Instructions for Authors
Submission Preparation Checklist
Please read this information carefully. To submit a manuscript to the journal, please click HERE.
For information on the scope of the journal, please see here. Authors are encouraged to contact one of the editors if they have a query about their manuscript or about the submission process.
PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION
The submission files should be prepared in Microsoft Word.
The text is formatted for A4 size. The text is double-spaced, uses a 12-point font size (Arial or Times New Roman) and has line numbering and page numbering throughout. When used, figures and tables are numbered sequentially and are placed within the text at the appropriate points rather than at the end. The captions to figures and tables should also be given with the appropriate item in the text.
Every submitted manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter from the author(s) stating the origins or nature of the study (is it part of a PhD or Masters project? Was it funded and by whom?). If human participants are involved, the cover letter must state the ethics clearance process and the number undertaken in the study – if human participant studies did NOT receive ethics clearance, the journal could not consider the manuscript. The cover letter must state that the contribution has been subjected to anti-plagiarism software and must indicate the outcome of this process. The cover letter must also state whether or not the manuscript has been submitted for publication elsewhere. If there is a potential conflict of interest(s), this should be stated in the cover letter upon initial submission. In the case of multiple authors, the cover letter must state that all authors have contributed to the research being presented and that all authors have agreed to submission of the manuscript for consideration in the journal.
Please note that there is a nominal Article Processing Charge (APC) of R100.00 per typeset page for each accepted journal article. This is payable by the author before the article can be published online. Please note this is only applicable to articles that are accepted for publication in the journal – there are no charges or APC levied at any other stage of the submission or review process, including submission fees, editorial processing charges or colour charges. There are no fee waivers.
ARTICLE TYPES
Two types of articles are considered in the journal:
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS are up to 3000 words (including References) and focus on short, timely reports of new ideas, data, techniques/methodologies or applications.
RESEARCH or REVIEW ARTICLES are up to 8000 words (including References) and are based on original and substantive research or review that fits with the thematic areas of concern of the journal.
All article types are double-blind, peer-reviewed and follow the process outlined below.
PEER REVIEW AND EDITORIAL POLICY AND PROCESSES
JoGEA complies with the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the ASSAf Code of Best Practice for Scholarly Journals, Editors and Peer Reviewers.
Articles submitted to JoGEA are reviewed by a minimum of two expert reviewers. Articles are double-blind reviewed, meaning that both the author(s) and the reviewers are anonymous in the review process. The time period for reviews is four weeks. When two peer reviews have been received, the handling editor will make a decision on the paper, informed by these reviews and their own consideration of the paper. The decisions available are:
- Minor revisions required
- Moderate revisions required
- Major revisions required
All of these outcomes will be communicated to authors in a timely manner, with an explanation of the handling editor’s decision. The purpose is to convey formative and developmental feedback to authors about their work. The timeframes for revisions to papers are as follows:
Minor revisions: 3 weeks after the date of the decision letter
Moderate revisions: 4 weeks after the date of the decision letter
Major revisions: 6 weeks after the date of the decision letter
The handling editor will check all revised submissions and may be sent for a further round of reviews if required.
If authors require a longer time for revision, they should email the handling editor to request an extension of time.
ARTICLE REVISIONS
When an author is revising a paper following a decision by the handling editor, it is a REQUIREMENT that the following items are supplied:
- A cover letter outlining how each and every comment made by the reviewer(s) and/or the handling editor has been addressed in the revised manuscript;
- A version using Tracked Changes on the original submission, indicating what has been changed in the manuscript and where. PLEASE NOTE, just highlighting text in a different colour is not acceptable, and the manuscript will be returned to the author;
- A revised or updated version of the manuscript in which the Tracked Changes have been accepted. This Word file should be saved with a different file name (e.g. version 2) to make it very clear that this is the revised version;
- High-resolution and full-colour versions of any figures (in *.jpg or *.tif format) and Word or Excel versions of any Tables. Please ensure that these are separate files for each item and that these are labelled clearly, e.g. fig1.jpg, table1.docx.
Authors should be aware that if these items are not correctly supplied, the revision will be returned.
JOURNAL STYLE SHEET
It is recommended that the overall style and structure of a manuscript at the initial submission stage follow that of recently published papers in the journal.
TITLE PAGE
This must be supplied as a SEPARATE Word document with any submission to the journal. The title page must contain:
The title of the article/contribution,
The full name(s) of all author(s) in a First name(s) Last name(s) format. The corresponding author must be indicated with an asterisk (*),
The full affiliation address(es) of all listed author(s). If there are several different affiliations, these must be numbered sequentially in the author list and list of affiliations. Please also include the ORCiD numbers of each author. Please note the COPE guidelines on authorship and contributorship.
The email address of the corresponding author (if there is more than one author),
An abstract of the work presented of no more than 150 words. Please note the guidelines on what an abstract comprises, given below,
Keywords: Five (5) keywords are needed.
Acknowledgements. If there are acknowledgements to be stated, these must be given on the title page and NOT within the manuscript document.
Authors should note that the Title Page document is not sent to reviewers.
MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT
The format of this Word document is stated at the top of this page. The manuscript document must contain the following items:
ARTICLE TITLE
Please state the article title here, as given in the Title Page document.
ABSTRACT
The abstract of the article must be given here, as given in the Title Page document. The abstract should be no more than 150 words.
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a summary of a longer work (i.e. the manuscript presented). The purpose of an abstract is to convey summarised information about the study in a structured and organised way. The abstract is a single paragraph that does not contain references, abbreviations or diagrams. The abstract needs to contain successive sentences on: What the topic is, why it is important, why we need to know about these things - can contrast with previous work, or identify a research gap; What you have done to address this problem, the aims/objectives of the study; Statement on the methods used; What the main results are; Why these results are important, the wider implications/significance. Please ensure that your abstract is structured appropriately.
KEYWORDS
Five (5) keywords must be given here below the Abstract, as given in the Title Page document.
THE MAIN TEXT OF THE ARTICLE
Here, the manuscript must be split into sections as with any academic journal article, namely: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References. Please note these sections are not prescriptive.
The Introduction should include the rationale or purpose of the study and a review of the relevant literature in order to contextualise the study. The specific aims of the study should be presented at the end of this section.
The Methods (or Methodology) should present the methods of data collection and analysis, in the field or laboratory or whatever approach the study takes. Sampling, sample size, analytical tools and statistical methods etc. should all be described fully and correctly. If human participants are used in the study, the methodologies used for participant population sampling, data collection instruments and procedures should be fully explained. The ethics clearance number for the study must be stated in full, including the identified risk level and the date of clearance.
A separate section on the Study Area may be relevant in some studies. This may come before or after the Methods section
The Results section must present specific qualitative and/or quantitative results that are derived from the methods employed in the study and which address the study’s aims. Results must be presented systematically and in full. Subheadings are commonly useful.
The Discussion section interprets and discusses the results, including their meaning or significance, how the results are different/similar to previous studies, and presents alternative interpretations or meanings of the results. The Discussion section situates the results within the context of the literature. It is not recommended that the Results and Discussion sections are conflated.
The Conclusions (note this is plural) section identifies the main outcomes of this study and sets these outcomes into a wider context. It should consider why these outcomes are significant, how they relate to the bigger picture, any limitations of the study, and what future research directions may exist to build upon this study.
Do not include an Acknowledgements section here as it may breach anonymity - this should be on the Title Page instead.
These suggested headings are not prescriptive but are indicative in order to help authors have a clear structure to their manuscript. Throughout these sections, subheadings may also be used to guide the reader and to break up the text.
Quotations
These should be kept to a minimum and where over 40 words should be indented and justified. These must be appropriately referenced.
End/footnotes
These should be avoided if possible.
REFERENCES
Authors are requested to cite in-text and to use the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style, in the reference list, see an exemplar here. All references, including Internet sources, should be provided in alphabetical order in the reference list. The titles of books and journals should not be abbreviated.
Figures and Tables
All figures and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end of the manuscript. All figures and tables (including maps, diagrams and photographs) should be submitted with captions and must be numbered sequentially in the text. Figure captions are placed below the figures. If several panels are present within a particular figure, these should be labelled (a), (b), (c) etc and mentioned in turn in the caption. Table captions should be placed above the table.
Guidelines in the use of maps
A map of a study location or similar, if used, must be presented correctly. It should be accurate and informative to the reader, not just a polygon with a dot in it. A map should include a scale bar, north arrow, latitude/longitude (in degrees, minutes, seconds) with the correct hemisphere marked (N,E,S,W), a key/legend, source of any additional data (e.g. Google Earth) and should be annotated where appropriate to help guide the reader. Please be aware that just because something is drawn in a GIS, it does not make it a useful or correct map.
Reproduction
All figures will be reproduced in colour in published articles in the journal, thus need to be of high printable quality.
To submit a manuscript to the journal, please click HERE.
JoGEA Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism is the unethical and punishable act of presenting another person's intellectual property either published or not, without duly acknowledging the original source and author. JoGEA follows COPE guidelines on plagiarism. Please note that JoGEA has access to Turnitin software to screen all submitted manuscripts for originality and similarity. By submitting your paper to JoGEA you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review and production processes. Redundancy/Self-plagiarism without proper citation is also not acceptable. Any manuscript found to be plagiarised is automatically rejected and disallowed from publication in the journal. Affected author(s) are banned from submitting any paper to the journal for 12 months.
JoGEA Repository Policy
JoGEA encourages authors to post their reviewed and published article in institutional repositories or websites without restriction or embargo. Published articles are protected by copyright, and reuse by users is restricted to non-commercial purposes. Users with access to an article through a repository may download a local copy of the article for their personal reference. JoGEA’s repository policy aims to benefit authors as their work can further be cited and referenced.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Contributing authors retain full copyright of their contribution(s) to the Journal of Geography Education in Africa.
The Journal of Geography Education in Africa is granted the first right of publication.
The author's contributions are simultaneously licensed under the under the Creative Commons License 4.0 International. The terms of this license can be found at here. The key aspects of this license as indicated on the Creative Commons website are as follows:
"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Non-Commercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes."
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
