Trends and Diversity in Manuscript Submission to the Annals of African Surgery

Background: The African continent is greatly underrepresented in research, specifically in surgical-related research. With the aim of encouraging research and publication of research from the African continent, the Annals of African Surgery was established in 2007. The aim of this study was to evaluate the trends and diversity of manuscript submissions to the journal. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective audit of all manuscripts submitted to the journal from January 2017 to December 2023. Summary reports were generated from the ScholarOne manuscript management system with the following variables: manuscript type, author names, number of authors, primary author affiliation, type of study, scope of manuscript, manuscript title, year of submission, and author country/region. Data were summarized using mean±SD and frequency. Results: A total of 493 manuscripts were submitted to the journal, 77% of these were from the African continent, with predominant content in General Surgery (32%). More than 90% of the manuscripts had observational study designs, a trend seen throughout the study period, with low (16%) female primary authorship. Conclusion: The Annals of African Surgery receives representative manuscript submissions predominantly from the African continent, with predominantly observational study designs.