Author Guidelines

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHOR AND EDITORIAL POLICY

THE JOURNAL

Africa Habitat Review Journal is an annual issue. The aim of the journal is to encourage scholarship in the area of built environment. It emphasizes the production of knowledge and exchange of ideas.

Invitation of Articles:

The Editor invites original and scholarly articles in the following areas: Land issues, Property Valuation and Management; Housing issues; 2-D and 3-D Design and Graphic Communication and Materials; Building Economics and Quantity Surveying, Construction of Buildings; Building Science, Materials and Structure; Construction Plants and Technology; Rural and Urban Development and Planning; Transportation and Infrastructural Planning; Landscape Architecture; Interior Design, Ecology, Culture, Art and Architecture of Africa; Computer Applications in Valuation, Design, Management and Planning; Information Management and Sustainability in the Built Environment.

Content of the Manuscript:

The manuscript must apply systematic procedures to discover answers to research questions. Authors must conduct and present empirical investigations results on any subject written on.

The paper must strictly follow the structure below for it to be considered for publication:

Title, Name of the Author, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature Review / Theory, Research Methods, Results, Discussion of Findings, Conclusion, Recommendations, References, Appendices.

Acceptance of Articles:

Once an article has been submitted for publication, the author shall not submit it elsewhere.

Commentaries:

The Editor also welcomes any comments of not more than 200 words on the content of any articles in any past issues of the journal. Articles or reviews exceeding this limit will normally not be accepted.

Book Reviews:

Should be typed and double-spaced. Only one copy should be submitted to the editor. The heading should include the title, author, origin, publisher, date, number of pages and price.

CAUTION:

It should be noted that the opinion expressed in any article, book review or commentary appearing in any issue of the journal does not reflect the opinion of the Editorial Committee.

SUBMISSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

The manuscript should be submitted as a text file and a separate image file. The author should clearly indicate where the graphic presentations are to be placed in the text file. The journal accepts Microsoft word versions of articles.

Language, word limit margins, spacing and paging:

The journal’s language is English. British or American English spelling and terminology may be used. Articles should not be more than 6000 words including references, tables and figures; policy and practice contributions should contain a maximum of 1000 words.

Typesetting:

Margins, paper size and paging manuscripts should be printed or typewritten on an A4 bond paper, one side leaving adequate margins on all sides to allow reviewers remarks. Double- space all material, including notes and references. Quotations of more than 40 words should be set off clearly; either by indenting the left- hand margin or by using a smaller typeface. Use double quotation marks for direct quotation and single quotation marks for quotations within quotations and for words or phrases used in a special sense.

The first page of the article should bear the title of the paper, the name and address of the author and his or her affiliation(s), including telephone and fax number and email address. The second page should bear the Title, Abstract, Key words, and the rest of the pages contain the main body of the text arranged in the recommended order (see Content of the Manuscript) followed by the referencing.

Abstract:

Provide a short abstract of 150 to 300 words. It should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. Include a section on keywords or short phrases of not more than 10 words arranged in alphabetical order.

Section Heading:

All headings should not be numbered.

Underlining and italics:

Italise the name or title of newspapers, books, magazines, television shows, poems, plays, movies, TV programs, artworks, song titles, and music. Italise foreign expressions, when their meaning would not be understood by the general readers of Africa Habitat Review Journal.

Paragraphing:

Keep paragraphs short.

Number format:

Spell out numbers one to nine and express numbers 10 and over as numerals.

Number Ranges:

For numbers under 100, give the second number in full. For numbers 100 and over, give only the last two digits of the second number. For ranges of years, write the years in full. Use an unspaced dash between the two numbers.

Punctuation:

The author to ensure there is proper sentence structure and punctuation in the article.

Full stop:

Use only a single space after a full-stop.

Comma:

Use the serial comma.

Graphic Presentations:

An author should supply the electronic versions of the black and white figures/illustrations. The journal recommends the TIFF, EPS, PNG, and Microsoft Office format. For vector graphics, EPS is the preferred format. For bitmapped graphics, TIFF is the preferred format.

