The JSR is committed to promoting demographic, gender, geographical, and institutional diversity among its authors, reviewers, and Editorial Board members. This is clear from the geographic, demographic, institutional, and academic diversity in the Editorial Team and the Editorial Board.

The primary goal of the journal is to foster an inclusive and equitable publishing environment in which emerging authors are given detailed feedback and guidance from the Editorial Team to help them publish their articles. Emerging scholars and scholars from the Global South are also given financial support to ensure that they are not disadvantaged or excluded from publishing with the JSR. Every effort is made to encourage, promote, and support scholars from Africa and from various African academic institutions to publish in the JSR.

Over the past 15 years the JSR has maintained a balance of articles submitted from various institutions ensuring that 25% or fewer contributions come from the same institution and 75% from different institutions, thus ensuring diverse representation in the submissions and editorial processes. The JSR is committed to continuing this practice.

The JSR allows authors to submit a maximum of two articles per author per year. This is irrespective of the percentage of contribution they have made to either article.

The Editorial Policy is reviewed and updated every five years or as needed, in consultation with the JSR Editorial Board to ensure its relevance and effectiveness.

The Appointment, Responsibilities, and Roles of the Editorial Team and Editorial Board

The Appointment of the Editor-in-Chief

The appointment of the Editor-in-Chief is conducted through a transparent and equitable process at the annual meeting of the ASRSA. The names of possible candidates who have been nominated by members of the ASRSA and confirmed that they are willing to serve on the Board are presented at the annual meeting of the ASRSA. Members of the ASRSA present at the meeting vote on the candidates and the candidate with the most votes is then appointed. The election of the Editor-in-Chief is done through a voting process which is chaired by the president of the ASRSA. Through this process the ASRSA and the JSR ensures the selection of highly qualified individuals.

In cases where an Editor-in-Chief may submit an article, they must delegate full editorial discretion to an Associate Editor or Guest Editor to ensure impartiality. Infrequent or occasional submissions may be acceptable, provided that the Editor-in-Chief is not involved in the editorial processing of their manuscript and do not have access to any confidential information regarding the peer review process.

An Editor-in-Chief serves a term of two years and may then be re-elected for a second term.

The Roles and Responsibilities Specific to the Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief should engage in continuous professional development to stay updated on best practices in scholarly publishing. This includes attending relevant workshops, conferences, and training sessions, as well as maintaining membership in professional societies. The Editor-in-Chief also shares what they have learnt with the Associate Editors and uses this as a way to mentor and develop them so that they may become ready to take over as Editor-in-Chief at some point in the future. The Editor-in-Chief must be a member of good standing in the ASRSA.

The Editor-in-Chief must follow up on all communications from the UJ Press and SciELO to ensure that the JSR remains on the DHET list and on the SciELO list.

The Editor-in-Chief is ultimately responsible for ensuring that a minimum of 10 articles are published each year in the two annual editions of the JSR. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for ensuring that the two editions come out timeously during June and December each year.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the quality of the articles published in the JSR and should develop the academic standing and focus of the JSR over time.

The Editor is responsible to convene and chair two Editorial Team meetings a year and one Editorial Board meeting a year.

The JSR Editor-in-Chief is encouraged to request academics to be Guest Editors of the journal. If the Guest Editor has not edited a journal before, the Editor-in-Chief is expected to mentor the Guest Editor and provide them with help and any guidance they might require. The JSR strongly recommends that the process of guest editing be regarded as a developmental role through which emerging scholars can learn about scholarly journal editing and production.

In the second period of an Editor-in-Chief’s term of office the Editor-in-Chief is expected to engage in a succession planning process during which they mentor a possible successor.

The Editor-in-Chief must regularly check the new articles that are submitted to the journal – on a weekly basis.

The Editor-in-Chief reviews each new article and determines if it fits the scope of the journal and checks if all the information is complete. If it does not fall within the scope of the journal or if key information is missing the Editor-in-Chief rejects the article. If the article has a Turnitin score of more than 10 the Editor-in-Chief will also reject the article. The Editor-in-Chief may engage the use of an AI tool to detect AI usage in a manuscript and if AI tools have been used to generate the content of the manuscript the Editor-in-Chief will reject the article. This is then noted on the online system and the author is notified that their article is rejected and why.

The Editor-in-Chief must declare any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which such conflicts exist.

The Editor-in-Chief identifies a specialist language editor for each edition of the journal. The use of a specialist language editor is to ensure that the highest standards in language proofreading and copyediting in the layout of each article are adhered to. The work of the language editor is developmental in nature, and they should assist the authors to present their arguments in the most accessible way possible. This enables the JSR to support academics whose first language is not English and to ensure equitable access to publication for academics from the Global South. The language and copyeditor also ensures standardized language editing, quality control for figures, images, and flow charts, and accurate references.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final version of each article and must oversee the work of the language copyeditor to ensure that it meets the specifications and standards of the journal.

The Editor-in-Chief then hands over the copies of all the articles to be included in an edition of a specific volume to the UJ Press Manager. The UJ Press uses automation tools for layout and digital formatting, thus ensuring that each edition is compatible with multiple digital platforms and is easily accessible to a diverse audience across various digital platforms.

Once the review process is concluded, the Editor-in-Chief informs the reviewers of the overall outcome of the review process and may share the review comments submitted to the author(s).

