Editorial Policies and Publication Ethics for the Journal of African Art Education (JAAE)

The Journal of African Art Education (JAAE) is dedicated to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and best practices in scholarly publishing. Our policies are informed by the principles and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and meet the core requirements for inclusion in major indexing databases.

  1. Aims and Scope
    JAAE is the official journal of the Art Teachers’ Association of Ghana. We invite a wide range of research pertaining to visual art education on the African continent. We have a particular interest in research that develops or deepens professionalism in art education within the African context. Our scope includes, but is not limited to:
  • Instructional Resources Development
  • Indigenous Art Education
  • Creative Arts Assessment Techniques
  • Praxis of Art Education
  • Aesthetics Education
  • Creative Arts Teaching and Learning
  • Art and Development
  • Art and Culture
  • Art and Environment
  • Child Art Education
  • Art and Public Education
  • Ethical Use of AI in Creative Arts Education
  1. Publication Frequency
    JAAE is committed to publishing regularly and on time. The journal is published quarterly online in February, May, August, and November.
  2. Open Access Policy

JAAE is an open-access journal. All articles are published under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. This ensures that all research is freely available to the global public immediately upon publication, supporting a greater exchange of knowledge.

  1. Article Processing Charge

To sustain its open-access model and cover the costs of editorial services, peer review management, copyediting, typesetting, and digital archiving, JAAE charges an Article Processing Charge (APC) of USD 75. This fee is payable only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication following successful peer review. There are no submission fees. The APC ensures that all final articles are freely and immediately accessible to readers worldwide without any subscription or paywall. A waiver or discount may be considered in cases of financial hardship or for authors from lower-income countries; such requests should be made to the editorial office prior to acceptance.

  1. Archiving and Digital Preservation
    To ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of our content, JAAE is digitally archived on the institutional repository of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, ensuring permanent access to published content.
  2. Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
    • Duties of Authors
  • Originality and Plagiarism:Authors must ensure their work is entirely original. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. All sources must be appropriately cited or quoted.
  • Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study for editorial review and should be prepared to make such data publicly available if practicable.
  • Multiple Submissions: Authors should not submit manuscripts describing the same research to more than one journal concurrently. This is unethical and unacceptable.
  • Authorship: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution. The corresponding author must ensure all co-authors are included and have approved the final version.
  • Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest. All sources of financial support must be disclosed.
  • Fundamental Errors: If an author discovers a significant error in their own published work, they must promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate in issuing a correction or retraction.

6.2 Duties of Editors

  • Fair Play and Impartiality:Editors evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or institutional affiliation.
  • Confidentiality: The editor and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and publisher.
  • Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Editors will not use unpublished materials from a submitted manuscript for their own research. Editors will recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.
  • Decision-Making: The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making final publication decisions based on the manuscript’s importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal’s scope, as well as the reviewers’ recommendations.

6.3 Duties of Reviewers

  • Contribution to Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and may also assist the author in improving the paper.
  • Promptness: Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified to review or cannot provide a prompt review should notify the editor immediately.
  • Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents.
  • Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively, with clear arguments and supporting evidence. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.
  • Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
  • Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.
  1. Handling of Ethical Misconduct
    JAAE will follow COPE flowcharts when dealing with suspected misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication, authorship disputes, and duplicate publication. Sanctions may range from a warning to a formal retraction and notification of relevant institutions.
  2. Complaints and Appeals
    Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions. An appeal must be made in writing to the Editor-in-Chief within 30 days, clearly stating the grounds for the appeal, with specific reference to reviewer comments or factual errors. The Editor-in-Chief will review the case, possibly in consultation with members of the editorial board. A final, reasoned decision will be communicated to the author. This process ensures a fair hearing while upholding the integrity of the peer review process.
  3. Generative AI Policy
    JAAE requires transparent disclosure of the use of Generative AI (GenAI) or AI-assisted technologies in manuscript preparation. Such technologies should only be used to improve readability and language, not to generate data, conclusions, or replace authorial responsibility. Authors must clearly disclose this use in the acknowledgements section of their manuscript.
  4. Publisher and Institutional Affiliation
    JAAE is the official journal of the Art Teachers’ Association of Ghanaand is institutionally listed under the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. This affiliation ensures a stable governance and publishing framework based within the African continent.
  5. Privacy Statement

JAAE is committed to protecting the privacy of its authors, reviewers, and readers. The names and email addresses entered into the journal’s submission system or used for correspondence will be used solely for the purposes of the journal’s editorial and publishing processes. This includes managing submissions, coordinating the peer review process, communicating editorial decisions, and notifying users of journal-related news. Personal data will not be shared with third parties or used for any other commercial purposes without explicit consent. By submitting a manuscript or agreeing to review for JAAE, individuals consent to the collection and use of their personal data as described herein, in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) of Ghana.

  1. Publisher and Institutional Affiliation
    JAAE is the official journal of the Art Teachers’ Association of Ghana and is institutionally listed under the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. This affiliation ensures a stable governance and publishing framework based within the African continent.

For any queries, please contact the Managing Editor:
Email: jaaesubmissions@gmail.com
Telephone (WhatsApp): 0201329951

 

Peer Review Process for the Journal of African Art Education (JAAE)

The Journal of African Art Education (JAAE) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of scholarly publishing. To ensure the quality, integrity, and originality of the research we publish, all manuscripts submitted to JAAE undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process. In this process, the identities of both the authors and the reviewers are concealed from each other throughout the review to ensure objectivity and fairness.

