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South African Journal of Labour Relations Management

Editorial Policy and Guidelines for Contributors

Editorial mission

It is the purpose of the journal to promote and facilitate the understanding and development of theories and practices concerned with people in relation to employment in its broadest sense, by providing a forum for constructive debate, discussion, analysis, reporting and commentary.

Scope of the journal

Apart from articles of an academic nature, which are research based, the journal will publish commentaries, analyses, overviews, case studies, survey results and reports on aspects related to employment relations (in the broadest sense) in South and southern Africa. Articles on any relevant international issues as they relate to current ideas, theory building and developments in practice will also be considered. While interested authors from any country are invited to submit their work for possible publication, Africa-related themes are especially encouraged in the context of the dire need to develop indigenous theory and understanding of people management in the African context.

“Employment relations” is a term which is broadly considered to include the following: work, employment and unemployment; labour and trade unionism; organisational behaviour, change and development; education, training and management development; labour law; collective bargaining, direct and indirect forms of worker participation and industrial democracy at all levels from the shop floor to the national level of tripartism; labour economics and labour market developments; forms of industrial conflict; organisational and cross-cultural communication; national labour policy trends and developments; human resource management topics, including, but not limited to, equal opportunities, affirmative action, discrimination, diversified and multicultural workforces, human resource planning, job and work design, recruitment and selection, organisation entry, performance management, career and succession management, health, safety and employee well-being, motivation, leadership, remuneration and reward management; broader environmental trends as they relate to employment; and international comparative employment relations and themes related to people management strategies and practices in general.

The journal will therefore be of interest to practitioners, researchers, academics, trainers and educators as well as to policy makers in the private, public and semi-public sectors of South Africa and other countries.

Nature of contributions

The journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts by policymakers, practitioners, academics and researchers. Contributions for the Academic section (accredited) are especially welcome. The criteria for acceptance are based on the soundness of the research base and/or the academic rigour of the arguments provided. Contributions for the Forum section (non-accredited) could include comments and/or reports on interesting and relevant developments and/or case studies with significant practical value but without the necessary theoretical or academic underpinning.

As far as possible, manuscripts should display a fine balance between well-attested facts and well-informed opinion and argument and a writing style which is intelligible to specialists and non-specialists. It is essential for authors to clearly indicate the implications of their research for managers and employment relations practitioners.

Guidelines for manuscripts

Manuscripts submitted for consideration should comply with the following requirements:

  1. They should be submitted in English.
  2. Contributions should be submitted in MS Word, 1.5-spaced typescript, using the font Arial (12 point) with wide margins and the UK English language style.
  3. Manuscripts for the Academic section should be between 5000 and 10 000 words, and those for the Forum section between 2000 and 5000 words.
  4. Since the South African Journal of Labour Relations follows a policy of blind peer review, the first page of the manuscript should contain the title of the article (preferably no more than fifteen words), but not the name(s) of the author(s).
  5. A separate page should contain the title, a brief autobiographical note which includes the name(s) of the author(s), the academic title, the position held, the name of the employer, telephone number(s), postal address(es) and e-mail address(es).
  6. The article should be preceded by an abstract of no more than 200 words. The abstract should not form part of the text. A list of relevant key words should also be included for cataloguing purposes.
  7. Headings should be numbered 1, 2, etc and subheadings 1.1, 1.2, etc. All headings and subheadings must appear adjacent to the left margin in bold.
  8. All tables, illustrations and figures should be submitted in black and white. The editor reserves the right to refuse publication of any submission for which the artwork is not of an acceptable standard. Tables, numbered clearly at the top, and graphs/figures numbered clearly at the bottom, should be placed in their final positions (not appended at the end).
  9. The Harvard referencing technique should be used (see guidelines below).
  10. Footnotes should be avoided; if notes are necessary these should be endnotes.
  11. Italics or underlining should be used sparingly for emphasis.
  12. Latin words such as inter alia  appear in italics, but high frequency expressions such as “et al” and “etc” which are no longer regarded as foreign words are not italicised. Note, however, that the use of abbreviations should be avoided as far as possible.
  13. The Editor reserves the right to accept other styles, to make minor alterations to the style or to reject any manuscript on the grounds of deficiencies of style or content.
  14. It is required that all author(s) have their draft articles reviewed for language proficiency before submitting them to the editors. Sometimes excellent submissions have to drastically amended or even rejected because of linguistic ineptitude. The editors reserve the right to make minor editorial adjustments without consulting the author.

Reference technique

The Harvard system of referencing should be used.

Examples of reference in the text:

  1. According to Wissing (2000), …
  2. Borjas (1992:149) does, …
  3. … to self-actualisation (Cilliers & Coetzee 2003; Cilliers et al 2004) …
  4. … through managerial ranks (Fischer & Maritz 1994:22) …

Examples of references in the list of references

  1. Anastasi,  A. 1990. Psychological testing. New York: Macmillan.
  2. Antonovsky, A. 1985. The life cycle, mental health and sense of coherence. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Science 22(4):273-280.
  3. Becker, JS. 2002. Human capital, in The concise encyclopedia of economics. Available at: www.econlib.org/library/Enc/HumanCapital.html (accessed on...).
  4. Crampton, SM & Mishra, J. 1999. Women in management. Public Personal Management  28(1):87-107.
  5. Hair, JF, Anderson, RE, Tatham, RL & Black, WC. 1998. Multivariate data analysis. 5th edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

References are listed alphabetically according to the surname of the first author in the “List of references”.

Submission and review process

  1. Manuscripts submitted for consideration should be e-mailed to kirstm@unisa.ac.za or louise@icon.co.za.
  2. A policy of double-blind peer reviewing is followed for all manuscripts. Manuscripts may also be evaluated by members of the Editorial Committee - especially those intended for the Academic section of the journal. The Editor will make the final decision on whether to publish an article.
  3. If approved subject to revision, the manuscript will be returned to the author(s) who will make the necessary alternations/corrections. The final copy of the manuscript will then be returned to the editors. This copy should be submitted in MS Word by email.
  4. The author(s) will be notified when a manuscript is finally accepted for publication in the Journal and a page fee of R80 per page is payable by the author(s) on the acceptance of the article for publication. The author(s) will receive written acknowledgement of acceptance followed by an invoice for page fees.

Copyright

Authors are required to indicate whether their manuscript has been submitted or published elsewhere - even in a different form such as a paper at a conference. Also, authors who submit manuscripts for publication guarantee that the work contains nothing which may be an infringement of any existing copyright and indemnify the publisher against any breach of such warranties. Authors relinquish copyright of their manuscripts to the South African Journal of Labour Relations, which is published by the School of Management Sciences and the School of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa, and accept and adhere to the journal's publication policy. Articles may not be published or reproduced in any form without the prior consent of the Editor.

Editorial address

The Editor
South African Journal of Labour Relations
University of South Africa
School of Management Sciences
Department of Human Resource Management
PO Box 392
UNISA
0003

E-mail: kirstm@unisa.ac.za or louise@icon.co.za