Aims and Scope

Aims and Scope

The ‘Journal of the Institute for African Studies’ is the only Russian scientific periodical devoted entirely to the current theoretical and scientific-practical problems of the African continent. Its mission is to present an objective view of the socio-political and socio-economic processes taking place in Africa, overcoming language barriers and differences in national research approaches.

To achieve this mission, Journal’s publications include articles by researchers from Russia and Africa, as well as representatives of African studies from other extra-regional research centres.

Starting from 2024, all scientific articles of the Journal are published in two languages, namely Russian and English, with the entire scientific apparatus being adapted accordingly (where possible, references are provided to sources and literature published in the respective languages). This approach is intended to ensure mutual penetration of research approaches and academic discourse of African studies, both within Russia and in other countries and regions of the world.

It is a matter of principle for the Editorial Office of the Journal to present on a regular basis the position of Africans themselves on the processes taking place on the African continent and in the world, and to promote the achievements of African social science and its theoretical approaches to solving global problems.

Special attention is paid to the development of mutually beneficial Russian-African cooperation, with both purely academic materials and applied articles summarising some practical aspects of Russia’s interaction with African countries.

The materials of the Journal are distributed in both printed and electronic formats to leading Russian Africanists and IR scholars, to Russian federal authorities of international profile, as well as to the African diplomatic corps in Moscow.

To ensure the effective dissemination of its materials in the international environment, the Editorial Office is committed to promoting the Journal in the main international citation databases, as well as in the lists of scientific publications recommended by individual African states. 

The ‘Journal of the Institute for African Studies’ was first published in 1998. In the first stage, it was a format of scientific reports mainly on socio-economic (less often – socio-political) problems of African countries, each with a volume of several dozens of pages. Thus, seven such reports were published in 1998, eight reports in 1999, and seven reports again in 2000. In 2001-2014, the average annual publication rate of the Journal was 1 to 2 issues, with a number of issues covering already several papers at once. This signified a gradual transition from the publication of individual reports to that of a scientific journal.

Finally, in 2015, the ‘Journal of the Institute of African Studies’ began to be published as a classical scientific periodical. Since 2017, the Journal has been published on a quarterly basis.

A key role in the formation of the Journal was played by its Editor-in-Chief (2015-2023) Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economics, Professor, Deputy Director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, outstanding Russian intellectual and IPE scholar Leonid Leonidovich Fituni (1953-2023).

Since November 2024, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal is Doctor of Political Science, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Professor Denis Andreevich Degterev.

The Journal is founded and published by the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1959, the Institute has been researching the historical, socio-political, economic, ethno-cultural problems of the independent states that have emerged on the African continent following the collapse of the colonial system. The Institute has 10 research centres. It employs approximately 100 researchers, including 1 academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, about 20 doctors of sciences and over 40 candidates of sciences. The Institute is undergoing a period of significant development: young researchers join the Institute every year, and in 2024 the Centre for the Study of BRICS African Strategy was established. Since its foundation, the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been the leading scientific centre for the study of Africa in the post-Soviet space, and one of the leading centres of this profile in the world.

The scientific potential of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the basis of the scientific potential for the ‘Journal of the Institute for African Studies’. At the same time, the fulfilment of this potential is seen not only in the publications of the academic staff of the Institute for African Studies, but also in the expertise (reviewers and editors), which is carried out for the articles of external authors (not from the Institute for African Studies), which starting from 2024 make up more than half of almost every issue.

An important role in the development of the Journal is played by its Editorial Board, with half of its members comprising Russian scholars in African Studies (represented by leading institutes and universities from Moscow, as well as from St Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Kazan), and the other half consisting of international experts. Three quarters of the international experts are Africans, representing leading universities in South Africa and Kenya, Nigeria and Algeria, Tanzania and Uganda, Ghana and Burkina Faso. Leading schools from the USA, Great Britain, Australia, and Turkey are also represented.

Thus, the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences forms the basis of the expert potential, which is multiplied via intra-Russian and international collaborations with other leading Africanists of the world.

The Journal is indexed in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI), in scientific electronic library CyberLeninka.

The Journal is listed in the Register of peer-reviewed scientific publications approved by the Higher Attestation Committee (VAK) of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of the Russian Federation for publishing of main scientific results of dissertations for the academic degrees of PhD and DSc for political, historic and economic sciences.

The Journal publishes articles on history, international relations, political, economic and social processes taking place in the states of the African continent. In a broad sense, it is about analysing the peculiarities of the African continent’s development through the prism of the main social sciences.

As part of the study of practical aspects of Russian-African interaction, the publication also touches upon applied issues of international cooperation (the regular section ‘Theory for Practice’).

The Journal’s regular sections include:

– Challenges of modernity

– Cultural space

– Economics

– History

– Human capital

– International politics

– Political Science

 – Reviews (incl. in ‘Academic Heritage’ Section)

– Russia-Africa

– Schools of thought in Africa

– Social anthropology

– Spatial development of the continent

– Thematic dossier

– Theory for practice

The regular sections are linked both to the main scientific fields of the Journal (‘History,’ ‘International Politics,’ ‘Political Science,’ ‘Social Anthropology,’ ‘Economics’) and to topical issues that allow to consider the continent’s development from a certain angle (‘Challenges of Modernity,’ ‘Schools of Thought in Africa,’ ‘Spatial Development of the Continent,’ ‘Russia-Africa,’ ‘Theory for Practice,’ ‘Human Potential’).

Each issue has, but is not limited, to a certain thematic focus (‘Thematic Dossier’), which is set in advance (at least 1 year in advance). This approach makes it possible to attract the world’s leading Africanists’ contributions and to study the analysed problems in depth, as well as to present a wide range of opinions on the issue under discussion.

Articles on the subject of the issue form the ‘core’ (up to two-thirds of the current issue), placed both in the regular section ‘Thematic Dossier’ as well as in other regular sections. For example, the regular section ‘Schools of Thought in Africa’ features academic interviews with African social science researchers on the theme of the issue. In addition, several reviews are published in each issue, usually also related to the theme of the issue.

In addition, articles on other topics are also published in each issue as part of the Journal’s regular sections.