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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for South African Journal of International Affairs.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-02
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Article types

Review
Research Article
Book Review
Commentary
Editorial
Letter
Clinical Trial
Protocol
Systematic Review
Lectio

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 150 words.
  • Use a unstructured abstract.
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  • Should contain an unstructured abstract of 150 words.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.

Keywords

  • Provide 6-8 keywords chosen by the author.
  • Should contain between 6 and 8 keywords.
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  • Keywords should include the continent or region and the country/countries dealt with in the article, as well as other words reflecting the subject matter.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • Dates: Date citations should be in the following order: day, month, year, with no commas (11 September 2001).
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  • Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • Any idea or quotation from another source must be fully acknowledged in the endnotes and references.
  • The examples given below do not cover every possible publication that may have to be documented in a bibliography, but the basic principles should be clear and can be applied to almost any reference.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • As an author, you are required to secure permission if you want to reproduce any figure, table, or extract from the text of another source.
  • Million should be written out, except in tables.
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • Tables and figures (diagrams, graphs, etc.) should be numbered consecutively, with tables numbered separately from figures.
  • Figures should be clearly drawn, with all axes clearly marked and sources indicated below the figure.
  • Tables should be clearly laid out, with all rows and columns clearly labelled with appropriate headings and units.
  • Sources and any notes must be indicated below the table.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Include or confirm the data availability statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Ethics statement

  • Include or confirm the ethics statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Cover letter

  • Using Third-Party Material You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
  • The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
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  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Author contributions

  • Submitting authors should be prepared to submit CRediT roles for themselves and their co-authors (where applicable) as part of the submission process.

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • Articles should be accompanied by the following information about each author: name, title, institutional affiliation, postal address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers.
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  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • Use ‘20 th century’, ‘19 th -century ideas’ or ‘in the 1920s’.
  • Use ‘Second World War’, not World War Two or WW2.
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  • Articles should be double-spaced on A4-sized paper.
  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • Should be between 6000 and 9000 words.
  • These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • They should analyse significant policy issues in African international affairs, with a view to offering constructive solutions.
  • Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access.
  • Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
  • Articles must be written in a style that is accessible to both professionals and laypersons.
  • Authors should carefully proofread their articles before submitting them.
  • Articles should be written in a style that is accessible to both professionals and laypersons.
  • Contractions: Do not use contractions such as ‘don’t’ or ‘can’t’ in an academic paper.
  • The penultimate item must end with ‘and’ or ‘or’ after the semicolon, and the last item with a full stop.
  • Bulleted items must be grammatically consistent.
  • Fractions should be hyphenated, e.g. two-thirds.
  • Use % in place of per cent, but write ‘percentage’.
  • Please indicate where they should be placed in the text.
  • Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript.
  • Submitted articles must not be simultaneously under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • If there is more than one author, please indicate who should be the primary contact person.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Articles must be original in content.
  • Names: The first time a person is mentioned, first name(s) and surname should be given, together with any title essential to his/her identification, e.g. President, Minister, Queen.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Always write out ‘do not’, ‘can not’, and so on.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Manuscript structure

  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.
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  • In endnotes, attention to detail is all important, and requires accurate reproduction of the original title and author’s name, punctuation, capitalisation/lower case, and spacing.

Article type and manuscript length

  • Book Review: Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; main text introduction; book review discussion; references.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction; discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).

Language and text style

  • Please use British (-ise) spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
  • Please use single quotation marks, except where ‘a quotation is “within” a quotation’.
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  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • The names of newspapers and periodicals should also be written in italics.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Use Gender neutral language.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Articles with typographical, spelling and grammatical errors do not make a good first impression and may be rejected prior to peer review.

Study reporting guidelines

  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).
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What your package checks

Abstract: 150 words
Keywords: 6-8 keywords
Declarations: Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman, double spacing

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source