Author Guidelines
Online journal registration and article submission
The Author HOW TO explains the registration and submission process step-by-step.
Journal scope
The Journal of Consumer Sciences (JCS) publishes articles that focus on consumer experiences in different places and from different perspectives and methodological positions. The journal will consider research from within the fields of hospitality, consumer studies, consumer science, home economics, family studies, consumer education, consumer rights, and consumer behaviour. We also consider household and/or individual food security to be a facet of food consumerism and hence those working in this field should consider publishing in this journal. The journal also welcomes current consumer-related research that examines the impact of environmental, community, and sustainability issues.
Publication fees
As from 01 January 2025 the publication fees will be as follows
- Handling fee @ R1350 per article.
- Page fees @ R300 per set page.
Publication fees are payable after all the processes are completed just before publication.
Publication fees are subject to a yearly increase.
Please contact the Technical Editor for more information.
Manuscript guidelines
Manuscripts will only be considered if the following specifications are followed
- The Journal publishes review articles as well as research-related articles. Manuscripts prepared after conference presentations are accepted with the proviso that they have not been published in the Conference Proceedings of that particular conference.
- All manuscripts should report original research that has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
- Referencing should be done according to the referencing guidelines.
- All files should anonymized according to the file anonymity guidelines.
- An abstract of no less than 200 words is required.
- Manuscripts should not exceed 5,000 words.
- Line spacing 1.5 should be used which includes text, referencing, tables, and figures of the article.
- Times New Roman, font size 12 for all text in the article, headings, figures, and tables.
- All paragraphs are to be justified.
- No numbering of paragraphs.
- No numbering of lines.
- No indentation of paragraphs.
- One line space between paragraphs to be used.
- Margins of 2.54cm should be used on all four margins (top, bottom, left, and right) of the page.
- Page numbers should be included on each page of the article in the bottom right corner of the page, starting on the first page of the article.
- Headings for all Figures and Tables are required.
- An indication of where Figures and Tables should be inserted should be centered on the page with the instruction Insert Figure 1 here or Insert Table 1 here as per the example below:
| INSERT FIGURE 1 HERE
Referencing guidelines
- As indicated the Harvard Referencing Style Guide should be used when preparing the article.
- There should be a corresponding reference in the reference list for each in-text citation used.
- Corresponding citations and references must have identical spelling and year.
- The reference list should be in alphabetical order according to the first named author.
Submission guidelines
The submission should consist of seven (7) separate files
1) TITLE PAGE (Microsoft Word)
This page must include:
- The title of the article
- The authors' names (titles, full first names, and surnames)
- The full addresses of the institution(s) (academic or other) where the authors reside
- The email addresses of the authors
- The Orchid IDs of the authors
- Indicate the corresponding author with an *
- 3 prospective reviewers for the article (include their fields of expertise as well as contact email addresses)
2) MAIN DOCUMENT (Microsoft Word)
Do not include the authors’ details again in this part of the document. This document should start with the abstract of the article followed by four to six keywords for indexing purposes. The abstract is followed by the main article with references concluding the article. The main article should be divided into appropriate sections, e.g. Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, and References. Subheadings may be used but should be limited.
3) FIGURES, GRAPHS, TABLES, PHOTOS, AND IMAGES (Microsoft Word)
High-resolution images should be submitted where photographs are included. The numbers used for tables and figures in the article should correspond with the numbers used in the text positioning in the main document. Headings of tables should be placed at the top of the table and figures at the bottom of the figure.
4) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DECLARATION (PDF)
Please download, complete, and upload the Artificial Intelligence Declaration.
5) PLAGIARISM DECLARATION (PDF)
Please download, complete, and upload the Plagiarism Declaration.
6) TURNITIN SIMILARITY REPORT (PDF)
7) PROOF OF LANGUAGE EDITING (PDF)
File anonymity guidelines
(Applicable to Main Document (Word), Figures, Graphs, Tables, Photos, and Images (Word), Revised Main Document (Word), Revised Figures, Graphs, Tables, Photos, and Images (Word), Reviewed Main Document (Word), Reviewed Figures, Graphs, Tables, Photos, and Images (Word))
To ensure the integrity of anonymous peer review, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:
- The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with “Author” and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors’ name, article title, etc.
- The authors of the document have removed personal information from the file properties.
In Microsoft Word for Windows
- Go to File
- Select Info
- Click on Check for Issues
- Click on Inspect Document
- In the Document Inspector dialog box, select the checkboxes to choose the type of hidden content that you want inspected.
- Click Remove All
- Click Close
- Save the document
In PDF
- Go to File
- Select Properties
- Remove any name in the author field
- Click OK
- Save the document
