Ethiopian Journal of Social Science and Language Studies

 

Editorial Policy

 

 

College of Social Science and Humanities

 

 

Jimma University

 

Jimma, Ethiopia

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 2018

THE GUIDELINES OF THE ETHIOPIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND LANGUAGE STUDIES (EJSSLS)

1. Preamble

 

The Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies (EJSSLS), which is hosted by the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, of Jimma University, released its First Issue in June 2014. According to The Editorial of the first issue of EJSSLS, the journal had been established for three main reasons:

 

The first reason is the existence of a number of disciplines; diversified research based postgraduate programs, and large number of instructors who have been involved in research. Second, for the College, having its own journal encourages more instructors (from other universities also) in the area of social sciences and language studies to involve in research and publications. Researchers from this College have been publishing their manuscripts in the Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences and somewhere else for the college did not have its own journal. Though the Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences has contributed a lot in this regard, because of its limited capacity, scope and focus areas, it could not host manuscript contributors from the College of Social Sciences and Humanities as needed. Third, the college now has enough experienced researchers, assistant professors, and instructors who have terminal degrees. Hence, problems related to sustainability of publication, internal reviewers and editors have been reduced (Tesfaye, 2014, p.i).

 

In addition to addressing the three aforementioned reasons, the Journal was launched with the vision of being one of the most preferable journals in Africa and with the mission of disseminating quality publication to the wider readership. To make realizable these vision and mission, basic requirements such as well-equipped journal office, editorial board and international advisory board members were assigned, and constitution was ratified tentatively. The Journal at its inception had 8 editorial board members all from College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Jimma University representing the then departments.

 

Since its inception in June 2014 to the present reputable stage, the journal has passed through ups and downs; it has encountered challenges such as delay of review process, burden of the job on a few editorial board members, passivity of most of the international advisory board members, lack of incentives for the editors of the journal, manual management of manuscripts, attempts of hacking or downing of the webpage of the journal, absence of plagiarism checker, and resistance of most manuscript contributors to follow the journal’s guideline, to mention just a few but predominant ones.

 

Despite these challenges, because of the commitment of some of the editorial board members and some concerned internal and external reviewers, appreciative authors, supportive deans and administrative director of the College, the Journal has published a number of quality publications from Ethiopia and out of Ethiopia both online and in print, and now it has reached a stage of reputability. It has surpassed three volumes and six issues which is the minimal requirement for reputable journal (Promotion legislation of Jimma University, 2015). Consequently, the number of articles contributed to the journal started rising. All these imply the importance of improving the guidelines of the Journal. At the inception of the journal, its guideline was not complete; yet it was accepted by the editorial board just to launch the Journal. For example, it lacked policies related to correction and retraction of manuscript. Further, as compared to the Journal’s emerging stage, now it requires copy right modification, more supportive editorial board and international advisory board members, full time managing editor, copy editor, content and layout editor, and secretary, just to mention some. Hence, to better fulfill its vision and mission, it is important not only to improve the guidelines of the Journal based on the lessons that have been learnt from the past four years’ experiences, but also to endorse it.

 

After incorporating these additional elements, for further comment, the guideline has been dispatched to the editorial board members, some international advisory board members, and the consultant office of the University. After considering the given comments, it has come in its present form. But this does not mean that the guideline is complete; it will be improved further as needs arise.

Using this opportunity, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the betterment of the guideline. I am also very grateful to Ato Birhanu Beyene (Jimma University, school of Law) and Dr. Birhanu Abera (Addis Ababa University) who supplied me with the materials that are very helpful in preparing the guidelines of the Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies. Last, but not least, my heartiest thanks goes to Mr. Yosef Alemu, legal consultant of the University, Dr. Tesfaye Refera, Publication Director of Jimma University, and Mr. Chimdi Wakuma, law graduate, who gave professional comments on the content and structure of the guideline.

Tesfaye Gebeyehu
Editor-in - Chief
The Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies (EJSSLS)

 

2. Nomenclature

The name of the journal shall be The Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies (herein after referred as “the journal”).

3. Operational Definition

   1. Author: An “author” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. S/he must take responsibility for at least one component of the work, should be able to identify who is responsible for each other component, and should ideally be confident in their coauthors’ ability and integrity (Guidelines and Procedures for Publication and Extension (2013, p.6).

