African Studies Quarterly is an interdisciplinary, fully-refereed, indexed publication. While there are many other publishing outlets which focus entirely on scholarly writings concerning Africa, what distinguishes ASQ is its distribution method and its content. It is an electronic journal and the "first journal of its kind in the US and just the second internationally (after the University of Bradford, UK, International Journal of African Studies)." The journals's electronic format "allows for a very rapid turnaround. ASQ intends only a three month lag from submission, to review, to publication. This means that the journal can carry scholarly writing of a time-sensitive nature. In this way, it is likely to become somewhat of a hybrid between serial commentaries and scholarly publications."