The Roles and Responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editors, and Associate Editors

If an article is not rejected although it is not in the scope of the journal, key information is missing, or the Turnitin score is above 10, the Editor-in-Chief assigns the article to themselves or to one of the Associate Editors into whose area of expertise this article falls, for them to review the quality of the article. The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Associate Editors then determine if in their expert opinion the article does or does not meet the minimum scholarly standards of quality and original research requirements of the journal. If it does not meet these standards the article is rejected. The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Associate Editor then notes this on the online system and notifies the author that their article is rejected and why. If in the expert opinion of the Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Associate Editors, the article does meet the minimum requirements of quality and original scholarship they then oversee the peer review process for articles.

They then follow a double-blind peer review process ensuring that the article is reviewed by reviewers who are approved by the Editorial Team and on the active JSR reviewer database and are experts on the topic of the article. Peer reviewers should not be affiliated to the same institution as any of the authors of the article, have co-authored with the author(s), or have been supervisors of the author(s) for the article in question.

Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Guest Editors must declare any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which such conflicts exist.

While the online system reminds reviewers to submit their reviews, the Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Associate Editor is responsible for checking regularly to see if reviews have been submitted to make sure that reviewers are not taking too long. Should a reviewer not send in a review after three months and three follow-up reminders, the reviewer is taken off the article and a new reviewer is assigned.

Once two reviews have been submitted, the Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Associate Editor assesses the reviews. Should there be a huge discrepancy a third review must be obtained. Should one or both reviews be factually incorrect, incomplete, discriminating, derogatory, slanderous, or demeaning another review is required. After acceptable peer reviews have been submitted, it is the decision of the Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Associate Editor to reject an article based on feedback from reviewers who have found significant flaws or weaknesses in the research. All authors are given thorough feedback to explain why their article has been rejected and substantial guidance must be given to help them improve on their work.

Rejection before publication: After an author has made changes suggested by peer reviewers, their article is put through Turnitin before they are language edited. Should an article receive a Turnitin score of more than 10 the article will be rejected for publication. Plagiarism is taken very seriously by the JSR and the JSR adheres to the plagiarism policy outlined by the UJ Press.

The Appointment of Associate Editors

The appointment of Associate Editors follows a similar transparent and equitable process via the ASRSA executive committee and the existing members of the JSR Editorial Team. The names of possible candidates who have been nominated and confirmed that they are willing to serve on the Board are brought to a meeting of the ASRSA executive and the JSR Editorial Team. The members at the meeting vote on which candidate they think is most suitable and the candidate with the most votes is then appointed. The term of office of the Associate Editors is two years. They may be re-elected for a second two year period.

The Associate Editors are required to attend two Editorial Team meetings a year and one Editorial Board meeting a year.

The Appointment of the Treasurer

The appointment of the treasurer follows a similarly transparent and equitable process via the ASRSA executive committee and the existing members of the JSR Editorial Team. The names of possible candidates who have been nominated and confirmed that they are willing to serve on the Board are brought to a meeting of the ASRSA executive and the JSR Editorial Team. The members at the meeting vote on which candidate they think is most suitable and the candidate with the most votes is then appointed. The term of office of the treasurer is two years. They may be re-elected for a second two year period. The treasurer is required to attend two Editorial Team meetings a year and one Editorial Board meeting.

Roles and responsibilities of the Treasurer

The roles and responsibilities of the Treasurer include receiving the bank statements, recording all expenses and received payments, making follow-up on payments and generating invoices when needed. The Treasurer must also process yearly payments for e.g., hosting and website fees and present a yearly financial report.

Guest Editors of a Special Edition

Any academic may volunteer to be a Guest Editor for a special edition. If an academic wishing to be a Guest Editor of a special edition of the JSR they must submit the following to the Editor-in-Chief:

• Their CV.
• An outline of the proposed focus of the special edition showing how this will fill a gap within the existing scholarship, be of interest to the readers of the JSR and falls within the scope of the journal.
• The potential authors who are interested in participating in the edition by submitting articles.
• A list of potential reviewers that they have identified to review the articles.

Once the above have been submitted the Editorial Team will evaluate the submission and the Editor-in-Chief will communicate the outcome to the academic who proposed the special edition.

A Guest Editor serves a term of up to eight months during which time they are expected to oversee the production of a particular edition. They are required to send the Editor-in-Chief monthly updates of the progress of the special edition. They are also encouraged to ask the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors for any help or any guidance they might require.

The Editorial Board

Term of office: Board members serve for a period of two years and their term of office can be extended twice.

Election: Members of the Editorial Team of the JSR nominate candidates to be elected to the Editorial Board. Nominated candidates confirm in writing that they are willing to stand. The Editorial Team then vote on the nominated candidates taking into account the JSR’s commitment to mentor emerging academics and to appoint candidates from a variety of demographic, geographic, and institutional areas or fields of study.

Roles and responsibilities: Board members are expected to review two articles a year and to help the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors to identify other potential reviewers. As Board members, candidates are expected to attend one annual Board meeting and to offer the JSR strategic guidance in determining and executing the mission and vision of the journal.

Board members are requested to advertise each new edition of a specific volume that has been published to their respective networks via social media, e-mails, and other forms of communication. They are also required to share any calls for papers issued by the JSR to their networks.

Board members may be requested to mentor emerging scholars to help them develop their articles to ensure that they meet the quality standards required by the JSR for review and publication.

The Editorial Board should review the process of the journal and the work of the Editorial Team to ensure that they maintain best practices in accordance with the guidelines set out by ASSAf and SciELO.

As members of the Editorial Board and once their term of office has ended, Board members should respect the confidentiality of journal information and ensure it is not inappropriately circulated.

The Board members must accept that the Editor-in-Chief’s decisions on publication and other matters are final and that their role is an advisory one.