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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • Submission Preparation Checklist


    All submissions are required to be checked off as meeting all of the following criteria, and submissions that do not comply with these guidelines may be returned to the authors.



    • This submission has not previously been published (except as a lecture, abstract, or thesis) nor has it been submitted to another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).

    • I have read the author guidelines and the manuscript adheres fully to the guidelines requirements. I have declared any conflict of interest in the manuscript that may influence any of the parties involved in the publication, production, or distribution of the article.

    • If this submission involves human subjects, I certify that all procedures are in accordance with the highest ethical standards. Informed consent was sought and granted. The data were treated anonymously and confidentially. Ethical approval is granted by the relevant institutional body where applicable. I have described the ethical procedures in the methodological section, and if requested, I will provide full details of the ethical procedures.

    • By submitting this to De-centre: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, on behalf of all the authors, I declare that all the data provided in the submitted paper are real and accurate. I also confirm that the submission, and consequently, the publication of this paper has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities.

    • I confirm that the editor reserves the right to make editorial changes to my manuscript accepted for publication to enhance clarity or conformity with journal style.



    • Where available, URLs for references are provided.

    • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except for URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

    • All authors have included their ORCID in this submission.

    • Where I have used AI tools in the drafting of this manuscript, I have acknowledged it appropriately in the methodology section of this work. Specifically, I have cited the AI tool utilized, how it was applied, the date used, and the name and creator of that version.

    • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.

    • All tables and figures have been numbered and labelled

    • Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.

Author Guidelines

The De-centre: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies invites submissions anytime during the year. Contributions must be submitted online, anonymously, on the website. Please remember to exclude authors' names on that submission. The contributing author will be asked for all authors' names and contact information separately on the website. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

The following guidelines should be followed by prospective authors when formatting their papers:

  1. Manuscripts should be submitted in English (UK) and range between 5000-8000 words. Letters or commentaries may be around 2000-3000 words. 
  2. Manuscripts should be uploaded in MS-Word format using Gill Sans MT font size 11, single spacing and should not include any identifying information e.g. names, affiliations etc.
  3. Abstract should be italicised, within 150-200 words maximum and with keywords.
  4. The main title of the paper should be in title case - font size 13. Subtitles should be in sentence case - font size 12. 
  5. Titles or headings should be bold. They should not be numbered or underlined.
  6. Page margins should be 2.54 cm.
  7. Images, posters, maps, diagrams, figures, and diagrams should be placed within the paper and numbered correctly.  
  8. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively and labelled with a brief heading for tables or bottom line captions for figures/images/diagrams/posters. Table headings and bottom line captions should be in Gill Sans MT font size 11. The tables/diagrams/images etc. used must be referred to in the text.
  9. Tables should have text left aligned. Tables and their headings should also be single spaced but in Gill Sans MT font size 10.
  10. Diagrams should be inserted as images (jpegs) and not drawn with lines or shapes in MS Word to avoid unintended shift of the diagram components. 
  11. Manuscripts containing plagiarism will not be considered for publication in the journal. Papers should be appropriately referenced, and all in-text references should be listed in the references section.
  12. You can use footnotes. Please do not use endnotes.
  13. Conflict of interest statements, where applicable, must be declared on the paper. 
  14. ORCID must be included for all authors. This is a compulsory requirement. 
  15. Where the author has used AI tools in the drafting of the manuscript, the AI tool used must be stated in the methodology. This is alongside how it was utilized, the date it was accessed, including the name and creator of the specific AI tool version.
  16. Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.
  17. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author.
  18. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

References should be done using the University of Johannesburg Harvard Referencing System. Please visit the Reference Guide for detailed clarity on the formatting style. 

  • All in-text references must be detailed in the bibliography in alphabetical order and not numbered.
  • The reference list should also not contain any sources not cited in the text.
  • References within the text are cited with the author(s) surname and the year of publication e.g. Ngubo (2024) notes that................
  • Where the author's surname(s) is/are in the bracket with the year, it should be separated by a comma e.g. it is observed that .................. (Ngubo, 2024). 
  • If several articles by the same author in the same year are cited, the years should be accompanied by alphabets in order of publication e.g. (Ngubo, 2024a).
  • In works by three authors, all authors' surnames are given in the first instance only. All following instances should reflect only the first author, followed by et al. (italicized). For instance, Ngubo et al. (2024).......
  • Where there are four or more authors, the first author's surname should be immediately used with et al.
  • The full authors' surnames and initials will also have to be presented in the reference list.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish in the De-centre: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication. 
  2. That the publication has been approved by all the author(s) and the responsible authorities.
  3. The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis.
  4. That the paper is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

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