The list of Frequently Asked Questions below should cover most queries new authors have about the submissions process. Suppose you have any additional queries about publishing a book with AOSIS Scholarly Books that are not covered here. In that case, you are welcome to log an enquiry at https://publishingsupport.aosis.co.za/open.php, and we will endeavour to respond within a week.

1. What is Open Access?
All content is freely available, free of charge, to the user and/or their institution. Learn more about the applicable journal copyright, licensing and publishing rights.

AOSIS Scholarly Books comprises the imprints AOSIS Books, ITUTA Books and KROTOA Books.

• AOSIS Books: Books that are research-focused, written by scholars, and aimed at other scholarly readers. These books are peer-reviewed and wholly aligned with South Africa’s DHET Research Outputs Policy of 2015.
• ITUTA Books: Books that are research-based and written by scholars for a most likely readership of practitioners and students.
• KROTOA Books: Books that are research-based and written by scholars, primarily aimed at a general public readership.

• AVARSITY Books: Focused on high-value, research-driven emerging scholarly books, AVARSITY Books caters to scholars and the research community. Our publications follow international scientific community protocols and are rigorously peer-reviewed. These books meet the minimum criteria of South Africa’s DHET Research Outputs Policy of 2015.

We consider submissions from all academic fields. Book proposals from all academic fields, particularly the Humanities and Social Sciences, such as Religious Studies, Business Science, Sociology, Education and Psychology, are welcomed. We publish the following types of scholarly works:

• Monographs: A stand-alone work of original research or in-depth literature review by one or more authors.
• Collected works: A stand-alone work assembled by one or more scholars in a field or related field, often as a supplement to a scholarly journal.
• Collective works: A stand-alone work assembled by one or more scholars in several related fields and collectively reviewed.
• Book series: A collection of volumes on a subject/field of study. Volumes can be monographs or collected/collective works. Book series usually produce one volume per year in an ongoing process.
• PhD dissertations: A stand-alone work based on a recent PhD thesis, with evidence of substantial reworking (at least 50%) and additional (new) research additions.
• Conference proceedings: A collection of shorter academic papers published in the context of an academic conference.

• General and literary fiction.
• General non-fiction (sport, environmental issues, business, politics, African interest, current affairs, military history, etc.).
• Illustrated non-fiction – nature guides and general books pertaining to nature and environment; children’s nature; travel and heritage; cookery; health; gardening; etc.).
• Narrative non-fiction (memoir, biography, autobiography, travel writing, etc.).
• Trade children’s books.

Please see our submission guidelines located here: https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/publication-procedure#part_2

Yes, we welcome book proposals from authors across the world.

AOSIS Scholarly Books ultimately looks to publish scholarly research books stemming from scholars or those providing an original viewpoint across various academic disciplines. Our authors should inspire generations, elevate indigenous knowledge, and challenge conventional thinking through original research.

This is entirely up to you. The more polished a manuscript is, the more likely it is that it will be accepted. That said, if accepted, it will go through an in-house editorial process before publication. However, we require authors to have their manuscripts professionally text-edited before submission and require written proof that the manuscript underwent text editing.

Yes. AOSIS Scholarly Books begins the process of considering books based on a submitted book proposal form, which is evaluated by our internal editorial boards to assess whether your book idea is viable and fits into any of our imprints. Refer to our submission guidelines: https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/publication-procedure#part_2

A separate book proposal form must be submitted for every book intention that you may have. Ensure that the information in every book proposal form accurately captures every book idea.

In order to publish in a particular year, the book proposal form must be submitted by 01 July of the previous year (and submission of the manuscript by 01 December). Hence, for a desired publication date in a particular year, we will need to receive your book proposal form by 01 July and your manuscript by no later than 28 February.

No. As we receive so many manuscripts, we are unable to meet with potential authors. Once you have made a submission according to the guidelines (https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/publication-procedure#part_2), and if your submission passes the internal editorial board review, we will be in touch with you to ask for additional material and/or request a meeting.

No, although you will need to have a full outline completed. We only require the book proposal form and a CV, which you can submit when they are ready.

Unfortunately, AOSIS Scholarly Books cannot assist with providing ghostwriters. We suggest you contact The Professional Editors’ Group (www.editors.org.za) or the South African Freelancers Association (www.safrea.co.za), who should be able to put you in touch with a freelance writer.

AOSIS Scholarly Books publishes primarily in English, as well as in Afrikaans.

AOSIS Scholarly Books does not accept self-published works. If you are looking for someone to distribute copies of your self-published book, you can contact the Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA) at (021) 425 2721, and they will be able to give you details of distribution companies operating in the country.

The length of a manuscript depends on the book, but full-length works should be between 50,000 and 120,000 words as a rough guideline. Please indicate this on your book proposal form.

Please refer to our formatting guidelines: https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/submission-guideline

If you send your book proposal via email, you will receive a response indicating that your email has been received. If you upload your proposal, you will receive an automated response that your proposal was received and logged. You will be able to track your submission online.

