Aims and Scope

The Ethiopian Journal of Federal Studies (EJFS), ISSN 2308-2232, is a peer reviewed academic research journal published by the Center for Federalism and Governance Studies (CFGS), College of Law and Governance Studies, Addis Abeba University, Ethiopia. Since 2013, the Journal has been published once per year. It publishes articles, research reports, policy research papers, book reviews, and essays on federalism, decentralization, local government, and other constitutional and multilevel governance concerns in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Manuscripts published in the EJFS are primarily concerned with comparative federalism, diversity accommodation, conflict management, decentralization, local government, fiscal federalism, intergovernmental relations, dispute resolution, nation and State building, democratization, electoral systems, public policy, and other emerging issues of governance in federal/ multilevel systems. The journal seeks to encourage scholarly debates and discourses among the academics, practitioners, policy makers, and private sector and audiences at large.

The Journal is run from the premise of the CFGS which is located in the Forum Building Main Campus, Addis Ababa University. Mailing Address: Addis Ababa University, College of Law and Governance Studies; Center for Federalism and Governance Studies; Main Campus, SidistKilo;Forum Building, 6^th Floor; P.O.Box  1176; Email: ejfs.aau@gmail.com

Disclaimer

Authors of each article appearing in this journal are solely responsible for all contents, facts and opinions appearing in this journal, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Center for Federalism and Governance Studies (CFGS) of the University of Addis Ababa and the editors of the EJFS. The authors, therefore, take legal and moral responsibilities for the ideas and opinions expressed in the article.

Submission of Manuscripts

The contributions/Manuscripts should ONLY be submitted electronically in Microsoft Office Word format written in 12 fonts, double space, Times New Roman (Footnotes in 10 fonts, single space, Times New Roman). The manuscripts shall be sent as an attachment via email to the Editor in Chief of EJFS at ejfs.aau@gmail.com.  The submission of manuscripts in PDF format is not permitted.  Please refer to the AUTHORS GUIDELINES for important instructions and specific requirements when preparing and submitting manuscripts for review. The research articles or Manuscripts should be prepared and submitted according to the style and specification of the journal’s policy. The preferred length for articles, research reports and policy research papers are between 8,000 and 10,000 words; and 1,500-2000 word for book reviews and Essays.

 Authorship

An author is an individual researcher who has significantly contributed to the development of the manuscript or the contribution. All individuals listed as an author of a manuscript should have participated in conceptualizing the research or content of the manuscript, in writing or critically editing the manuscript, and/or in the analysis of data presented in the manuscript. Nonetheless, individuals who have made subsidiary contributions but do not qualify for as an author should be acknowledged. As well, organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should be acknowledged.

Originality and Significance 

Except for review articles, all manuscripts shall be accepted with the understanding that they are original research with significant contribution to the study of federalism and /multilevel governance. But when work described in conference proceedings is substantially revised and extended, it will however be considered for publication. Therefore, no manuscript will be considered if it has already been published or is being considered by another journal or submitted for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) certify that the article is not being considered for publication nor has it been published elsewhere.

Review Process

All manuscripts or research articles will be first assessed by the editor in chief and/ managing editor of the journal. If the research article is within the journal’s scope and with adequate standard, the editor will send the manuscript to the reviewer. If the manuscript is not up to the minimum standard and within the scope of the journal, editors will reject and such manuscript won’t be sent to peer reviewer(s). A decision that the editor(s) make at initial evaluation will be sent to the corresponding author. The Editor(s) again send the research articles to peer reviewer(s). The Editor(s) thereby request the peer reviewers to make their comments and send back their verdicts on the article to the editor(s). The editors will read reviewers recommendations and make decision either to accept or reject the article for publication.  Our Journal uses a double-blind peer review type in that the reviewers and authors act independently and they are not aware of each other’s identities. The reviewers are selected solely according to whether they have the relevant expertise for evaluating a manuscript. Should you be interested in the further information on the reviewers, see the instruction for peer reviewers.

Conflict of Interest

Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript or a contribution.  Reviewers should also disclose any conflict of interest. If there is any conflict of interest, the reviewers can decline from reviewing the manuscript. Such research article will be re-assigned to another peer reviewer. Moreover, editors should also decline from considering any manuscript that may have conflict of interest, and such research article will be re-assigned to another editor.

Copyright

The publisher of the EJFS is the Center for Federalism and Governance Studies(CFGS) of Addis Ababa University. The authors of each manuscript and review article shall be requested to clearly affirm that they transfer copyright to the Publisher. Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.In assigning copyright to the PUBLISHER, the author(s) will not forfeit their rights to use the contribution elsewhere, provided that the journal is acknowledged as the original source. The Publisher shall hold the copyright in each research article to reproduce, adapt or distribute the research article with a prior consent of the author. The Publisher shall not make substantial alteration to the research article/review article without consulting the author(s). In addition to publication within the print version of this journal, electronic copy can be sent to author(s) to meet their requests.

Journal Funding

The journal funding comes from (i.e. the organizations who own/run the journal).

Ethical Responsibilities

We shall work ethnically, honestly and with due diligence in our selection of what to publish in order attain the objectives of EJFS. The publishing decisions shall be impartial and based on the rigorousness of the research and the significance of the manuscript. To the best level possible, the publishing decisions shall also be made without bias to location, gender, ethnic or religion of the author. All the international standards of behavior such as ensuring the privacy of authors’ submissions prior to publication shall be observed.  Any cases of ethical misconduct such as fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors' own work without proper citation are all unacceptable practices that will be treated very seriously according to the international standards of publication ethics.

Distribution Models

The CFGS uses combined print and online publication medium of publication. At least one thousand copies of each volume are published in print.  The CFGS announces the publication of the issues via the center’s mailing contacts, Facebook page, and upon seminar series events.Beyond the college of Law and Governance Studies of Addis Ababa University, we distribute the printed book of the journal to different pertinent institutions ranging from Forum of Federation (regional office), House of Federation and to our partners from abroad. The plan for the future is to use online as the only medium of publication and to make the journal open access.