Guidelines for authors

We ask authors to follow these guidelines on style and format as far possible when preparing papers for submission to Development Southern Africa. This will help us to produce the journal more speedily and efficiently.

Articles being considered for publication will be submitted to two referees.

Submission of papers

1. Information

On a separate page, please give the following details in full:

§ Title of the article

§ Author's or authors' first name(s), and surname(s), e.g. Jane Mfundisi, James L Brown

§ Designation/position, e.g. Senior Lecturer, Professor

§ Programme/department/organisation/institution, e.g. School of Government, University of the Western Cape, Bellville

§ Full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address

2. Submission

Please submit your paper via e-mail (using MSWord only) to dsa@dbsa.org

Use your surname to label your file(s), e.g. 'Anderson.doc' and 'Anderson tables.doc'.

3. Tables and figures

Submit all tables and figures (graphs, diagrams, maps) in a separate file from the text file. Mark in the text the places where these are to go, thus

[INSERT TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE]

Supply an appropriate caption for each table and figure. Captions for figures must be outside, not inside, the text box containing the figure.

Use the basic MSWord table function to create tables.  Do not use tabs or the space bar to align wording or figures in the table.

Please send graphs and diagrams in MSWord.

Maps should contain essential information only and be as clear as possible. Details and features should not be cramped or too small. Use only high resolution jpeg or tif files.

4. Copyright

Your paper must be accompanied by a signed statement by the author(s) that publication in Development Southern Africa would not contravene any copyright or other contractual relevant to the paper or the research upon which it is based.

5. Quality control

If possible, please get another person to language edit or proofread your paper before submitting it.

6. Editor's queries

Any queries the copy editor may have will be emailed to you. Please reply to these promptly (within 3 days). Be clear and specific in your responses and eliminate guesswork.

Length and layout

§ Maximum length: 6000 words (this includes the abstract and list of references, but does not include tables and figures)

§ Submit papers in 12 pt Times New Roman or Arial, 1.5 line spacing.

§ Remember to number the pages.

§ Use bullets or numbers for lists and not dashes, asterisks or letters of the alphabet.

Content and style

1. Abstract

Provide a brief abstract of not more than 150 words. Type this in italics under the title of the paper.

2. Keywords

Provide three to five keywords after the abstract, e.g.:

Keywords: low-cost housing; urban planning; municipalities; local government

3. Style

Your general style of writing should neither overestimate nor underestimate the comprehension of the readers.

Do not use italics, underlining or bold to emphasise important words or phrases. Rather achieve the required emphasis with an effective style of writing.

4. Concepts

Bear in mind that certain concepts are self-evident to people in your field, but DSA has many readers from other disciplines, including non-economists. Therefore, consider including a brief definition of concepts early on in the paper.

5. Abbreviations and acronyms

Give the names of organisations, institutions, etc. in full the first time you use them, followed by the abbreviated form in brackets. Thereafter use the abbreviated form.

6. Sources

Acknowledge all sources of ideas, statements, tables, graphs, etc. that are not your own. Cite only sources that are relevant to your discussion. Do not cite for the sake of citing.

7. Footnotes

Use footnotes only when absolutely necessary and keep them short (no more than 50 words). Do not use footnotes to elaborate on the text.

Do not use endnotes.

Spelling, punctuation and referencing style

1. Spelling

DSA uses UK English conventions and spelling rules.

For simplicity and convenience the -ise spelling is used throughout and not -ize, e.g. prioritise, recognising.

2. Foreign words and phrases

Do not italicise common Latin and French terms such as ad hoc, per capita, inter alia, vis-à-vis, laissez faire.

Italicise words and phrases from other languages, e.g. isiZulu, German.

Please provide a translation of foreign words and phrases in other languages and state which language it is, e.g. bywoner (tenant farmer, Afrikaans).

3. Quote marks

Use single quote marks. Use double quote marks only for quotations within quotations. For long quotations, double indent the text in a separate paragraph and omit the quote marks.

