Africa Insight is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal of the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), a research Institute in the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The journal is accredited by the National Department of Science and Innovation and is indexed in the International Bibliography of Social Science.

AISA leads and coordinates the HSRC’s engagements in Africa focusing on contemporary African affairs in its research, publications and documentation. The institute is dedicated to knowledge production, education, training and the promotion of awareness of Africa, for Africans and the international community through independent policy analysis, and the collection, processing and interpretation of data and dissemination of information. It is within the ambit of this core mandate that the institute publishes a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal Africa Insight.

The purpose of the journal is to disseminate research papers with an African flair seeking to build and maintain AISA/HSRC’s position within global think tanks working to contribute to a better understanding of the realities and needs of the African continent. In this regard, Africa Insight seeks to disseminate research results and content that supports high-level learning, teaching and research in studies with a strong Africana focus.

Papers submitted to the journal should endeavour to carry six general ethical principles:

1. Essentiality: Papers submitted to the journal must ensure that all possible efforts are made to get and consider existing literature/knowledge and its relevance, and the alternatives available on the subject/issue of the study.
2. Maximisation of public interest and of social justice: The journal holds that research is a social activity, carried out for the benefit of society. Thus, a paper submitted to the Journal must ensure that it maximises public interest and social justice.
3. Respect and protection of autonomy, rights and dignity of participants: Research involving the participation of individual(s) must not only respect, but also protect the autonomy, rights and dignity of participants. The participation of individual(s) must be voluntary and based on informed consent.
4. Privacy, anonymity and confidentiality: Papers submitted to the Journal must ensure that all research data records provided by participants or obtained directly or indirectly are handled with confidentiality as greed at the time of data collection.
5. Public domain: Papers submitted to the journal should ensure that all persons and organisations connected to research must make adequate efforts to make public in an appropriate manner and form, and at an appropriate time, information on the research undertaken, and the relevant results and implications of completed research, where appropriate.
6. Accountability and transparency: Papers submitted to the Journal must be fair, honest, and transparent. Authors must also make appropriate arrangements for the preservation of research records for a reasonable period.