College of Economic & Management Sciences

It’s an SABR board shuffle

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Prof Adewale Aregbeshola, Prof Nico Martins and Erna Koekemoer

Two editors of the Southern African Business Review (SABR) retired earlier this year. Prof Nico Martins has been editor of the journal since 2017 and Erna Koekemoer, the administrative editor, started working at the journal in 2004.

Martins, from the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, and Prof Adewale Aregbeshola, from the Department of Business Management, in Unisa’s College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS), the deputy editor, took over after the previous editor, Prof André Ligthelm, retired. Aregbeshola has now been appointed as the acting editor.

A highlight of his time at the SABR was the inclusion of the journal as one of the 42 journals managed by Unisa Press. This was a positive move for the administrative management as well as the exposure that the journal now receives. According to Pieter Rall of Unisa Press, the next step is to include the journal on Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.

Koekemoer says that her time at the SABR gave her the opportunity to explore a new field when Ligthelm became the editor. At the time she was rendering research and administrative support to the research function of the BMR, but the work at the SABR eventually became an important part of her day-to-day duties.

She learned how to handle difficult and impatient authors, and gradually built a relationship with loyal reviewers and researchers. She enjoyed sharing in their excitement when an author published his or her first article. A highlight for her was when the article she co-authored with Ligthelm, Academic publishing: Lessons learnt from the Southern African Business Review, appeared in the journal.

The SABR was first published in 1997 by Unisa’s School of Business Leadership (SBL) as a vehicle for academic staff to publish their research in the fields of business leadership, management and administration. In 2004, the journal was transferred to CEMS and its scope was broadened to include all disciplines in the fields of economic and management sciences. In the same year, the journal was accredited by the South African Department of Education to serve as a vehicle for researchers to earn research output points.

During 2008, the SABR was converted from a print publication to an electronic format as an open-access journal. This is hosted on the Unisa website and incorporated on several open-access journal search facilities in South Africa and abroad.

From 2016, the SABR changed the sequence of three numbers per volume to only one volume per annum running from January to December. This means that a volume consists of only one publication. Articles are published throughout the year once they are approved and prepared for publication.

It is a fully independent refereed publication and is supported by an international editorial board. The journal aims to enhance scholarly research and publication in the fields of the economic and management sciences.

* By Ilze Crous, Communication and Marketing Specialist, College of Economic and Management Sciences

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Publish date: 2020-07-14 00:00:00.0

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