Instructions for Submission

Focus and scope

SOTL in the South is an online, open-access and peer-reviewed journal dedicated to fostering dialogue and research on teaching and learning in higher education in the global South, or about the global South.

There is no fee for article submission or processing. 

To submit an article online:
  1. Register (if you need a Username/Password) or
  2. Login (if you already have a Username/Password)
  3. Select the role “author”

Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.
An step-by-step guide for authors to submit via this online system can be downloaded here.

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the below items. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines:

EDITING

Please ensure that language and referencing are fully edited before submission. 

Journal editors may require papers to be professionaly language edited before considering articles for acceptance.

Formatting:

  • Use Calibri, 11-point font.
  • Use 1.15 spacing for the main body of the text.
  • Use 1.0 spacing for long quotes.
  • Use 1.0 spacing in the 'Reference list', leave a line between sources.
  • Justify all text and leave one line space between paragraphs.
  • Spacing 'before' and 'after' (in paragraph settings) should be 0pt.
  • Line numbering should not be used.
REFERENCING SYSTEM:

The reference list and in-text citations should all be included in plain text.
Metadata laden references, as produced by electronic reference managers, should be stripped to plain text in the submitted document.

The journal uses the Harvard referencing system:

Author-date system:

  • In-text citations should follow the author-date system with full documentation in the reference section.

In-text, author-date citation examples:

When citing an entire text:

  • Jones’s research (1977, 1979a, 1979b) indicates that …
  • (Nkosi, 2018)
  • (Pickett & White, 1985; Smith, 1987; Ndlovu, 1997) [note ascending date order]
  • Saranto (2017) frames the…
  • McGinnis (forthcoming)
  • Do not cite URLs in the body of the text (see reference list examples for web links below)

Please give page numbers when quoting information on specific pages of a text:

  • (Mhlaba, 2015:5)
  • (Halley, 1972:437)

When there is no date (avoid unless impossible), please insert ‘n.d’ in place of the date:

  • (Krant, n.d)
  • Three or more authors: list up to the first six author surnames in full when first cited in-text, and thereafter, refer to ‘et al’. For example, first in-text mention:  (Avle, Quartey, & Hutchful, 2018); while second and subsequent mentions (Avle et al, 2018).

Quotes: 

  • Do not italicise quotes – use double quotation marks (“xyz”).
  • Use single quotation marks (‘xyz’) for quotes within quotes.
  • Indent quotes of more than three lines (1cm indent on both side of the quote).
  • Indented quotes do not require "double quotation marks".
  • Use 1.0 spacing for indented quotes.

 

Reference list:

  • All references in the reference list should be cited in-text and vice versa.
  • The reference list must be in alphabetical order.
  • For multiple listings under an author’s name, list the oldest publication first, followed by the other publications in chronological order.
  • Repeat an author’s name rather than use underscores or dashes to indicate a subsequent title by the same author.
  • Confirm that web links are accessible as cited.

 

Reference examples:

Book:

Knight, PT. 2002. Being a Teacher in Higher Education. Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press.

Two authors, edited volume:

Becher, T & Trowler, P. (eds.) 2001. Academic Tribes and Territories. Second Edition. Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press.

Chapter in a book:

Hermerschmidt, M. 1999. Foregrounding background in academic learning. In Jones, C., Turner, J. & Street, BV. Students Writing in the University. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 5-16.

Edwards, A. & Thompson, M. 2013. Resourceful leadership: Revealing the creativity of organizational leaders. In Sannino, A. & Ellis, V. (eds.) Learning and Collective Creativity: Activity-Theoretical and Sociocultural Studies. London: Routledge.

Gorard, S. 2003. Quantitative methods in social science. Chapter 4. Sampling the basis of all research. 56-89. London: Continuum.

Article in a journal:

Kiley, M. & Wisker, G. 2009. Threshold concepts in research education and evidence of threshold crossing. Higher Education, Research & Development. 28(4): 431-444.

Zipin, L., Sellar, S. & Hattam, R. 2012. Countering and exceeding ‘capital’: a ‘funds of knowledge’ approach to re-imagining community. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 33(2), May: 179-192.

Article in a journal with a DOI number:

Clarence, S. 2011. Making inter-disciplinary spaces for talk about and change in student writing and literacy development. Teaching in Higher Education. 17(2): 127-137. DOI:10.1080/13562517.2011.611876.

Translations:

Cortázar, J. 1969. Cronopios and Famas, trans. P. Blackburn. New York: Random House.

[Do not translate foreign titles into English unless it is the English version that is referred to.]

Article in a newspaper or magazine:

Phakathi, B. 2011. Teachers vow to fight DA education bill. Business Day, 18 October.

Slides and film:

Mihalyi, LJ. 1977. Landscapes of Zambia, Central Africa. Santa Barbara, CA: Visual Education. Slides.

An Incident in Tiananmen Square. 1990. 16 mm, 25 min. San Francisco: Gate of Heaven Films.

Godard, J-L. (dir.) [1966] 2005. Masculin Feminin. Criterion Collection.

Papers read at meetings and articles in proceedings:

Clegg, S. 2008. The struggle for connections. Keynote address at ISSOTL conference, 17-19 October Edmonton, Canada.

Leitao, R. 2018. Recognizing and overcoming the myths of modernity. In Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. & Bohemia E. (Eds.), Proceedings of DRS Design Research Society 2018 Catalyst Conference. University of Limerick, Ireland. 25-28 June 2018. pp.955-967.

Dissertation:

Peseta, TL. 2005. Learning and Becoming in Academic Development: an autoethnographic inquiry. Unpublished PhD dissertation, the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Unpublished material:

Marciniak, E. & Jefferson, N. 1985. CHA Advisory Committee Appointed by Judge Marvin E Aspin: Final Report (December). Unpublished.

Organisation as ‘author’:

Democratic Alliance (DA). 2008. Preparing for success. The DA’s plan for schools that deliver real opportunity. [O]. Available:
http://www.da.org.za/docs/647/MDU-%20DA%20Preparing%20for%20Success.pdf
Accessed 23 July 2012

Materials in archives:

Egmont Manuscripts (n.d.). Phillips Collection. Athens: University of Georgia Library.

Internet/world wide web sites:

Vale, P. and Carter, J. 2008. But Do They Think? Mail and Guardian, 2 March. Available:
http://mg.co.za/printformat/single/2008-03-02-but-do-they-think/. Accessed 5 May 2011.

United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). 2020. Indigenous peoples and their communities. Available: https://www.unenvironment.org/civil-society-engagement/major-groups-modalities/major-group-categories/indigenous-peoples-and. Accessed 1 April 2020.

DOCUMENT FORMAT:
Submission format: 
  • OpenOffice or Microsoft Word format only. No PDFs.
  • Author names should not be included in the file name.
  • Please inspect the document and remove the author name from the document properties, in order to ensure blind review.
Text:
  • Use 1.15-spaced text, except for indented quotes and the reference list (which should be in 1.0 spacing).
  • Use Calibri, 11-point font.
  • All illustrations, figures and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
Images:
  • All images and illustrations MUST also be attached as supplementary files.
  • All images and illustrations must be high-res images, saved in TIFF, JPEG  or .eps format
  • Where required, images that have not been generated by the author must have the necessary permissions.