Plagiarism and AI Usage Policy

Annals of Politics and Communication in Africa (APCA) maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism and is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics. Every submission undergoes mandatory screening using industry-standard software, such as Turnitin or iThenticate, during the initial editorial triage.

Plagiarism Thresholds: 

To proceed to peer review, manuscripts should generally maintain an overall similarity index of 15% to 20%, with no single source contributing more than 2% to 3% of the total content. This ensures that all published work represents an original intellectual contribution rather than a derivative of existing scholarship.

Artificial Intelligence and "AIgiarism": 

In response to emerging technologies, the journal strictly monitors for "AIgiarism". While Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be utilised for linguistic polishing, it cannot be credited as an author, and its use must be formally declared in the acknowledgements or methods section. Manuscripts showing a probability of unedited AI generation exceeding a 15% to 20% threshold will trigger a manual editorial audit. The use of AI to generate original data, primary analysis, or core theoretical arguments is strictly prohibited and constitutes research misconduct.

Misconduct and Sanctions:

The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines when handling allegations of misconduct.

· Pre-publication: If plagiarism or undisclosed AI usage is detected prior to publication, the manuscript will be summarily rejected.

· Post-publication: If discovered after publication, a thorough investigation will be conducted, potentially resulting in a formal retraction flagged across all global indexing databases.

Authors remain solely responsible for the accuracy of their citations and the integrity of their research.