African Journal of Engineering & Technology (AJET)

African Journal of Engineering & Technology (AJET) is an open-access, peer-reviewed, and multidisciplinary journal that aims to serve as a platform for researchers, professionals, and policy-makers from a variety of backgrounds to discuss and disseminate applied research in engineering and technology that addresses Africa’s sustainable development. Contributions published in the Journal address Africa’s development through sustainable engineering and technology and present solutions based on critical reviews, case studies, and qualitative and quantitative research. AJET aims to be a platform for research highlighting pathways for Africa's development in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda2063.

The Journal recognizes the importance of a multidisciplinary (and sometimes even cross-disciplinary) approach when tackling Africa’s complex challenges such as poverty, climate change, energy access, water resources management, energy-water-food nexus, and the urban environment and hence welcomes submissions in a broad domain of areas which include:

• agricultural engineering
• computer sciences
• information systems
• energy engineering
• mechanical engineering
• electrical and electronic engineering
• chemical and petroleum engineering
• civil and environmental engineering
• materials science
• engineering management

AJET is published by the Sudanese Researchers Foundation, which is Sudan's leading NGO in scientific research and development. 

Editor-in-Chief

Prof. Yousif Abakr, Professor of Renewable Energy
The University of Nottingham (Malaysia Campus), Malaysia

Editorial Board members

Mechanical Engineering

• Dr. Hazir Farouk, Associate professor
  Sudan University of Science & Technology, Sudan
• Prof. Abdelrahman Shuaib, Professor of Practice Mechanical Engineering
  Arizona State University, U.S.A

Civil & Environmental Engineering

• Dr. Sami Al-Ghamdi, Assistant professor
  Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar

Materials Science

• Dr. Amir Abdallah, Scientist
  Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute, Qatar
• Dr. Aamir Dean, Visiting professor
  Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
• Dr Mohammed Abedalwafa, Professor
  University of Gezira, Sudan
• Dr Elwathig. A.M. Hassan, Professor
  University of Gezira, Sudan

Electrical & Electronics Engineering

• Dr. Abdelrahman Karrar, Associate Professor
  University of Tennessee, U.S.A
• Prof. Sharief Babiker, Director
  Africa City of Technology, Sudan

Information Systems

• Dr Abdalla Alameen
  Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz University, Saudi Arabia 

How to prepare your manuscript

Authors are required to read the journal’s scope and ensure that submitted manuscripts are aligned with the journal’s objectives and broad readership. At the initial submission stage, AJET doesn’t require authors to format their manuscript according to a specific template. Upon acceptance of the manuscript, the authors shall format the manuscript according the journal’s template, which can be downloaded here. AJET accepts two types of articles: original research articles (5000 words max.) and review articles (7000 words max.).

The following is a checklist of items to be completed during the manuscript preparation phase:

• Abstract (up to 250 words).
• Keywords (up to 5 keywords).
• Main body of the text (e.g. introduction, background, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions). Authors can choose their own heading titles.
• A list of abbreviations at the end of the manuscript. Abbreviations should be defined in text when first used.
• Funding and Acknowledgement statements – All sources of funding for the research reported should be declared.
• Supporting information: such as datasets, software codes, or any other supplementary information that helps the reader understand the manuscript better. Once the manuscript has been accepted, the authors shall upload any supporting information on a public data repository and provide the URL. The URL to the supporting information (which was already uploaded on a public data repository) can also be added at the submission stage in the designated field.
• Declarations and Conflict of Interests statement – Where there are no conflicts of interests or competing interests, authors must clearly declare this under the same heading – usually as ‘The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this work’.
• A full reference list. After acceptance, the authors must format the final manuscript according to AJET’s template.
• Optional: Name and contact email of at least 3 possible reviewers who are familiar with the topic of the paper (this should be sent to the Journal's editorial office by email at: ajet@sresearchers.org)

Please submit your manuscript as one pdf file using the online submission system.

Language

AJET only accepts manuscripts in English (US or UK). It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the manuscript has no language or grammar errors. Manuscripts with excessive language errors may be rejected. Authors may choose to use a professional language proofreading service. The Sudanese Researchers Foundation provides language proofreading at an additional cost. To view fees for this service, kindly refer to the APCs and Fees page.

