UJ Press is committed to promoting demographic, gender, geographical, and institutional diversity among its authors, volume editors, reviewers, and journal editors.    

The primary goal of the press is to foster an inclusive and equitable publishing environment in which emerging authors are given detailed feedback and guidance from the Press Manager, Discipline Editors and Reviewers to help them publish their books. Emerging scholars are also given financial assistance to ensure that emerging scholars and scholars from the global south are not disadvantaged or excluded from publishing with UJ Press.  Every effort is made to encourage, promote and support scholars from Africa and from various African academic institutions to publish at UJ Press.

UJ Press has maintained a balance of manuscripts published from various institutions, ensuring that at least 48% or fewer contributions come from the same institution and 52% from different institutions, thus ensuring diverse representation in the submissions and Editorial processes.  UJ Press is committed to continuing this practice.

The Editorial policy is reviewed and updated every five years, or as needed, in consultation with the Discipline Editors and Editorial board to ensure its relevance and effectiveness.

The Responsibilities and Roles of the Editorial Team and Discipline Editors

The Roles and Responsibilities Specific to the Press Manager

The Press Manager seeks to engage in continuous professional development to stay updated on best practices in scholarly publishing. This includes attending relevant workshops, conferences, and training sessions, as well as maintaining membership in professional societies.  The Press Manager also shares what they have learnt with the Discipline Editors and uses this as a way to mentor and develop them. 

The Press Manager must follow up on all communication from the Publishers Association of South Africa’s Scholarly Committee, the Academy of Science’s National Scholarly Book Publishers Forum, the Association of University Presses and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association to ensure that UJ Press adheres to industry best practices.

The Press Manager is responsible for the quality of the publications published by UJ Press and should develop the academic standing and focus of UJ Press over time.

The Press Manager is responsible for convening and chairing two Discipline Editor meetings a year and one Editorial board meeting a year.

On a weekly basis, the Press Manager must regularly check the new manuscripts that are submitted to the journal.

The Press Manager reviews each new manuscript in conjunction with the Discipline Editor and determines if it fits the scope of the press and checks if all the information is complete.  If it is not in the scope of the press or if key information is missing, the Press Manager, in consultation with the Discipline Editor, rejects the manuscript. If the manuscript has a Turnitin score of more than 10, the Press Manager will also reject the manuscript. The Press Manager may engage the use of an AI tool to detect AI usage in a manuscript, and if AI tools have been used to generate the content of the manuscript, the Press Manager will reject the article.  This is then noted on the online system, and the author or editor is notified that their manuscript is rejected and why.

The Press Manager must declare any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which such conflicts exist.

The Press Manager identifies a specialist language editor for each manuscript.  The use of a specialist language editor is to ensure that the highest standards in language proofreading and copy editing in the layout of each article are adhered to.  The work of the language editor is developmental in nature, and he/she should assist the authors and editors to present their arguments in the most accessible way possible. This enables UJ Press to support academics whose first language may not be English and to ensure equitable access to publication for academics from the global south.  The language and copy editor also ensure standardised language editing, quality control for figures, images, and flow charts, and accurate references.

The Press Manager is responsible for the final version of each manuscript and must oversee the work of the language copy editor to ensure that it meets the specifications and standards of the press.

The Press Manager then hands over the copies of all the chapters to be included in a publication to the layout editor.  UJ Press uses automation tools for layout and digital formatting, thus ensuring that each volume is compatible with multiple digital platforms and is easily accessible to a diverse audience across various digital platforms.

Once the review process is concluded, the Press Manager informs the reviewers of the overall outcome of the review process and may share the review comments submitted to the author(s).

The Roles and Responsibilities of the Press Manager and Discipline Editors

If a manuscript is not rejected because it is not in the scope of the press, key information is missing, or the Turnitin score is above 10, the Press Manager assigns the article to a Discipline Editor whose broad area of expertise the manuscript falls under, for them to review the quality of the manuscript. 

