Submissions

Author Guidelines

Publication

The African Journal of Mining, Entrepreneurship and Natural Resource Management publishes technical and associated legal and economic information on all aspects of the extractive industry in the conference proceedings. These consist of papers from activities that are organised by the Centre of Excellence for Mining, Environmental Engineering and Resource Management (CEMEREM) and are published and distributed to the delegates who attend the events.

The paper should contain material on research and scientific items that are new, with interpretations that are novel or of new significance and conclusions that cast fresh light on old ideas. The paper could incorporate developments that would be of interest to technical people and interdisciplinary readers, and be of economic benefit to the industry. The paper should not be a repetition of well-known practices or concepts, although well-prepared and original review papers will be considered for publication.

All papers, no matter how technical the subject, should be written with the average professional reader in mind. There should be sufficient background to enable the implications of the work to be readily understood. The amount of textbook material should therefore be kept to the minimum essential to the argumentation. The length of a paper is not a criterion of its worth, and all submissions should be as brief and concise as possible.

Author contributions must be clearly identified. At the end of each article, the contribution of each author and collaborator needs to be stated. Authorship must conform to the metrics of responsibility and credit; thus, special attention must be given to the first ‘lead ’ author (sometimes explicitly shared), and the inclusion in the authorship listing only of persons who have made a significant contribution to the production of the work at an intellectual, practical or conceptual level. Examples of criteria to consider are: who conceived/conceptualised the paper idea/central thesis? who  carried out the study? who wrote the manuscript? who supervised the study and who proof-read the manuscript?

Layout and style

The manuscript must be set for the European A4-sized (210 × 297 mm) paper, leaving left-hand and right-hand margins of 20 mm. Pages must be numbered and the manuscript should not exceed 24 pages of double-spaced script.

The manuscript should be prepared in Microsoft Word.

Authors are encouraged to develop arguments that lead in a sequence from one stage to another and finally to a conclusion. Each paragraph should address a topic and contain an idea where each sentence in the paragraph logically develops that idea. Be objective. Do not include irrelevant or extraneous matter. Sentences should be punctuated correctly to make for easy reading.

Use the present tense to describe actions, conditions, and findings with ongoing applicability in the present. Use the past tense to describe actions, conditions, and results that occurred at a specific time in the past.

Italics can be used to emphasise a word or phrase.

All figures and tables should appear in the text at the appropriate places and positions. Figures should be clearly identified in the text and should be captioned below the figures as Figure 1, Figure 2 etc. (within the paragraphs, use the short forms, e.g., Fig. 1). A few well-selected figures can speak a thousand words and maps (with the standard cartographic aspects of scale, legend, North arrow, coordinate system, projection system, data of production, the designer, etc.) can do even much better

Mathematical and chemical equations should be numbered consecutively in square brackets on the right-hand side of the page: 

Example:
                  Fe₂O₃   +   6H(C₅H₇O₂)   →  2Fe(C₅H₇O₂)3  +   3H₂0                                                  [1]

Units and symbols are laid down in the SI guide from the US National Institute of Science and Technology http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/sp811.pdf

Where short forms (e.g., UNO) are used for the first time the full words must be given with the abbreviation/initialism/acronym in brackets thereafter. A full-stop after an abbreviation is used only when the last letter of the short form is not the last letter of the word (hence Ltd for Limited). If a large number of symbols is used, the symbols may be listed in a separate Nomenclature section at the end of the paper, immediately preceding the list of references.

The full-stop is used as the decimal indicator. Numbers of four or more digits are separated into groups of three to the left and right of the decimal place, with a space between the groups.

The use of capital letters for captions, headings, or references must be avoided, because that means resetting. The data processor can change lower case to upper case with the push of a button, but upper-case letters need to be reset in order to get lower-case letters.  

Format

Authors are advised write the paper consistently in the ‘UK English’, with spelling conforming to the style of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Abstract should not exceed 250 words in length and must cover the principal objectives and scope of the work; the methodology; the results, and conclusions. A maximum of six keywords is recommended.

The body of the paper will typically consist of:

1. Introduction
2. Literature Survey/Theoretical and Empirical Background/Review of Relevant Cases
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results and Discussion
5. Conclusion
   Acknowledgement
   References
   
   A literature survey is essential for every research project, because it provides the author or authors with guidelines for the project, while at the same time it makes a positive contribution to the solution of the problem and lends credibility to a project.
   
   The Results and Discussion could be combined if it is deemed to be appropriate.
   
   Sections must not be numbered and should be kept to a maximum of three levels:
   - First level headings are bold.
   - Second level headings are bold italic.
   - Third level headings are italicised.

References

The Journal has adopted the APA convention for referencing. The purpose of references is to:

~Acknowledge the contribution of previous workers to the current study
~Provide provenance of information, which lends authority to the work
~Guide the reader to additional sources for further information on the topic

Citations in the text
~Single author: authors name (without initials, unless there is more than one author with the same name) and the year of publication
~Two or three authors: all authors names and the year of publication
~More than three authors: first authors name followed by et al. and the year of publication.
~For more than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year, use a, b, c, etc. after the year of publication
~Citations may be made directly or in parentheses. Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

Examples: as demonstrated
(Jones, 1999, 2000a, 2000b; Jones and Kramer, 1999). Kramer et al. (2010) have shown ....

List of references
References should be arranged alphabetically by first author, citing all authors (not ‘… et al.’) and then further sorted in ascending order of year if necessary. For multiple authors with the same first author, arrange alphabetically by second author.

Article in a journal        
Bezuidenhout, G.A., Eksteen, J.J., & Bradshaw, S.M. (2009).
Computational fluid dynamic modeling of an electric arc furnace used in the smelting of PGM containing concentrates. Minerals Engineering, 22 (11), 995–1006.

Do not abbreviate journal titles.

Paper published in a conference proceedings
Nell, J. (2004). Melting of platinum group metals concentrates in South Africa. Proceedings of the VII International Conference on Molten Slags, Fluxes and Salts, pp. 165–170, Cape Town, South Africa, 25–28 January 2004. Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Johannesburg.

The date may be repeated if it forms part of the Proceedings title or subtitle.

If Proceedings were edited, give editor(s) name(s) and initials as for a book.

If Proceedings were not published, omit publisher, place of publication, page numbers.

States in the USA may be abbreviated either the traditional way e.g., Mass. for Massachusetts or the two-letter postal code MA.

Books and book chapters

Ogaja, C., Adero, N., & Koome, D. (2023). Project Design for Geomatics Engineers and Surveyors, 2nd ed. UK: Taylor & Francis.

To cite an edited book:
Adero, N.J., & Juma, J. (Eds.). (2021). The Future of Africa in the Post-COVID-19
World. Nairobi: Inter Region Economic Network.

To cite a chapter in the book (example from the book above):
Obura, E. J. A. (2021). Breaking Classroom Walls: A ‘New Normal’ in Kenya’s Higher
Education Landscape. In N. J. Adero, & J. Juma (Eds.), The Future of Africa in the
Post-COVID-19 World (pp. 45-55). Nairobi: Inter Region Economic Network.

Report
Serbousek, M.O., & Signer, S.P. (1987). Linear load-transfer mechanics of fully grouted roof bolts. Report of Investigations 9135. US Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, PA.

Tarrant, G. (2001). Assessment of support requirements associated longwall reorientation. Report no. MET2431. Strata Control Technology. Wollongong, NSW, Australia. 30 pp.

If no authors are identified, the organisation issuing the report is regarded as the author.

Thesis
Forsbacka, L. 2007. Experimental study and modelling of viscosity of chromium containing slags. PhD thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.

Patent
Arvidson, B. and Zhu, D. 2007. Outotec Oyj. Methods of separating feed materials using a magnetic roll separator. US patent 7296687.       

State name of inventor followed by the assignee if different from author. The issuing country may be abbreviated according to the ISO 3166 standard to be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-3

Newspaper report
Paul, S. 2012. Rio Tinto’s Australian trains go driverless. Star Business Report, 21 February, p. 22.

If no author is given, use the publication’s name as ‘source’.

Acts of parliament and other government documents
South Africa. 2008. Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Act of 2008. Government Gazette, vol. 351, no. 31636, 24 Nov. 2008, as amended. Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty (Administration) Act 29 of 2008, Government Gazette, vol. 521, no. 31624, 26 Nov. 2008, as amended.

