Open Access Policy
The journal is committed to the principles of open access publishing, ensuring that scholarly research is freely accessible to the global academic community and the public without financial, legal, or technical barriers.
All articles published in this journal are made immediately and permanently available online upon publication. Readers may access, read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of articles without requiring permission from the publisher or the authors, provided that appropriate attribution is given.
The journal operates according to the diamond open access model, meaning that no submission fees, article processing charges (APCs), or publication fees are charged to authors. The costs associated with editorial management, peer review administration, copy-editing, typesetting, and online hosting are covered by the journal and its supporting institution.
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
This journal operates according to the diamond open access model. The journal does not charge article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, or publication fees.
Authors are not required to pay any fees at any stage of the submission, peer review, editorial processing, or publication of their manuscripts.
All articles published in the journal are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication. The costs associated with editorial management, peer review administration, copy-editing, typesetting, and online hosting are covered by the journal and its supporting institution.
This policy reflects the journal’s commitment to supporting the wide dissemination of high-quality scholarly research without financial barriers to authors or readers.
Peer Review Policy
All manuscripts submitted to this journal undergo a rigorous peer review process to ensure the quality, originality, and scholarly integrity of the research published.
Submissions are initially assessed by the editor or editorial team to determine whether the manuscript falls within the scope of the journal and meets the basic standards of academic quality and presentation.
Manuscripts that pass this initial screening are then sent for double-blind peer review, in which both the authors and the reviewers remain anonymous to each other.
Each manuscript is typically reviewed by at least two independent expert reviewers with relevant expertise in the subject area.
Reviewers are asked to evaluate manuscripts based on criteria including:
- originality and contribution to the field
- relevance to the scope of the journal
- methodological and analytical rigor
- clarity of argument and structure
- engagement with relevant literature.
Based on the reviewers’ reports, the editor will make one of the following decisions:
- accept the manuscript
- accept with minor revisions
- request major revisions and resubmission
- reject the manuscript.
The final decision on publication rests with the editor or editorial board, taking into account the reviewers’ recommendations.
The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, fairness, and confidentiality throughout the peer review process.
Reviewers are expected to treat manuscripts as confidential documents and to declare any potential conflicts of interest.
Copyright and Licensing
Authors who publish in this journal retain the copyright to their work.
Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0) administered by Creative Commons.
This licence permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original author and source are properly credited.
Under this licence, users are free to:
- share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.
Proper attribution to the author(s) and the journal must be provided, and a link to the licence must be included.
By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors grant the journal the right to publish the work and identify itself as the original publisher.
Authors are permitted to deposit and share their published articles in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, and academic networking platforms, provided that the original publication in the journal is acknowledged and a link to the published version is included.
Authors may share:
- the submitted manuscript (preprint)
- the accepted manuscript (post-print)
- the final published version of the record.
Archiving Policy
The journal is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of all published content.
All articles published in the journal are permanently archived and preserved through the journal’s hosting platform and the institutional repository of the University of Pretoria.
Articles remain freely accessible on the journal website and may also be deposited in institutional and subject repositories, provided that the original publication in the journal is properly acknowledged.
These archiving arrangements ensure that the journal’s published scholarship remains permanently accessible to the academic community and the public.
Plagiarism Screening Policy
The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and ethical publishing.
All submitted manuscripts may be screened for plagiarism using appropriate plagiarism detection software before or during the peer review process.
Manuscripts found to contain significant plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or unattributed use of other works will be rejected. Where necessary, the journal will follow appropriate ethical procedures in addressing cases of suspected academic misconduct.
Authors are expected to ensure that their submissions represent original work that has not been previously published and is not under consideration elsewhere.
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Confidentiality — Editors of the journal must treat received manuscripts for review as confidential documents. Editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher.
Equal Treatment — Editors of the journal must evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content and their contribution to specific disciplines, without regard to gender, race, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest — Editors of the journal and any editorial staff must not use materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript (published or unpublished) for their own research without the author’s written authorization.
Integrity of Blind Reviews — Editors of the journal should ensure the integrity of the blind review process. As such, editors should not reveal either the identity of authors of manuscripts to the reviewers, or the identity of reviewers to authors.
Publication Decisions — Editors of the journal are responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal should be reviewed or published. However, editors may consult other editors or reviewers in making such decisions.
Cooperative involvement in investigations — Editors of the journal should conduct a proper and fair investigation when an ethical complaint (concerning a submitted or published manuscript) is reported. Such process may include contacting the author(s) of the manuscript and the institution, giving due process of the respective complaint. If the complaint has merits, a proper action should be taken (publication correction, retraction, etc.). Besides, every reported action of unethical publishing behavior should be investigated even if it is
discovered years after publication.
Conflict of Interest Policy
The journal requires all participants in the publication process — including authors, reviewers, and editors — to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the research, evaluation, or publication of a manuscript.
A conflict of interest may arise when an individual has financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that could affect their objectivity.
