Instructions for Authors

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1. International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies is an open access journal which publishes original articles (research and theoretical), commentaries, and book reviews and is published bi-annually. All articles are anonymously peer reviewed by at least two referees.

2. IJCDS will only publish original articles between 6,000 and 10,000 words (this limit includes tables, references, captions and endnotes). Commentaries should be a maximum of 4,500 words. Book reviews should be no more than 2,000 words. Details of the book being reviewed should be included as follows: Author, Title, Place of publication, Publisher, Year, Total page numbers and ISBN. Submissions must not have been published or be under consideration elsewhere.

3. Articles must be submitted in English consistently throughout in terms of style (an author can use either American or British English but must use only one chosen style – e.g. if one selects American English they should stick to it throughout the manuscript and not switch to British English for the sake of consistency). Articles should reflect awareness of the impact of language on difference and avoid language that could be exclusionary or harmful.

4. Articles should be submitted electronically as Word files on ScholarOne platform accessed through the following link: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/ijcds. Details of steps you need to complete on ScholarOne can be found on Steps for Submitting a Manuscript on ScholarOne. Fill in all required fields as indicated on the guide in order for your manuscript to be processed without further delays. The submission should be completed in full.

5. An abstract of 150–200 words should be included in a single paragraph, followed by three to five key words.

6. There must not be any identifying reference to the author in the text. The author’s name should not appear in the manuscript. Reference to the author’s work within the text should be anonymized for peer review. In cases where you need to use your name, you may use Author or Anonymous, for example Author (2010) or Anonymous (2012).

7. Your manuscript should only contain the title, abstract, keywords and text. Upload a separate cover letter with a brief biography. See the following template: Cover Letter Template.

8. IJCDS conforms to the American Psychological Association (APA) style in all respects concerning referencing. All references should be included in parenthesis in the text following the author and date (APA referencing) format. Examples of APA referencing style can be found on the APA Style website at https://apastyle.apa.org/.

9. The reference list of works cited should be at the end of the article. Endnotes should be avoided or kept to a minimum. Appendices may be included in exceptional cases.

10. All text should be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. Paragraphs should be justified and text should be formatted as simply as possible, reserving italics for titles and foreign words. Short quotations should be indicated by double quotation marks; quotations within quotations by single quotation marks.

11. Quotations from other languages should be given in translation only where a linguistic dimension is critical to the argument. Quotations must be transcribed accurately. Abbreviations, omissions and interpolations should be indicated by the use of square brackets. Longer quotations, of 40 words or above, should be indented apart in paragraph without quotation marks.

12. Spellings in quotations must follow the original of the editions cited. Dates and numbers should generally be written out (e.g. seventh century, not 7th century; 26 July 1956, not 26th July or 26/7/1956).

13. Visual material, including maps, photographs, diagrams and art works integral to the argument of the article will be accepted for reproduction in the text. Colour images will be accepted in exceptional cases and where justified by the visual focus of the article. At publication stage, images must be submitted in sufficiently high definition and quality format for clear legibility.

14. Responsibility for obtaining permission from the copyright holders for the reproduction of images lies with the author. All tables, diagrams, figures and images should be labelled accompanied with suitable captions for identification and numbered for ease of reference.

15. All articles are evaluated for suitability according to the scope of IJCDS before being sent for review.

16. Note that the Editor-in-Chief makes the final publishing decisions, guided by the peer reviewers and Associate Editors. Majority of articles require some revision before they are accepted for publication. Following the refereeing process, authors may be asked to undertake revisions as a condition of publication.

17. We check all articles for plagiarism. All articles will normally be subject to editing. Authors will be asked to review proofs prior to the final publication. Correction of proofs is limited to factual and typographical errors. Proofs must be returned by the deadlines indicated. Authors will receive offprints for their individual articles.

18. The journal adheres to the ethical standards endorsed by the Committee on Publication Ethics ( https://publicationethics.org/). In particular:

    • We expect all authors to state in their article if they have a conflict of interest which could potentially bias their opinions – for example, funding or employment.

    • All named authors on the articles should confirm that they have jointly participated in the research and writing of the article, and that no author has been omitted from the list of authors.

    • We require authors to warrant that their articles are original, have not been previously published, and do not plagiarize or otherwise copy someone else’s work without attribution. (If the article is a translation, we are happy to consider this for publication but the authors must inform the editors on submission.)

    • We also require authors to warrant that their article does not defame, libel, or bring another person into disrepute, and neither does it contain anything illegal (e.g. copyright infringing).

19. Articles submitted to IJCDS must not be under consideration elsewhere. If an article is a product of any published project (such as a thesis submitted to a University) you should acknowledge in your cover letter that the main results for the manuscript are from your thesis. Details of the project should be provided. For example: “This article is developed from my PhD thesis titled xxxx (put title) which I submitted to the University of the Witwatersrand in 2018.”

20. To assure the integrity, dissemination, and protection against copyright infringement of published articles, you will be asked to assign to International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies, through Pluto Journals Publishing Agreement, the copyright in your article. Your article will be defined as the final, definitive, and citable Version of Record, and includes the accepted full manuscript and components in its final form. The Publishing Agreement with you will constitute the entire agreement and the sole understanding between International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies, Pluto Journals and you; no amendment, addendum, or other communication will be taken into account when interpreting your rights and obligations under this Publishing Agreement. Copyright policy is explained in detail at http://www.plutojournals.com.