Journal profile · AREA STUDIES
Africa Spectrum
ISSN 0002-0397 · eISSN 1868-6869 · SAGE Publishing · United Kingdom
Africa Spectrum: CAS Zone 2 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.76; diamond open access (no APC); no APC; median 92 days to acceptance (72 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 9.8% (journal website); 37 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Africa Spectrum is published by SAGE Publishing and is in Zone 2 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are African history and culture studies, International Development and Aid and Political Conflict and Governance, together about 29.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Africa Spectrum is published by the Institute for African Affairs of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg. It is a double-blind, peer-reviewed Open Access journal dedicated to promoting scientific knowledge on politics, societies, and development in Africa, as well as Africa's role in the international system This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). View full journal description This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): AREA STUDIES
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- African history and culture studiesSocial Sciences10.9%
- International Development and AidSocial Sciences9.4%
- Political Conflict and GovernanceSocial Sciences9%
- African history and culture analysisSocial Sciences7.7%
- African studies and sociopolitical issuesSocial Sciences6.9%
- Global Peace and Security DynamicsSocial Sciences6%
- Peacebuilding and International SecuritySocial Sciences4.7%
- South African History and CultureSocial Sciences4.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Area Studies | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Area Studies | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Area Studies | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 1.76LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 1.8Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.49LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 2LetPub ·
- h-index
- 43OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 202OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.43OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 23LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 795 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 42 | 42 | 16 |
| 2025 | 37 | 37 | 25 |
| 2024 | 28 | 28 | 112 |
| 2023 | 22 | 22 | 114 |
| 2022 | 21 | 21 | 107 |
| 2021 | 32 | 32 | 250 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
92 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 42 days – 178 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 15 days (62 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 136 days
- Sample
- 72 articles with submission and acceptance dates (200 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 6 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 9.8%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 8 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 344 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 30 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 6 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Article types accepted11, with length limits
- analytical reportsAfrica Spectrum accepts (a) Research Articles, (b) Debate Articles, (c) Analytical Reports, (d) Book Reviews, and (e) Multi-book Review Essays.Length not stated
- book reviewAfrica Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretio…main text ≤ 1,000 words
- book reviewsAfrica Spectrum accepts (a) Research Articles, (b) Debate Articles, (c) Analytical Reports, (d) Book Reviews, and (e) Multi-book Review Essays.Length not stated
- debate articlesAfrica Spectrum accepts (a) Research Articles, (b) Debate Articles, (c) Analytical Reports, (d) Book Reviews, and (e) Multi-book Review Essays.Length not stated
- multi-book review essaysAfrica Spectrum accepts (a) Research Articles, (b) Debate Articles, (c) Analytical Reports, (d) Book Reviews, and (e) Multi-book Review Essays.Length not stated
- perspectiveAfrica Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretio…main text ≤ 3,000 words
- perspectivesPerspectives: These contributions are through invitation only.Length not stated
- research articleAfrica Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretio…main text ≤ 9,000 words
- research articlesAfrica Spectrum accepts (a) Research Articles, (b) Debate Articles, (c) Analytical Reports, (d) Book Reviews, and (e) Multi-book Review Essays.Length not stated
- reviewAfrica Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretio…main text ≤ 3,000 words
- surveyAfrica Spectrum is published in English only. The journal accepts submissions in French as well as in other languages upon request and at the editors’ discretio…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Africa Spectrum is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. There are currently no Article Processing Charges (APCs) to publish in this journal. For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page. The stand…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Due to the high number of submissions, we only accept one submission per author at a time. The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editors/Associate Editors/Managing Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requiremen…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprints allowed Model summary
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE Publishing
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0002-0397
- Electronic ISSN
- 1868-6869
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Africa Spectrum
What CAS zone is Africa Spectrum in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Africa Spectrum is in Zone 2 of Sociology, and in Zone 2 of the minor category Area Studies. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Africa Spectrum?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.76; CiteScore 3.4, h-index 43.
How long does peer review take at Africa Spectrum?
Based on the dates recorded on 72 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 92 days (interquartile range 42–178 days); authors report an average review time of about 6 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 9.8%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Which databases index Africa Spectrum?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Africa Spectrum is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Africa Spectrum open access, and what is the APC?
Africa Spectrum is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .