MANUSCRIPTS SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE INFORMATION PROFESSION IN AFRICA - A COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF CHARACTERISTICS OF REJECTED AND ACCEPTED PAPERS

A comparative analysis of the characteristics of rejected manuscripts submitted for publication to the African Journal of Library, Archives ann Information Science and manuscripts accepted for publication over a five year period was carried out. The study reveals that 145 manuscr ipts were rejected as opposed to eighty gapers accepted for publicatio n. The findings reveal that there were no remarkable differences with regards to status and affiliations between the authors of rejected and accepted papers. While information technology, archives, user studies , academic libraries and bibliometrics constituted the topics of paper s mostly rejected, papers accepted were mainly in the areas of archive s. information service, information technology and rural information. Most of the papers were rejected because they contributed nothing new to knowledge (65.5%), used unreliable data (13.1%) and lacked focus (1 3.1%). Datedness of references was not used in rejecting papers becaus e the editorial board policy is to update references of papers accepte d for publication where necessary. The paper recommends the need for t raining institutions in Africa to strengthen the research and writing skills component of their curricula, as well as the regular scheduling of research and writing skills workshops by information organisations in the region.