AFRICAN JOURNAL OF FOOD, AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION AND DEVELOPMENT (AJFAND): Disseminating African Food and Nutritional

Information through Open Access Publishing

Presented byMary Njeri Karanu

Assistant Editor, AJFAND (www.ajfand.net)

At theAgricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS) Webinar

July 23rd, 2015http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/new-webinaraimsdisseminating-african-

food-and-nutritional-information-through-open

Background

African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND) is an Open Access, scientific, peer reviewed, scholarly journal with a global reach, published in Kenya since 2001.

It was launched in August 2001, as the African Journal of Food and Nutritional Sciences (AJFNS) under the Rural Outreach Program (ROP) (www.ruraloutreachafrica.org) by Hon. Prof. Ruth Oniang’o as the CEO and editor-in-chief.

It became evident that nutrition had a much wider scope, closely linked to agriculture, environment and human development in Africa. In recognition of these close synergies, the name of the journal was changed to African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND); this was able to accommodate interests of previously excluded authors.

Publishing

The journal has been published by African Scholarly Science Communications Trust (ASSCAT) since 2009

• From 2001 issues of the journal were both in the conventional print and online (www.ajfns.net). Since November 2003, the journal has been produced entirely online; via the website www.ajfand.net

Manuscripts are published in PDF format Open Access (gold) Creative Commons 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) License:

Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives

VISION

VisionTo have a world where information on food, agriculture, nutrition and development is contributed and shared honestly, respectfully, equally and impartially, giving global visibility to African scholars and issues.

The key guiding principle is that no culture has a monopoly of knowledge.

MissionTo inform policy and decision making in the fields of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, the application of emerging technologies for innovative interventions and their regulation through related research.

Goals and Objectives

To provide a platform, through which food and nutrition issues and information concerning Africa, and its unique problems could be effectively disseminated and addressed.

• To provide a capacity building facility in scholarly publishing for budding African scholars.

Coverage

AJFAND covers a wide range of scientific and developmental disciplines including:

Role of indigenous foods in food and nutrition security Food safety related practices like preparation, processing, preservation

and storage Nutritional analysis of various foods and human health Modern technology such as genomics, biotechnology and tissue culture

technology and their role in Africa’s science, research and food and nutrition security challenges

Smallholder farming systems, women in agriculture and climate smart agriculture

Youth in the agricultural value chain

Besides academic research, the journal provides an avenue for sharing information on national, regional and international-level food and nutrition programs, commentaries, short communications, book reviews, and relevant news and events, obituaries of friends of AJFAND are also included.

Target Audience

AJFAND is open to both African and non-African contributors.

Primary target group:–scientists, researchers, academics, policy makers,

students, non-Governmental populace and media

AJFAND Activities

Education and Research AJFAND supports networking, accessing, sharing, and publishing of papers for researchers, scholars, scientists, and academicians.

Library Creating and preserving up-to-date online digital information across all formats and ensuring effective access and management of information to all, especially those serving research and educational communities. Examples: African Union (AU) Library, University of Botswana Library, University of Zimbabwe Library and Cornell University Albert R. Mann Library.

Health and Nutrition Supporting and facilitating communication, networking, accessing, sharing, and publishing of information between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers involved in health promotion activities. Including: food safety, food security, food trade, healthier eating and childhood nutrition.

AJFAND Activities

Publishing Support and MentoringStrengthening the work of editors and communication professionals, especially those in research and science. Through publishing, AJFAND makes people aware of the resources available to them, and through innovation, it makes access to these resources easier. Rural Development and Agriculture Supporting networking, accessing, sharing, and publishing of information for rural development practitioners. The lack of basic information plays a significant role in the persistence of poverty. Poor people need better connections to schools, health care, markets, essential services and each other. Almost all of the Millennium Development Goals depend on providing infrastructure.

AJFAND WORKFLOWSManuscript is received and acknowledged

(electronically)

Manuscript is subjected to secretariat checklist

Conformed Non-conformed: sent back to author for corrections/improvement, resubmission allowed

Peer review (2-3 weeks, 2-3 reviewers)

Accept Reject (resubmission of improvements upon author’s request)

Technical review

Author notification and payment

Approval for publishing (Editor-in-Chief)

Accept

Reject, no resubmission

Benefits of Online Publishing

• Shorter production cycles

• Increased visibility and recognition as compared to print media.

• More efficient quality control through electronic peer review.

• Greater versatility in the design of the electronic files.

• Opportunity to build capacity in electronic publishing.

• Better preservation of published scholarly works.

• Easier to handle corrections with electronic version compared to print version.

Benefits of Open Access Publishing

Presenting high quality African scientific research accessible freely globally.

Giving budding scientists visibility and recognition.Collaborative research- interdisciplinary, inter-institutional,

international; new research and career opportunities Enabling African scientists to contribute to global

scientific scholarship.Contributing unique African solutions to global scientific

questions through original research conducted in Africa by Africans. More research funding opportunities by major science

funders. More use of research and greater citations by linking

to other scholarly works.

