Author Guidelines
1. About the Journal Tanzania Journal of Community Development (TAJOCODE) is the peer review journal of the Department of Agricultural Extension and Community Development of Sokoine University of Agriculture publishing original research of high quality. Please see the TAJOCODE’s Aims and Scope to learn about its focus. Please note that this journal publishes manuscripts in Kiswahili and English. It is one of the pioneers academic journals in the community development field that publishes in both Kiswahili and English. TAJOCODE accepts original articles only.
2. Open Access All articles of TAJOCODE are freely available online. Tanzania Journal of Community Development (TAJOCODE) © 2021 by Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
3. Peer Review and Ethics TAJOCODE adheres to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. First, the editors assess the suitability of an article. If the article is suitable, the editors submit it to double blind peer review by autonomous and anonymous reviewers with expertise in the field of community development. The review criteria can be accessed at [click here]. The review form can be accessed at [click here].
4. Preparing Your Paper
4.1 Structure
Overall, TAJOCODE manuscripts invariably follow the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format. The articles should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, brief literature review (including theory or theories used in a separate sub-section), materials and methods (methodology), results (findings), discussion; conclusion and references. The author should include the following data at appropriate pages: appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (in the text); figures; figure captions (in the text). On a separate page, the author should include acknowledgments; and declaration of interest statement. The details on the sub-sections are as follows: Title: author(s) should state the titles in the fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents of the paper. Titles should be specific, short and clear.
Abstract: abstracts should contain the following information: the purpose of the article, the type of literature that the article drew on, sample size, the average age of participants, method of data collection, the sampling procedure and the study area(s), the method of data analysis e.g. framework approach, the findings of the paper, and summary of your recommendations. All English abstract should be translated to Kiswahili. Likewise, all Kiswahili abstract should be translated to English. Please contact the chief editors, if you need some assistance in this area.
Introduction: The Introduction should serve three purposes: (1) to call attention to and clarify or define the specific topic or hypothesis that the author(s) are to discuss, (2) to provide background and justify a study relative to its important and the results of other studies, and (3) to list the objectives of the research project or to give the audience information on what the author(s) plan to accomplish in the article. That is, the introduction needs to situate the research within a broader context in the world before moving on to the local level i.e. globe, continent (Africa), region (East Africa) and country (Tanzania). Author(s) should also state the problem or opportunity under investigation clearly and concisely. Sources of problem statement can come from issues at the workplace or institution, personal experience, literature from authors’ field of study, or a desire to replicate the work of other researchers in an attempt to better understand or explain a phenomenon. Observe the following format: write the background about the problem; state the problem statement; and explain the significance of the problem. Author(s) should outline their research question(s) or objectives in the early stages of the introduction to guide readers. It would be useful for the author(s) to include a summary of their main arguments in the introduction.
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework: The major points of a theory need to be stated very clearly so that they can be used in the discussion section. That is, author(s) should use a systematic theoretical approach to discuss their findings. Further, author(s) need to outline similar studies on the subject following the following formant i.e. the globe, regional (Africa), sub-region (East Africa), and country level (Tanzania). Author(s) should briefly explain the gaps in those studies that they believe their study is going fill.
Methodology: Author(s) should take note that research questions or objectives narrow down the focus of a study. As such, research questions or objectives are the methodological point of departure. Below are details on different kinds of research methodologies.
Quantitative Methodologies:
- The researcher wants to determine “if something happened,” “did something happen,” and “to what degree did something happen” by collecting and analysing numeric data.
- They are deductive in nature because the results can be used to test hypotheses stated from the outset.
Qualitative Methodologies:
- Qualitative Methodologies focus on answering the following questions Who?”, “What?”, “When?”, “Where?”, “Why?”, and “How?”
- Qualitative Data collected from sources such as interviews and transcripts and are analysed inductively with the idea that the results can be used to better understand a specific event or scenario.
Mixed Methodologies
- Mixed methods studies collect both quantitative and qualitative data in order to answer both quantitative and qualitative research questions taken together
Further, there should be clarity in writing about the research methods used, particularly about the methods of data collection. For example, the nature of data needs to be explained well. Is it qualitative or quantitative?
Author(s) should explain how they triangulated the data from the various sources – interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), surveys and observations.
Author(s) might explain whether there were differences in responses of the different respondents and how they worked with these differences in their analysis and interpretation.
Author(s) should also answer the following key questions:
- How many questions did author(s) have in the interview schedule?
