Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point Times New Roman font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The Works Cited and endnotes are included in the word count. Please be aware that the minimum requirement of 2000 words must be authored article content. Less than 2000 words of content will be rejected, and the author will be contacted to extend the article.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines for essays and research studies.

Author Guidelines

Submissions to SOTL Africa must follow one of the approved formats. However, for the December 2024 issue, only essays will be considered for publication. Writers will be selected by the journal's editorial board and invited to submit essays for peer review as part of the December issue.

Essays: These could take the form of shorter pieces to shed light on how SOTL studies can be conducted within the African setting. They could elaborate on who contributes to SOTL, the questions currently being asked, the questions that need to be asked, how SOTL research is conducted, what research ethics look like in the African context, who supports SoTL, and more.

Word count: Between 1000 and 1500 words

Double-spaced

Times New Roman 12-point font

Research Studies: Research articles that contribute to literature on effective pedagogical methods in higher education that have been proven to be successful through empirical assessments. Articles that critique pedagogy that has not worked quite as well are also welcome. Articles must follow the general IMRAD format.

Research articles must follow the current edition of the APA Referencing Format.

Word count: Between 2000 and 3500 words

Double-spaced

Times New Roman 12-point font

Editing

Research studies should be written in the active voice, third person, and clear US English to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The social implications of language should be considered by writers who should avoid using language that is sexist, racist, ableist or otherwise pejorative in any way.

As part of the submission process, we request a title page containing the author's contact information, keywords, a succinct abstract, and an author bio. Word count details below:

Author bio: 40 - 80 words.

Abstract: 250 words (for research article submissions)

Keywords: 5 - 7

Referencing

SOTL Africa uses the APA (Author, Date, Page number (s)) style for documentation. Use Owl Purdue to get the latest recent APA Handbook publications. With parenthetical author/page references in the text, this formatting style requires a Works Cited list. Explanatory endnotes should be used sparingly.

SOTL Africa adheres to the APA Handbook and the APA Style Manual on matters of punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation, and other style.

Prior to final submission, authors must examine, update, and correct their works. Authors should double-check all direct quotations and entries in the Works Cited list, as well as information, names of individuals, locations, and dates.

Image Formatting

Avoid inserting images within your article's text; instead, clearly indicate (along with Figure numbers, citation, and any descriptive labels) where images appear. Images or videos should be sent in a .zip file or uploaded to the web, with a link provided, as SOTL Africa servers (our computers, in other words) have a limit on message size. Images should be of the highest possible quality, and be in .png, .gif, or .jpg format.

When considering photos, authors should follow the fair use policy; send only those that are necessary, and as few full pages as possible. The usage of images is especially crucial for papers that incorporate visual analytic components. As a result, they should demonstrate a firm understanding of the theoretical issues pertinent to the field(s) being discussed or referenced to. Authors must ensure that they have obtained explicit written permission from all individuals depicted in any photos submitted for publication. This written permission must be included as part of the ZIP file submission, alongside the images, to ensure compliance with privacy and legal requirements.

Peer Review

Make sure there are no identifying elements in the essay that might indicate authorship. A copy of the article will be given to reviewers anonymously as part of SOTL’s "blind review" procedure. Members of the Editorial Board and other reviewers will be notified of all submissions to SOTL for their feedback.

Manuscripts submitted to the SOTL Editorial Board for review, must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Authors may publish early drafts of their writings in online archives like academia.edu before copy editing. However, authors must wait 24 months after publication before submitting their SOTL-edited papers to digital archives or websites.

Reviews

Review inquiries should be sent to the Review Editor with the review board in copy. Contact email: sotlafrica@ashesi.edu.gh


Author Services

Free access your article will be available via author services only. Please sign up for author services if you would like to access your article PDF offprint and enjoy the many other benefits the service offers. Visit SOTL Africa to sign up for Author Services.

Article Promotion Support

SOTL Africa offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research so your research gets reaches the right audience.

Generative AI

All authors are responsible for ensuring the originality, accuracy, and integrity of their submissions. Generative AI (GAI) and AI-assisted technologies should not be used to produce substantial portions of the content. If such tools are used at any stage of the manuscript’s preparation—whether for idea generation, text editing, image or graphic creation, or data collection and analysis—their use must be explicitly disclosed and documented in a dedicated Disclosure section of the manuscript. GAI or AI tools cannot be listed as authors, as they cannot assume responsibility for the work. This transparency is also required for submissions that discuss the use of GAI (e.g., its application in teaching practices or analyzing GAI-generated content). For further guidance on the use of GAI in your manuscripts, please send an email to sotlafrica@ashesi.edu.gh 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. If a paper is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be sent an email to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

All journals are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License. Click here http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for a copy of this license. General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here. Click here to review the Creative Commons License, under Open Access (Some funders require a particular type of Creative Commons license. Click here for information on this)

Self-Archiving Policies: Since journal contents are licensed under the Creative Commons License, authors retain the right over their work and can self-archive, however, must grant journal the right of first publication. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving policies.

SOTL Africa operates as an open-access journal. There are no author fees related to manuscript processing, submission, or publication. Likewise, readers are not charged for accessing or reading any content from the journal. This ensures that both authors and readers can engage with our content without any financial barriers.