Journal Policy
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).
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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
3.1. 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).
3.2. AC: AC means academic commission (herein after referred as the AC).
3.3. JU: JU means Jimma University (herein after referred as the JU).
3.4. CSSH: CSSH means College of Social Sciences and Humanities (herein after referred as the College).
4. Policy of the Journal
4.1 Open Access Policy Publications are available immediately upon publication freely.
4.2 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.
4.3 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.
4.4 Aims and Scope
4.4.1 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.
4.4.2 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.
4.5 Readership The primary audience of this publication would be academicians, research scholars, graduate students, and anyone interested in research.
4.6 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.
4.7 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.
4.8 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.
4.9 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.
4.10 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.
4.11 Originality and Plagiarism
4.11.1 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.
4.11.2 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 (Turnitin) and reviewer check. For EJSSLS, a text similarity more than 20% is an immediate perceived indicator that the text is intentionally plagiarized. All submissions will be checked by plagiarism checkers like Turnitin before being sent to reviewers.
4.12 Correction and Retraction Policy
4.12.1 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.
4.12.2 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.
4.13 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.
4.14 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.
4.15 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/).
4.16 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, though it is accessible without cost currently, the subscription fee per issue and postage service varies for individual subscribers, institutional subscribers, and countries (local and overseas) in the future. The fee is determined based on the existing situation as publication and postage prices may vary from time to time or Issue to Issue.
5. 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.
a) Paper Selection and Publication Process
i. 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.
ii. 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.
iii. 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.
iv. 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.
v. 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.
vi. 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.
vii. The editorial board members decide accepting or rejecting a manuscript based on reports from at least two reviewers.
viii. The result of review is notified by E-mail.
ix. The authors revise paper provided that his/her manuscript is accepted.
x. After publication, the corresponding author will receive two copies of printed journals, free of charge.
xi. E-journal in PDF can be downloaded freely from the journal’s webpage.
Source: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Journal_System, CC-SA
6. Structure of The Journal
1) Bodies of the Journal
a) The journal shall have such bodies as:
1) Advisory board
2) The Editorial board
3) Managing Editor
4) Secretary
b) The Editorial board The number of members the editorial board shall be seven (Guidelines and Procedures for Publication and Extension, 2013, p.5). The board shall compromise: one Editor- in- Chief, one associate Editor-in Chief, and five editors. The Editor-in-Chief shall assign additional associate editors when the journal publishes separate sub-sections to be handled by a particular associate editor in chief.
1. The Editorial Board shall be directly accountable to the Collage AC.
2. The term of office for the editor – in – Chief shall be four years and for other editors three years.
3. A web site manager and a secretary are hired for the office work.
4. The editorial board shall, from time to time, contact and convince individuals with an outstanding contribution to the academic world or to the society to be members of the advisory board.
c) General Eligibility Criteria for Appointment to the Editorial Board The eligibility criteria for appointment as an editor in the editorial board shall include the following:
• Demonstrated scholarly expertise and ethical leadership.
• A minimum of two publications is required.
• Demonstration of excellence in the review process,
• Stated commitment to attend meetings and to carry out responsibilities.
d) Nomination and Election Process
Editorial Board members shall be nominated and elected as follows:
The Social Sciences and Humanities Collage Academic Commission (AC) members must nominate from the academic staff fulfilling the eligibility criteria and elect from the nominated ones through a vote, and candidates who get ¾ and the highest of the votes of the attending AC members shall be appointed as member of the editorial board. In composing the editorial board, the AC shall ensure the members’ expertise on various fields and disciplines.
If a candidate is appointed by the AC Members, she/he shall serve for a specified term of three years except the editor-in-chief whose term of office shall be 4 years, and a member who is absent for 4 months shall be replaced by other member. Continued membership of the Editorial Board will be reviewed every four years for the editor- in chief and three years for other members by the AC. The AC can remove an editor including the editor in chief before his/her term expires when and if the editor is not in a position to discharge his/her responsibilities mentioned in this document and other relevant documents for any reason (e.g. Recklessness, absence, sickness, etc).
e) General Responsibility of the Editorial Board and Its Members
1. Develop its own working procedures and revise, improve, or change authors’, editors’ and reviewers’ guide which are appended to this document and issue other guides of similar nature.
