About the African e-Journals Project

The African e-Journals Project is a project of the Michigan State University African Studies Center, MSU Libraries, and Matrix: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Science Online. It is co-sponsored by the Association of African Universities and the African Studies Association in the U.S.

Publishing Journal Archives Online

As part of this project, an archive of back issues of 11 African scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities is available online, the result of negotiations with publishers of these journals published in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The e-Journals project digitized print issues provided by the publishers and is posting the full text of articles online on this site gratis for all users. In addition, the electronic files have been provided to the publishers for their use.

This arrangement with African publishers reflects our interest in supporting the continued financial viability of these and other journals published in Africa. It also flows from a commitment of faculty affiliated with the MSU African Studies Center to an ethic of mutual benefit in implementing collaborations with African partnerships, as expressed in a statement on Guidelines for Scholarly and Professional Cooperation with Colleagues in Africa.

The African e-Journals Project is a portion of the African Higher Education Partnerships Initiative of the MSU African studies faculty that seeks to build equitable and reciprocal collaboration with African higher education institutions and their faculties.

Expanding African Journals in Project MUSE

Prior to launching the African Journals Archive digital collection at MSU Libraries, the African e-Journals Project, through MSU Press, negotiated with Project MUSE to include four journals about Africa in its collection:

Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review; Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (2002-)

Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa; University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (2002-)

African Studies Review, journal of the African Studies Association; Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (2005-)

Northeast African Studies; Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI (1999-)

Linking to Journal Tables of Contents, Abstracts and Indexes

Since 1999 when the African e-Journals Project began, much more information about African journals has become available online, and this project has adjusted to the changing situation. The Journals Directory is being updated and expanded in 2006 to include more sources of tables of contents, abstracts, and indexes of journals as well as the many websites that journals have created during this period. The Links page supplements the directory with an annotated list of websites that provide information about various collections of African journals. The Links page also includes a listing of digital libraries about Africa of interest to scholars.

Funding

The U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI program on Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) provided funding for the project from 1999 to 2004. TICFIA supports programs that facilitate access to or preserve foreign information resources in print or electronic forms. Continuing funding is being provided by the MSU African Studies Center and the MSU Libraries.

MSU has received funding from TICFIA for two other projects on Africa: the South African Film and Video Project and Diversity and Tolerance in the Islam of West Africa. Other TICFIA-funded projects can be found at: http://www.crl.edu/areastudies/ticfia/index.html.

Contact Us

The African Studies Center administers the project and has primary responsibility for the Journals Database. The MSU Libraries has primary responsibility for the Journals Archive. MATRIX is the host to H-Net, including the H-Africa listserv, which is a source of Tables of Contents of African journals.

For questions or suggestions about the Journals Database, contact the African Studies Center, David Wiley, Director, African Studies Center, 100 International Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1035 (africa@msu.edu); Tel: (517) 353-1700, Fax: (517) 432-1209.

For questions about the Journal Archives, contact the MSU Libraries, Peter Limb, Africana Bibliographer, Room E224B, MSU Libraries, East Lansing, MI 48824-1048 (limb@msu.edu); Tel: (517) 432-6123 x 239; Fax: (517) 432-3532.