About the Journal
Focus and Scope
The African Journal of Nephrology is the official journal of the African Association of Nephrology (AFRAN) and publishes peer-reviewed papers relating to clinical or basic research in nephrology and hypertension, as well as nephrology education. The Journal considers submissions of original and review articles, case reports, technical reports, practice guidelines, images in nephrology, teaching points, congress proceedings and letters to the Editor.
Peer Review Process
The peer review process is handled via our Open Journal Systems (OJS) online editorial system. A single-blind approach is used, with authors not aware of the identity of reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief or a senior editor screens all submitted manuscripts and rejects unsuitable manuscripts at this point. Submissions without ethical approval, those without authorship statements and those which have not been formatted according to the author guidelines are most likely to be rejected immediately. See the Instructions for Authors and Style Guide.
Articles selected for peer review are sent to 2-3 reviewers with the appropriate expertise. Reviewers are asked to complete the review within 3 weeks. We aim to provide initial feedback to authors within 6 weeks of submission. Revised manuscripts may be dealt with by the editor, or sent back to the reviewers. Members of the editorial board may be called upon to make additional recommendations. The Editor-in-Chief has the final decision on the acceptance or rejection of all manuscripts.
Publication Frequency
AJN publishes articles continuously as they are accepted, in a single issue each year. This ensures that research is made available to the scientific community much earlier.
Open Access Policy
African Journal of Nephrology is an Open Access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
Publication Ethics
The AJN is committed to integrity in research and its publication. All manuscripts are screened with plagiarism-detection software. The Journal's full policy on misconduct, plagiarism, corrections, retractions, complaints and the duties of editors, reviewers and authors is set out in the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and resources
Authors are responsible for the authenticity, validity and integrity of their manuscripts. Any use of AI or AI-assisted tools must be declared, as set out in the Instructions for Authors and Style Guide and the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. Note that AI may generate references to non-existent works, so all citations must be checked carefully. For further guidance, see the ASSAF and SciELO guidelines on AI.
Publication Fees
All articles, upon acceptance for publication, are subject to a flat fee of $150 for article-processing charges. This fee applies to all categories of articles, with the exception of invited reviews. Note that a reduced rate of $100 per article is available when the first as well as the corresponding authors are paid-up AFRAN members in good standing.
Copyright and Permissions
Copyright on articles published is owned by the author(s). All articles are published under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
This license facilitates free, immediate access and unrestricted reuse. Anyone may copy, distribute or reuse any article, as long as the authors and original source are properly cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.
Authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their articles in an institutional or subject repository.
Digital Preservation
The articles published in the African Journal of Nephrology are digitally preserved by the Public Knowledge Project Preservation Network (PKP PN) platform.
ORCID iD
ORCID iD is a persistent, unique, numeric identifier for individual researchers and creators. It distinguishes you from researchers and creators with the same or similar names. ORCID iD is similar to ResearcherID, Scopus Author ID, ISNI and other systems for identifying and distinguishing researchers and creators.
After Registration, you can Edit your Profile and then insert the ORCID iD.
Sponsors
The African Journal of Nephrology is hosted by PKP Publishing Services on the OJS platform. Publication costs are funded, in part, by the South African Nephrology Society.
Journal History
The Journal was established in 1997, with Maher Fouad Ramzy as the founding editor. Current editor-in-chief, Alain Assounga, has served since 2012 (volume 15). In 2016, the Journal was re-launched as a fully online, open access publication. Razeen Davids managed the Journal's migration to the OJS platform, hosted by Stellenbosch University. In June 2026, the Journal was migrated to a new host, PKP Publishing Services.
All previous issues back to 2009 have been uploaded, and a few earlier issues have also been found and added to the archive. We require copies of the issues published between 1997 and 2008 so that they can be digitized and uploaded to make a complete record of all published AJN papers available. Please contact Razeen Davids at mrd@sun.ac.za if you are able to assist.