2. Editors should hold the responsibility for the whole Journal content.
3. Contribute to Journal development and management through generous relationship with other board members.
4. Update reviewers and authors with new policies and guidelines.
5. Assure the integrity in the published work.
6. Encourage authors for submission of sound articles that falls within the scope of the journal.
7. Editors should ensure the protection of individual data and maintain confidentiality.
8. Every Editorial Board member should ensure submission of at least one manuscript in a year.
9. Ensure constructive, fair and timely feedback to the authors for their contribution.
10. Elevate Journal's reputation among their affiliated academic community.
11. Represent and promote the journal at academic meetings and conferences.
12. If or when appropriate, encourage authors whose primary language is not English to seek mentorship or assistance from a colleague prior to submitting a manuscript for review. f) Editor-in-Chief‘s Responsibility
1. The Editor-in-Chief must have a minimum of three publications in a peer reviewed journals and an academic rank of an assistant professor or above.
2. The Chair of the Editorial Board is the Editor(s)-in-Chief.
3. The Editor-in-Chief has a vital role in the success of a Journal. He should guarantee the quality and integrity of the content found in the Journal. It is his/her primary responsibility to educate and communicate the vision to the authors, readers, editorial board members and publisher. The Editor-in-Chief should put consistent efforts to enhance quality and elevate the significance of published articles to the corresponding community.
4. Editor-in-Chief should take the whole responsibility of the Journal and she/he should be familiar with the subject literature, research design, statistics, publication ethics and standards. He/she should also possess extensive editorial and interpersonal skills.
5. Should strive for the development of the Journal and suggest the publisher for further improvisations with additional policies.
6. Should encourage submission of quality articles by writing Editorials on the Journal's performance.
7. Should be responsible in selection and rotation of Editorial Board members, maintenance and development of Journal, participation in review process and look for appropriateness.
8. Should conduct annual meetings and educate the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.
9. Set annual objectives and assign responsibilities to the Board members for peer review process and ensure their timely completion.
10. Sets annual objectives on peer review process and timely publication, evaluate the performance of Board members and encourage promotions appropriately.
11. Should act accordingly in taking action to improve the objectives that are not achieved timely.
12. Generally, after the peer review process and initial editing, the manuscript comes to the Editor-in-Chief for the final approval. The final decision to accept or reject of an article will be held with Editor-in-Chief. She/he should cross check the content quality, writing style and construction, grammar, spellings, data presentation and organization prior to take the final decision.
13. Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere. If the paper found plagiarized or infringed, the Editor-in-Chief has the right to reject the article straight away.
14. Should supervise and support the publisher in handling complaints and appeals, responding genuinely to ethical problems regarding publication of any duplicate or fraudulent work.
g) Associate Editor –in- Chief Responsibility
1. The Associate Editor-in-Chief must have a minimum of two publications in peer reviewed journals, an academic rank of assistant professor and above.
2. She/he assists the Editor-in-Chief in judging a manuscript to be accepted or rejected, supports in taking decisions and communicating with other Board members. S/he, fills the role of both serving as an editorial board member in review process as well as ensuring the publication of high quality papers in the Journal.
3. Senior Editor should assist the Editor-in-Chief and also involve in the peer review process.
4. She/he is responsible for the quality of Journal content and the published articles.
5. Encourage submission of high quality papers.
6. She/he provides fair and constructive feedback to the contributors, Editors and Reviewers.
7. She/he provides Editorials on the Journal performance and promoting new policies when introduced.
8. She/he assists Editor-in-Chief in conducting annual meetings and educates the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.
9. She/he assists Editor-in-Chief in setting annual objectives and assigns responsibilities to the Board members for peer review process and ensures their timely completion.
10. She/he should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere.
11. Should support Editor-in-Chief in handling ethical issues, complaints and appeals regarding the publication standards.
12. She/he suggests publisher with new policies and for the development of the Journal.
13. She/he needs to take up the role of Editor-in-chief when not available.
h) Editors’ Responsibilities
1. The Editor must have a minimum of two publications in peer reviewed journals and an academic rank of assistant professor or above.
2. The Editor has to assist both the Senior Editor and the Editor-in-Chief in guaranteeing the quality of content found in Journal and communicating its vision for the journal to authors, Editorial Board members, readers, and publisher. Associate Editor should be mindful with the policies of the Journal and publisher, Author guidelines, Editor Guidelines and Reviewer guidelines.
