About the Journal

Focus and scope

Communitas is an accredited academic journal annually publishing scientific articles in the context of community communication, development communication, strategic communication, media studies, journalism and related disciplines. The journal aims to promote a better understanding of communication-related issues which affect developing societies, including Southern African communities.

Indexing

  • Scopus
  • Web of Science Core Collection: Emerging Sources Citation Index
  • SciELO SA
  • DOAJ
  • DHET list

Open access

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Archiving

All Communitas articles are in digital format and are archived on the journal's website; the National Library of South Africa and KovsieScholar . All content within KovsieScholar is digitally preserved through DuraSpace. DuraSpace is a leading digital preservation service worldwide. The content is preserved as an archival version and is not publically accessible via DuraSpace, but is provided when required under specific conditions, such as discontinuation of the collection or catastrophic failure of the website.

Fees

The journal charges page fees of ZAR200 plus VAT per published page for authors affiliated to South African Higher Education institutions.

Editorial requirements

General

The article must not be under consideration by other journals or have been published previously.

Communitas has a strict policy against plagiarism. It is the author’s responsibility to gain permission for copyrighted material, and to acknowledge in text any material for which copyright is not owned.

Each article must be preceded by an abstract in English (maximum 200 words) reflecting the contents of the article, including the methodology followed, in a factual and concise manner and must be suitable for separate publication and indexing.

Articles should not exceed 7000 words in total (including abstract, acknowledgements, endnotes and references). Please include an accurate word count.

Communitas is published annually in November/December.  

Communitas is published online only - ISSN 2415-0525 (online).

Submit online at journals.ufs.ac.za (following the links to the Communitas page)

Review

All submissions are subjected to strict selection criteria and double-blind peer review based on academic grounds.

The journal publishes research articles in the field of communication science as it relates to the context of community communication, communication impact, development communication and related disciplines, including strategic communication, organisational communication, marketing and brand communication, media studies and journalism.

Communitas publishes research by established researchers who are experts in their discipline but the journal also has a commitment to early career development.

Technical care

  • Communitas accepts only English manuscripts
  • On a separate page, provide the following information for each author: title / name and surname / affilliation (department and institution) / email address / ORCID
  • Manuscripts must be in A4 format with 2.5 cm margins
  • Spacing: 1.5
  • Font: Times New Roman or Arial, 12 point
  • Communitas uses British English
  • Manuscripts must be proofread by a professional language editor before submission
  • Tables, figures and illustrations should be numbered according to house style and placed in the correct place if possible. Otherwise, tables, figures and illustrations should be attached on separate pages. Authors must clearly indicate where tables, etc. must be placed in the text.
  • No footnotes. If necessary, authors may make use of endnotes, but these should be limited to the minimum. Endnotes appear after the text, but before the list of references.
  • No page numbers
  • Use the following headline levels:

MAIN HEADLINE

Headline

Sub-headline

  • All headlines flush left, and no numbering is used. No full stops after headlines.
  • Headlines should be ten words or less.

Referencing / Citations

  • All references must be done according to the Harvard Method.
  • Please check the following before submitting manuscripts:
  • Are all the references in the reference list cited in the text?
  • Do all the citations in the text appear in the reference list?
  • Do the dates in the text and the reference list correspond?
  • Does the spelling of authors’ names in the text and reference list correspond and do all authors have the correct initials?

Editorial policies

Publishing agreement