2. AC: AC means academic commission (herein after referred as the AC).

3. JU: JU means Jimma University (herein after referred as the JU).

4. CSSH: CSSH means College of Social Sciences and Humanities (herein after referred as the College).

3. Policy of the Journal

   1. Open Access Policy

Publications are available immediately upon publication freely.

2. Vision and Mission

The vision of EJSSLS is to be one of the most preferable journals in Africa with the mission of disseminating quality publication to the wider readership.

3.     Editorial Policy

Editorial policies are subjected to protect and strengthen the journal’s integrity and quality aiming reader's interest. All the articles are produced with respect to the scope of the journal based on their significance, novelty and usefulness to the Journals readership.  Decisions on manuscripts are not affected by the author's origin, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or political beliefs. No government policies or agencies away from the journal will determine the decision. Decisions taken are strictly based on the articles validity and importance to the scientific readers.

4. Aims and Scope
   

Aims

It aims to provide a platform for the research community to share their findings, insights and views about all aspects of Social Sciences and Language.

Scope

The Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies (EJSSLS) is an open access peer-reviewed journal published in both printed and online versions (The online version is free to access and download) two times in a year (June and December). The journal accepts the research papers from the diverse fields of social sciences, languages, and allied disciplines. The quality research in the areas of applied linguistics, communication, public relations, media studies, environmental studies, and related fields, is also invited for its publication in the journal. Papers can be submitted in the form of full-length original research, review articles, book reviews, commentaries, and Editorials - Policies, news and comment or letters to editor.

5. Readership

The primary audience of this publication would be academicians, research scholars, graduate students, and anyone interested in research.

6. Author Guidelines

Submission of a paper implies that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript and its contents, and that they are aware of the responsibilities connected to authorship. Signatures from all the authors are not required; it is the corresponding author’s responsibility to obtain agreement from all authors supporting the submission. The corresponding author will be notified upon receipt of a new manuscript and upon acceptance of a manuscript, and the editorial board corresponds only with the Corresponding Author, whose responsibility is to communicate with all other authors.

7. Declaration

Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and that neither itself, nor parts of it, have been published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript to the Journal, the authors guarantee that they have the appropriate authority from their employers and/or funding agencies to publish the work. Any related work under consideration, review, revision or accepted for publication elsewhere must accompany the submission if they are relevant to its scientific assessment. Authors should submit complete unpublished and original works, which are not under review in any other journals. When submitting the manuscript, the authors should declare that the manuscripts have not been published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere.

8.      Conflicts of Interest

In the interests of transparency and to help editors and reviewers assess any potential bias, the Journal requires authors of original research papers to declare their specific contribution to the work (in a copy transfer form, see Appendix E) and any competing commercial interests in relation to the submitted work. It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, but as a practical guideline, we would suggest this to be any undeclared interest that could embarrass you were it to become publicly known. Referees and editors are also subject to Conflict of Interest regulations.

9. Submission Policy

Manuscripts should be submitted online in A4 paper in single spacing (for cost
minimization of the printed version). Signed manuscript submission form should
accompany the manuscript (it can be copied from the Journal’s Webpage)
To facilitate the rapid publication and reduce administrative costs,  EJSSLS  accepts  only electronic submissions in word format.

10. Data Collection and Presentation

Presented data must represent the findings in a fair and accurate manner. This includes appropriate statistical analysis and image processing ( For further details, please refer to the General Guide to manuscript submission). The Editors deserve the right to request original versions of figures and the source data that were used to assemble the figure from the authors of a paper under consideration, or of a paper already published in The Journal.

11. Originality and Plagiarism

    1. Originality

The editors require that any information published in the Journal represents a substantially novel contribution to the scientific record. Any manuscript submitted to The Journal should therefore not contain content that has been formally published in a peer reviewed journal or another citable form, whether in print or electronic. This includes websites, blogs and the news media. Any text, data, material, images, ideas or quotes should be attributed to the original source, even if it is by the same authors.

2. Plagiarism

The publisher and the Journal (EJSSLS) have a policy of “Zero Tolerance on the Plagiarism”. The plagiarism issue will be checked through two methods:  plagiarism prevention tool (ithenticate.com) and reviewer check. All submissions will be checked by plagiarism checkers like iThenticate before being sent to reviewers.

