Submissions

Articles

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

All papers will be reviewed through a double-blind process. Reviewers and journal editors are expected to provide comments and critiques in a confidential, constructive, prompt, and unbiased manner appropriate for their position of responsibility. Collegiality, respect for the author’s dignity, and the search for ways to improve the quality of the manuscript should characterize the review process.

Author(s) identity is removed from the manuscript and shielded from the reviewers during the review process. The reviewer is left with only the manuscript without any information that might enable him/her uncovers the identity of the author(s). Information removed includes the author(s) name, address/affiliation, country, phone/fax and email. Any information in the Acknowledgement and Declaration of Conflict of Interest that may lead to the uncovering of the identity of the author is also removed from the manuscript prior to sending it to reviewers.

Manuscripts are assigned to members of the editorial board of the journal or other qualified reviewers. Reviewers make one of the following recommendations:

1. Accept
2. Accept with minor revision
3. Revise and resubmit
4. Reject

 A Review Certificate is issued to reviewers after the review of the manuscript and or their name appears on the second page of the journal.  The review reports are sent to the authors. However, reviewers’ identity is removed from the review reports. The author(s) is left with only the review reports/recommendation without any information that might enable him/her uncovers the identity of the reviewers. A minimum of two review reports are required per manuscript. On receipt of the author(s) revised manuscript, the original manuscript, the revised manuscript and the review reports are sent to the editor. The Internal editorial board makes one of the following decisions:

1. Accept
2. The Manuscript Requires Improvement
3. Reject

 Only the Internal Editorial Board has the authority to “Accept” or “Reject” a manuscript. If a manuscript is “Accepted”, an Acceptance Certificate is issued to the author(s) and the manuscripts are processed for publication. If a manuscript is rejected, the authors are informed of the decision and no further processing is done on the manuscript. If a manuscript requires improvement, it is sent to the author(s) with the editor’s recommendation for further revision.

AUTHORSHIP

An author is an individual who has significantly contributed to the development of a manuscript. NJLC recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria:

 Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

1. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
2. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
3. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

 

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

Authors should read the “Instruction for Authors” on the journal’s page before making a submission. Manuscript should be prepared according to the style and specifications of the journal’s policy. All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. Once a manuscript is submitted, it is therefore assumed that all authors have read and given their approval for the submission of the manuscript.  Contact information of all authors should be stated on the manuscript. Surname/Other names, affiliation, emails, and phone/fax numbers.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest and if necessary, decline the review of any manuscript they perceive to have a conflict of interest with Board Members or the Editor should also decline from considering any manuscript that may conflict with their interest. Such manuscripts will be re-assigned to other editors. Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged.

 CONFIDENTIALITY

A submitted manuscript is a confidential material. NJLC will not disclose submitted manuscript to anyone except individuals who partake in the processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted). These individuals include editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential reviewers, actual reviewers, and editors.  However, in suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to members of the Internal Board and institutions/organizations that may require it for the resolution of the misconduct.  

MISCONDUCT

Misconduct constitutes violation of this editorial policy and publication ethics, or any applicable guidelines/policies specified by Namibia University of Science and  Technology . Any other activities that threaten/compromise the integrity of the research/publication process are potential misconducts.

CORRECTION AND RETRACTION OF ARTICLES

Corrections may be made to a published article with the authorization of the editor of the journal. Editors will decide the magnitude of the corrections. Minor corrections are made directly to the original article. However, in cases of major corrections, the original article will remain unchanged, while the corrected version will also be published. Both the original and corrected version will be linked to each other. A statement indicating the reason for the major change to the article will also be published. 

PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Protecting intellectual property is a primary responsibility of the reviewer and the editor. Reviewers, therefore, will not use ideas from or show another person the manuscript they have been asked to review without the explicit permission of the manuscript's author, obtained through the journal editor. Advice regarding specific, limited aspects of the manuscript may be sought from colleagues with specific expertise, provided the author’s identity and intellectual property remain secure.R

ESUBMISSIONS

Manuscripts that have been rejected are not eligible for further consideration by the same journal and thus should not be resubmitted. If a revision is allowed, it will be explicitly stated in the Editor’s decision. Other revisions of previously rejected manuscripts will be promptly returned to the authors without review.

PLAGIARISM

As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to plagiarize is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own,” “use (another’s production) without crediting the source,” or to “present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize Accessed June 9, 2015). NJLC considers other forms of plagiarism to include “self-plagiarism”—instances in which an author borrows from his or her own previously published work without the proper citation. It is also unacceptable to submit manuscripts to NAWA that have previously been published anywhere in any language. It is the authors’ responsibility to inform or notify the Editor upon submission if there is any doubt whether a manuscript may violate any of these terms.