3. The Editor should guide the Authors, Editors and Reviewers with the guidelines.
4. She/he encourages submission of high quality articles in the Journal and assist Senior Editor in monitoring the content quality.
5. She/he participates in conducting annual meetings and other meetings.
6. She/he monitors the manuscripts for writing style, language, presentation according to the Journal's policy and instructions.
7. She/he should ensure effective peer review process and timely publication.
8. She/he should ensure the integrity of the Journal content and quality in the published articles.
9. She/he should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere.
10. She/he suggests publisher with new policies and for the development of the Journal.
11. She/he should suggest eminent reviewers during the peer review process.
12. She/he should carry out any task assigned to him by the editors- in -Chief.
i) The Managing Editor The Managing Editor who is accountable to the Editorial Board has the following duties and responsibilities.
1. The Managing Editor must have a minimum of two publications in peer reviewed journals and has a minimum of MA degree in Communication or related fields.
2. Be able to handle open journal system.
3. Holds and manages the office of publication.
4. Works closely with the Editor-in-Chief.
5. Calls for manuscript contribution periodically.
6. Collects manuscripts from contributors, acknowledges the receipt of them, and codes any manuscript for evaluation and edition.
7. Makes preliminary screening of manuscripts and presents suggestions for the Editorial Board in general and editor-in-Chief in particular.
8. Collaborates with editor- in- chief to determine issues’ content and topics
9. Distributes manuscripts selected for review to designated evaluators
10. Reminds manuscript evaluators to return the evaluated manuscripts within the allocated time.
11. Collects reviewed manuscripts from evaluators in electronic copies.
12. Disseminates comments received from evaluators back to manuscript contributors and collects final improved versions of manuscripts from contributors with explanation notes how the issues raised by assessors have been treated by the author(s).
13. Resolves issues that arise during the review process especially when contributors resist accepting comments given from manuscript assessors.
14. Makes communication tactfully with contributors and reviewers.
15. Communicates regularly with a progress report and asks questions or clarifications if necessary.
16. Sends again the improved manuscripts to the evaluators so that they check whether their comments have been incorporated especially when the manuscript is suggested for major revision.
17. Presents the selected manuscripts for publication to the editorial board members
18. Sends the selected manuscripts for publication to copy editor
19. Sends finally selected manuscripts for typesetting, checks that those manuscripts are properly typeset, and submits them to the selected online and print publisher.
20. Disseminates the Journal and makes sure that the copy of the Journal has been disseminated in hard copy to the concerned stakeholders.
21. Disseminates the Journal and makes sure that the copy of the Journal has been disseminated in soft copy (PDF) to the contributors.
22. Ensures the manuscripts are always available online.
23. Writes editorials of EJSSLS
24. Prepares agenda for the meetings of the Editorial Board in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief.
25. Records minutes of the Editorial Board.
26. Keeps confidential information related to manuscripts submitted to the Journal.
27. Supervises the activities of the office secretary.
j). Content and Technical Editor The primary responsibility of the technical editor is to make sure that the Journal is technically accurate — no errors in the text or in any non-text elements (for example, illustrations and tables).The content and technical editor performs the following functions.
1. Checks and verifies all facts and references.
2. Ensures that the document’s structure reflects the hierarchy of the content (i.e., more important information should precede secondary information).
3. Ensures the readability of the manuscript.
4. Verifies that navigational aids such as cross-references and links are accurate and functional.
5. Checks illustrations and captions are correct.
6. Ensures consistency throughout the entire manuscript and the Journal.
7. Checks and verifies all graphics, figures, listings, tables and other non-text items.
8. Checks the images against the text and convert the final images to the appropriate output form (file type). Make sure the files are properly named.
9. Carries out technical editing in compliance with the formats of EJSSLS.
10. Oversees proofreading procedures and edit copy when necessary
11. Oversees the webpage of the Journal and updates it.
12. Edits the content of manuscripts in consultation with specialized experts of various disciplines, when necessary, to ensure that an article is up to the desired standard by the EJSSLS.
