Submissions

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Author Guidelines

JDHASA accepts rolling submissions throughout the year. All submissions are free of charge, no author processing charges (APC) apply.

Proposals for Special Issues

We invite authors and interested parties to submit proposals for special thematic issues. These proposals should be submitted as a Word document (.docx) indicating the scope and aims of the proposed special thematic issue and providing the proposer's contact details and at least three interested guest editors.

Submission of Articles

To submit an article, please format your submission according to our style guide, available as .odt, .docx, and LaTeX .zip.

Please submit using our submission page. For enquiries relating to the submission process, please send an email to journal@digitalhumanities.org.za.

Your article needs to adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Title
  • Maximum of 5 keywords describing the content of the article (Keywords should reflect the research objective and methodology, but not be too broad. Please, refrain from using “Digital Humanities” as a keyword.)
  • Full text of the article formatted according to our style guide
  • References in Author-Date format (see style guide)
  • Author biography
  • Article text should be in standard English
  • Abstract up to 700 words in English (Optionally, we invite all authors to provide abstracts in any Southern African language.)
  • Author’s ORCID-number

The following submission types are welcome:

Research Articles: These should include a clear research question or objective, detailed methodology, results, discussion, and conclusions. Articles must provide a thorough literature review and situate the research within existing scholarship. Papers should not exceed 15 pages, excluding references.

Short Articles: Focused discussions or arguments with a clear introduction, brief methodology, key findings or insights, and a concise conclusion. Short articles should be between 4 and 5 pages and offer a snapshot of the research or discussion with sufficient context.

Student Papers: These are papers primarily authored by students. They present a focused research question, methodology, findings, and a discussion of the research implications.

Work-in-Progress: Outline the research question, initial findings, methodology, and any challenges or future directions. These articles aim to foster discussion and feedback from the academic community and may include preliminary data or theoretical reflections.

Review Articles: Systematic reviews of relevant literature, tools, artworks, conferences, and other materials, with a focus on Digital Humanities in African contexts. Reviews should discuss key themes, debates, significant contributions, methodological approaches, and emerging trends. Reviews of DH tools applied to different African contexts are also welcome. Papers should not exceed 20 pages, excluding references.

Book Reviews: Short papers reviewing Digital Humanities textbooks and teaching materials relevant to the African context and epistemologies.

Do’s and Don’ts for Authors

Do’s

  • Make sure the submission fits the scope of the journal, and the Call for Papers.
  • Make sure your work is in a mature enough state that allows for publication.
  • Make sure the submission satisfies the formal criteria of the journal and the scientific community (e.g. layout, spelling and language, citations).
  • Make sure your data is accessible and/or describe it in a manner that is clearly understandable by the reader/reviewer.
  • If you submit as a non-English native, have at least one native speaker proofread your paper prior to submission.

Don’ts

  • Target the reviewer(s) for their reviews. If you feel the form of the review does not conform with the guidelines stated above, contact the editors (journal@digitalhumanities.org.za).
  • Ignore reviewers' comments and requests for revisions.
  • Contact editors of reviewers privately. All communication about your submission should go through our submission system. 

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • The submission file is in PDF and OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.

Articles

Section default policy

Copyright Notice

The Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa is a peer-reviewed open-access journal of DHASA.

As a rule, all articles are published under a Creative Commons license which allows for the dissemination of the authors’ work to many different platforms, digital libraries and other interested parties. In most cases, this license will be: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International). In agreeing to publish your work in the DHASA journal under a creative commons license, you as an author retain copyright of your work, but additionally you will also support digital libraries around the world.

All authors are requested to check that their texts, citations, data, and figures are publicly available for reuse.

On submission, authors agree to our copyright agreement: 

Copyright Notice
Authors contributing to Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa (DHASA) agree to publish their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for any purpose, under the condition that the authors are given credit, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear. Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Journal of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa (DHASA) . Upon submission.

The authors agree to the terms of this Copyright Notice, which will apply to this submission if and when it is published by this journal.

Privacy Statement

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