How to Submit a Paper to Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration

Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of African migration and immigration to other parts of the world, and its site carries a "Call for Papers!" announcement. If you want to respond to that call, the practical starting point is to treat the journal's stated scope as your submission brief: it publishes scholarly articles, critical commentaries, book reviews, and interviews, and it explicitly invites scholars, analysts, and activists to contribute to debates on African immigration. The site itself does not lay out a step-by-step submission portal in the material available here, so the workable path is to prepare a manuscript that matches the journal's remit and then use the journal's own contact route to confirm current guidelines before sending anything.

What the journal is looking for

The journal describes itself as providing "a forum for scholarly articles of the highest quality." Its stated purpose is to:

• Document the relevance of African immigration to the world's social, political, and economic systems, and its historical effects on culture.
• Respond to debates on immigration and problematize assumed effects.
• Generate debate among scholars and intellectuals of African immigration, demographers, and African immigrants themselves.

The name Ìrìnkèrindò is Yoruba for "incessant Wanderings or Travels," which the journal says captures past, contemporary, and future African migration within the continent and from it to other lands.

Formats the journal publishes

This range matters for your pitch: a book review or an interview is a legitimate submission, not only a full research article.

Matching your topic to the journal's focus

Because the journal is built around African migration and immigration, a submission should connect clearly to that subject. The site's own featured material shows the kind of ground it covers — for example, a special focus piece on African migrants left "in limbo" on the road to America after Mexico began freezing African migrants at its southern border with Guatemala in 2019, and a paper on African diaspora families and changing gender relations presented at a Cornell University conference. Use these as signals of fit: migration routes and policy, diaspora life, gender relations, and the social and political dimensions of African movement are all in scope.

If your work sits adjacent to these themes, state the connection explicitly in your cover note rather than assuming the editor will infer it.

Practical steps before you submit

1. Confirm the current call. The site displays a "Call for Papers!" heading. Check it for any stated deadline, theme, or length requirement, since these can change between issues.
2. Read the current issue and archives. The site links to a Current Issue and Archives. Reading recent pieces tells you the expected tone, length, and citation style far better than any generic style guide.
3. Decide your format. If you are not ready with a full article, a book review, commentary, or interview may be a faster route in.
4. Prepare the manuscript to scholarly standard. The journal emphasizes "highest quality," so expect peer review and revise accordingly.
5. Find the submission contact. The available site material does not spell out an email address or portal, so locate the journal's contact or editor information on the site itself and query the current submission procedure before sending your file.

Common sticking points

• Assuming the call is always open. A "Call for Papers!" banner may relate to a specific issue or theme. Verify before investing in a full draft.
• Sending a topic that only touches migration tangentially. The journal's identity is African migration specifically; make the link central.
• Skipping the archives. Submitting something the journal has recently covered in a similar way weakens your case.
• Expecting a fast turnaround. As a peer-reviewed journal, review and revision take time; plan accordingly.

Where to go next

Start at the journal's homepage, open the "Call for Papers!" section, then read the Current Issue and Archives to calibrate your submission. Once you have confirmed the current guidelines and contact route through the site, you can submit with a clear sense of whether your work fits Ìrìnkèrindò's focus on African migration.