Editorial policy:

Submission of a manuscript implies that the material has not been previously published nor is it being submitted elsewhere. Submission to AJAR will imply temporary transfer of copyright to the publisher NISC. Contributions are accepted with the understanding that the author has the authority for publication. Material accepted for publication in AJAR may not be reprinted or otherwise published (including translation) without the permission of the publisher NISC.  

AJAR publishes research articles of up to approximately 10 000 words. Review papers will also be considered if they make an original conceptual contribution to the field. Papers must be written in English.

Submission requirements:

Manuscripts should be submitted via e-mail attachment to ajar@ru.ac.za. If submitted by postal mail, please include a disc containing print-formatted files. Once a manuscript is received, the corresponding author will be given a reference number to be used when communicating with the AJAR editorial office. 

The review process:

Submitted papers are subject to three reviews: an editorial review, which mainly looks at the technical merits of the paper and the suitability of the topic for publication in AJAR, and two peer reviews, which are conducted only after the paper is accepted by editorial review. Manuscripts will be offered for review by two appropriately qualified and experienced referees, maintaining the author's anonymity, and the referees' reports will be transmitted to the author/s.

Reviewers are instructed to rate manuscripts according to the following criteria: 1) the material is well-structured and presentation is clear; 2) the goals of the project are readily apparent; 3) the methods used are appropriate to the project and appear to have been satisfactorily executed; 4) the results and conclusions are well argued and cognisance is taken of alternative interpretations; 5) appropriate use is made of figures and tables (where relevant); 6) the paper takes into account related empirical and/or analytical work in the field; and 7) the paper makes a contribution to knowledge (including originality). Thus, the peer-review practice assures that all papers eventually accepted for publication are methodologically and conceptually sound and make an original contribution to the field.

AJAR submission criteria:

Submitted manuscripts must adhere to the following criteria. Papers that do not comply may be returned to authors to be corrected, before or after review. Please spell-check and proofread your manuscript and carefully crosscheck the citations and references. 

Format: Papers should be formatted in MS Word. Complex tables or figures, or scanned images, should be given as separate files. Use 12-pt Arial font with 1.5 line spacing. Set margins at 25 mm. Separate paragraphs with a line space, and do not indent the start of paragraphs. Headings should not be numbered or use automatic formatting. Present primary section headings in bold type, secondary headings in bold–italic type, and tertiary headings in italic type, and capitalise only the first letter of the first words. Use regular bullets, and do not use colour or shading in figures or tables.

Layout: Submitted manuscripts should contain three parts, with each beginning on a new page:

1) Title page — This  should include the paper's title; author/s names (first and surname); author/s professional affiliation and postal address at the time of research; corresponding author's e-mail address; the date/s of submission/resubmission to AJAR. (Note that  the author/s names must only appear on the title page.) It is recommended, but not required, to also include acknowledgements as well as a short biographical note on each author.

2) Abstract page — Repeat the title of the paper preceding the abstract. As a concise statement of the scope of the work and the principal findings, the abstract should summarise the information presented in the paper and it should not contain references. The best length is about 150–250 words. Essential statistics may be presented in the abstract at the discretion of the author/s. Below the abstract, list alphabetically up to eight additional key words or phrases otherwise not included in the title.

3) Body of the text, including a full references list at the end — All papers must include at least the following primary sections: Introduction, Methods, Results or Findings, Discussion, Conclusions or Recommendations, and References.  Given the different types of research efforts published in AJAR, we do not prescribe a standard format for the sections. AJAR uses British (UK) spelling.

Writing style: Be concise and clear; use straightforward, natural language; and avoid long and complex sentences and paragraphs. Write and revise, and empathise with the reader; eliminate unnecessary words and restate relevant nouns and verbs; provide as strong an evidence base as possible for your findings, and make it clear whether you are stating an opinion or a referenced fact. Authors must bear in mind that AJAR is read by researchers in various fields and by many non-native English speakers. Avoid jargon and define terms that are discipline-specific or infrequently used. Strive to use bias-free communication with regard to culture, race, socio-economic class, age or gender. Especially, endeavour to be up-to-date on language usage in the field of HIV research. Be discriminating and accurate in your use of 'HIV' and 'AIDS'. 

