Journal of Psychology in Africa

Instructions for authors

Editorial policy

Submission of a manuscript implies that the material has not previously been published, nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere. Submission of a manuscript will be taken to imply transfer of copyright of the material to the owners, Africa Scholarship Development Enterprize. Contributions are accepted on the understanding that the authors have the authority for publication. Material accepted for publication in this journal may not be reprinted or published without due copyright permissions. The Journal has a policy of anonymous peer review. Papers will be scrutinised and commented on by at least two independent expert referees or consulting editors as well as by an editor. A multi-layered manuscript review process is implemented to result in high quality publications: a peer review and developmental review. The peer review process addresses the primae-face merits of the manuscript’s scientific contribution subject to the Editor’s discretionary decision. The developmental review by the Editorial office advises the scientific writing presentation qualities of the manuscript. The Editor reserves the right to revise the final draft of the manuscript to conform to editorial requirements. A manuscript development support charge of USD 1575 is levied on all accepted manuscripts and payable to the journal’s US Bank account. Instructions for remitting the publication levy are provided to lead or corresponding authors by the Editorial Office. Lead authors will receive a complimentary issue of the journal issue in which their article appears.

Publishing ethics
By submitting to the Journal of Psychology in Africa for publication review, the author(s) agree to any originality checks during the peer review and production processes. A manuscript is accepted for publication review on the understanding that it contains nothing that is abusive, defamatory, fraudulent, illegal. libellous, or obscene. During manuscript submission, authors should declare any competing and/or relevant financial interest which might be potential sources of bias or constitute conflict of interest. The author who submits the manuscript accepts responsibility for notifying all co-authors and must provide contact information on the co-authors. The Editor-in-Chief will collaborate with Taylor and Francis using the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics in cases of allegations of research errors; authorship complaints; multiple or concurrent (simultaneous) submission; plagiarism complaints; research results misappropriation; reviewer bias; and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be written in English and conform to the publication guidelines of the latest edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) publication manual of instructions for authors. Manuscripts can be a maximum of 7000 words.

Submission
Manuscripts should be prepared in MSWord, double spaced with wide margins and submitted via email to the Editor-in-Chief, Elias Mpofu. Before submitting a manuscript, authors should peruse and consult a recent issue of the Journal of Pyschology in Africa for general layout and style.

Manuscript format
All pages must be numbered consecutively, including those containing the references, tables and figures. The typescript of a manuscript should be arranged as follows:
•Title: this should be brief, sufficiently informative for retrieval by automatic searching techniques and should contain important keywords (preferably <13).
•Author(s) and Address(es) of author(s): The corresponding author must be indicated. The author’s respective addresses where the work was done must be indicated. An e-mail address, telephone number and fax number for the corresponding author must be provided.
•Abstract: Articles and abstracts must be in English. Submission of abstracts translated to French, Portuguese and/ or Spanish is encouraged. For data-based contributions, the abstract should be structured as follows:
Objective – the primary purpose of the paper, Method – data source, participants, design, measures, data analysis, Results – key findings, implications, future directions and Conclusions – in relation to the research questions and theory development. For all other contributions (except editorials, book reviews, special announcements) the abstract must be a concise statement of the content of the paper. Abstracts must not exceed 150 words. The statement of the abstract should summarise the information presented in the paper but should not include references.
• Text: (1) Per APA guidelines, only one space should follow any punctuation; (2) Do not insert spaces at the beginning or end of paragraphs; (3) Do not use colour in text; and (4) Do not align references using spaces or tabs, use a hanging indent.
• Tables and figures: These should contain only information directly relevant to the content of the paper. Each table and figure must include a full, stand-alone caption, and each must be sequentially mentioned in the text. Collect tables and figures together at the end of the manuscript or
supply as separate files. Indicate the correct placement in the text in this form . Figures must conform to the journals style. Pay particular attention to line thickness, font and figure proportions, taking into account the journal’s printed page size – plan around one column (82 mm) or two column width (170 mm). For digital photographs or scanned images the resolution should be at least 300 dpi for colour or greyscale artwork and a minimum of 600 dpi for black line drawings. These files can be saved (in order of preference) in PSD, PDF or JPEG format. Graphs, charts or maps can be saved in AI, PDF or EPS format. MS Office files (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) are also acceptable but DO NOT EMBED Excel graphs or Powerpoint slides in a MS Word document.

Referencing
Referencing style should follow latest edition of the APA manual of instructions for authors.
• References in text: References in running text should be quoted as follows: (Louw & Mkize, 2012), or ( Louw, 2011), or Louw (2000, 2004a, 2004b). All surnames should be cited the first time the reference occurs, e.g., Louw, Mkize, and Naidoo (2009) or (Louw, Mkize, & Naidoo, 2010). Subsequent citations should use et al., e.g. Louw et al. (2004) or (Louw et al., 2004). ‘Unpublished observations’ and ‘personal communications’ may be cited in the text, but not in the reference list. Manuscripts submitted but not yet published can be included as references followed by ‘in press’.
• Reference list: Full references should be given at the end of the article in alphabetical order, using double spacing. References to journals should include the author’s surnames and initials, the full title of the paper, the full name of the journal, the year of publication, the volume number, and inclusive page numbers. Titles of journals must not be abbreviated. References to books should include the authors’ surnames and initials, the year of publication, full title of the book, the place of publication, and the publisher’s name. References should be cited as per the examples below:

Reference samples
Journal article
Peltzer, K. (2001). Factors at follow-up associated with adherence with adherence with directly observed therapy (DOT) for tuberculosis patients in South Africa. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 11, 165–185.
Book
Gore, A. (2006). An inconvenient truth: The planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it. Emmaus, PA: Rodale.
Edited book
Galley. K. E. (Ed.). (2004). Global climate change and wildlife in North America. Bethesda, MD: Wildlife Society.
Chapter in a book
Cook, D. A., & Wiley, C. Y. (2000). Psychotherapy with members of the African American churches and spiritual traditions. In P. S. Richards & A. E. Bergin (Ed.), Handbook of psychotherapy and religiosity diversity (pp 369–396). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Magazine article
Begley, S., & Murr, A. (2007, July 2). Which of these is not causing global warming? A. Sport utility vehicles; B. Rice fields; C. Increased solar output. Newsweek, 150 (2), 48–50.
Newspaper article (unsigned)
College officials agree to cut greenhouse gases. (2007, June 13). Albany Times Union, p. A4.
Newspaper article (signed)
Landler, M. (2007, June 2). Bush’s Greenhouse Gas Plan Throws Europe Off Guard. New York Times, p. A7.
Unpublished thesis
Appoh, L. (1995). The effects of parental attitudes, beliefs and values on the nutritional status of their children in two communities in Ghana (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Trondheim, Norway.
Conference paper
Sternberg, R. J. (2001, June). Cultural approaches to intellectual and social competencies. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, Toronto, Canada..

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