About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The South African Journal of Higher Education is an independent, fully accredited open access publication, and serves as a medium for articles of interest to researchers and practitioners in higher education. The Journal provides a focal point for the publication of educational research from throughout the world including research done by members of prominent education associations in the country, in particular The Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of South African (HELTASA).

It is a referee-assisted publication and enjoys the professional support of an International Advisory Board as well as the assistance of Consultant Editors. The journal is interdisciplinary in approach, and its purpose is to provide institutions of higher education and professional readers with scholarly information on major innovations in higher education, research projects and trends.

The journal appears 6 times a year - with an additional "special section" if applicable.  Contact us for more information regarding a special section.

The scholarly publishing arena has been influenced by the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web (WWW) in many ways. Online journal management offers many benefits, including higher dissemination, increased access, reach, and visibility, leading to higher impact of individual research articles published. As an open access journal all full text articles from 2016 are available online.

  • The views expressed in the journal are those of the respective authors.
  • The journal is eISSN accredited 1753-5913
  • We are also in the process to be registered on the IBSS international list of accredited journals.

Peer Review Process

All research articles submitted to SAJHE have undergone rigorous peer review which involves initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by at least two anonymous referees. The reviewers are requested to complete a brief written report along with a completion of a score sheet of whether the article is suitable for publication in the journal.

No editorial consideration will be given to manuscripts that have been published previously or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. To preserve the advantages of anonymous peer reviewing, authors are requested to avoid self-identification in the manuscript.

Publication Frequency

Journal items are published collectively online as part of an issue.

The journal appears 6 times a year - with an additional "special section" if applicable.  Contact us for more information regarding a special section.

Open Access Policy

South African Journal of Higher Education is an Open Access journal which means that all content is freely available 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, as underwritten by the license CC BY NC ND 4.0, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. See also our  Copyright Notes.

Publication Frequency

Journal items are published collectively online as part of an issue.

Code of Conduct

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

1. Publication and authorship:

  • Authors must list all references used in/for the article
  • Authors must acknowledge financial support received and from which organization or firm
  • Authors acknowledge that the article/s is their own original work and that no other author's work has been used without referencing or in a manner which constitutes plagiarism.
  • Authors acknowledge that their data is real and verifiable and that no fraudulent data is used
  • Authors may not submit an article that has been published in another journal; nor may they submit to other journals when published in SAJHE. Articles must be published exclusively in SAJHE


2. Author's responsibilities:

  • Authors are obliged to participate in the review process and refusal to do so may result in articles not being published or retracted
  • Only people who contributed significantly to the research and/or article can be listed as "author". People who contributed in a lesser role must be acknowledged as ˜contributor"
  • Authors must provide retractions or corrections of any mistakes found by the reviewers


3. Peer review / responsibility of reviewers:

  • Judgments will be objective
  • Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funders of the research
  • Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited
  • Reviewers will treat reviewed articles as confidential


4. Editorial responsibilities:

  • The editor-in-chief has complete authority to reject or accept articles
  • Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept
  • The editor/s will only accept a paper when reasonably certain that all conditions have been met by the author/s
  • The editor will promote the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found in published work
  • The editor will preserve the anonymity of the reviewers


5. Publishing ethics issues

  • The editorial board will monitor and safeguard the publishing ethics of the journal
  • The guidelines for retracting articles are as follows:
    • Articles that are seriously flawed and unreliable will be retracted. Redundant articles (published in other journals prior to SAJHE) will be retracted. Change of authorship or minor errors will not lead to retraction but to the publishing of a correction notice.
    • Notices of retraction will clearly state the reason and the retracted article will be clearly marked in all electronic versions of the journal, and a retraction notice will be published in the print copy of the journal.
  • The journal will not compromise intellectual or ethical standards in favour of the business needs of the journal
  • The editorial board will maintain the integrity of the academic record of the journal
  • The editorial board will always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
  • No plagiarism and no fraudulent data will be tolerated in the journal

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I was registered on the old system. Do I have to register again?
Yes; if you did not receive login details from us you have to register again.

 

I have forgotten my password.
Click here to start the password reset.

 

I don't know my username.
Contact us to retrieve it.

 

How do I submit an article?
Log into the system. On the Active Submissions page, scroll down to Start a New Submission heading. Click on Click here to start the upload process.

 

I do not see an Active submissions page - how do I load an article?
During registration you have to tick Author to be able to load articles. Contact us to amend your registration.

 

How do I see the reviewer's comments?
Log into the system and click on Active in the middle of the page. Next to the article title that has to be amended you will see In review: Revisions required. Click on this link. On the Review page under the Peer Review heading you will see Uploaded file - Reviewer A at the bottom. Click on that file to open it and see the reviewer comments. Download a pdf with screenshots here.

 

How do I load my revised article?
Log into the system and click on Active in the middle of the page. Next to the article title that has to be amended you will see In review: Revisions required. Click on this link. On the Review page under the Editor Decision heading you will see Upload Author Version -  Click on Browse to search for your file and then Upload.

 

Where do I load my Copy edited version?
Follow the link in the email you received (log in). On the Editing tab under Copyediting there are 3 numbers. Underneath that there are 3 round buttons for Step1, 2 and 3. Use the Choose File button to load your approved version.

 

My article was declined for publication - Why?
Log into the system and click on Archive in the middle of the Active Submissions page. Click on the article title to open it. Click on Review (under big #-- Summary)
Under the Peer Review heading you will see Uploaded file - Reviewer at the bottom. Click on that file to open it and see the reviewer comments.

 

REVIEWERS - How to do a review:
Open the link that was sent in the email and scroll down to Review Steps. At number 3 you can click on Review (with the bubble next to it) - this opens a form where you can enter comments to both the editor and author or only to the editor.
OR at number 4 you can load a document with your comments. Click on Browse to find the file on your computer and then Upload to save it.
At the bottom use the drop-down box to set your recommendation to the editor.
Finally click on Submit Review to Editor at the bottom to send it to the Editor-in-Chief
On the next screen click OK if you are satisfied with your review. Download the pdf here.

 

Digital Preservation

South African Journal of Higher Education. This journal is in the process of migrating from the Stellenbosch University preservation platform to the PKP PN (Preservation Network) platform.

ORCID iD

This journal programme cannot read the ORCID iD.  Please do not add it when you Register or when submitting a paper.

After Registration, can you Edit your Profile and then insert the ORCID iD, or please send your ORCiD ID, along with the name of the journal to, scholar@sun.ac.za to add to your Profile.

Stellenbosch University researchers/authors can create an ORCID iD here.

ORCID iD is a persistent, unique, numeric identifier for individual researchers and creators. It distinguishes you from researchers and creators with the same or similar names.   ORCID iD is similar to ResearcherID, Scopus Author ID, ISNI and other systems for identifying and distinguishing researchers and creators.