South African Journal of Psychology
Psychology (General)
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
South African Journal of Psychology publishes contributions in English from all fields of psychology. Whilst the emphasis is on empirical research, the journal also accepts theoretical and methodological papers, review articles, short communications, book reviews, and letters commenting on articles published in the journal. Priority is given to articles relevant to Africa and that address psychological issues of social change and development.
| Norman Duncan | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| Clare Harvey | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| Malose Makhubela | University of Limpopo, South Africa |
| Kobus Maree | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| Solomon Mashegoane | University of Limpopo, South Africa |
| Jacqueline Moodley | University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Ashley van Niekerk | University of South Africa, South Africa |
| Geetha Reddy | Open University, UK |
| Vera Roos | North West University, South Africa |
| Tyrone Pretorius | University of the Western Cape, South Africa |
| Suntosh Pillay | University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Richard van Rensburg | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| Rashid Ahmed | University of the Western Cape, South Africa |
| Kennedy Amone-P’Olak | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| Cheryl Foxcroft | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa |
| Leswin Laubscher | Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA |
| David Maree | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
| Nhlanhla Mkhize | University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Desmond Painter | Stellenbosch University, South Africa |
| Anthony Pillay | University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Basil Pillay | University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Kopano Ratele | Medical Research Council, South Africa |
| Mohamed Seedat | University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa |
| Garth Stevens | University of Witwatersrand, South Africa |
| Douglas Wassenaar | University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: South African Journal of Psychology
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sap to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of the South African Journal of Psychology will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Journal Style
4.3 Keywords and abstracts
4.4 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.5 Supplementary material
4.6 Reference style
4.7 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to the South African Journal of Psychology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
The South African Journal of Psychology considers submissions addressing South African, African or international issues, including:
- Manuscripts reporting on research investigations.
- Review articles focusing on significant issues in Psychology.
New submissions should not exceed 5500 words, including references, tables, figures, etc. Authors of manuscripts returned for revision and extension should consult the Editorial Office regarding amended length considerations.
All manuscripts should be written in English and include an abstract of not more than 250 words. The writing must be of a high grammatical standard, and follow the technical guidelines stipulated below. The publication guidelines of the American Psychological Association 7th edition (APA 7th) must be followed in the preparation of the manuscript. Manuscripts of poor technical or language quality will be returned without review.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
The South African Journal of Psychology operates a blind peer review process with each manuscript reviewed by at least two referees. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible and the editorial team strives for a decision within 8-10 weeks of submission, although this is dependent on reviewer availability.
Where authors are invited to revise manuscripts for re-submission, the editor must be notified (by e-mail to sajp@psyssa.co.za and please copy sajp.psyssa@gmail.com) of their intention to resubmit and the revised manuscript should be re-submitted within four weeks.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
The South African Journal of Psychology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
The South African Journal of Psychology encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
The South African Journal of Psychology and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
South African Journal of Psychology offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word document only. Templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 12 point.
The South African Journal of Psychology conforms to the Sage house style. Click here to review guidelines on Sage UK House Style.
Research-based manuscripts should use the following format: The introductory/literature review section does not require a heading, thereafter the following headings /subheadings should be used:
Method (Participants; Instruments; Procedure; Ethical considerations; Data analysis (which includes the statistical techniques or computerized analytic programmes, if applicable); Results; Discussion; Conclusion; References.
The “Ethical considerations” section must include the name of the institution that granted the ethical approval for the study (if applicable).
Helping readers find your article online Authors should include (a) an Abstract of up to 250 words and (b) up to 6 alphabetised keywords The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting Sage’s Journal Author Gateway Guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
4.4 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
The South African Journal of Psychology does not currently accept supplemental files.
South African Journal of Psychology adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
4.7 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
The South African Journal of Psychology is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sap to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the South African Journal of Psychology editorial office as follows:
Email: sajp@psyssa.co.za and please copy sajp.psyssa@gmail.com