12. Correction and Retraction Policy

    1. Correction Policy

When any errors are noticed on published manuscripts, authors should inform the journal’s Editor-in-Chief and/or Managing Editor so that corrections are made at the journal’s discretion. EJSSLS encourage readers and authors to notify them (the board members) if they find errors, especially errors that could affect the interpretation of data or information presented in an article. Article retraction may be due to infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. Occasionally, a retraction will be used to correct errors in submission or publication. If there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings or the reliability of the data, it is not appropriate to retract a publication solely on the grounds of an authorship dispute. The correction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article:

Online First publication

The Online First (or ‘published ahead of print’) version is considered the version of record, and not an opportunity to make changes prior to print publication. EJSSLS will consider replacing this version with an updated version which corrects the error and notifies that the change has been made (in a correction notice at the end of the article). The correction notice will be retained in the print version for record.

If the article has already appeared in an issue, a correction notice will be printed in the next available print issue. The online version of the article will link to the correction notice, and vice versa.

1.12.2. Retraction Policy

Retractions are considered by editors of EJSSLS in cases of evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, duplicate submission (to different journals) , and unethical research. The editors of the Journal may consider an expression of concern notice if an article is under investigation. The retraction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article.

Online First publication

A new version of the article will be posted containing just the metadata, with a retraction note replacing the original text. A retraction notice will also be published in the next available print issue. The original text will remain accessible.

Publication in an issue or a continuous publication journal

A replacement version of the article will be posted containing just the metadata, with a retraction note replacing the original text. The PDF will be replaced with a version watermarked with “Retracted” but the original text will remain accessible. A retraction notice will also be published in the next available print issue.

In rare cases, the editors may have to remove the original content for legal reasons. In such cases the editor (s) will leave the metadata (title and authors) and replace the text with a note saying the article has been removed for legal reasons. A retraction notice will also be published online and/or in print.

Retraction notices are indexed and linked to the original records in EJSSLS Web.

13. Citation

Comprehensive and accurate citation of the relevant literature is essential. We require citation of the primary literature wherever appropriate.  See General Guidelines for Manuscript Submission.

14. Language Policy

English is the language the Journal uses. Authors must use consistently either UK or American English. In the future, Ethiopian languages (e.g., Afan Oromo and Amharic) can be considered based on need and feasibility assessment.

15. Copyrights and Licensing

 Copyrights: According to the Guidelines and Procedures for Publication and Extension (2013, p.13), 1.9.1.7., of Jimma University, JU owns the copyright of the published articles within JU hosted Journals, and authors of accepted manuscripts for publication in JU hosted Journal shall sign Copyright Transfer Agreement (Please see Annex 12 or Appendix E). In the same guideline JU makes the publications to be made available freely (open access).

Licensing: The journal follows an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).

 

16. Subscription Fee

 

The online publication is accessible freely. Authors are not requested to pay during submission for publication and to access after publication. However, for the print version, the subscription fee per issue and postage service varies for individual subscribers, institutional subscribers, and countries (local and overseas). The fee is determined based on the existing situation as publication and postage prices may vary from time to time or Issue to Issue.

3.    Reviewing Process

EJSSLS follows double-blind system for peer-review. Reviewers can be from different or the same institute depending on reviewer availability (Internal and external, internal and internal, and external and external). The internal and external approach is the first option the journal follows.

1. Paper Selection and Publication Process

1. After receiving a manuscript, the Editor/managing editor gives code or identity number to the manuscript. The author and reviewers may use this in further correspondence for enquiries.

2. After receiving a manuscript, the Editor sends an E-mail of confirmation to the corresponding author within 1-3 working days. If the author does not receive this confirmation in this given time, s/he has to contact without delay the contact person/editor.

3. Initial decisions are held by Editors-in-Chief and submitted manuscripts will undergo unbiased preliminary assessment for the suitability to the scope of the journals.

4. As an extension to the process, the assessed manuscripts are returned to the author for revision if they are not relevant and consistent to the guidelines of the journal. This saves the precious time of the reviewers and speeds up the review process.

5. If/when the assessed manuscripts are found relevant and consistent to the policy or guide of the journal, they will be forwarded to at-least two expert reviewers in the field.

6. Both reviewers and authors’ identities remain anonymous. Reviewers are given 2-3 weeks to send their fair and constructive reviews to Editor, and Editors-in-Chief are aimed to take the final decision within 6 weeks from the manuscript submission.

7. The editorial board members decide accepting or rejecting a manuscript based on reports from at least two reviewers.

8. The result of review is notified by E-mail.

9. The authors revise paper provided that his/her manuscript is accepted.

10. After publication, the corresponding author will receive two copies of printed journals, free of charge.

11. E-journal in PDF can be downloaded freely from the journal’s webpage.