13. Compares the final version of the document with the marked-up version to make sure that all corrections have been made
14. Consults contributors, whenever necessary, for further clarification of content.
15. Checks that all the necessary information to understand a given manuscript is properly appended at the end of each paper.
k). Language and Layout Editor (Copy Editor) A copy editor should be excellent in written English, including spelling and grammar. A copy editor makes sure that a text is readable, accurate and ready for publication. The language and layout editor performs the following activities.
1) Checks text to ensure it is well written and logically structured.
2) Ensures the text is in line with the EJSSLS’ format.
3) Ensures documents for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style, and s/he provides guidance to authors to ensure accuracy, completeness, organization, logic, clarity, relevance, and stylistic consistency.
4) Edits the overall language of an article, corrects or improves so that it maintains the standard language in similar article of similar reputable journals.
5) Edits the discourse of a manuscript whether it is up to the standard of a research discourse.
6) Ensures that the language style and the overall organization of a manuscript are readable to the major target readership of the EJSSLS.
7) Monitors the diction, mechanics and syntax of a manuscript in such a way that it is readily comprehended by the target readership.
8) Checks that the overall layout of a manuscript including margins, line spacing and layout of the EJSSLS are properly maintained.
9) Checks that all the manuscripts have been organized as per styles and formats of EJSSLS.
10) Maintains the overall standards of the EJSSLS in terms of language and layout in general.
l). Manuscript Assessors The manuscript assessors have the following duties and responsibilities.
i. Assess articles using the manuscript assessment format or checklist given in this publication guide.
ii. Review the given manuscript within the EJSSLS’s set deadline for assessment and submit to the Managing Editor or the Editor-in-Chief.
iii. Treats the manuscript as confidential.
iv. Return the manuscript without review to Managing Editor or the Editor-in-Chief if the manuscript is not the area of their academic specialization, or if they think the manuscript is not anonymously sent to them, or if they lack time to review, without undue delay.
v. Will not retain or copy the submitted manuscript in any form; to comply with data protection regulations, as appropriate.
vi. Respect the intellectual independence of authors. vii. Make known any conflicts of interest that might arise. viii. Provide professional supports for the quality of the Journal.
m). Secretary (Typist) The secretary typist performs the following duties and responsibilities.
1. Has MA in TEFL/Communication.
2. Keeps information related to manuscripts of the Journal confidential.
3. Handles the secretarial activities of the publication office, such as organizing and keeping files, typing letters and reports, and dispatching outgoing letters, and recording incoming letters.
4. Maintains routine correspondences with Managing editor and Board Members.
5. Typesets the selected manuscripts for publication and makes them camera-ready for publication.
6. Follows up-to-date formats for typesetting and selecting the most appropriate design for the Journal.
7. Arranges appointments and editorial board meetings, and prepares materials for them;
8. Compiles or organizes manuscripts according to their types (e.g. accepted, pended, rejected; Original article, Review article)
9. Performs other duties being accountable to the Managing Editor.
10. Schedule appointments and update event calendars.
11. Prepares reports.
12. Handles incoming and outgoing telephones, mail and faxes.
13. Prepare memos, invoices, or other reports.
14. Checks whether the necessary Inc and papers for print are available.
15. Transfer comments on a print copy to soft copies.
16. Maintains databases and filing systems, whether electronic or paper.
17. Performs basic bookkeeping
n). Privileges of the Authors, Advisory Board, Editorial Board and Support Staff
1. The Journal shall be published bearing the names of the Advisory Board members, Editorial Board members, and support staff.
2. A copy of every issue of the Journal will be distributed to the Advisory Board members, Editorial Board members, support staff, and the assessors of the articles which appeared in the issue free of charge.
3. Two copies of the issue of the Journal will be given free of charge to the authors in which their articles appeared.
4. Owns recognition letter.
7. Amendments of the Constitution This constitution may be amended only in accordance with the following procedure. First, a proposed amendment shall be introduced at a meeting of the editorial Board of editors by the editor-in-Chief. If the proposed amendment is approved by ¾ of the total number of editorial board members, next it shall be introduced to the Collage’s AC by at least 3 members of the AC or the Board of Editors. If the proposed amendment is approved by ½ of the AC members, the amendment shall come in to force. Then the Senate will be notified about the amendments through formal letter.
8. Ratification Date This constitution shall become effective when approved by 3/4 of the total members of the Academic Commission on the meeting called for that purpose. This constitution has become effective as of ----------------------.