Discipline Editors must declare any potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which such conflicts exist.

The Discipline Editors then determine if, in their expert opinion, the manuscript does or does not meet the minimum scholarly standards of quality and original research requirements of the press.  If it does not meet these standards, the article is rejected.  The Discipline Editor then notes this on the online system and notifies the author that their manuscript has been rejected and why.   

If, in the expert opinion of the Discipline Editors, the manuscript does meet the minimum requirements of quality and original scholarship, they then oversee the peer review process for the manuscript. 

They then follow a double-blind peer review process, ensuring that the manuscript is reviewed by reviewers who are experts in the topic of the manuscript. Peer reviewers may not be reviewers who are affiliated with the same institution as any of the authors of the manuscript, have co-authored with the author(s), or have been supervisors of the author(s) for the manuscript in question.

While the online system reminds reviewers to send in their reviews, the Press Manager is responsible for checking in regularly to see if reviews have come in and to follow up if reviewers are taking too long.  Should a reviewer not send in a review after three months and three follow-up reminders, the reviewer is taken off the manuscript and a new reviewer is assigned. 

Once two reviews have come back, the Press Manager assesses the reviews.  Should there be a huge discrepancy, a third review must be obtained.  Should one or both reviews be factually incorrect, incomplete, discriminatory, derogatory, slanderous or demeaning, another review should be sought.  After acceptable peer reviews have come in, it is the Press Manager’s decision to reject a manuscript based on feedback from reviewers who may find significant flaws or weaknesses in the research.  All authors are given thorough feedback to explain why their manuscripts have been rejected, and substantial guidance must be given to help them improve their work.

Rejection Before Publication: After an author has made changes suggested by peer reviewers, all manuscripts are put through Turnitin before they are language edited.  Should a manuscript receive a Turnitin score of more than 10, the article will be rejected for publication.  Plagiarism is taken very seriously by UJ Press, and it adheres to the plagiarism policy outlined.

The Appointment of Discipline Editors:

The appointment of Discipline Editors follows a similarly transparent and equitable process via the Editorial Board. The names of possible candidates who have been nominated and confirmed that they are willing to serve on the board are brought to a meeting of the UJ Press Board and the UJ Press Editorial team.  The members at the meeting vote on which candidate they think is most suitable, and the candidate with the most votes is then appointed.  The term of office of the Discipline Editors is two years. They may be re-elected for a second two-year period.  

The Discipline Editors are required to attend two Editorial team meetings a year and one Editorial board meeting a year.

The Editorial Board

Term of office: Board members serve for a period of two years, and their term of office can be extended twice.

Election:  Members of the Editorial team of UJ Press nominate candidates to be elected to the Editorial board.  Nominated candidates confirm in writing that they are willing to stand.  The Editorial team then vote on the nominated candidates, taking into account UJ Press’s commitment to mentor emerging academics and to appoint candidates from a variety of demographic, geographic, institutional and areas or fields of study. 

Roles and responsibilities: Board members are expected to identify potential reviewers for manuscripts.  As board members, candidates are expected to attend one annual board meeting and to offer UJ Press strategic guidance in determining and executing the mission and vision of the press. 

Board members are requested to advertise each new title that comes out to their respective networks via social media, emails and other forms of communication.  They are also encouraged to share any marketing communications issued by UJ Press to their networks.

Board members may be asked to mentor emerging scholars to help them develop their manuscripts to ensure that they meet the quality standards required by UJ Press for review and publication.

The Editorial board should review the process of the press and the work of the Editorial team to ensure that they maintain best practices in accordance with the guidelines set out by ASSAf and AUPresses.

As members of the Editorial board and once their term of office has ended, board members will respect the confidentiality of press information and ensure it is not inappropriately circulated.

The board members will accept that the Press Manager’s decisions on publication or otherwise are final and that their role is an advisory one.