Online references     
As for the various types of publication above, with the URL and date of access appended, e.g., Anglia Ruskin University. 2011. Guide to the Harvard style of referencing. http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm [accessed 23 February 2012]

URLs should be cited in full, including the protocol (http, https, ftp, etc.). Ideally the address should be on a single line – break at a forward slash if necessary. No fullstop or other punctuation to follow the URL. Date of access is important; URLs have a kind of ’half-life’. If the DOI is available, it can be cited before the URL, thus: DOI: 10.1038/nature10749.

Unpublished results and personal communications
These should be avoided as far as possible. Only if it is absolutely essential to use this source, then follow the standard reference style, with either Unpublished results or Personal communication in place of the publication details. It is important to give the ‘author’s’ affiliation to enable readers to follow up on the information if necessary, but permission should be sought. Citation of a reference as In press implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Githiria, J. 2018. Personal communication. School of Mines and Engineering, Taita Taveta University.

Figures, tables, maps and photographs

It is important to note that diagrams cannot be accessed electronically unless a program that is compatible with the Apple Macintosh system is used. Diagrams should be saved in EPS, PNG or JPEG file format or downloaded onto the CEMEREM website. Assistance in this regard can be provided by the Journal co-ordinator via editor.ajmenrm@ttu.ac.ke. All figures (including line diagrams, maps, charts, and graphs) should be of good quality, whether in black and white or colour. All the lettering and lines should be of consistent density. Ensure that diagrams are exactly square on the paper. All figures, tables, and photographs must appear on separate pages. Authors are advised to consult a draughtsperson or another experienced colleague on the quality of the figure that is required and to use such help when preparing the figures.

Figures
Figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals i.e., Figure 1, Figure 2 (and cited within the paragraphs in short form as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.) Each figure must have a short title. All figures must be cited in the text before placement of the figure itself. The position of the figure in the text should be clearly identified (centred). The caption of the figure should be below the figure. Figures must be submitted as separate files (EPS, PNG or JPEG file format only) and labelled with the surname of the senior author and the number of the figure.

The style of the figure for a particular paper should be uniform i.e., typeface of wording, line widths, etc. The use of a san-serif typeface like Helvetica is preferable. The figures should be as simple as possible and should contain only essential wording such as the indication of nature and units on the axes of graphs. Please keep in mind that your figure will be reduced to fit in the most appropriate of the following section column widths of 65, 103, 135, and 175 mm.
Lettering should therefore be large enough on the original to still be legible on the reduced final product.

All figures in PowerPoint should be saved at 300 dpi high resolution when published at 100 per cent. Computer printouts and screen captures do not reproduce well, and should therefore be avoided. Where these are essential, the material should be of adequate contrast and density.

Tables

The numbering of tables should be in serial numerals e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc. Tables should be set out clearly and each table should have a short title (heading). Only use tables if they are necessary, otherwise look for a way of summarising and communicating the contents effectively in a paragraph. All tables must be cited in the text before placement of the table itself. The position of the table in the text should be clearly identified (centred). The caption of the table should be above the table. Tables should be attached to the end of the main manuscript file on submission.

Photographs
High-resolution colour or greyscale photographs are acceptable and should be submitted as EPS, PNG or JPEG files and labelled in the same manner as figures.

Revision procedure

Authors are urged to have a colleague check their paper for clarity of presentation and typographical errors before the paper is submitted to the Journal.

The initial manuscript will be reviewed by a minimum of two referees who have been nominated by the Publications Committee. The referees will recommend acceptance, provisional acceptance with revision, or rejection. Where appropriate, the referee’s comments and suggestions will be returned to the principal author so that the paper can be revised. After revision, the paper must be returned to the Journal co-ordinator who will ensure that all the recommended changes have been carried out to the satisfaction of the referees and the Publications Committee.

Final manuscript

One copy of the revised and final manuscript should be submitted to Open Journal Systems (OJS) in Microsoft Word, double line spacing and conforming to the format and style as outlined.

Correction of proofs

The paper will be returned to the author(s) in proof form for final checking and authors are urged to ensure that the final version conforms to their requirements. It must be emphasized that proofs are supplied to correct errors made by the typesetter and not in order to provide the author the opportunity to rewrite or update the material. The revised and final paper must be returned by the date specified to the Journal co-ordinator together with the signed Permission to Publish agreement.

Failure to meet the requested deadlines or submit the necessary documentation in the specified format will lead to delay or could prevent publication.

A preformatted template in Word can be requested from the editor via editor.ajmenrm@ttu.ac.ke.