African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND) is an Open Access, scientific, peer reviewed, scholarly journal with a global reach, published in Kenya since 2001.AJFAND was founded in 2001 by Hon. Prof. Ruth Oniang’o who is the Editor-in-Chief, to provide an avenue for publishing scholarly works by African scholars and others who share an interest in topics related to food and nutrition security, agriculture and development; and also to give visibility to budding academics in Africa. AJFAND has been published by African Science Communications Trust (ASSCAT) since the year 2009. The goal of AJFAND is to provide a platform through which food and nutrition issues and information concerning Africa, and its unique problems can be effectively disseminated and addressed. The journal also provides an avenue for sharing information on national, regional and international-level food and nutrition programs. AJFAND is accessible online and fully Open Access.

1. AFRICAN JOURNAL OF FOOD, AGRICULTURE,
NUTRITION AND DEVELOPMENT (AJFAND):
Disseminating African Food and Nutritional Information
through Open Access Publishing
Presented by
Mary Njeri Karanu
Assistant Editor, AJFAND (www.ajfand.net)
At the
Agricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS) Webinar
July 23rd, 2015
http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/new-webinaraimsdisseminating-african-food-and-
nutritional-information-through-open

2. Background
 African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and
Development (AJFAND) is an Open Access, scientific, peer
reviewed, scholarly journal with a global reach, published in
Kenya since 2001.
 It was launched in August 2001, as the African Journal of
Food and Nutritional Sciences (AJFNS) under the Rural
Outreach Program (ROP) (www.ruraloutreachafrica.org) by
Hon. Prof. Ruth Oniang’o as the CEO and editor-in-chief.

3.  It became evident that nutrition had a much wider scope,
closely linked to agriculture, environment and human
development in Africa. In recognition of these close
synergies, the name of the journal was changed to African
Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development
(AJFAND); this was able to accommodate interests of
previously excluded authors.

4. Publishing
 The journal has been published by African Scholarly Science
Communications Trust (ASSCAT) since 2009
• From 2001 issues of the journal were both in the
conventional print and online (www.ajfns.net). Since
November 2003, the journal has been produced entirely
online; via the website www.ajfand.net
 Manuscripts are published in PDF format
 Open Access (gold)
 Creative Commons 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) License: Attribution,
Non-Commercial, No Derivatives

5. VISION
Vision
To have a world where information on food, agriculture,
nutrition and development is contributed and shared honestly,
respectfully, equally and impartially, giving global visibility to
African scholars and issues.
The key guiding principle is that no culture has a
monopoly of knowledge.
Mission
To inform policy and decision making in the fields of Food,
Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, the application of
emerging technologies for innovative interventions and their
regulation through related research.

6. Goals and Objectives
 To provide a platform, through which food and nutrition
issues and information concerning Africa, and its unique
problems could be effectively disseminated and addressed.
• To provide a capacity building facility in scholarly publishing
for budding African scholars.

7. Coverage
AJFAND covers a wide range of scientific and developmental disciplines including:
 Role of indigenous foods in food and nutrition security
 Food safety related practices like preparation, processing, preservation and
storage
 Nutritional analysis of various foods and human health
 Modern technology such as genomics, biotechnology and tissue culture
technology and their role in Africa’s science, research and food and nutrition
security challenges
 Smallholder farming systems, women in agriculture and climate smart agriculture
 Youth in the agricultural value chain
Besides academic research, the journal provides an avenue for sharing information on
national, regional and international-level food and nutrition programs, commentaries,
short communications, book reviews, and relevant news and events, obituaries of
friends of AJFAND are also included.

8. Target Audience
AJFAND is open to both African and non-African contributors.
 Primary target group:
–scientists, researchers, academics, policy makers, students,
students, non-Governmental populace and media

9. AJFAND Activities
Education and Research
AJFAND supports networking, accessing, sharing, and publishing of papers for
researchers, scholars, scientists, and academicians.
Library
Creating and preserving up-to-date online digital information across all formats and
and ensuring effective access and management of information to all, especially those
those serving research and educational communities.
Examples: African Union (AU) Library, University of Botswana Library, University of
University of Zimbabwe Library and Cornell University Albert R. Mann Library.
Health and Nutrition
Supporting and facilitating communication, networking, accessing, sharing, and
publishing of information between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers
involved in health promotion activities. Including: food safety, food security, food
food trade, healthier eating and childhood nutrition.

10. AJFAND Activities
Publishing Support and Mentoring
Strengthening the work of editors and communication professionals, especially those
especially those in research and science. Through publishing, AJFAND makes
makes people aware of the resources available to them, and through innovation, it
innovation, it makes access to these resources easier.
Rural Development and Agriculture
Supporting networking, accessing, sharing, and publishing of information for rural
rural development practitioners. The lack of basic information plays a significant
significant role in the persistence of poverty. Poor people need better connections to
connections to schools, health care, markets, essential services and each other.
other. Almost all of the Millennium Development Goals depend on providing
infrastructure.

11. AJFAND WORKFLOWS
Manuscript is received and acknowledged (electronically)
Manuscript is subjected to secretariat checklist
Conformed Non-conformed: sent back to author for
corrections/improvement, resubmission allowed
Peer review (2-3 weeks, 2-3 reviewers)
Accept Reject (resubmission of improvements upon author’s request)
Technical review
Author notification and payment
Approval for publishing (Editor-in-Chief)
Accept
Reject, no resubmission

12. Benefits of Online Publishing
• Shorter production cycles
• Increased visibility and recognition as compared to print media.
• More efficient quality control through electronic peer review.
• Greater versatility in the design of the electronic files.
• Opportunity to build capacity in electronic publishing.
• Better preservation of published scholarly works.
• Easier to handle corrections with electronic version compared to print
version.