4. Spacing between sentences

Leave a single space after a full stop in the text, not a double space.

5. Full stops

Use full stops after abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., et al., etc.

Do not use a full stop when the abbreviation ends on the same letter as the full word, e.g. Dr, Mr, Ms. (Note that Prof. has a full stop.)

Do not use a full stop after a person's initials, e.g. D Coetzee, AB Smith.

6. Percentages

Use the % sign throughout, and not ‘per cent', except where the percentage occurs at the beginning of a sentence, e.g. ‘Ninety per cent of the respondents… .

7. Capital letters

Use lower case as far as possible (e.g. parliament, government, state, president, director-general, regional council), except in specific, direct references such as 'Patrick Mabena, Deputy Director-General and President of XYZ, said that…'.

Use lower case for the first letter of a generic ethnic group (e.g. black, white, coloured) but upper case for the first letter of a specific group (e.g. African, Asian, Indian, Swedish).

8. Numbers and dates

Write numbers one to nine in words, and thereafter use figures, e.g. 10, 12, 55.

For numbers in the thousands use the space style, not the comma style :

1000, 10 000, 100 000, 1 000 000 etc.

Note that the four-digit figure does not have a space, except in tables where alignment is necessary.

Use decimal point, not comma, e.g. 3.85.

Write dates as 20 July 2005. Not as 20th etc. (Do not use superscripts.)

9. Section headings

Please number the sections of your paper, beginning with 1. Introduction. Use DSA heading styles (sentence case, bold), thus:

4. The agricultural sector

4.1 The market

4.1.1 Maize and wheat

Please number the sections manually. Do not use the auto numbering function.

10. References

Use the Harvard system of referencing, i.e. citations give the author's name and the year of publication.

Use DSA's referencing style for your list of references. (See examples below or refer to the most recent issue of DSA.)

Very important:

Include in the reference list ONLY the sources you cite in the text.

Ensure that all the sources you cite are listed and that all the sources you list are cited. 

Supply full details for each reference in your list. Remember to give the date and place of publication, the name of the printer or publisher, the volume and issue numbers of journals and the page range of articles, and the dates (day and month) of seminars, workshops, conferences, etc.

If a publication by more than two authors is referred to in the text, write 'et al.' from the start, e.g. (Skosana et al., 1997:14), but provide the names of all the authors in the reference list.

References to more than one publication by an author in the same year must be distinguished alphabetically, for example (Fields, 1984a,b).

Book:

Schmidt, MI & Ashley, JD, 1988. Game Ranging: The Case in Botswana. Ad Donker, Johannesburg.

Chapter in a book:

Backman, J, 1981. The problem of regulation. In Backman, J (Ed.), Regulation and Deregulation. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis.

Journal article:

Mwangi, I, 1997. The nature of rental housing in Kenya. Environment and Urbanisation 9(2), 141–59.

Conference paper:

Delgado, CL & Siamwalla, A, 1997. Diversification in developing countries. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference of Agricultural Economists, 10-16 August, Sacramento, California.

Official document:

NDA (National Department of Agriculture), 2001. The Strategic Plan for South African Agriculture. Government Printer, Pretoria.

Newspaper or magazine article:

Booth, J, 2004. Blair plans annual UK-China summit. Guardian, 11 May, p. 6.

The Economist, 2005. Special report: Congo, Africa's unmended heart, 11–17 June.

Thesis:

Hyuha, TS, 2006. Profit efficiency among rice producers in eastern and northern Uganda. PhD thesis, Makerere University, Uganda.

Electronic text:

DoH (Department of Health). 2002. National service framework for diabetes: Delivery strategy. London: Department of Health. www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/03/28/23/04032823.pdf Accessed 5 May 2004.

Free article access: Corresponding authors can receive 50 free reprints, free online access to their article through our website (www.informaworld.com) and a complimentary copy of the issue containing their article. Complimentary reprints are available through Rightslink® and additional reprints can be ordered through Rightslink® when proofs are received. If you have any queries, please contact our reprints department at reprints@tandf.co.uk