- How long did each interview last i.e. for how many minutes?
- How was the data analysed? e.g. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS),
content analysis, Framework approach etc - Did the author(s) use any software?
- How did author(s) establish trustworthiness?
- What was the unit of analysis?
Findings and Discussion
- Although we recommend to interwoven results and discussion, authors are free to separate the
two sections. - Author(s) should make clear immediately the extent to which they have proved or disproved the hypothesis and then carry the reader from one display of data to another with logical
development, showing how their findings satisfy the objectives of the study. Results should be presented in the same order as the objectives and the experimental procedures. However, we recommend that authors should focus on one objective per article. - Discussion provides meaning or an interpretation of the results and shows relationships with other research The discussions should have a structure and flow. Readers should be able to see where the author(s) was/were going.
- The discussion section could be further enhanced by fine-tuning the development and flow of author(s) arguments, ensuring that it maintains a logical sequence.
- For qualitative studies, ensure to include themes/sub-themes for the discussion section.
- In the discussion compare the findings with what literature says- what are the points of
agreement/disagreement?
Conclusion
- The conclusion is composed of concluding statements. It is not a summary of the findings. Here, authors should briefly reiterate the objective of the study and provide a general statement on the extent to which they have accomplished it.
- Authors should make sure to draw together outcomes of the objective and enumerate these
conclusions succinctly. They should not just restate the results. - Concluding statement may be the points that stay longest in the reader’s mind.
- Concluding statements should sufficiently relate to the findings and the objective of the study.
References
- Please use Harvard Referencing when preparing your article.
- Check your reference list to ensure consistency in referencing style
4.2 Word Limits
Please include a word count for your article. A typical article for this journal should be between 5,000 to 8,000 words inclusive of figure captions, endnotes, tables, and references. The article should be sufficient to present solid coverage of the issue. Writing style should hold the reader’s attention. Photos, graphics, captions, endnotes, tables, and illustrations are encouraged when they support understanding of the content provided.
4.3 Style Guidelines
Please use UK spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript. Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”. Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
4.4 Formatting and Templates
You should submit your article in Word only. All manuscripts must be formatted to 2.5cm x 2.5 cm
margins, double-spaced, with 12 point font, Times New Roman. You should ensure consistence
throughout the article.
4.5 Editing Services
To help you improve your manuscript and prepare it for submission, TAJOCODE provides affordable editing services. Please contact the editors for pricing.
4.6 Checklist: What to Include
- Cover page: the cover page should be on a separate file and should contain author details.All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the cover page.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.
- Anonymous article on a separate page without author details. The editors will send suitable
anonymous article reviewers - The Anonymous article should contain a title and an unstructured abstract of 100-200 words.
- Once an article has been reviewed and accepted for publication, the author(s) will produce a 2 page policy brief, based on their research, targeting practitioners and policy-makers. The policy brief should focus on ‘lessons learned’ and ‘policy and practice recommendations.’
- The Anonymous article should contain between 3 and 6 keywords. The keyword will make your article more discoverable.
- Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies at the cover page
- Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research.
- 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.
4.7 Tips for Writing Articles for TAJOCODE
- Submissions should be useful to researchers, decision makers, community development
practitioners or anyone interested in the field and practice of community development. - Given that the journal’s readership comprises, Kiswahili and English-speakers, we recommend that author(s) request assistance (e.g. from a Kiswahili and English professional editing service) to ensure that Kiswahili as well as English grammar and expression conforms with current usage throughout the paper. This will aid in assuring that their articles achieves maximum clarity
4.8 Using Third-Party Material in your Paper
You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.
4.9 Submitting Your Paper
The chief editors of TAJOCODE are Dr. Rasel Madaha (PhD), Sokoine University of Agriculture,
Tanzania, Email: rasel.madaha@sua.ac.tz or rasel.madaha@fulbrightmail.org or raselmpuya@gmail.com and Dr. Regina Malima (PhD), the Open University of Tanzania, Email: regina.malima@yahoo.co.uk Submit your article via email to the chief editors. Make sure to copy all of the two CHIEF Editors. Other contacts are provides below: Associate Editors
- Ponsian Sewando (Tengeru Institute of Community Development-
TICD: ponsiansewando@gmail.com) - Novatus Justinian Kaijage (kaijagecd@yahoo.com)
Please note that TAJOCODE screens papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper
to TAJOCODE you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review and production
processes. TAJOCODE strongly recommends that you keep a copy of your Accepted article. The article might be needed in case of misplacement.
