Author Responsibilities

Authors submitting manuscripts to ARC Publishers are expected to:

• Ensure that their work is original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
• Properly acknowledge all sources, data, and prior research through accurate citation.
• Present research findings honestly, without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.
• Clearly disclose any conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, that may influence the research or its interpretation.
• Ensure that all listed authors have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the manuscript and have approved the final version.
• Confirm compliance with ethical standards for research involving human participants, organizations, or sensitive data, where applicable.
• Manuscripts that violate these principles may be rejected at any stage of the editorial process.

ARC considers the following manuscript categories:

• Original Research Articles (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods)
• Conceptual and Theoretical Papers
• Systematic Literature Reviews and Meta-Analyses
• Policy and Practice-Oriented Papers
• Case Studies (with clear analytical contribution)
• Bibliometric Review

Purely descriptive studies, consultancy reports, or manuscripts lacking scholarly contribution will not be considered.

Pre-Submission Requirements

Before submitting a manuscript, authors must ensure that:

• The manuscript fits within the aims and scope of ARC
• All authors meet the journal’s authorship criteria and agree to submission
• Ethical approvals (where applicable) have been obtained and documented
• The manuscript complies with the journal’s ethical, COI, and data policies
• The manuscript is formatted using the appropriate ARC manuscript template
• Authors are strongly advised to complete the Manuscript Preparation Checklist prior to submission.

 Files Required for Submission

Each submission must include the following files:

1.Mandatory Files

Main Manuscript File (Anonymized)

• No author names or affiliations
• Includes text, tables, and figures
• Prepared using the appropriate manuscript template

2.Title Page

• Full manuscript title
• Author names and affiliations
• Corresponding author contact details
• ORCID IDs (if available)

3.Cover Letter

Prepared using the official AABR Cover Letter Template

4.Conditional / Additional Files (if applicable)

• Response-to-Reviewers document (for revised submissions)
• Ethical approval documentation
• Data availability statement or supplementary files
• Funding disclosure statement

• Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format
• Language: English
• Referencing style: APA (latest edition)
• Tables and figures must be embedded in the manuscript and clearly labeled
• Figures must be high resolution (minimum 300 dpi) and meet the journal’s technical specifications.
• Detailed formatting instructions are provided in the Manuscript Templates.

Manuscripts must be submitted through the journal’s designated online submission system or official submission channel. An automated acknowledgment of receipt will be issued upon submission.The manuscript undergoes initial editorial screening for:

• Scope alignment
• Ethical compliance
• Formatting and completeness
• Plagiarism and any misconduct
• Manuscripts failing initial screening may face desk rejection.

• The main manuscript file must be fully anonymized.
• Author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, and self-identifying references must be removed.
• A separate Title Page must include authors and corresponding authors details, affiliations, and declarations.

• A typical manuscript should include:
• Title
• Abstract (150–250 words) 
• Keywords (4-6)
• Introduction
• Literature Review / Theoretical Framework
• Methodology
• Results / Analysis
• Discussion
• Implications (theoretical, managerial, or policy)
• Limitations and Future Research
• References
• List of abbreviations
• Declarations

Note: manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading Declarations 

• Funding
• Conflict of Interest
• Availability of Data and Materials
• Ethics Approval (if applicable)

If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write ‘Not applicable’ for that section. Specific formatting instructions are provided in the Manuscript Templates.

Referencing Style

• AABR follows the APA referencing style (latest edition).
• Authors must ensure that citations and references are accurate, complete, and consistent.
• In cases where volume, issue, or page numbers are not available for a reference, authors must provide the DOI

Afro-Asian Business Review (AABR) accepts original scholarly manuscripts that fall within the journal’s stated aims and scope. Submissions must not be previously published or simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

1. Submission Requirements

• Submissions must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
• All submissions undergo plagiarism screening and ethical compliance checks before peer review.
• The journal follows a double-blind peer review process.
• Manuscripts must be submitted in English and written in clear, academic language.
• Authors are responsible for compliance with the journal’s ethical, authorship, and conflict-of-interest policies.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submissions comply with the journal’s ethical, authorship, and conflict-of-interest policies

Authors must ensure that:

• The manuscript conforms to the journal’s scope and article categories.
• All authors have approved the submission and the final manuscript.
• The work is original and appropriately cited.
• The work must comply with all the standard journal guidelines, including word count limits, citation and referencing style, formatting requirements, and other submission specifications. 
• Required declarations (authorship, conflicts of interest, funding, and ethical compliance) are complete and accurate.

Non-Compliance policy 

• Submissions that fail to meet requirements (clauses 1–3) may be rejected without external review.
• Submission will proceed through the technical check for clauses 4 and 5 and shall return to the authors for revision before external peer review.