Roman letter size for the text. All text in tables and figures should be in 10-point Times New Roman, single-spaced. Please do not use Calibri. The length may not exceed 20 pages (including tables, figures, references, etc.). The page setup (cm) must be in the following format:

MARGINS                     PAPER SIZE
Top: 3.56 cm                 Width: 17.5 cm
Bottom: 1.78 cm          Height: 24.5 cm
Left: 2.11 cm
Right: 2.11 cm
Gutter: 0.00 cm
Header: 2.03 cm
Footer: 0.89 cm

Original manuscripts may be submitted in English and should be uploaded to the journal website.

Editorial Office
Journal of Afrocentric Governance of Public Affairs
Afrocentric Governance of Public Affairs (AGoPA) Research Entity
North-West University, 
Republic of South Africa
Tel.: +27 (0)64 678 0913

The Editor (Prof. Costa Hofisi)
E-mail: Costa.Hofisi@nwu.ac.za

The Journal Manager (Prof. Benjamin Rapanyane)
E-mail: Benjamin.Rapanyane@nwu.ac.za

CONDITIONS
Each manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter in which the following is declared: (1) that the manuscript contains original research; (2) that the manuscript or parts of the manuscript have not been published elsewhere previously; (3) that the manuscript is not currently being presented elsewhere for publication; and (4) that all the authors have read and approved the manuscript. This signed declaration regarding the originality must accompany each manuscript. The cover letter must include a rationale for the manuscript's novelty, its relevance to the journal, and how the research contributes to the field or advances the evidence base.

We discourage the practice of parts of the same study submitted for other issues of this Journal. Authors who submit a manuscript from a study in which some data have been or will be published elsewhere must provide a strong justification in the accompanying letter to the editor. The justification for not publishing all the data in a single paper must also be provided in the cover letter.

The author should also ensure that the manuscript's language has been edited thoroughly by the time of submission.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT
Manuscripts must be presented in a format compatible with Microsoft Word for Windows (PC). Tables, all figures (illustrations, diagrams, etc.), and graphs are regarded as text and must be presented in a format compatible with MS Word. Figures should be accessible for any text corrections. Photographs must be presented in JPG format.

Title page
The first page of each manuscript should indicate the title in English, the names (title, first name in full and other initials, surname) of the author(s), and the telephone numbers (work & home [& mobile for local authors]), Email address and the field of study. The complete mailing address and telephone numbers of the corresponding author and the institution (department, faculty, university, city, country) where the work was conducted should be provided in full. When more than one author and/or authors from various departments and institutions are involved, the ¹author(s) must be numbered according to their ¹department(s). If any of the information above changes during the review process, please inform the Subject Editor. Provide a short title of no more than 45 characters (including spaces) for use as a running heading. Submit the title page separately to ensure a blinded review process.

Abstract
Each manuscript must be accompanied by an abstract of approximately 150-200 words in English and should be set on a separate page as a SINGLE paragraph (single spacing). A list of three to seven keywords in English is required for indexing purposes and should be typed below the abstract in alphabetical order.

Text
Start the text on a new page with the article's title (centralised and without the authors' names). Use only one line space after a paragraph. Use section breaks, not page breaks. The text, as well as the tables and figures, may not be in any other format than normal. Thus, do not use style sheets in the reference list.

Tables and figures
Number tables and figures with Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.). Tables require a heading at the top, while figures have the legend below, and neither must be included in the cells of the table/figure. Note: Use the decimal POINT (not the decimal comma). The location where the table or figure should be placed in the text must be clearly indicated in the manuscript. All tables and figures will be placed after the reference list on a separate page, and will always end with a section break. Please note any colour preference for figures or photographs; this will incur an additional charge on the page tariff.

Tables/figures must be contained/fit within the page setup described earlier for this Journal. A portrait layout is preferred for all tables/figures. Tables must use separate rows/columns (do not merge cells) for each item. Figures must be in Word and accessible so corrections or changes can be made within the figure where necessary. The font type in figures should be Times New Roman. Please ensure that the figures are of exceptionally high quality for printing. Any preference for colour in figures or photographs must be noted and will incur an additional charge on the page tariff.

References
References should be presented in APA referencing style, using the author's surname and date in parentheses within the text. For example, citations may appear as Ojakorotu (2003), Hofisi and Mago (2014), (Lukamba & Taleat, 2025), or Lamidi et al. (2024). Where a direct quotation is used and the author is not part of the sentence, the page number should be included, as in (Rapanyane, 2023:40). Where multiple sources are cited together, they should be arranged chronologically from the earliest to the most recent publication, for example, (Ojakorotu, 2003; Akinwale, 2023; Ojakorotu & Agunyai, 2025). For works with more than two authors, et al. should be used in the body of the text from the first citation onward; however, et al. should not be used in the reference list, where the names of all authors must be provided. All references should be authentic, accurately bibliographic, and verifiable through reliable academic sources, including journal websites, publishers, DOI records, Crossref, and recognised scholarly databases.

List of references
Only the references cited in the text should be listed alphabetically according to the authors' surname (last name) after the body of text under the heading REFERENCES (uppercase) starting on a new page. Suppose the TITLE of an article, book, etc., is in a language other than English. In that case, the author must also provide an English translation of the title in parentheses (this applies to Afrikaans titles as well).

