Mission, Scope & Publishing Model

Our Mission

The Journal of Caribbean Artificial Intelligence and Systems (JCAIS) is an open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to advancing research on artificial intelligence as it applies to the Caribbean region and analogous small state contexts around the world.

We publish rigorous, applied, and policy-relevant work that bridges the gap between academic research and real-world implementation — research that can be acted upon by governments, development banks, private sector actors, civil society, and communities across the region.

The Caribbean faces challenges and opportunities that are unique in scale, geography, and institutional structure. Existing AI research ecosystems are concentrated in large-economy contexts that often do not translate directly to small island states with limited data infrastructure, thin public sector capacity, and high exposure to external shocks. JCAIS exists to change that.

Scope and Coverage

JCAIS covers original research, policy analysis, methodological contributions, and applied case studies across five interconnected domains:

• AI for Climate and Disaster Risk — predictive modelling, early warning, resilience systems
• AI in Finance, Insurance, and Economic Systems — credit, insurance, macroeconomic intelligence
• AI for Public Policy and Governance — regulation, service delivery, evidence-based governance
• AI for Small Business and Informal Economies — SME tools, informal sector integration
• AI Infrastructure, Data Systems, and Talent Development — data governance, compute, human capital

We welcome submissions from researchers and practitioners based in the Caribbean, diaspora scholars, and international researchers whose work directly addresses Caribbean and small-state AI contexts.

Publishing Model

JCAIS is fully open access. All published articles are freely available to readers worldwide under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence, which allows reuse, adaptation, and redistribution with attribution.

We do not currently charge article processing fees (APCs). The journal is sustained by institutional support and the voluntary contributions of our editorial board and reviewer community. This policy will be reviewed as the journal scales.

Publication Frequency

JCAIS publishes three issues per volume year, with each issue organised around a thematic focus. Volume 1 covers:

Indexing and Registration

JCAIS is in the process of establishing the following infrastructure to ensure discoverability and permanence of all published work:

• ISSN Registration — Application submitted to the International ISSN Centre (ISSN pending)
• DOI Assignment — DOI prefix registration via Crossref pending; all articles will receive persistent DOIs upon registration
• Open Journal Systems (OJS) — The journal will migrate to OJS for full submission management, reviewer assignment, and public archiving
• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) — Application planned following ISSN confirmation
• Google Scholar — Indexing will occur automatically once OJS is deployed

Ethics and Integrity

JCAIS adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We expect authors to confirm that submitted work is original, has not been published elsewhere, and does not contain fabricated data, plagiarism, or undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Our peer review process is double-blind to ensure impartial evaluation. Full details are available on our Peer Review Policy page.

Contact

For editorial enquiries, submission questions, or partnership discussions, contact the editorial team at editor@caribbeanaijournal.org.