No, your proposal to us is valid for 180 days from submission. We will communicate the outcome within this timeline.

The time it takes to evaluate manuscripts often depends on when your manuscript was received (as it goes into a queue), the time of year, and the number of manuscripts we are currently evaluating at any one time. Typically, it takes 1-3 months before we are able to provide any feedback. Manuscripts that show potential may take a little longer, as we will need to complete market research and do provisional costings before deciding whether the project is a viable venture.

AOSIS Scholarly Books will let you know if your work has been rejected.

AOSIS Scholarly Books will contact you via email if your manuscript is successful or if further information is required, so it is essential that you provide your email address. We cannot take responsibility for email addresses that have changed during the time it has taken us to evaluate your manuscript, so please make sure you provide us with backup contact information.

We plan our publishing schedules a year in advance. You should assume nine months to a year from the time your manuscript is accepted until the month of publication.

Yes. As an open-access publishing company, AOSIS Scholarly Books asks for a publication fee for the production process (editing, proofreading, typesetting, printing, etc.), distribution, and sales. Upon receiving an acceptance letter relating to your book proposal form, AOSIS Scholarly Books will issue a preliminary cost estimation to the author to consider and sign before sending us the full manuscript. Hereafter, we will commence with external peer review.

All manuscripts undergo an external peer review process. If your manuscript passes peer review and is accepted for publication, AOSIS Scholarly Books will provide the final invoice based on the signed cost estimation with the publication agreement (e.g. cost estimate issued on the book proposal’s acceptance). AOSIS Scholarly Books will then put the manuscript into production.

Given the number of steps and role players involved in publishing a quality book, timelines cannot be guaranteed. That being said, the minimum average time for a book to be published after acceptance is six months.

The process of publishing a book after acceptance is made up of many steps. As a basic overview, these steps include cover design, linguistic editing, liaising with authors/editors for feedback, formatting and styling, typesetting, and the final corrections and preparations for online publication. There is much more depth to the process than what’s mentioned here, but this will give you a good idea of what goes into developing the final product.

AOSIS Scholarly Books offers authors a selection of publishing options to choose from, which can be found here https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/publication-fees

Yes. After your book is published online, the printing preparation can begin (please note this process may take a few months). For books ready for printing, visit our online bookstore here: https://aosis.myshopify.com/. If your book is not listed or the printing preparation is still ongoing, please get in touch with orders@aosis.co.za.

An ORCID iD is a widely accepted unique identifier for researchers and scientific authors. It is a simple numerical identifier (e.g., https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097). Each author should have only one ORCID iD, which will stay the same over their lifetime.

AOSIS is an early adopter of ORCID iDs and a member of a group of publishers requiring ORCID iDs for all its authors in its publication workflow. This requirement is part of our commitment to ethical scientific publishing. All co-authors must have an ORCID iD. All OCRID iDs are entered onto our submission form and online metadata form during submission. If a co-author refuses to provide their ORCID iD, this is akin to a co-author not providing his name/identity, which raises accountability issues. The only remedy is to drop the co-author as it could be perceived as a fictitious author.

There are other benefits of having an ORCID iD. Your research output will benefit from improved discoverability. Google Scholar indexes ORCID iDs, and you can also link it to the author systems used in key databases like Web of Science and Scopus. By attaching your unique identity to articles, datasets, patents, etc., you ensure that all your work is found when other scholars search for your research output. An ORCID iD enables disambiguation between two researchers with the same name, e.g., ‘John Smith’, ensuring that academic credit for a publication is given to the correct John Smith. Also, in case of name changes (e.g., marriage), it facilitates record linkage.

Researchers can apply for an ORCID iD free of charge using a simple registration form on the https://orcid.org website. This process takes only 1 minute.

We hope that widespread use of the ORCID system will support ethical publication practices. We will, therefore, request that the submitting author discloses all ORCID iDs. The submitting author needs to supply all ORCID iDs of all co-authors in the final manuscript. Each co-author will need to have their unique ORCID iD. ORCID iDs ensures that users get credit from other authoring services.

In order to complete an external review for AOSIS Scholarly Books, you will receive a questionnaire. To assist you in completing this form, the reviewer questions on pages two and three of the form guide you in completing ‘My Review’, and you may answer these questions in the spaces provided.

When reviewing the manuscript and completing your review, please consider that the manuscript should be original research, display sufficient knowledge and understanding of the relevant literature, attest to relevant techniques applied in the research, and should have a sound research methodology and theoretical foundation. In order to maintain the highest scholarly standards, AOSIS requires that the manuscript be read and evaluated in its entirety.

The entire manuscript must be submitted for a complete evaluation and assessment.

Yes. You may recommend in the review document whether the authors need to make revisions and resubmit their manuscript for review. 

Yes. Reviewers may recommend that a manuscript be published or not. However, should you recommend that a manuscript not be published, you must please provide your reasoning.