Image permissions and copyright

Please ensure you have appropriate permissions to reuse any images or figures in the manuscript. You maybe required to provide proof for permission to reuse images by the editors or reviewers. 

How to submit your manuscript

Submit your manuscript as a single PDF file via the ‘Submit here’ button above and complete the online form – you will be asked to sign in to MyScienceOpen with your ORCID, or if you are first time user you will be asked to register your ORCID with the journal. Please ensure you have all the items in the submission checklist.

The manuscript will be sent to the editor-in-chief who will assess the suitability of the papers before it is sent out to potential reviewers. The single-blind peer-review process will take approximately 4 weeks. After that the editor-in-chief will make a decision to either: reject the paper, accept it, or request a major or minor revision.

Submitting a revised manuscript

When requested to revise, please follow and make note of the below points to improve reference to any changes for the journal Editors and reviewers:

• Please provide a summary of changes made in the cover letter and submit it as part of the revised submission files.
• Highlight any changes in the text.
• Submit a separate PDF file where you write the reviewers’ comments and your response to each one. Be specific in your response to expedite the revised manuscript review stage.

When responding to the reviewers’ comments, kindly consider the following:

• Address all points raised by the editor and reviewers.
• Outline what revisions have been made, including where applicable any further or additional analyses or experiments.
• Provide a polite objective rebuttal to any points or comments disagreed with.

Once you are ready to submit please follow these 3 steps:

• Login to MyScienceOpen.
• Navigate to your paper online and you will then see a ‘New Revision’ button under the ‘Read’ button. Click this to upload a new file in the submission form.
• Check all details are correct and upload the new revised PDF file.

APCs

The article processing charges (APCs) for accepted manuscripts is $100 for all article types. This fee will be paid directly to the Sudanese Researchers Foundation. The Sudanese Researchers Foundation may waive or reduce the APC on a case-by-case basis. The Sudanese Researchers Foundation also offers an optional English language proofreading service which costs $50 per article.

For authors based in Sudan, the APC is SDG 15,000 and the fee for the optional English language proofreading service is SDG 7,500, which are both paid in the local Sudanese pound currency. 

For instructions on payment or to request a waive/reduction of the APC, please contact the Journal’s Editorial Office at: ajet@sresearchers.org. 

Open Access Policy

AJET published open access articles under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). All submitted articles must not be under consideration for publication anywhere else, nor have been published in any form prior to submission to AJET. By submitting, authors are agreeing that the submission is original except for material in the public domain and such excerpts of other works that have written permission of the copyright owner.

Publishing agreement

After a manuscript has been accepted for publication by the Editor-in-Chief, the corresponding author will be required to sign the Publishing Agreement. 

Ethical Approvals Policy

AJET is committed to ensuring the highest standards of integrity in all aspects of its publication activities and expects that all authors submitting manuscripts to the journal to have secured all relevant ethics or institutional review board (IRB) approval for their research. Any work or research that involves collecting data from human participants must comply in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and authors must have received any and all relevant ethics or IRB approvals. A statement declaring this must be included in the article, along with the name of the ethics committee or the IRB granting approval.

Where ethics or institutional review board approval is waived, a statement declaring this must be included in the article along with the name of the ethics committee or the IRB granting waiver status. AJET reserves the right to reject the manuscript if the authors fail to submit any required information on ethical approvals for the research conducted.  

Conflict of Interests

Authors must declare any and all conflicts of interest and competing interests that may relate to the submitted article, including all financial and non-financial competing interests. This must be stated in their article after the main text and acknowledgements under the heading ‘Competing and conflicts of interests’. Where there are no conflicts of interests or competing interests, authors must clearly declare this under the same heading.

Plagiarism

Authors must ensure submitted the manuscript represents their own original work and any reference to other published works is cited appropriately. All submitted articles will be screened for plagiarism using industry-standard plagiarism detection software.

