Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities
Journal / Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities / Submissions

 

Peer review:

For research articles, EJOSSAH operates a double-blind anonymized peer review, meaning that the author's identity is hidden from reviewers, and the reviewers' identities are hidden from authors. The Editors have oversight of the reviewers' and the authors' names.

Manuscript size:

The word limit for research articles ranges from 4500 words and a maximum of 7500 words, including references. However, a maximum of 2,500 words is the limit for contributions like book reviews and short communications.

Originality:

EJOSSAH publishes articles based on original research using primary empirical data, including surveys, in-depth interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions (FGD), archives, newspapers, and government and non-governmental organization documents or articles developed by using secondary data. In the latter's case, the author should clearly outline his/her fresh/new contribution or a new reinterpretation of the existing literature.

Ethical considerations:

Authors should disclose any conflict of interest related to the manuscript on a separate page after the references. They should also confirm that submissions are unpublished and not under review elsewhere.

Manuscript preparation:

Authors should adhere to the following guidelines in preparing their manuscripts before submission.

First Page of the Manuscript: this page should contain the manuscript's title, abstract, and keywords. The manuscript abstract should come next to the title. It should not be more than 250. The abstract should be followed by keywords that convey the manuscript's content.

Structure:

The Main Part of the Manuscript: depending on the type of research, contains the introduction/background, literature review, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and, if relevant, recommendations. It should also incorporate the references of sources that are cited in the manuscript. Book reviews and short communications should have their unique outline and organization.   

Introduction/Background: Articles should begin with an introduction/background. There is no standard format, but the introduction/background should concisely present the rationale of the manuscript, the problem statement, the kind of research (methods), and a brief overview of the article. Any pertinent background knowledge that readers would benefit from before reading the article should be made available to them. It also establishes the position of the manuscript within the field of study the article deals with.  

After the introduction/background, the manuscript could be divided into a maximum of three or four sections. These could be organized in different ways depending on the nature of the article's problem and the kind of research methods adopted by the author. Some of the possibilities for dividing the article include the following. 

For articles developed using quantitative methods – the article could have the following structures:

Methods: The methods section should clarify what was done and how it was done, justify the design, sample size, and sampling procedures and explain how the results were processed in order to answer the research question. Direct and systematic writing is used in science. As a result, the structure of the methods section should include the following: a description of the study's materials, an explanation of how those materials were prepared, a description of the research protocol, an explanation of how measurements were taken and calculations were made, and a statement of the statistical tests that were used to analyze the data. In the case of a qualitative study, how the data is obtained, analyzed, triangulated, and presented should be clearly indicated.

Result: In an empirical research article, the Results (sometimes referred to as Findings) section outlines the findings of the researcher(s) after data analysis. Even if the results contradict the hypothesis or research question, its primary goal is to use the data gathered to address the research question(s) given in the background. The results section should also include other significant findings, patterns, or insights from examining the raw data.

Discussion: The discussion goes over the results and places them in the context of the entire study. The reader can see the links between each component of the research report since it brings together all the sections that came before it. The author should perform the three crucial tasks of interpretation, analysis, and explanation in the discussion section. In addition to explaining the significance of the research findings and how they fit into the body of existing knowledge, a thriving discussion section will be open and honest about the study's limitations.

Conclusion: After reading the article, the reader is supposed to understand from the conclusion why your research should be important to them. A conclusion synthesizes essential elements, not just a review of your arguments or a restatement of your research problem and if relevant recommendations or areas of future research are indicated. 

For articles developed using qualitative methods – the article could have the following structures:

For articles developed using qualitative and mixed research methods, authors could structure the parts of their articles as follows. As noted above, the introduction/background contains the basic arguments like the problem statement, the article's position in the literature and methods for data collection and analysis. The rest of the article could be divided in accordance with the following:

Chronological:

Authors could organize their articles in chronological order to explain historical processes and developments.

The comparative examination:

Authors who use comparative methods could select some of the major issues/themes used for the comparison of cases (stories) and structure their articles accordingly.

The thematic structure:

Authors identify themes which are broadly representative of the issues addressed in their research and structure their articles accordingly.

EJOSSAH style

Texts should be written in Times New Roman. Text font size should vary depending on the hierarchical structure of the texts in the manuscript (e.g., 14 for the title of the manuscript, 12 for primary topics in the manuscript, 11 for secondary topics in the title as well as 11 for paragraph texts with in the manuscript)

Quotations:

EJOSSAH adheres to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Style) version 7. Therefore APA manual version 6, direct quotations of more than 40 words should be indented 0.5" from both sides of the margin. If the direct quote is less than 40 words, it should be in inverted commas " ".

Diagrams and tables: 

They should be numbered consecutively in the order of their appearance in the manuscript. Each table and figure should also have a caption. The caption should be placed below in the case of figures and above in the case of tables. It is preferred to place them within the text at appropriate points rather than at the end. The source for tables and figures should be duly acknowledged. All table formats should be as per APA manual version 6.

 Citations and references:

Authors cite references in the manuscript text, they should follow the appropriate APA style. References should also agree with the APA style and should be listed alphabetically by the author's last name at the end of the manuscript. However, Ethiopian authors should be referred to by their first names. Please note some examples below.

 Journal article with DOI:

Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and
The survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi:10.1 037/0278-6133.24.2.225

Journal article with or without DOI:

Light, M.A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal, 8(1), 73-82.

Teshale T.  (2008). Modernity eurocentrism and radical politics in Ethiopia 1961-1991. African Identities, 6(4), 345–371.

The entire book, the print version:

Shotton, M.A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency. London, England: Taylor & Francis.

The electronic version of the print book:

Shotton, M. A. (1989). Computer addiction? A study of computer dependency! [DX Reader version]. Retrieved from http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/html/index.asp

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT:

Contributions should be submitted online using the following link:

http://ejol.aau.edu.et/index.php/EJSSH/about/submissions

For further inquiries, the journal address is the following.

Ethiopian Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities (EJOSSAH)

College of Social Sciences

P.O. Box: 1176

Addis Ababa University