Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • Authors have read and applied the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • The Publishing Agreement must be completed by all authors and the completed contract must be uploaded during online submission of the manuscript or submitted to the Editorial Office. Manuscripts will not be considered for publication until the completed contract has been received. When the article has been approved the Editor-in-Chief will sign the agreement and return a PDF copy to the author/s for their records.

Author Guidelines

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 makes use of a continuous publication (CP) model. Articles are published online in their final, citable form with a universal digital object identifier (DOI) as soon as the production process for that article has been completed. Articles are added in small batches to the current issue of Communitas (available under the “Current issue” tab on the website). Issues are run annually. 

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

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.

Fees

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

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 and 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?

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.