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International Retail and Marketing Review

Guidlines for Contributors

The International Retail and Marketing Review journal serves as an international and interdisciplinary scholarly forum for sharing insightful and original research and promoting debate in the rapidly developing and converging fields of marketing and retailing.

Nature of contributions

Research contributions should conform to acceptable academic standards with regard to content, methodology and reference technique. Contributions may be on any of the following types of research:

  • Empirical studies, using any acceptable research strategies (such as survey, case study, experiment, archival analysis or history)
  • Theoretical studies aimed at advancing current theory or adapting theory to local conditions
  • Theoretical studies aimed at reviewing and/or synthesising existing theory.

Note that only material that has not been published elsewhere will be considered for publication.

Guidelines for manuscripts

  1. Every proposed article should address at least the following:
        (i) Introduction
        (ii) Purpose/objectives of the article
        (iii) Hypothesis/problem investigated
        (iv) Research strategy followed (where applicable)
        (v) Results (where applicable)
        (vi) Recommendations/conclusion
  2. Articles should preferably not exceed 25 A4 pages typed, using the font Arial (12 point) and 1.5 line spacing. Manuscripts submitted for review should be printed on one side of the paper only and be paginated.
  3. Tables, illustrations and figures should be placed on separate sheets and not included in the text. The editor reserves the right to refuse publication of any submission for which the artwork is not of an acceptable standard. The approximate position of tables, illustrations and figures should be clearly indicated in the manuscript, for example:
  4. Since the International Retail and Marketing Review follows a policy of a double blind peer review, the first page of the text proper should carry the title of the article, but not the name(s) of the author(s).
  5. A separate page should carry the title of the article, its author(s) and relevant biographical information, including full name, academic title, current position and institution (where appropriate). Postal and e-mail addresses should also be provided.
  6. The reference technique should be according to the modified Harvard Method.
  7. The article should be preceded by a single paragraph abstract of the article, not exceeding 250 words.  The abstract should not form part of the text.

Examples of references in the text

Books:  “McDaniel & Gates (2001:21) state that …”
              “It was found that … (McDaniel & Gates 2001:21).”
              “Bickerton, Bickerton and Pardesi (1998: 34) argue that … “ [when first cited]
              “Bickerton et al. (1998: 34–35) present a model …” [thereafter, and only for works with three or  more authors]
Articles: “Drury (1999: 9, 57) found that …”

Examples of references in the bibliography

Books: McDaniel, C. & Gates, R.  2001.  Marketing Research Essentials.  Third Edition.  Cincinnati, Ohio:  South-Western College Publishing.
Articles: Bannister, F., McCabe, P.  & Remenyi, D.  2003.  ‘IS costing:  The case for a reference model’, Southern African Business Review, 7(1): 1-16.

Submission and review process

  1. Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail in MS Word. 
  2. Manuscripts will be submitted to independent reviewers. A policy of double blind peer review is followed.
  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 by e-mail in MS Word and in hard copy to the addresses below.
  4. It is required that all authors have their draft articles reviewed for language proficiency before submitting them to the editors.  Sometimes excellent submissions have to be drastically amended or even rejected because of linguistic ineptitude.  The editors reserve the right to make minor editorial adjustments without consulting the author.  The use of abbreviations should be avoided as far as possible.
  5. Please supply a list of as many key words as possible for cataloguing purposes.

Submissions and correspondence to:

Administrative assistant
Mrs. Letitia Fourie
Department of Marketing and Retail
University of South Africa
PO Box 392
UNISA
0003
South Africa
Tel: +27 12 429 3799
Fax: +27 86 620 4942
E-mail: vdberl@unisa.ac.za