CONCURRENT REVIEWS

NJLC policy prohibits an article under review at NAWA journal from being concurrently reviewed at another journal without prior discussion with and written permission from the involved NAWA journal editor.

FALSIFICATION OF DATA/MISREPORTING OF DATA

NAWA expects all submissions to include data that are honestly and accurately reported according to the accepted best practices of scholarly publishing. In any instance of suspected misconduct, the NAWA Editorial Board pledges to carry out the process of detection, investigation, and penalty with fairness and confidentiality during the internal inquiry.

PENALTY

In the event that an author (or authors) is found to have engaged in some form of misconduct, he/she will be subject to a penalty, the nature and extent of which will be determined by the Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences  and Research and with the advice and counsel of the Internal Board Members. The penalty will be commensurate with the nature of the offense and will likely include a ban on submitting articles to the NAWA Journal for a period of time. All sitting Editors of NAWA journal will be informed of the penalty. The Board is empowered to customize penalties for each individual author in instances in which multiple authors are involved. In extreme circumstances, the Board reserves the right to inform an author’s institution, depending on the seriousness of the offense.

CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTION POLICY

NJLC believes that knowledge dissemination among academic community demands transparency in publishing process. Published articles known as “Version of Record “considered as complete, accurate to the best of its possibility, complete and citable. LLR describe this “Version of Record” as the article paginated in a volume and issue or the initial article publication for open access journals (Open Access journals do not publish any additional versions such as paginated issue/volume versions).

Steps prior to the Version of Record

Published articles (online) can be easily cited, download and read, any subsequent modifications can potentially impact those who cite/ read the earlier version. NJLC equipped authors to ensure the accuracy of their content in the form of “Galley Version” prior to be published online. The main objective of sharing Galley Version with author is to confirm the veracity of content so that we could upload error free files on our website and then proceed with the publication process (hard copy).

Exception involved when the article is published online but the issue is not published yet, then at the time of printing limited corrections can be made at the discretion of journal editor.

Published article in a journal is assumed as the version of record and cannot be altered except where legally required. In case of an error, we will notify an erratum or corrigendum notice to all readers to the problem.

Retraction Policy

 Authors who discover errors in articles they have published should have the corresponding author contact the journal’s editorial office with a detailed description of the correction that is needed. Corrigenda (corrections of author’s errors) and errata (corrections of publisher’s errors) will be published at no charge to the authors. Requests for corrections that affect the interpretation or conclusions of a published article will be reviewed by the editors. An article may be retracted when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing to errors in the conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction. The original article is marked as retracted, but a PDF version remains available to readers, and the retraction statement is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper. Retraction statements will typically include a statement of assent or dissent from the authors.
In exceptional circumstances, the editorial office reserves the right to remove an article from the journal’s online platforms. Such action may be taken when (i) the editorial office has been advised that content is defamatory, infringes a third party’s intellectual property right, right to privacy, or other legal right, or is otherwise unlawful; (ii) a court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring removal of such content; (iii) content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. Bibliographic metadata (e.g. title and authors) will be retained, and will be accompanied by a statement explaining why the content has been removed.

Formatting Guideline

• Articles submitted to NJLC should be between 7,000 to 8,000 words. It should be accompanied by an abstract consisting of 150- 200 words. The submitted article should cover Introduction, brief literature review, theoretical framework, research methods, results and discussions, conclusions.
• The abstract should be written in italic. Below the abstract, the author(s) should provide 3- 5 keywords with the font size 11.
• To facilitate the blind review process, author’s names (without academic titles), institutional affiliations, and the email address of the corresponding author should appear only on a detachable cover sheet.
• Author(s) should include a short bio, in not more than 70 words.
• The submitted article should be written in British English in single space, APA refencing, using Microsoft Word, font size 11, Calibri, 2.54 in all sides.
• The title should not exceed 15 words, and should be capitalized, centered, with font Calibri
• The sources cited in the body of the manuscript should appear in the reference, and all sources appearing in the reference should be cited in the body of the article.
• Proofs will be sent to the author for correction and should be returned to the editor by the deadline given.
• Format of research paper will be sent to the author once the paper has passed the initial screening.
• The Journal Editorial Management Team reserves the right to make editorial changes to any manuscript accepted for publication to enhance clarity and style.
• The editorial team has the final decision to accept or decline papers. 
• In case of multiple authors, indicate which one is the corresponding author AND provide a mobile telephone number for the corresponding author.