Rwanda Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities and Business
Journal / Rwanda Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities and Business / Submissions

 

This journal is the official publication of the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) and the College of Business and Economics (CBE) of the University of Rwanda. It publishes two volumes per year. 

Journal scope statement

The Journal publishes empirical, theoretical and methodological articles and book reviews covering topics relevant to the wide domain of social and political sciences, humanities, law, business, economic and to more specialized fields such as public and private management, conflict management and gender studies as reflected in different teaching and research programmes of the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) and the College of Business and Economics.

Journal mission statement

Rwanda Journal of Social Sciences, Humanity and Business (RJSSHB) reflects the mission of the college of arts and social sciences which is to promote a better understanding and improve practice through the diffusion of new knowledge in different areas social sciences and related domains covered by the journal. RJSSHB welcomes high-quality empirical contributions, theoretical and methodological papers as well as systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The journal strives to provide authors with a timely and high-quality review and publication process to allow ground-breaking research to be disseminated in a timely way.

Peer Review Policy: 

All manuscripts submitted to undergo rigorous anonymous double-blind peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymous refereeing by at least two anonymous referees. Please note that the journal has adopted a policy of masked review for all submissions. 

Manuscript language

Manuscripts must be submitted in standard British English. Prior to submission, authors are encouraged to seek English writing proof reading or language editing support from colleagues or experts.  Manuscripts with obvious typos or poor English language style may be returned to authors without review.    

Guidelines on the preparation of different types of manuscripts

Please make sure that you have prepared your manuscript according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition.  Manuscripts whose sections/subsections and their content do not comply with APA detailed manuscripts guidelines could be rejected during the pre-review first assessment.

Rwanda Journal of Social Sciences, Humanity and Business (RJSSHB) accepts mainly three types of manuscripts: original empirical articles, theoretical articles and methodological articles covering topics relevant to social sciences, political sciences, humanity, law, economic, business, public and private management and related domains.  

Preparation of original empirical articles

Original empirical articles that bring new insights in different domains covered by the journal constitute its key publication. Original Empirical Articles can report one or more studies. Studies can be conducted using one or multiple methodologies. Longitudinal studies examining the evolution of complex psychological, social or economic phenomena (or laws) are particularly welcome. This type of article should include the following sections and presented in the following order: a title; an unstructured abstract not exceeding 200 words; three to five keywords; main text introduction that state clearly the research problem and related questions; methods; results; discussion and references. Where necessary, illustrative tables may be inserted inside the text but they should be limited to the strict minimum. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. The same principal applies to insertion of figures. The whole manuscript should not beyond 8000 words.  

Preparation of theoretical articles 

Theoretical articles will be assessed on the basis of new explanations or new trends for hypothesis testing proposed. These new explanations should be backed by a strong and critical literature review showing the gaps in existing theories or explanations and highlighting how the article intends to cover identified gaps. Ideally, these new explanations should be supported by relevant field work.  This type of article should include the following sections and presented in the following order: a title; an unstructured abstract not exceeding 300 words; three to five keywords; main text introduction that state clearly the research problem and related questions; methods; results; discussion and references. Where necessary, illustrative tables may be inserted inside the text but they should be limited to the strict minimum. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. The same principal applies to insertion of figures. The whole manuscript should not beyond 9000 words.  

Preparation of methodological articles 

Methodological articles present new ways or methods for studying some social phenomena or present some innovations in existing methodologies used in studying these phenomena. Articles comparing the strengths and limitations of existing methodologies that are backed by empirical data supporting the position of the author(s) are also welcome. With regard to practice, tutorial papers providing step-by-step guidelines for implementing a new and state-of-the-art practice in any domain covered by the journal are also welcome. This last type of methodological article should be written in a language that is accessible to a broad audience of scholars and practitioners. This type of article should include the following sections and presented in the following order: a title; an unstructured abstract not exceeding 300 words; three to five keywords; main text introduction stating clearly why the new research method proposed is worth of being considered as an original publication or comparing different research methods on the basis of same indicators or variables, the method of comparison used; results; discussion and references. Where necessary, illustrative tables may be inserted inside the text but they should be limited to the strict minimum. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. The same principal applies to insertion of figures. The whole manuscript should not beyond 9000 words.  

Special issues

The editorial team will call for contribution for a special issue once per year on research themes, policy reviews; that are highly debated at the time. The editorial team could also call for contribution on topics that are underrepresented in existing literature but present an evident scientific interest at the time. Groups of researchers working on a multifaceted research project and have at least six manuscripts ready for publication in the issue are encouraged to contact the editorial team to assess the possibility of organizing a special issue on that research.  

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts are submitted electronically the Chief Editor on the following emails kamuzinzi@yahoo.fr ; kamuzinzim@gmail.com with a copy to the Deputy  Chief Editor on the following email: smutarinda@gmail.com/editorialrjsshb@gmail.com 

Authors should include with the main manuscript a separated cover sheet, which shows the title of the manuscript and the authors' full names and affiliation. Where available, please also include ORCiDs. 

One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted.

The main manuscript should omit all indications that could lead to the identification of the authors’ names. Footnotes containing information pertaining to the authors' identity or affiliations should also be removed in the main manuscript and effort should be made to make sure that the content of manuscript itself does not contain any clues to the authors' identity.

Where necessary, the authors should provide further details. These include. 

Funding details: 

Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
For single agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].
For multiple agency grants:
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Disclosure statement:

This is to acknowledge any financial or non-financial interest that has arisen from the direct applications of your research. If there are no relevant competing interests to declare please state this within submission of the manuscript, for example: the authors report there are no competing interests to declare. 

References guidelines 

In-text citations 

In-text citations of previous works in manuscripts submitted to Rwanda Journal of Social Sciences, Humanity and Business (RJSSHB) must be done according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition.

• An in-text citation is usually composed of ‘author’ and ‘year of publication. Two forms of quotations are most well-known: quotations in  brackets, e.g.( (Rurangwa, 2022)
  or as part of the text, i.e., the first assumptions proposed by Amani  (2020)  is…
  - For multiple authors, use the ‘&’ in the parenthetical format, e.g., ( Kingston & Wallace, 2010);
  use ‘and’ in the narrative format e.g., Mbaye and Dieng (2012)  proposed....

 

Direct quote of exacts content from an existing work 

- Direct quote of “excerpts” from previous works must include the name of author, the year of publication and the page number., e.g., Factors contributing to the increase of vulnerable teen pregnancy include: “poverty, family conflicts, manipulation.” (Mukamana et al., 2016, p. 13). 
- For a direct quote of official documents and non-peer reviewed documents appearing on a webpage, cite the author, the year of publication, the page was applicable and the paragraph number in the in-text citation, e.g., (Ministry of Health, 2019, page 2, para. 1).

Preparation of list references. 

Before submission, authors must conduct a systematic checking to make sure that all authors cited inside the manuscript are recorded in the list of references appearing the end of the article. Please do not put in the references authors who are not cited in the manuscript. The list references must appear in alphabetical order. See below examples of basic reference formats:

Journal article

McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Authored book

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

Chapter in an edited book

Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012