The IAC International Journal of Contemporary Issues Research (IIJCIR) is a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal published by IAC Academy Limited, dedicated to advancing rigorous academic inquiry into the most pressing social, political, economic, environmental, and technological challenges confronting individuals, communities, institutions, and societies in the contemporary world. IIJCIR operates from the conviction that academic research has a critical responsibility to engage with the urgent realities of contemporary life, bringing the analytical rigour of scholarly inquiry to bear on challenges that demand evidence-based understanding and policy-relevant insight.

The journal is explicitly oriented toward research that is both academically rigorous and socially relevant, recognising that the separation between theoretical sophistication and practical applicability is a false dichotomy. IIJCIR publishes research that meets the highest scholarly standards of methodological rigour while speaking directly to the concerns of policymakers, civil society organisations, development practitioners, and engaged citizens seeking to understand and address the defining challenges of the twenty-first century.

IIJCIR covers a deliberately broad thematic scope, recognising that contemporary issues rarely respect disciplinary boundaries. Climate change intersects with economic inequality, food insecurity, and political instability. Digital transformation intersects with democratic governance, labour market restructuring, and public health management. Gender-based violence intersects with legal systems, healthcare, economic empowerment, and cultural change. The journal therefore actively encourages and rewards interdisciplinary research that captures the interconnectedness of contemporary challenges.

With a particular commitment to amplifying research from the African continent and other Global South contexts, IIJCIR seeks to ensure that international policy discourse is informed by empirical evidence drawn from the diversity of global experience rather than predominantly from high-income country contexts. All submissions undergo double-blind peer review, and the journal operates in full compliance with COPE publication ethics guidelines and open science best practices.

OBJECTIVES

The IAC International Journal of Contemporary Issues Research pursues the following core objectives:

1. Generating Policy-Relevant Academic Knowledge. To produce and disseminate rigorous, peer-reviewed research that directly addresses contemporary policy challenges and contributes evidence-based insights to the work of governments, international organisations, civil society bodies, and development institutions.

2. Advancing Interdisciplinary Understanding of Contemporary Challenges. To foster integrated, interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary issues that captures the complex interconnections between social, political, economic, environmental, and technological dimensions of the challenges facing contemporary societies.

3. Centring Global South Perspectives. To actively prioritise and amplify empirical research and theoretical contributions originating from African, Asian, Latin American, and other Global South contexts, ensuring that international knowledge on contemporary issues reflects the diversity of global experience and challenges.

4. Promoting Methodological Rigour and Innovation. To uphold the highest standards of research methodology across quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods traditions, and to encourage methodological innovation that expands the toolkit available for rigorous contemporary issues research.

5. Bridging Research, Advocacy, and Action. To facilitate connections between academic scholarship and the work of civil society organisations, advocacy movements, and development practitioners who require robust empirical evidence to inform and strengthen their interventions.

6. Advancing Research Ethics and Participant Welfare. To ensure that all published research meets the highest standards of research ethics, particularly in relation to vulnerable populations, sensitive topics including gender-based violence, mental health, and forced migration, and community-based research contexts.

7. Supporting Early-Career Researchers in Emerging Economies. To provide a rigorous and supportive publication pathway for early-career researchers based in emerging economy institutions, offering developmental peer review feedback and actively working to reduce structural barriers to international publication for scholars outside well-resourced research environments.