13. Benefits of Open Access Publishing
 Presenting high quality African scientific research accessible
freely globally.
 Giving budding scientists visibility and recognition.
Collaborative research- interdisciplinary, inter-institutional,
international; new research and career opportunities
 Enabling African scientists to contribute to global scientific
scholarship.
Contributing unique African solutions to global scientific questions
through original research conducted in Africa by Africans.
 More research funding opportunities by major science
funders.
 More use of research and greater citations by linking to other
scholarly works.

14. Challenges of Open Access Publishing
 Threat of virus, hacking, predatory journals, counterfeit impact
factor/indexing companies
 Monitoring plagiarism in submitted work
 Turnaround times: Some authors have unrealistic expectations of the
the review process
 Financing the journal- maintaining a secretariat, website
 Researchers want to publish in high impact journals, subscription journals
journals
 The value of Open Access publishing has not been effectively
communicated to African scientists
 Policies, procedures and standards on Open Access are not as well
well developed, but there is some progress

15. Author Success Stories
Highlighted Authors who have benefited from publishing in AJFAND
•Professor Peter Bille (Namibia)
Received a promotion at the University of Namibia after publishing a series of articles in
articles in AJFAND, internationally recognized for work in dairy science.
Bille 1780 Volume 6 No. 2 (2006); Bille 1735 Volume 8 No. 1 (2008)
Bille 5020 Volume 8 No. 4 (2008); Bille 8050 Volume 9 No. 7 (2009)
Bille 12820 Volume 13 No. 4 (2013); Bille 13175 Volume 14 No. 2 (2014)
•Professor Emmanuel Afoakwa (Ghana)
Professor at University of Ghana. Globally recognized for his work in food
science and technology, widely read and published, dedicated reviewer with
several international journals and AJFAND.
•Professor Mary Abukutsa-Onyango (Kenya)
Received global recognition for work in African Indigenous Vegetables published in
in AJFAND after being previously rejected by other international journals.
AJFAND Volume 7 No. 3 (2007) Special issue dedicated to ALVs

16. Highlighted authors, cont…
• Dr. Michael Lokuruka (Kenya)
An avid publisher and reviewer of AJFAND. Received a promotion at Egerton
University and Karatina University in Kenya. Now works in Public Service
Commission (Kenya)
Lokuruka 2100 Volume 7 No. 1 (2007); Lokuruka 2005 Volume 7 No. 2 (2007)
Lokuruka 2745 Volume 8 No. 2 (2008); Lokuruka 3110 Volume 9 No. 3 (2009)
Lokuruka 5055 Volume 9 No. 7 (2009); Lokuruka 9040 Volume 10 No. 1 (2010)
Lokuruka 4355 Volume 10 No. 4 (2010); Lokuruka 10245 Volume 11 No. 4 (2011)
Lokuruka 10465 Volume 12 No. 6 (2012); Lokuruka 11000 Volume 13 No. 1 (2013)
• Marguerite Niyibituronsa (Rwanda)
Research assistant at Rwanda Agriculture Board. Published her first paper at
50! A year after receiving her MSc.
• Others: Profiles of authors, young graduates and students carried on journal website
helps get them employment, graduate school admission and reviewer positions with
other journals.

17. Indexing and Impact Factor
AJFAND has a global reach and readership. The journal is quality
assured by The University of Toronto through Bioline International
since 2006 (http://www.bioline.org.br/nd)
Under second review by Scopus
(http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus) and Thomson Reuters for
coverage in Web of Science.

18. Indexing
Other institutions that carry and disseminate AJFAND articles and with
and with whom we have signed agreements:
–CABI (London)
–EBSCO Publishing
–Chemical Abstracts Societies (CAS)
–Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
–African Journals Online (AJOL) (http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajfand)
–FAO Sustainable Food Value Chain Development (SFVC) Knowledge Platform
(FAO DocRep: http://www.fao.org/documents/en/)
–African Union (AU) Library (intranet)
–University of Botswana Library (intranet)
–University of Zimbabwe Library (intranet)
–Cornell University Albert R. Mann Library (through TEEAL)

19. Achievements
 AJFAND has enjoyed 15 years of continuous publishing of Agricultural,
Nutrition and Development research in Africa
 AJFAND receives 200+ quality manuscripts every year from Africa, Europe,
USA and Asia. The journal publishes an average of 80 manuscripts in a
year, with issues coming out bimonthly
 AJFAND’s roster of qualified, widely read and widely published (voluntary)
international reviewers is 100+ with frequent new requests to review for the
journal
-PhDs (Full reviewers) and MScs (Junior reviewers) in relevant
fields. Each article must benefit from at least 2 FULL reviewers
 AJFAND carries profiles of reviewers highlighting their academic and
professional achievements. A photo is included (both for authors and
profiled reviewers). This serves as an incentive to our reviewers
 AJFAND takes interns (top talent) from local universities for mentoring and
to gain work experience

20. (Poster advocating Open Access)
Forum on Open Data and Open Science in Agriculture. Nairobi, Kenya . June 15-18, 2015

21. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND)
www.ajfand.net
Josem Trust Place, Off Bunyala Road, Upperhill
P.O. Box 29086-00625
Nairobi, KENYA
Contact AJFAND
Hon. Prof. Ruth K. Oniang'o, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Email: oniango@iconnect.co.ke OR info@ajfand.net
THANK YOU! ASANTE!