Challenges of Open Access Publishing

Threat of virus, hacking, predatory journals, counterfeit impact factor/indexing companies

Monitoring plagiarism in submitted work Turnaround times: Some authors have unrealistic

expectations of the review process Financing the journal- maintaining a secretariat, website Researchers want to publish in high impact journals,

subscription journals The value of Open Access publishing has not been

effectively communicated to African scientists Policies, procedures and standards on Open Access are not

as well developed, but there is some progress

Author Success Stories

Highlighted Authors who have benefited from publishing in AJFAND

•Professor Peter Bille (Namibia)Received a promotion at the University of Namibia after publishing a series of articles in AJFAND, internationally recognized for work in dairy science.

Bille 1780 Volume 6 No. 2 (2006); Bille 1735 Volume 8 No. 1 (2008)Bille 5020 Volume 8 No. 4 (2008); Bille 8050 Volume 9 No. 7 (2009)

Bille 12820 Volume 13 No. 4 (2013); Bille 13175 Volume 14 No. 2 (2014)

•Professor Emmanuel Afoakwa (Ghana)Professor at University of Ghana. Globally recognized for his

work in food science and technology, widely read and published, dedicated reviewer with several international journals and AJFAND.

•Professor Mary Abukutsa-Onyango (Kenya)Received global recognition for work in African Indigenous Vegetables published in AJFAND after being previously rejected by other international journals.

AJFAND Volume 7 No. 3 (2007) Special issue dedicated to ALVs

Highlighted authors, cont…• Dr. Michael Lokuruka (Kenya)

An avid publisher and reviewer of AJFAND. Received a promotion at Egerton University and Karatina University in Kenya. Now works in Public Service Commission (Kenya)

Lokuruka 2100 Volume 7 No. 1 (2007); Lokuruka 2005 Volume 7 No. 2 (2007)Lokuruka 2745 Volume 8 No. 2 (2008); Lokuruka 3110 Volume 9 No. 3 (2009)Lokuruka 5055 Volume 9 No. 7 (2009); Lokuruka 9040 Volume 10 No. 1 (2010)Lokuruka 4355 Volume 10 No. 4 (2010); Lokuruka 10245 Volume 11 No. 4

(2011)Lokuruka 10465 Volume 12 No. 6 (2012); Lokuruka 11000 Volume 13 No. 1

(2013)

• Marguerite Niyibituronsa (Rwanda)Research assistant at Rwanda Agriculture Board. Published her first

paper at 50! A year after receiving her MSc.

• Others: Profiles of authors, young graduates and students carried on journal website helps get them employment, graduate school admission and reviewer positions with other journals.

Indexing and Impact Factor

AJFAND has a global reach and readership. The journal is quality assured by The University of Toronto through Bioline International since 2006 (http://www.bioline.org.br/nd)

Under second review by Scopus (http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus) and Thomson Reuters for coverage in Web of Science.

Indexing

Other institutions that carry and disseminate AJFAND articles and with whom we have signed agreements:– CABI (London)– EBSCO Publishing– Chemical Abstracts Societies (CAS)– Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)– African Journals Online (AJOL)

(http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajfand)– FAO Sustainable Food Value Chain Development (SFVC)

Knowledge Platform(FAO DocRep: http://www.fao.org/documents/en/)

– African Union (AU) Library (intranet)– University of Botswana Library (intranet)– University of Zimbabwe Library (intranet)– Cornell University Albert R. Mann Library (through TEEAL)

Achievements

AJFAND has enjoyed 15 years of continuous publishing of Agricultural, Nutrition and Development research in Africa

AJFAND receives 200+ quality manuscripts every year from Africa, Europe, USA and Asia. The journal publishes an average of 80 manuscripts in a year, with issues coming out bimonthly

AJFAND’s roster of qualified, widely read and widely published (voluntary) international reviewers is 100+ with frequent new requests to review for the journal

-PhDs (Full reviewers) and MScs (Junior reviewers) in relevant fields. Each article must benefit from at least 2 FULL

reviewers AJFAND carries profiles of reviewers highlighting their academic

and professional achievements. A photo is included (both for authors and profiled reviewers). This serves as an incentive to our reviewers

AJFAND takes interns (top talent) from local universities for mentoring and to gain work experience

(Poster advocating Open Access) Forum on Open Data and Open Science in Agriculture. Nairobi, Kenya . June 15-18, 2015

African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND)www.ajfand.net

Josem Trust Place, Off Bunyala Road, UpperhillP.O. Box 29086-00625

Nairobi, KENYA

Contact AJFANDHon. Prof. Ruth K. Oniang'o, PhD

Editor-in-ChiefEmail: oniango@iconnect.co.ke OR info@ajfand.net

THANK YOU! ASANTE!