Critical African Studies

Aims & Scope

Critical African Studies seeks to return Africanist scholarship to the heart of theoretical innovation within each of its constituent disciplines, including Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, History, Law and Economics.

We offer authors a more flexible publishing platform than other journals, allowing them greater space to develop empirical discussions alongside theoretical and conceptual engagements.

We aim to publish scholarly articles that offer both innovative empirical contributions, grounded in original fieldwork, and also innovative theoretical engagements.

This speaks to our broader intention to promote the deployment of thorough empirical work for the purposes of sophisticated theoretical innovation.

We invite contributions that meet the aims of the journal, including special issue proposals that offer fresh empirical and theoretical insights into African Studies debates.

View Aims & Scope

---

Metrics & Ranking

Impact Factor

Year	Value
2025	1
2024	1.30

Journal Rank

Year	Value
2024	12261

Journal Citation Indicator

Year	Value
2024	108

SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

Year	Value
2024	0.467

Quartile

Year	Value
2024	Q1

h-index

Year	Value
2024	18

---

---

Abstracting & Indexing

Journal is indexed in leading academic databases, ensuring global visibility and accessibility of our peer-reviewed research.

• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• Web of Science

---

Subjects & Keywords

Journal’s research areas, covering key disciplines and specialized sub-topics in Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, designed to support cutting-edge academic discovery.

---

Most Cited Articles

The Most Cited Articles section features the journal's most impactful research, based on citation counts. These articles have been referenced frequently by other researchers, indicating their significant contribution to their respective fields.

• Decolonizing African Studies

  Citation: 99

  Authors: Shose, Zoe, Elelwani

• Life (and limb) in the fast-lane: disposable people as infrastructure in Kampala’s boda boda industry

  Citation: 71

  Authors: Jacob

• Temporalities of waiting in Africa

  Citation: 63

  Authors: Michael, Valerie, Daniel

• African expatriates and race in the anthropology of humanitarianism

  Citation: 59

  Authors: Adia

• The end of Nollywood's guilded age? Marketers, the state and the struggle for distribution

  Citation: 51

  Authors: Alexander

• Popular Geopolitics and Cartoons: Representing Power Relations, repitition and Resistance

  Citation: 46

  Authors: Klaus

• The changing value of land in Northern Kenya: the case of Lake Turkana Wind Power

  Citation: 43

  Authors: Zoe, Abdikadir

• Political Cartoons, Post-Colonialism and Critical African Studies

  Citation: 36

  Authors: Daniel

• One of the boys: female fans’ responses to the masculine and phallocentric nature of football stadiums in Zimbabwe

  Citation: 35

  Authors: Manase

• The vitality and efficacy of human substances

  Citation: 34

  Authors: Joost, John

---