Submissions

Author Guidelines

All submissions must be made via the JSAA’s OJS Journal Management System that can be accessed here. Please register online as an author and read the authors guidelines before preparing a submission. Any queries can be emailed to the journal manager, Ms Bronwin Sebonka at bs.sebonka@up.ac.za. 

Submissions are encouraged from scholars and reflective practitioners from across the globe and ought to be relevant to the mission, aims and scope of the Journal (see About the Journal). Especially encouraged are submissions from African scholars and professionals working in higher education on the African continent. Submissions dealing with student affairs issues from other contexts (e.g. the African Diaspora, other emerging economies; developed countries) that are transferable to the African context are also considered for publication.

Guidelines and checklist for use prior to preparation and submission of a manuscript:

— All authors should have significantly contributed to the manuscript. Authors should please provide their ORCiD ID numbers along with basic biographical information.

— The submission has not been previously published, nor is it under consideration by another journal. It is forbidden to submit the same manuscript to several journals at the same time or publish the same research in more than one journal. 

— All authors are obliged to adhere to the ethics of social research including but not limited to academic rigour. In cases of oversight, authors must provide retractions or corrections of mistakes. In the case of repeated malpractice (e.g. plagiarism), the journal may contact the institution where an author is affiliated to inform them of the malpractice.

— Submission should be filed in MS Word, OpenOffice or RTF format, page numbered, double-spaced; using a 12-point font; and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. Authors are welcome to submit pictures, illustrations etc. to accompany their manuscript.

— The Journal uses the APA7 author-date referencing system (for details see our referencing guide here).

— JSAA is divided into different sections i.e. Research Article (peer reviewed); Reflective Practice (peer reviewed); Dialogue section; Book Reviews section; and Calls and Notices. Please note that different requirements apply:

• Research articles: Contributors are encouraged to submit original research-based manuscripts of ca. 5000 words, including all references, notes, tables and figures. Manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract of approximately 150-200 words and about five keywords. They should be double-spaced and all pages consecutively numbered.
• Reflective practice articles (reflective practitioner accounts) on professional campus practice are peer reviewed. They are screened and reviewed according to the same criteria as research articles, albeit with a different emphasis. They do not need to include extensive consideration of recent literature and theory but focus on in-depth description and learnings. They must comply with standard academic convention and scholarly practice. Typical length: 2,500 - 5,000 words. Abstract: 150-200 words plus about five keywords.
• Book reviews should be between 800 - 1,000 words. Competent reviews of key student affairs books are published at the discretion of the Editorial Executive.
• Letters to the editors, comments and critique of no more than 2,500 words, are also welcome and published at the discretion of the editors.
• Proposal for the journal's Interviews and Dialogue section and Calls and Notices must be emailed directly to the journal manager. The publication of calls and notices (for conferences; vacancies etc.) may incur a nominal fee.

— Upon acceptance, all abstracts are translated and published in a second African academic language. This is typically French in order to encourage greater engagement between the anglophone and francophone African Student Affairs scholars and practitioners. Authors who prefer translation into any other official African language (e.g. Afrikaans, Arabic, Kiswahili, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Portuguese, Sesotho, Setswana) must provide a translation upon acceptance of the article, with a confirmation from a language scholar that the translation is accurate.

— Example articles of research articles and reflective practitioner account articles are available here. 

— All contributions published in the Journal undergo initial screening (vetting) by members of the Editorial Executive. The outcome of editorial vetting can be rejection, request for revision prior to peer review, or appointment of a section editor and advance to peer review.

— The final decision with respect to any processes, acceptance/rejection of manuscripts, and any other decisions impacting the Journal reside with the Editorial Executive, Prof Teboho Moja (Editor-in-chief), Prof Thierry Luescher, and Dr Birgit Schreiber.

Review Policy 

Once a manuscript has successfully passed an initial screening by the Editorial Executive, it may be submitted for peer-review (if it falls within a reviewed category of articles). The JSAA Peer Review form can be viewed here. The suitability of articles is evaluated in terms of:

1. Originality: the manuscript offers new, original empirical, conceptual, critical, and/or normative insights and interpretation.
2. Significance: the manuscript makes a significant contribution to the scholarly and/or professional field of student affairs and our understanding thereof.
3. Scholarship: the manuscript reflects sound scholarship and adheres to the requirements of rigorous scientific and academic work.
4. Scope and Interest: the manuscript falls within the scope of the Journal and is likely to interest readers and stimulate new or further debate on a key matter in the field.
5. Accessibility: the manuscript is written in such a way as to be accessible to the broad range of readers that JSAA attracts, most of which are second-language English speakers.

Manuscripts accepted for review are blindly peer-reviewed by at least two scholars with relevant expertise in the field. The editorial and peer review policy of JSAA adheres to the Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review (Academy of Sciences of SA Council/ASSAf, 2018).  Also see "Review Policy".

Format of Submissions

A new submission must include at least two files: (1) a title page file and (2) a blinded manuscript file with the article text. They must be uploaded online. In addition, author information must be included in the submission process online. 

— A title page file of the manuscript must be submitted separately that clearly shows for which section of the journal the manuscript is submitted, i.e. Research Article (peer-reviewed); Reflective Practice (peer-reviewed); or Book Reviews; the title of the article, name(s) of the author(s) including their titles (Dr, Prof.), ORCids, position and professional/institutional affiliations. It must include the contact details (emails, phone) of the corresponding author, as well as the abstract (150-200 words in English), and the keywords.

— The actual manuscript file (article text file) must be submitted blinded in a separate file, without author information, but including article type/section, title, abstract, keywords, manuscript text, confirmatory statements (acknowledgements, ethics, conflict of interest), references.

Languages

  *  The journal's language is English. British English or American English spelling and terminology may be used, but either one should be followed consistently through the contribution.

  *   All manuscripts should have a title, and an abstract of no more than 150-200 words. In the manuscript, first, second and third order headings should be clearly distinguishable but not numbered. Footnotes should be avoided, but if used, should be placed as endnotes before the references. Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the references.

Confirmatory statements, copyrighted material and referencing

  *  The manuscript must include a statement of about research ethics, a statement regarding potential conflicts of interest, and a statement about funding.

  *  Reproduction of copyright material: Authors are required to secure permission to reproduce any proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material.

  *  References: The description of the journal's referencing style can be found here. Authors should strive to cite all relevant published work.