Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. General aspects
Africanías. Revista de Literaturas, published by the Publications Service of the Complutense University of Madrid, is an annual journal with a continuous online publication system. The journal focuses on literary studies (including cultural and artistic traditions linked to literary production) on the African continent, its diaspora and African descent.

Sections:

• Regular sections:

 Articles: scientific articles on African or Afro-descendant literatures that propose an advancement of knowledge in the subject matter addressed. 

• Variable sections:

Documents: interviews and unpublished translations into Spanish of African or Afro-descendant authors - both renowned and new - who are beginning to emerge on the international literary scene.

Reviews: presentation of recently published critical and methodological works dedicated to African or Afro-descendant literature.

African Voices (original creation): fragments or works by authors who have not yet been published and who make a significant contribution to the contemporary African and Afro-descendant literary scene.

2. Submission of papers
2.1. Papers
Papers must be unpublished and not in the process of revision or publication by any other means. They must be written in Spanish, Portuguese, French or English. They must be submitted in Word format for Windows or Mac OSX, without data identifying the author or institution, and sent through the application https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/AFRI/user/register. Together with the article file, it is also necessary to include a data file that includes the name (only one name is allowed; if it is a compound name, one of them will only have the initial) of the author or authors, with a single surname (if there are two, they must be joined by a hyphen, and if this is missing, the journal will include it), the ORCID code, a brief CV - maximum 200 words - of each author and the address, e-mail, organisation and contact telephone number (of the person responsible, in the case of several authors). When there are several authors, the exact order in which they should appear in the publication must be indicated.

2.2. Documents
Interviews: Include the title of the interview, name and surname, affiliation and ORCID code of the author of the interview, as well as the interviewee's details. Works with a maximum of 3,000 words of text will be accepted.

Unpublished translations into Spanish: Include the name and surname, affiliation and ORCID code of the translator of the work or fragment, as well as all the bibliographical data of the translated text. Works with a maximum of 3,000 words of text will be accepted.

2.3 Reviews
Descriptive or critical writings on recent publications and exhibitions that fall within the general subject matter of the journal's publication. In the case of book reviews, include full reference to the book, author's name, publisher, pages, etc. It is recommended to include an image of the cover of the book. In the case of reviews of exhibitions, the title of the exhibition, author(s), dates and place of the exhibition and any other information that may help to locate it should be included. The name and surname, affiliation and ORCID code of the author of the review or exhibition must be included at the end of the review. They will have a maximum of 800 words of text.

3. Reviewers
It is recommended to propose two possible reviewers for the evaluation of the article and to provide complete information about them (name and two surnames, e-mail, organisation to which they belong and ORCID code), which will be included in the data file, together with the required information about the author(s). The proposal must be justified by the fact that they are specialists in the field of work covered by the article. Reviewers should not belong to the same institution as the author, nor should they have any conflict of interest. The editorial staff of the journal reserves the right to propose these or other reviewers for the evaluation of the article, should it pass to the review stage.

4. Length and structure
Articles should be between 6000 and 8000 words in length (excluding abstract, key words and references) and should have the following structure: Title (in Spanish and English); Abstract in Spanish, between 150 and 200 words in length, followed by the key words (no more than 5 words), the English translation of the abstract, the title of the article and the key words, and the summary.

If the article is written in Portuguese, French or English, the abstract and key words in Spanish should be added. The name(s) of the author(s) should not be included, nor any reference to them in the text of the article, nor to institutions, funding, etc., that might identify them.

5. Images
Images (maximum 10 per article) must be sent in high quality JPG format (300 dpi and 17x14 cm maximum format) in files independent of the text, making reference in the text itself to the place corresponding to each image. Regardless of this, the images must also be included in the article (although in lower quality), with their corresponding caption. The author is responsible for the use made of the images and must indicate the authorship of the images (unless the author is the same author of the article, in which case only "photograph of the author" must be specified) or their origin. The journal reserves the right to modify the size of the images if necessary for their correct publication, respecting as far as possible the author's original format. If the author considers that the article, due to its characteristics, requires a greater number of images than those permitted, he/she should specify this in the submission (comments for the editor) and the Editorial Office will assess their viability.

6. Citations and bibliographical references
Citations and bibliographical references (at least ten) must conform to APA standards. The number and length of footnotes should be kept to a minimum, limiting their use to clarifications that are essential to the text. Likewise, secondary citations should be avoided.

8. Evaluation process
Once the manuscripts have been received, the Editorial Board will carry out an initial review of the manuscripts to check whether they meet the requirements indicated in the publication rules, and they will be subjected to an anti-plagiarism programme.

The following criteria, among others, will be assessed:

• Originality, topicality and novelty.
• Relevance to the fields covered by the journal.
• Methodological quality, editing and writing.

If this first review is passed, the originals are sent to external reviewers ("double blind" system).

The authors will be informed (within an estimated period of up to 4 months) of the acceptance or rejection of the article by the reviewers and the possible modifications that, if accepted, may result from this review. Once the article has been accepted, it will be uploaded to the AIS platform until its final layout and publication.

(During non-teaching academic periods, the management of articles received in AIS will be suspended until the end of these periods).

9. Acceptance of papers
Accepted articles must be adapted to the format of the journal and will be fully respected, unless errors are detected, in which case they will be corrected by the journal's editorial staff. The deadline for authors to make the modifications and corrections recommended by the reviewers is set at 15 days from the date of communication by the editors. The contents and opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors, and do not compromise the opinion and editorial policy of the journal. Likewise, the ethical principles of research and publication must be respected by the authors. If an article by the author(s) has been previously published in the journal, the new article cannot be submitted until at least one year after publication. Acceptance of a paper implies that the copyright, in any medium and by any means, is transferred to the journal.

10. Covers
Contributions of images (maximum 3) are welcome for use on the cover of one of the issues of the journal.

Image requirements:

• It must be an original work by the submitting author (or with the express permission of the author).
• It must not have been previously used as a cover in any print or digital publication.
• It must conform to the following digital format: 17 cm wide by 14 cm high, resolution 300 dpi.
• The following information must be included in the submission: author, title, year and techniques used.

The selection process will be carried out by the Editorial Team of the magazine.