Editorial Guidelines

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The main periodical of the International Centre for Research and Documentation on African Traditions and Languages ​​(CERDOTOLA), New African Thought (NAT) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published twice a year. It is dedicated to the production, critique, and dissemination of new contemporary African and Afro-diasporic knowledge, new readings, and new general and specific orientations for living, thinking, and envisioning the global African world. As the flag vector of the eponymous movement, New African Thought conveys ideas, research, discoveries, and orientations aimed at providing Africa with a new scientific impetus capable of reimagining, resetting, supporting, and accelerating the achievement of major transformative goals for enabling Africa to reclaim its historical initiative, experience its renaissance, and rise to prominence in the global challenges of the third millennium.

The journal thus welcomes scholarly work by researchers and academics, formalized according to the standards applicable to academic articles, but not exclusively. NAT also considers and publishes heuristic reports from African practitioners in fields deserving of examination and transformative projections, in order to bring vernacular knowledge and know-how to the forefront of institutionalized science and technology, and to allow this knowledge and technology to trickle down into people's inventiveness. The challenge in this regard is to grasp and value the most diverse ancestral legacies, which, often preserved by individuals and communities who have remained resilient in the face of post/colonial tabula rasa policies, constitute reserves of knowledge; new possibilities for penetrating, finalising and reorganising reality; innovation and restoration, growth and prosperity, vitality and power.

Aiming for new combinations of cognition and praxeology necessary for this purpose, New African Thought aspires to bridge the gaps between the proliferations of practices and reflections whose disconnection are structurally detrimental to Africa's capacity to reflect on its actions and to act on its thoughts. NAT aims to remedy the ongoing and pervasive situation whereby African practices are not sufficiently analysed by African science and thought, and African thought is not sufficiently supported by African practices, resulting in the impossibility of a reciprocal transformation in proper hands. The corrective perspective that the journal calls for in this regard is therefore resolutely endogenous: it aims to reinvent Africa through its own heritage and capabilities in all areas. Accordingly, the journal will welcome work in the various fields and disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as in the Sciences and Techniques relevant to these aims of renewal. It will favour approaches that are transformative, approaches of epistemological breaks and reorientation of practices and coordination: multidisciplinary, comparative, theoretically informed and epistemologically situated.

2. Publication Languages

The journal accepts articles written in:

      ·       English

      ·       French
·       African languages ​​with translation into French or English
·       Exceptionally, texts may be published in Portuguese or Spanish, provided they are accompanied by a long abstract in French or English.

3. Types of Accepted Contributions

• Original research articles

• Theoretical or methodological articles

• Thematic dossiers

• Research notes

• Heuristic reports

• Reports on the documentation or presentation of ancestral scientific and technical knowledge

• Critical reviews of books (published within the last 3 years)

• Scientific interviews (introduced and contextualized)

• Programmatic carte blanches

• Strategic-level problematisations with robust and potentially mobilizing and transformative research agendas

4. General Presentation Guidelines

4.1. Page Layout

• Software: Microsoft Word (.docx)

• Font: Times New Roman

• Font size for title: 14

• Font size for body text: 12

• Line Spacing: Single

• Margins: 2.5 cm (top, bottom, left, right)

• Justified Text

• Page numbers at the bottom of the page, centred

4.2. Article Structure

Length

• Articles: 6,000 to 15,000 words (including notes and bibliography)

• Book reviews: 1,000 to 2,500 words

• Other formats: 1,000 words or more

Mandatory order of elements

1. Article Title

2. Author's Full Name

3. Institutional Affiliation

4. Institutional Email Address

5. Abstract (250-500 words)

6. Keywords (5 to 7)

7. Article Text

8. Bibliography

9. Appendices

5. Headings and Hierarchy

• Article Title:

    o   Times New Roman 14

    o   Bold

    o   Centered

• Subheadings:

    o   Level 1: Times New Roman 12, bold

    o   Level 2: Times New Roman 12, italic

    o   Level 3: Times New Roman 12, roman

Hierarchical numbering is mandatory: / 1. / 1.1. / 1.1.1.

6. Abstract and Keywords

• The abstract must clearly present:

    o   the object of study

    o   the research question

    o   the theoretical framework

    o   the methodology

    o   the main results

  •        Keywords must be separated by semicolons

     •        Abstracts and keywords must be submitted in both French and English 

7. Citations, References, and Bibliography

7.1. Referencing System

The journal adopts APA style, 7th edition

• Short quotations should be integrated into the text within quotation marks.

• Long quotations (more than 40 words):

    o   1 cm indentation

    o   11-point font

    o   no quotation marks

Examples:

(Mbembe, 2000, p. 45)

(Fanon, 1961/2002, pp. 112–114)

7.2. Notes

• Footnotes only

• Moderate use

• 10-point font, single-spaced

8. Bibliography

It also follows the APA format.

Examples:

Mbembe, A. (2000). De la postcolonie: Essai sur l’imagination politique dans l’Afrique contemporaine. Karthala.

Fanon, F. (2002). Les Damnés de la terre. La Découverte. (First edition 1961).

Etc.

9. Specific Typographical Standards

• Use quotation marks specific to the language of writing. Examples: French (« ») ; English (‘‘’’), etc.

• Non-breaking spaces before: ; : ? ! (depending on the language of publication)

• Italics for:

    o   book titles

    o   foreign words that have not been anglicized or gallicized

• No bold text in the body of the text (except for titles)

10. Ethics and Evaluation

• All articles undergo double-blind peer review

• Texts must be original and unpublished

• Any form of plagiarism will result in automatic rejection

• The journal adheres to the principles of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)

11. Rights and Dissemination

• Authors retain their rights

• The journal may opt for a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA license

• Articles may be disseminated on the journal's website and in academic databases

12. Editorial Contact

Nouvelle Pensée Africaine

Editorial Office: CERDOTOLA, Rue 4.751 Liberté Mimboman, BP 479 Yaoundé, Cameroon

Tel: (237) 222 20 70 40 2 22 30 31 44

Fax: (237) 2 22 20 70 41

Email: contact@cerdotola.org / nat@cerdotola.org / redaction.npa@cerdotola.org

Website: https://npa.cerdotola.org/