ISSN

not available (PRINT)
3005-6136 (ONLINE)

Focus and scope

The African Journal of Pentecostal Studies is an international, open access publication that covers a broad range of topics related to Pentecostalism, neo-Pentecostalism and related renewal movements in Africa and other parts of the world. It seeks to foster multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary scholarship in the academic study of Pentecostalism, emphasising the intersectionality of theology and practice within Pentecostal circles, denominations, non-denominational movements, and other ministries. The African Journal of Pentecostal Studies encourages critical reflection on contested theological and academic themes within Pentecostalism, as well as dialogue with diverse ecumenical theologies. Its scope includes Charismatic themes, including the current trends in Pentecostalism as suggested by list of topics below. In addition, the journal encourages a multidisciplinary approach between Pentecostal theology and other disciplines such as media studies, health sciences, political sciences, economics and so forth. The journal seeks to provide a platform for rigorous, scholarly research that contributes to the understanding of Pentecostalism and its ethical, socio-economic, cultural, political, and religious impacts in Africa. Therefore, the scope of this journal extends beyond African Pentecostalism to global Pentecostalism in the context of world Christianity. The following topics would be in alignment with the journal’s scope and focus:

• Pentecostalism and Leadership
• Pentecostalism and Charismatic theology
• Pentecostalism in dialogue with Ecumenical theologies
• Pentecostal eschatology in Africa
• Divine healing in African Pentecostalism
• Holistic salvation in African Pentecostalism
• Pentecostal pneumatology in Africa
• Pentecostal ecclesiology in Africa
• Theological education in African Pentecostalism
• Pentecostal liturgy in Africa
• Pentecostal church history
• Biblical and hermeneutical
• Prosperity theology
• Pentecostal theology
• Ethics in Pentecostal theology
• Pentecostal missiology in Africa
• Pentecostal mission and evangelism in Africa
• Pentecostal and socioeconomic equality
• Pentecostal theology on children and youth.

Historic data

Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement are significantly the fastest growing wing of the Protestant faith in Africa. Africa has developed its own distinct contribution towards the shape of Pentecostalism. This scenario calls for engaging scholarship in Pentecostal Studies as the movement continues to evolve and grow quantitatively. This calls for a focused journal that captures this spiritual evolution so that scholarship can objectively conceptualise and situate Pentecostalism within academia in Africa, hence the necessity of this African Journal of Pentecostal Studies (AJOPS). AOSIS in collaboration with the Southern African Society of Pentecostal Studies (SASPS) saw it fit to launch a journal that will contribute towards Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal understanding in academia and public domains. The deliberations were kicked off at the dawn of 2023 and, finally, after all conceptualisation and frameworks were completed, the journal was launched.

Publication frequency

Thejournal publishes one issue each year. Articles are published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional issues may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed.

Types of articles published

Read full details on the submissions guidelines page.

Open access

Thisis an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. Learn more about the journal copyright, licensing and publishing rights.

Review process

Thejournal has a double-blinded peer review process. Manuscripts are initially examined by editorial staff and are sent by the Editor-in-Chief to two expert independent reviewers, either directly or by a Section Editor. Read our full peer review process.

Marketing

AOSIS has a number of ways in which we promote publications. Learn more here.

Membership

AOSIS is a member and/or subscribes to the standards and code of practices of several leading industry organisations. This includes the Directory of Open Access Journals, Ithenticate, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, CrossRef, Portico and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Learn more here.

All articles published in the journal are included in:

• GALE, CENGAGE Learning

We are working closely with relevant indexing services to ensure that articles published in the journal will be available in their databases when appropriate.

The full text of the journal articles is deposited in the following archives to guarantee long-term preservation:

• AOSIS Library
• Portico
• SA ePublications, Sabinet
• South African Government Libraries

AOSIS is also a participant in the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) initiative. LOCKSS will enable any library to maintain their own archive of content from AOSIS and other publishers, with minimal technical effort and using cheaply available hardware. The URL to the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest for the journal is, https://ajops.org/index.php/ajops/gateway/lockss. Please inform us if you are using our manifest as we would like to add your name to the list above.

A journal's Impact Factor was originally designed in 1963 as a tool for libraries to compare journals, and identify the most popular ones to subscribe to. It was never intended to measure the quality of journals, and definitely not the quality of individual articles.

The Impact Factor is a journal-level measurement reflecting the yearly average number of citations of recent articles published in that journal. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field; journals with higher Impact Factors are often deemed to be more important than those with lower ones. Therefore, the more often articles in the journal are cited, the higher its Impact Factor.

The Impact Factor is highly discipline-dependent due to the speed with which articles get cited in each field and the related citation practices. The percentage of total citations occurring in the first two years after publication varies highly amongst disciplines. Accordingly, one cannot compare journals across disciplines based on their relative Impact Factors.

We provide several citation-based measurements for each of our journals, if available. We caution our authors, readers and researchers that they should assess the quality of the content of individual articles, and not judge the quality of articles by the reputation of the journal in which they are published.

*Journal launched in 2023