In the case of articles published in JOURNALS, references listed should include the surnames and initials (upper case and with full-stop and without spaces between initials) of all authors, the date of the publication in parentheses, the full title of the article, the full title of the journal (italics and no abbreviations), the volume number, the series/issue number in parentheses (if the said journal does not use issue numbers, the month of publication should be used), followed by a comma and a space with the first and last page numbers separated by a hyphen. For online journals, use "online" if page numbers are not provided. Using correct punctuation is important.

If the reference is a BOOK, the surname (last name) and initials (with full-stop and without spaces) of the author or editor (Ed.) must be provided, followed by the date of publication in parentheses followed by a full-stop, the title of the book (italics) as given on the title page, the number of the edition (ed.) in parentheses, the city (and abbreviation for the state in the case of the USA OR the country) where published, followed by a colon, a space and the name of the publisher.

For a CHAPTER in a book, the page numbers of the chapter cited must be provided in parentheses (not italics) after the title of the book (pp. 20-29). For further details, authors should consult the most recent publication of this Journal for other examples.

If the reference is a THESIS (master's level) or DISSERTATION (doctoral level), italics are not used in the title as it is an unpublished work. Provide the city's name, state/country, colon, university and department/faculty.

For ELECTRONIC SOURCES, all references start with the same information as for a printed source (if available). The web page information follows the reference style. It will usually contain the name of the author(s) (if known), year of publication or last revision, title of complete work in inverted commas, title of web page, Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or access path in square text brackets (do not end the path statement with a full stop), full stop after the closing bracket and date of access (Retrieved on 10 December 2023). For specific examples, go to the NWU APA Referencing Guide. When citing a website in the text, merely provide the author and date. When reference is made to a specific statement (quotation) in the article/document, and no page number can be provided, the word 'online' is used for citing in the text (Van der Merwe, 2023: online).

When referencing an article in a NEWSPAPER, the newspaper's keyword is typed in capitals, as this is how it will appear in the alphabetical listing of references: namely, The CAPE ARGUS (The) will appear under "C" and BURGER (Die) will appear under "B".

In the case of a paper presented in conference PROCEEDINGS, the editors and the title of the proceedings, the page numbers of the article being referred to and the details of the congress (when and where it was held) and by whom (city, state, publisher) the proceedings were published should be provided.

Examples of the style of formulations for different references

Journal
Hofisi, C. (2014). Making participation real in integrated development planning in South Africa. Journal of Public Administration, 49(4), 1126-1138.

Ojakorotu, V. (2018). Look East Policy: The case of Zimbabwe-China political and economic relations since 2000. India Quarterly, 74(1), 17-30.

Book
Ojakorotu, V. (Ed.). (2010). Anatomy of the Niger Delta crisis: Causes, consequences and opportunities for peace. Berlin: Lit Verlag.

Chigova, L. E., & Hofisi, C. (Eds.). (2025). Public sector innovation in Southern Africa: Insights from Zimbabwe and South Africa. London: Routledge.

Chapter in Book
Ojakorotu, V., & Olawale, O. (2009). Understanding the Niger Delta conflict: Matters arising. In V. Ojakorotu (Ed.), Contending issues of the Niger Delta crises of Nigeria (pp. 1-19). JAPSS Press.|

Edited Book
Erameh, N. I., & Ojakorotu, V. (Eds.). (2024). Africa's engagement with the responsibility to protect in the 21st century. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Thesis/Dissertation
Sando, J. (2025). The Influence of Change Management on Service Delivery in eThekwini Municipality. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Mahikeng, South Africa: North-West University.

Proceedings of a conference
Lamidi, K. & Hofisi, C. (2023). Decolonising the State: Rethinking Governance Reforms in African Contexts. Proceedings of NWU Trio Conference on Afrocentric Governance, Multilingualism (African languages) and Transformation as pathways to sustainable development and social justice, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, 24-26 March 2026

Personal communication/correspondence/interview
Hofisi, C. (2024). Policy Brief from the Director, Afrocentric Governance of Public Affairs Research Entity at the North-West University, Vanderbijlpark Campus, on 18 June 2026.

Newspaper
CAPE ARGUS (The) (1997). 25 March, p. 5.

Electronic source
Somerville, K. (2014). "South Sudan: How Hate Radio Was Used to Incite Bentin Massacres". Available at http://africanarguments.org. Retrieved on 24 April 2014

ADMINISTRATION
If authors honour the rules and specifications for submitting manuscripts, unnecessary delays will be avoided. Requesting 'copyright' concerning figures or photographs is the authors' responsibility and should be indicated. As stated above, we will return manuscripts that do not meet the requirements to the author without evaluation. A subject-specialist Editor administers and coordinates the referees' assessments and provides the final recommendation.

The corresponding author will receive a complimentary copy of the Journal and five reprints of the article, which may be shared with the co-authors. The original manuscripts and illustrations will be discarded one month after publication unless we receive a request to return the original to the corresponding author. 

JAGPA Publication Fee
This journal provides immediate open access to all published content without charging any article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, or any other publication-related fees. Institutional support covers all costs.

This section is open to all authors. Submissions to this section must be based on original research and will be subject to peer review.

This section is open to all authors. All submissions will undergo peer review.

Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of first publication. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Authors are encouraged to deposit the published version of their article in institutional or subject repositories. They may use the work for educational and non-commercial purposes with appropriate acknowledgement of the journal as the original publisher.