Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

IJASHS welcomes original, unpublished work across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Its scope includes creative and practice-based research; history, philosophy, ethics, languages, literature, religion, archaeology, and heritage; sociology, anthropology, political science, international relations, psychology, education, communication and media, development, gender, migration, human rights, public administration, peace and conflict, and interdisciplinary regional studies.

Aims and Scope

The journal publishes empirical, theoretical, historical, interpretive, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, comparative, review, and practice-based work that makes a clear contribution to scholarship, policy, professional practice, cultural understanding, or creative inquiry. IJASHS particularly encourages developing-society perspectives while welcoming submissions from authors and study settings worldwide.

• Arts and Creative Practice: visual arts, performing arts, music, theatre, dance, creative writing, film, design, arts education, and practice-based research

• Humanities: history, philosophy, ethics, language and linguistics, literature, religious studies, archaeology, heritage studies, and the study of ideas

• Sociology and Anthropology: social organization, culture, identity, family, communities, social change, and ethnographic research

• Political Science and International Relations: governance, public institutions, democracy, diplomacy, regional cooperation, political participation, and international affairs

• Psychology and Human Development: social, educational, community, developmental, cultural, and applied psychology

• Education and Pedagogy: curriculum, teaching and learning, higher education, educational leadership, assessment, inclusion, and education policy

• Communication Media and Cultural Studies: journalism, digital media, public communication, popular culture, cultural industries, and media representation

• Development, Peace, and Society: development studies, migration and diaspora, gender studies, human rights, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, humanitarian studies, and social policy

• Public Administration and Community Studies: public service, local governance, civil society, community development, and institutional change

• Interdisciplinary and Regional Studies: Somali studies, Horn of Africa and East African studies, fragile and post-conflict societies, digital humanities, technology and society, environmental humanities, climate and society, and indigenous or local knowledge systems

Peer Review Process

IJASHS uses single-blind peer review. After editorial screening for scope, originality, ethics, and basic quality, suitable manuscripts are normally reviewed by at least two independent specialists. Decisions are Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject. Revised manuscripts may be re-reviewed. The journal targets a first decision within 6–8 weeks, and the Editor-in-Chief makes the final acceptance decision.

Plagiarism and Text Similarity Policy

Manuscripts are screened with a recognized text-similarity tool before review. Similarity reports are interpreted by an editor, with correctly quoted material, references, and unavoidable standard phrasing considered in context:

• 0%–25%: acceptable for editorial consideration..

• 26%–40%: substantial revision is required and rejection may follow if overlap is inappropriate.

• Above 40%: normally rejected, with resubmission considered only after substantial rewriting and proper attribution.

Self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, and citation manipulation are investigated under COPE principles.

Generative AI Policy

AI tools may support language improvement, readability, transcription checking, translation support, or code formatting, but may not replace author judgment or generate undisclosed arguments, interpretations, evidence, or conclusions. Any use must be declared before the reference list. AI cannot be an author. Substantive use of AI as a research method or object of study must be transparently explained. AI-generated or altered images and creative works require clear labelling, legal and ethical permission, and editorial approval when integral to the research. Authors remain fully accountable for the manuscript.

Authorship Criteria

Authors must have contributed substantially to the conception, design, evidence gathering, creative or analytical process, interpretation, or writing; approved the final manuscript; and accepted accountability for the work. Funding, conflicts of interest, and permissions must be disclosed. Contributors who do not meet the criteria should be acknowledged. The corresponding author manages communication and confirms co-author approval.

Research and Publication Ethics

• Human-participant research requires ethics approval or a justified exemption, informed consent, and privacy safeguards.

• Research with vulnerable populations, communities, or culturally sensitive knowledge must explain additional protections.

• Ethnographic, oral-history, participatory, and community-based studies must address consent, representation, and potential harms from publication.

• Permissions are required for copyrighted artworks, photographs, recordings, archival materials, translations, and other third-party content.

• All financial, institutional, and personal conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

• Reviewers and editors must preserve confidentiality, declare conflicts, and evaluate manuscripts solely on scholarly merit.

Correction, Retraction and Withdrawal

Minor post-publication errors are corrected through a corrigendum. Errors that materially undermine the work or confirmed serious misconduct may result in retraction under COPE guidance. Withdrawal after acceptance is limited to exceptional circumstances; published articles are handled through correction or retraction rather than withdrawal.

Copyright and Open Access

IJASHS is fully open access. Submission fees and article processing charges are waived for manuscripts submitted through December 2027. Authors retain copyright and grant IJASHS a non-exclusive publishing license under CC BY 4.0. Authors are responsible for originality and for obtaining permission to use third-party material.

Article Types Accepted

• Original Research Article: approximately 5,000–8,000 words

• Review Article: approximately 6,000–10,000 words

• Humanities or Critical Essay: approximately 4,000–8,000 words

• Practice-Based or Creative Research: approximately 4,000–7,000 words

• Case Study: approximately 4,000–7,000 words

• Short Communication: approximately 2,000–3,500 words

• Policy or Practice Analysis: approximately 4,000–7,000 words

• Conceptual or Theoretical Paper: approximately 5,000–8,000 words

Manuscript Structure

Every manuscript requires a title, abstract, keywords, coherent main text, conclusion, declarations, and references. The internal structure should reflect the article type and disciplinary tradition:

• Abstract: approximately 200–300 words describing the purpose, approach, principal argument or findings, contribution, and conclusion.

• Keywords: 5–8 terms immediately below the abstract.

• Empirical studies: introduction, literature or conceptual framework, methodology, results or findings, discussion, and conclusion; sections may be combined when appropriate.

• Humanities and critical scholarship: introduction, context and scholarship, thesis or research question, thematic or analytical sections, and conclusion.

• Qualitative and community-based studies: context, researcher positioning where relevant, participants or sources, data generation, analysis, ethics, findings or themes, interpretation, and limitations.

• Practice-based research: context and objectives, creative methods and process, documentation or presentation of the work, critical reflection, contribution, and conclusion.

• Review, case-study, policy, conceptual, and short papers may adapt the structure but must make their method or evidential basis transparent.

• Declarations after the conclusion: acknowledgements, funding, conflict of interest, ethics and consent, data or materials availability, author contributions, and generative AI use where applicable.

Formatting Guidelines

• Times New Roman throughout; 12 pt body text.

• 1.5 line spacing; justified alignment.

• A4 pages with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins and consecutive page numbers.

• Tables, figures, images, and media numbered or labelled consistently, captioned, credited, and cited in the text.

• Clear academic English, with accurate translations or transcriptions of non-English material.

Reference Style

IJASHS uses APA 7th edition. In-text citations follow the author–date system, for example (Ahmed & Warsame, 2024). Direct quotations include a page or paragraph number where available. References are arranged alphabetically with a hanging indent, and DOI links are included when available. Works in other languages may include an English title translation in square brackets. Authors must ensure that every citation and reference-list entry corresponds.

Publication Frequency and Fees

IJASHS publishes twice each year: Issue 1 in September and Issue 2 in March. Submission fees and article processing charges are waived for manuscripts submitted through December 2027.

Submission

Manuscripts are submitted through Hormuud University's Open Journal Systems portal. Authors should upload the manuscript, cover letter, and all required declarations and supplementary materials. Submission and editorial enquiries may be sent to ijashs@journals.hu.edu.so.