About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The African Public Procurement Law Journal publishes articles and notes reporting original research on public procurement law relevant to Africa as well as book reviews.

Peer Review Process

The APPLJ subscribes to the Guidelines for Best Practice in Editorial Discretion and Peer Review adopted by the Forum of Editors of Academic Law Journals in South Africa.

Only contributions that have not been submitted for publication elsewhere will be considered for publication in the APPLJ. This rule will only be deviated from in exceptional circumstances.

All contributions, excluding book reviews, will be subjected to blind peer review by at least two reviewers. Blind review entails:

  • that an author is not informed about the identity of a reviewer;
  • that a reviewer is not informed about the identity of an author; and
  • that reviewers are not informed about each other’s identities.

Only reviewers who are knowledgeable in the subject area with which the contribution deals will be used to prepare review reports.

Reviewers are asked to assess whether a contribution is publishable on the basis of the following whether

  • the research in the contribution is of an acceptable quality;
  • the research provides an original contribution to knowledge in the field;
  • the contribution is coherent and arguments are set out clearly;
  • the author's assumptions and methodology are acceptable and theoretically responsible;
  • the contribution is written in a scholarly style and follows the APPLJ style guidelines.

Once the relevant editor has considered the reports of peer reviewers a decision is taken on whether to make an offer of publication, any conditions attached to the offer or whether to reject the submission.

 

 

Publication Frequency

Contributions will be published as soon as they have been finalised. 

Contributions will be consolidated into two editions per year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Contributions published in this journal are subject to the following creative commons license:

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Publication ethics

The APPLJ subscribes to ethical scholarly publishing. Without derogating from the generality of this statement, ethical publishing involves the following:

1. Authors must avoid plagiarism, must only submit original research that has not been submitted elsewhere for publication, must adopt responsible and ethical research methodologies.

2. Editors must strictly follow the policies of the journal and make publication decisions based on merit, treat all contributions with respect and on equal basis, be transparent and accountable in taking editorial decisions, ensure the integrity of the peer review process.

3. Reviewers should judge contributions on academic merit avoiding personal preferences, express their views on contributions in a constructive and professional manner avoiding personal attacks on authors or otherwise disparaging language, keep to agreed timelines in providing feedback on contributions.

Any deviations from above standards should be reported to the editors without delay. If the deviation involves the editors or an editor, the editorial board should be notified. The editors will report annually to the editorial board on any instances of alleged non-compliance with these standards.

 

Digital Preservation

African Public Procurement Law Journal. This journal is in the process of migrating from the Stellenbosch University preservation platform to the PKP PN (Preservation Network) platform.

ORCID iD

This journal programme cannot read the ORCID iD.  Please do not add it when you Register or when submitting a paper.

After Registration, can you Edit your Profile and then insert the ORCID iD, or please send your ORCiD ID, along with the name of the journal to, scholar@sun.ac.za to add to your Profile.

Stellenbosch University researchers/authors can create an ORCID iD here.

ORCID iD is a persistent, unique, numeric identifier for individual researchers and creators. It distinguishes you from researchers and creators with the same or similar names.  ORCID iD is similar to ResearcherID, Scopus Author ID, ISNI and other systems for identifying and distinguishing researchers and creators.