Acronyms and abbreviations should be preceded by the full text to which they refer and placed in parentheses when used for the first time (the only exceptions are 'HIV' and 'AIDS' which do not need to be spelled out). Thereafter the acronym/abbreviation may be used without an explanation. Acronyms should be in all capital letters. Avoid uncommon abbreviations. Excessive use of certain abbreviations for groups of people (e.g., 'PLHA', 'OVC') may amount to labelling; rather spell-out terms if they are only infrequently used.

Non-English words should be italicised, but not placed in quotes and not be capitalised by virtue of being non-English words.

Numbers: Spell-out numbers at the start of a sentence as well as the numerals 1 to 9.  The period (.) must be used as the decimal indicator, and 'thousands' denoted by a space rather than a comma (e.g., 1 500 000). Units of measure should be written with a space between the number and the unit (e.g., 8 km).

Quotations: To denote a study participant's quote use single quotation marks and italicised text; these types of quotes may be embodied in the narrative/main text or set off in their own indented paragraph, depending on their length or the flow of the passage. Use single quotation marks and regular font to denote a newly coined term, an uncommonly used word, or a word used out of context. When directly quoting previously published text, use double quotation marks and regular font; importantly, include a page number with the reference citation immediately preceding or following the quote (i.e., author, year, page no.). In all types of quotes, replace omitted words with ellipses (three dots, or four dots to include the period), and put substituted or additional explanatory words, translations, or interpolations in square brackets. Periods and commas should be placed inside closing quotation marks; semicolons, colons and superscripts should fall outside quotation marks.

Citations: Multiple citations should be separated by semicolons and cited chronologically. Citations with the same publication year should be listed alphabetically. Please use an ampersand [&] to link authors, whether the citation occurs in the narrative or in parenthesis. If a cited work has three or more authors, the first time the work is cited all the authors' names must be used; thereafter, the first author's name alone followed by 'et al.' should be used (e.g., 'Kelly et al., 2002'). If a work has eight or more authors, use the names of only the first six authors followed by 'et al.'.

Referencing: A References section must appear at the end of the paper; it must comprise a complete list of full references to all citations in the text, in alphabetical order of first author, and in chronological order for works by the same author/s. Full journal titles must be used. All the authors for a single work must be included (do not use 'et al.' in the references list; likewise, do not use 'ibid.'). AJAR house-style is based on the Harvard-style of referencing. Authors are advised to consult a recent issue of the journal for samples of different reference formats and asked to adhere as closely as possible to the journal's style, especially in regard to the use of punctuation, capitalisation and italic font.

Footnotes/endnotes: A Notes section (that is, endnotes) should be used rather than footnotes, and it is preferable to limit use of endnotes. Citations may be made in endnotes, but full references must be given in the references list.

Tables: Tables should contain only information directly relevant to the paper's content, and data must not be presented in both tabular and graphic form. Each table should be numbered and accompanied by an appropriate stand-alone caption at the top. Tables  should not include shading or bold type.

Figures: Avoid highly stylised formatting. Graphics should be two-dimensional and inward-turning scale marks should be used. Do not use colour and avoid the use of shading. Each figure must be numbered and an appropriate stand-alone caption given at the bottom.

Scanned images: Line artwork and photographs should be scanned and saved as separate files, rather than included in the text. Copyright of special images must belong to the author or used with permission. TIF, GIF, JPG or EPS formats may be used. Images must be scanned at a minimum of 300 dpi. An illustrative image should be referred to and numbered as a figure, and accordingly it must include a caption.

Please submit papers to: ajar@ru.ac.za. Likewise, questions regarding  presentation or language and style can be addressed to AJAR's editorial assistant or copyeditor respectively.