Peer-Review Policy

AJET adopts a single-blind peer-review process for all submitted manuscripts. All manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two subject matter experts. The editor-in-chief and the editorial board members may also review a submitted manuscript. As far as possible, assigned editors and invited reviewers will not possess any potential conflicts of interests to the submitted article. Authors are required to nominate at least 3 reviewers for their manuscripts, and also declare any persons who should not review their manuscripts (due to conflict of interests or any other reasons).

The Editor-in-chief may also decide to reject a review after considering any and all conflicts of interest and the reviewer will be informed of this decision. The Editor-in-chief’s decision is final.

Corrections and retractions

When corrections and retractions are necessary to maintain the integrity of published content, AJET will publish an erratum, corrigendum, addendum, and retraction articles but will not make alterations to the version of record initially published, other than to provide a URL link to the erratum, corrigendum, addendum, or retraction article.

Research and publication misconduct

In the event of any suspected allegations of publication and/or research misconduct, AJET will take appropriate action. This can result in AJET contacting the author’s institution and raising concern over the findings and can also lead to sharing article and submission information to other third parties.  

Research misconduct

In the event that research submitted to AJET is suspected of not having taken place within an appropriate ethical framework (including not acquiring appropriate ethical approvals), the Editors may reject the article and inform the author’s institution and any other third parties where applicable.

Publication misconduct

In the event of any suspected allegations of publication misconduct concerning any submission or publication, AJET will follow COPE guidelines.

Appeals and complaints

AJET will follow the COPE code of conduct when dealing with any appeals and complaints.

The Sudanese Researchers Foundation

African Journal of Engineering & Technology (AJET) is published by the Sudanese Researchers Foundation (SRF).

The Sudanese Researchers Foundation is a Sudanese, scientific, voluntary, non-governmental and non-for-profit organization, that aims to create a common platform for interaction between Sudanese learners and researchers to establish and advance the momentum of research and education in Sudan. It was founded in 2009 through the efforts of a small group of Sudanese students and researchers, led by Dr. Anwar Dafa-Alla, Founder and Chairperson, who are passionate about Sudan’s development, and has expanded rapidly until it became the largest digital platform in social media networks for Sudanese researchers and students with over than half a million members.

Achievements & Impact of the SRF

The Sudanese Researchers Foundation (SRF) operates through a decentralized model and on a voluntary basis. Our volunteers’ network, which includes researchers, scientists, university professors, engineers, doctors, social activists, and other professionals, spans from Christchurch in New Zealand to Vancouver in Canada. Since our launch in 2009, we have conducted countless events to increase the capacity of Sudanese researchers and develop our community. Our achievements include:

• We developed an online index for Sudanese researchers all over the world which complies all their publications
• We organized the SRF first scientific conference in 2017 which was hosted and co-sponsored by the Al-Neelain University, Sudan
• We signed an MOU with Al-Jezeirah University (one of the largest public universities in Sudan) on developing a database for plants used in the pharmaceuticals industry
• We developed a new and innovative model of learning, networking, and collaboration for our Sudanese community through the utilization of Facebook groups. This was achieved when we launched the “Sudanese Researchers Initiative” (SRI) Facebook group back in 2009. The SRI is now the largest gathering for Sudanese researchers with over half a million members (currently over 600,000 members, and growing at over 4% per month). Further, the SRI group has over 400,000 active members per month. Through this group, we have conducted hundreds of online workshops, webinars, and online panel discussions featuring highly reputable scientific figures.
• In 2017, we hosted Prof. Martin Chalfie (Noble Prize Laureate 2009 in Chemistry) for a webinar on Green Fluorescent Protein, in partnership with the TReND in Africa network. This webinar, along with the other 300+ webinars we conducted can be accessed in our YouTube Channel.
• We have conducted several professional workshops on: project Management, statistical analysis, and e-learning models for Sudanese universities.
• We have published four books as a collaborative effort with our members base. These are: 1)Sudanese Scholarships Guide, 2)Student Guide for Undergraduate and Graduate Studies in Sudan, and 3)Guide to the IELTS Examination, and 4)Guide to the Sudanese Civil Protestor.