This process is publicly described to ensure full transparency for authors.

Stage 1: Initial Submission and Technical Screening

  • Upon submission via our journal management system, the editorial office performs an initial technical check.
  • The manuscript is screened for completeness, adherence to the JAAE Author Guidelines, and proper anonymisation (all author-identifying information removed).
  • Plagiarism Screening: The manuscript is run through recognised plagiarism detection software (Turnitin). Manuscripts with a high similarity index (exceeding 10%, excluding references and quoted material) or evidence of plagiarism will be rejected at this stage.

Stage 2: Editorial Assessment (Desk Review)

  • The manuscript is assigned to an Editor with relevant subject expertise.
  • The Editor assesses the manuscript for:
  • Relevance:Does it strictly align with the journal’s scope, focusing on visual art education in the African context?
  • Originality:Does it make a significant and new contribution to the field?
  • Scholarly Quality:Is the research objective or question clear? Is the problem statement, theoretical underpinning, and methodology sound, ethical, and appropriate? Is the depth of analysis sufficient? Are the conclusions drawn from the findings of the study, and how do they contribute to the theory and practice of art education? Are the recommendations action-oriented and targeted at the research problem?
  • Manuscripts that are out of scope, lack sufficient originality, or have fatal flaws in the problem statement or methodology are desk rejected. Authors are notified of this decision, typically within one week of receipt of the submission.

Stage 3: Reviewer Assignment

  • Manuscripts passing desk review are forwarded for external peer review.
  • The Editor identifies and invites a minimum of two independent expert reviewers with verifiable expertise in the manuscript’s subject area. Reviewers are selected based on their publication record and academic qualifications. To ensure a range of expertise, one reviewer should hold professorial status and the other a PhD.
  • Potential reviewers are screened for conflicts of interest (e.g., recent co-authors, colleagues from the same institution). If a conflict is identified, an alternative reviewer is sought.

Stage 4: Double-Blind Peer Review

  • Reviewers accept the invitation and receive the blinded manuscript along with a structured JAAE review guidelines form.
  • Reviewers evaluate the manuscript based on key criteria, including:
  1. Organisation, Quality of Writing, and Presentation Style
    • Compliance with the JAAE house style of presentation
    • Quality of writing and grammatical soundness
    • Clarity of thought and argument
    • Appropriateness of the article to the scope of the journal
    • Soundness of the Abstract (Does it summarise the key findings and approach of the article?)
    • Length of article (should not exceed 8000 words, including abstract, keywords, and references)
    • Abstract length (should not exceed 250 words)
    • Appropriate use of APA guidelines in formatting the article
  2. Significance and Currency of the Article
    • Soundness of the problem statement
    • Use of relevant and current literature
    • Suitability of the theoretical or philosophical framework
    • Alignment of the theoretical framework with the research method
  3. Materials and Methods
    • Appropriateness of the research method (research design, sample and sampling technique, instrumentation, data analysis plan)
    • Addressing ethical issues
  4. Soundness of Analysis, Interpretation, Conclusions, and Recommendations
    • Clarity and depth of analysis and interpretation
    • Adequacy of interpretation and analysis
    • Soundness of conclusions and recommendations
  5. Contribution to Knowledge and Practice
    • Implications for Art Education
    • Contribution to practice
    • Contribution to knowledge
  • Reviewers provide detailed, constructive comments and make a recommendation: Accept, Minor Revisions, Major Revisions, or Reject.
  • The expected timeframe for the review is four weeks.

Stage 5: Editorial Decision and Communication

  • The Editor-in-Chief considers the manuscript, reviewer reports, and their recommendations.
  • A final decision is made and communicated to the corresponding author in a comprehensive letter that includes the anonymised reviewer comments. The decision will be one of the following:
  1. Accept as is:(Rare for a first submission).
  2. Minor Revision:The paper is fundamentally sound but requires minor corrections.
  3. Major Revision:The paper has merit but requires significant changes. The revised manuscript will typically be returned to the original reviewers.
  4. Reject:The paper does not meet the journal’s standards.

Stage 6: Revision and Resubmission

  • If revisions are required, authors must submit a revised manuscript along with a detailed, point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments. Authors are expected to complete revisions within a reasonable timeframe (e.g., four weeks for minor revisions, eight weeks for major revisions).

Stage 7: Final Decision and Acceptance

  • Once the manuscript is deemed acceptable by the Editor, the final decision is made. The manuscript then proceeds to the production stage for copyediting, typesetting, and proofreading.

Stage 8: Publication

  • The final, formatted version of the article is published online in a quarterly issue (February, May, August, and November). However, publication operates on a rolling basis, with accepted papers being added to existing issues as they are ready.

Handling of Editorial Board Submissions and Conflicts of Interest
To maintain impartiality, any manuscript submitted by an author who is also a member of the JAAE editorial board will be handled with extra care. Such an author will be recused from all editorial tasks related to that paper. The review process will be managed by an independent member of the editorial team.

Reviewer Ethics
All reviewers must adhere to high ethical standards. They must maintain confidentiality, provide objective and constructive feedback, declare any potential conflicts of interest, and decline to review if they lack the necessary expertise.

 

Indexing


ResearchGate
Publication Fee

$75.00