Nomina Africana

Instructions for Authors

Nomina Africana publishes original peer-reviewed research that makes a contribution to the field of onomastics on the continent. Studies that deal with any aspects of proper names and the naming process and of relevance to any of the languages of the continent will be considered for publication. Topics of interest to the journal emanate from the fields of linguistics, language and literature as well as history and geography, amongst other disciplines. Research and review articles, short communications and book reviews are welcome. Contributions must be in English and no longer than 7 500 words. All articles are made freely and permanently available online through Open Access publication, under a Creative Commons attribution agreement (CC BY 4.0). Users can reuse, share and adapt the published material provided suitable attribution is provided. Further detail regarding the Creative Commons attribution agreement (CC BY 4.0) can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Editorial policy

Submission of a manuscript implies that the material has not previously been published, nor is being considered for publication elsewhere. Contributions are accepted on the understanding that the authors have the authority for publication. Contributions must conform to the principles outlined in Ethical considerations in research publication.* The journal has a policy of anonymous peer review. Authors’ names are withheld from referees, but it is their responsibility to ensure that any identifying material is removed from the manuscript. The Editor reserves the right to revise the final draft of the manuscript to conform to editorial requirements.

Publication Submission and Manuscript Correspondence

Manuscripts should be email to: The Editor-in-Chief, Sambulo Ndlovu, at matsilaneg@gmail.com

Names Society of Southern Africa

Members of the Names Society of Southern Africa receive complimentary print copies of the journal.
Information about the society and membership details are available at http://namessociety.za.org or contact Yanga P Majola: MajolaYLP@tut.ac.za

Articles accepted for publication will attract an article processing charge (APC) of R12 000 (excl. VAT). 

The Journal has an APC waiver policy for authors whose funding arrangements are inadequate to cover the amount of the APC. The APC waiver-policy and procedures for applying for a waiver can be found on the NISC Open Access page. Note that the journal has a quota for APC waivers. Applications, which are considered on a case-by-case basis, must be made prior to submission via email to journals@nisc.co.za. It may not be possible to accommodate all APC waiver requests made during the year.

Manuscript presentation

Manuscripts should be in English and prepared in MS-Word. Avoid creative formatting. For spelling and hyphenation conventions, consult The Oxford English Dictionary. For general editorial style, consult The Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition. The following essential information is required:

Title: This should be brief and sufficiently informative for retrieval by automatic searching techniques.

Author(s) and address(es) of author(s): List all authors’ names in full. Provide an institutional address and email address for each author and indicate who is corresponding.

Abstract: Provide an abstract of no more than 250 words, accurately summarising the information presented in the paper. References must not be included in an abstract. An
additional abstract in another language may be added.

Main text: Use sentence case for headings. Format headings in the following styles: First level bold; Second level bold italic; Third level italic. Headings should not be numbered. Endnotes (not footnotes) may be used. Use double quotation marks. If special fonts or characters are used, a PDF of your article may be required for accurate typesetting.

Illustrations/Figures: Authors must ensure that they have permission to reproduce any images protected by copyright. Indicate the source of images and provide a caption for each. All illustrations must be referred to in the text and numbered consecutively. Illustrations must be of suitable quality for reproduction, i.e., at least 300 dpi for photographs and 600 dpi for line drawings. These can be saved (in order of preference) in PSD, JPEG, PDF or EPS 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 as an image, rather send the original Excel or Powerpoint files. More detailed technical information is given in Figure Guidelines for Authors.*

Tables: All tables should be in a suitable editable format such as MS-Excel. Tables must be referred to in the text, numbered consecutively, with a descriptive caption.

References: Use the author–date method of referencing sources as set out in the 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. A quick guide is available at: www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html 

In text – Surname and date with page number/s for direct quotations e.g. (Fardon 1995: 73)

List of references – Provide a complete list of sources referred to at the end of your article. For example:

Books
Raper, P. E., L. A. Möller and L. T. du Plessis. 2014. Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. 4th ed. Johannesburg and Cape Town: Jonathan Ball.
Thoreau, Henry David. 2016. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–195. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.
Tonkin, E., M. McDonald and M. Chapman, eds. 1989. History and Ethnicity. London: Routledge.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. 2016. In Other Words. Translated by Ann Goldstein. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Journal articles
Raper, P. E. 2014. “Criteria for validating indigenous place-names in a multilingual society.” Nomina Africana 28 (1): 16–29.
du Plessis, T. 2009. “Language visibility and the transformation of geographical names in South Africa.” Language Matters
40 (2): 215–38. doi:10.1080/10228190903188542

Unpublished thesis
Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. 2013. “King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.

Online news or magazine article
Pai, Tanya. 2017. “The Squishy, Sugary History of Peeps.” Vox, April 11, 2017. http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/11/15209084/peeps-easter.

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