Nigerian Journal of Christian Studies
Journal / Nigerian Journal of Christian Studies / About the Journal

 

Publisher

The Nigerian Journal of Christian Studies (NJCS) is published annually by the National Association for Christian Studies (NACS).

Sources of Support

The funds for publishing the journal, Nigerian Journal of Christian Studies, is sourced from the publisher’s, National Association for Christian Studies (NACS), financial account, which is funded by members’ annual dues, donations received during the association’s annual conferences, and from the token paid by the authors of accepted manuscripts. The journal nor publisher has no donor, institutional, nor private finding.

Peer Review

Duties of Reviewers

Importance of Peer Reviewing

Peer review is an essential part of formal communication, and lies at the heart of the scientific method. Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. The job of the reviewer is critical to ensuring that the quality of a paper/article to be published meets the minimum requirements for a scholarly publication in line with the Nigerian Association for Christian Studies (NACS) publications.

Promptness

Any selected reference who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a paper, or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process. If a selected referee agrees to review a paper, they should then adhere to timelines set by the Editor.

Confidentiality

Any papers received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the Editor.

Standard of Objectivity

Review should be conducted objectively, personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. References should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Study Ethics

Reviewers are encouraged to comment on ethical questions and possible research misconduct raised by submissions (e.g. unethical research design, insufficient detail on patient consent or protection of research subjects, including animals).

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers are encouraged to be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism, reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanies by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the Editor’s attention any substantial similarly or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions corrected to the papers.

1. Questions to guide the reviewer in assessment of the paper:

Please provide examples, noted responses and evidence for responses, do not simply answer yes or no. responses to the questions below will be in the accompanying Reviewers’ Guidelines sent to a reviewer and to be returned to the Editor after fully the required portions.

Topic and Content

1. Is the topic relevant for the journal?
2. Is the topic in sync with the theme of the conference where the paper was presented?
3. Is the content important to Christian Studies, Christianity, and Christian theology with particular reference to issues of contemporary concern in Nigeria?
4. Is the work original? (If not, please give references).

Title: Does the title reflect the contents of the article?

Abstract: To what extent does the abstract reflect aspects of the study; background, objectives, methods, results and conclusions? Is it is in alignment with statement on abstract in the Authors’ Guidelines.

Introduction/Background: Is the study rationale adequately described?

Objectives: Are the study objectives clearly stated and defined?

Methodology:

1. To what extent is the study/research design appropriate and adequate for the objectives?
2. Is the sample size appropriate and adequately described?
3. Is the sampling technique appropriate and adequately described?
4. How well are the methods and instruments of data collection described?
5. How well are techniques to minimize bias/errors in documented?

Ethical Consideration: If there are issues related to ethics, are they adequately described? (For human studies, has ethical approval been obtained?).

Analysis and Results:

1. Are the methods adequately described?
2. Are the methods of data analysis appropriate?
3. Do the results answer the research question?
4. Are the results credible?
5. Is statistical significance well documented (e.g. as confidence intervals or P-value)?
6. Are the findings presented logically with appropriate displays and explanations?

Discussion:

1. How well are the key findings stated?
2. To what extent have differences or similarities with other studies been discussed and reasons for these given?
3. Are the findings discussed in the light of previous evidence?
4. Are the implications of these findings clearly explained?
5. Is the interpretation warranted by and sufficiently derived from and focused on the data and results?

Conclusion(s): Do the results justify the conclusion(s)?

References:

1. Are the references appropriate and relevant?
2. Are they up to date? (With at least 80% of the references not more than 10 years away from the year the paper is been reviewed).
3. Are there any obvious, important reference that should have been included and have not been?
4. Do the references follow the recommended style?
5. Are there any errors?

Writing:

1. Is the paper clearly written?
2. Is the paper presented logically (e.g. correct information in each section, logical flow of arguments)?
3. Are there problems with the grammar/spelling/punctuation/ language?

The reviewer is to do business with 2 accompanying documents that the Editor sends to him/her along with the paper to be reviewed.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely made available online without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.

The copyright for the reproduction of articles published in the journal belongs to the National Association for Christian Studies (NACS). However, the views and submissions rendered in each of the published material/article is that of the individual author, as the publisher accepts no liability whatsoever in respect of this.

Author(s) of articles published in the NJCS are required to grant NACS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose. NACS requires author to publish their work in open access under the Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International (CCBY 4.0) license.

The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the journal (NJCS) with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The authors specifically have the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional or other repositories.

Publication Scheduling

The journal publishes a volume of two issues each year on an established theme after the annual conference of the association. Articles are published online for open access when ready for publication and the hardcopy is printed in Nigeria for distribution and sales to authors, libraries, institutions, and on requests.

General

The Nigerian Journal of Christian Studies (NJCS) is published annually by the National Association for Christian Studies (NACS). NJCS is a scholarly peer-reviewed and accredited journal that publishes in-depth critical and original research papers in English from various disciplines of Christian Studies and Christian Theology with a focus on the contemporary Christian experience, particularly within the Nigerian context, and in the world in general. The journal receives articles already presented at the association’s (NACS) annual conference, in sy--- with the Author’s guidelines, and relates in the conference theme.

Subscription information

• All our readers and authors enjoy the benefits of free open access. We believe that open access of the journal promises accessibility and uptake worldwide; saving the best interests of the academic, ecclesiastical and professional communities and be public at large. Hence, no fees are charged for access to published articles online.
• Authors pay for presenting their papers at the association’s annual conference and an acceptance fee for the hard copy/print edition as determined at the Annual General Meeting of the association held at the conference.

•           Authors are not charged for access to the online publication, peer review management, journal production and online hosting and archiving by charging Article Processing Charges (APC), also known as page fees.