About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Ukumela: The South African Journal of Legal Reasoning, Writing and Education ("Ukumela" meaning “to represent†in Xhosa) was established in 2017 as the first, peer-reviewed, open-access journal of its kind in South Africa. Ukumela seeks to provide a forum and showcase for the developing discipline of legal writing, publishing scholarly articles about the theory, substance, and pedagogy of legal writing.
Peer Review Process
- Ukumela subscribes to the Guidelines for Best Practice in Editorial Discretion and Peer Review adopted by the Forum of Editors of Academic Law Journals in South Africa.
- Only contributions that have not been submitted for publication elsewhere will be considered for publication in Ukumela. This rule will only be deviated from in exceptional circumstances.
- All contributions, excluding book reviews, will be subjected to blind peer review by at least two reviewers. Blind review entails:
- that an author is not informed about the identity of a reviewer;
- that a reviewer is not informed about the identity of an author; and
- that reviewers are not informed about each other’s identities.
- Only reviewers who are knowledgeable in the subject area with which the contribution deals will be used to prepare review reports.
Publication Frequency
- Contributions will be published as soon as they have been finalised.
- Contributions will be consolidated into three issues per year.
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.
- Contributions published in this journal are subject to the following creative commons license:
- Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Digital Preservation
Ukumela: the South African Journal of Legal Reasoning, Writing and Education. This journal is in the process of migrating from the Stellenbosch University preservation platform to the PKP PN (Preservation Network) platform.
ORCID iD
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