The following resolutions are optimal: line figures- 600 - 1200dpi; photographs- 300dpi. Because of high cost of colour printing, colour illustrations are discouraged and if they have to appear in a manuscript, the author will be expected to meet their printing costs. Legends should be included in the text file. Use standard fonts, such as Times Roman and Arial. Figures and tables should be saved in separate files.

Figures:

All photographs, maps, charts, graphs and diagrams should be referred to as a ‘Figure’ and they should be numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3 etc). Multi-part figures ought to be labelled with lower case letters (a, b, c). Insert legends and scale bars directly in the figures. Refer to the figure in the text and note its correct location in the text. Figures should not be inserted in the text but uploaded as a separate file. All figures should have brief descriptive captions and their sources and year should also be cited.

Tables:

Tables should not be inserted in the text but uploaded as a separate file. Refer to all tables as tables, which should be numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3 etc). When preparing the tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces to align columns. Each table should be referred to in the text. Place the tables after the figure legends in the manuscript. Tables should include short, informative captions along with the source and year. All captions should be gathered onto a separate sheet at the end of the manuscript.

Abbreviations:

Abbreviations should be explained at first occurrence.

Acronyms:

Spell out acronyms on first use, and use the shortened form every time thereafter. Spell out the acronym everytime if it is uncommon or the same as another acronym.

References and Citations:

Submissions to African Habitat Review Journal should be thoroughly researched and referenced, and should include a list of works cited formatted in the American Psychological Association (APA) style. An author should ensure that all in-text citations appear in the reference list and vice versa.

Citing references in the text and reference list:

A reference is identified by means of an author’s name and year; all in parentheses. Similarly, the American Psychological Association (APA) style is used when citing authors in the text.

Book references:

(Muthini, 1993)

Muthini, M. (1993). Management of Building Project: Analysis of Building. Procurement Systems’ Features and Conception of An Appropriate Project Management System for Kenya. Wuppertal: DVP-Verlag.

Journal articles:

(Olima, 2002)

Olima, W.H.A. (2002). The Conflicts, Shortcomings, Implication and the Urban Land Management System In Kenya. Habitat International. 21(3), 319-331.

Conference paper from conference proceedings:

(Wachira, 2003)

Wachira, I.N. (2003). Informal Construction workforce phenomena. In: Construction Innovation and Global Competitiveness, 8-15 August, New York CRC Press, 1295-1308.

Electronic/ internet journal articles:

(Smith, 1996)

Smith, J. (1996). Time to go home. Journal of Hyperactivity [Internet] 12th October, 6 (4), pp. 122 - 3. Available from: http://mu.ac.uk [Accessed June 6th, 1997].

Appendices:

Factual secondary material should be collected in an appendix. Appendices should follow immediately after the references. The use of endnotes and footnotes is not recommended.

PROOFS

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by email to the corresponding author. A response, with or without corrections should be sent back within 14 days. The proofs must be corrected immediately and returned promptly to the publisher. Major changes or corrections are not acceptable after the elapsed time period for proofing is done.

Journal Printing:

Authors whose articles appear in the journal will be expected to meet a percentage of the printing cost.

Journal Publication:

Copies of the journal issue may be ordered and purchased at cost.

The corresponding author will receive two free copies of the journal and any extra issues ordered will be purchased at cost.

Reviewing Procedure:

Contributors need to ensure that their manuscripts conform to the editorial guidelines noted above. Initially every contribution will be given a general editorial reading. Manuscripts, which conform to the editorial policy, are subjected to peer review. However, the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript for publication is the responsibility of the Editorial Board.

Parties interested in publishing with the Africa Habitat Review should send contribution to:

Prof. Robert W. Rukwaro

Editor

Africa Habitat Review

School of the Built Environment

University of Nairobi

P.O. Box 30197, 00100

Nairobi-Kenya.

Email address: rukwaro@uonbi.ac.ke

                         rrukwaro@yahoo.com