The Pharos Journal of Theology, formerly know as the Ekklesiastikos Pharos was originally published in Alexandria (Egypt) directly by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as a theological review at the beginning of the 20th Century. Consequently it is one of the oldest scholarly periodicals in Africa.
The periodical later on moved to Athens, but since 1990 the African edition, now known as Pharos Journal of Theology is edited again in Africa (Johannesburg). The editors who served the journal with excellence and extreme dedication over many years were Prof. Dr. B. Hendrickx and Prof. Dr. T. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, both NRF rated scholars and academics of the highest quality. Their pioneering work has made this journal internationally renowned and they remain on board as reviewers. They were followed by Rev. Prof. A Nicolaides who created the online platform for the journal which of course, has far greater reach than a hard copy version.
The Journal is now back to its initial strictly theological focus under our esteemed editor Rev. Dr. S. Hayes who is assisted by an extremely dedicated Editorial Board, composed of local and international scholars of standing. It is published by Africajournals who are the owners of the journal.
PEER REVIEW PROCESS
Articles are carefully reviewed, constructive criticisms are made and recommendations for publication or otherwise are made. All submitted articles are promptly and rigorously peer reviewed and may only be accepted after the requisite double blind peer review process stated above as per ASSAf recommendations. All submissions must be original and free from plagiarism and should not have been published anywhere else. The journal secretary collates the two (sometimes three) reviewers' comments into one template which is then sent back to the author/s for revision and resubmission for publication after a check.
Our goal is to ensure a high standard of scholarship with in-depth substantive review prior to all publication. Our editorial staff are subject to the same rules and all reviews are anonymous with anonymous reviewers to limit bias. Overall quality and originality is assessed in terms of structure, narrative, themes, methods and contribution to the body of knowledge. Authors may thus be expected to effect changes and make adaptations and revisions where appropriate before publication of any manuscript. We provide open access so that articles are available to all to read. We do on occasion also make exceptions and publish articles in the Greek language depending on the topic and quality of work reviewed and on the availabilty of suitable reviewers.
SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL
The Pharos Journal of Theology following on the theological works in the Ekklesiaistikos Pharos, now publishes compelling original research that contributes to the development of scholarly understanding and interpretation in a wide range of theological fields. The scope embraces the history and philosophy of religious thought in all traditions and periods, including Systematic Theology, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Old Testament, Christianity, Church History, Jewish studies, theology, pastoral theology, Christian Ethics, Biblical Archaeology, Missiology, Pneumatology, Gospel and Culture, and Comparative Religious Studies, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism.
The Journal is blind peer-reviewed and accredited by the DHET of South Africa and now operates according to ASSAF Guidelines and recommendations. The Harvard style is now used by this journal and is the only acceptable style.
This is an open-access journal - free use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium is allowed, provided that the journal, and original author/s are credited. Work is archived with the National Library of South Africa.
Double Blind Peer Reviewing
We use double blind peer review and the two reviewers don't know the identity of authors, or each other and vice versa. Research is judged fairly, keeping bias out of the equation. Author and reviewer benefit from some level of protection against criticism and are anonymous throughout the reviewing process. the author/s need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identity. Authors' names and affiliations, and a complete address for the corresponding author including telephone and e-mail address must be in a separate word doc to the manuscript. Authors must not include any acknowledgments and be sure to remove any identifying information, including author names, from file names and ensure document properties are also anonymized. If articles are submitted with author names etc on the manuscript we separate them before sending them out to our reviewers'.
Ethical issues
The Editor/s is required to act in a fair, balanced, objective manner and no discrimination of any sort is permitted or acceptable in any form or shape.All articles are required to considered if they align with the scope of the journal and are accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence, after double blind peer review. All authors have a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints must be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation relating to any complaints is retained.
Reviewers are appointed based on their expertise, to contribute to the decision-making process, thereby assist in improving the quality of the published article by reviewing the manuscript objectively and timeously. Reviewers are to maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor or author and may not retain or copy the manuscript in any way for any reason.The reviewers are expected to alert the editor or managing editor of any published or submitted content that is significantly similar to that under current review.Reviewers must state any concerns about conflicts of interest and alert the editor to these, if necessary withdrawing their services for reviewing a particular manuscript, which for example be from the same institution as the one in which they are employed
The Author/s are required to retain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, supply or provide access to any data referred to in an article, if requested request to do so. No article submitted may be under consideration or accepted for publication anywhere else. All sources must be cited accurately. The author/s must confirm that all the work in a submitted manuscript is original in nature and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources used. They also need to acquire permission to replicate any content from other sources.
Authors must ensure that any studies involving human or animal subjects conforms to national, local and institutional laws and requirements (e.g. WMA Declaration of Helsinki,) and confirm that approval has been sought and obtained where appropriate from university research ethics committees. Authors must ensure that the well-being, safety and protection of persons involved in the research, where applicable, is of primary concern. Potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed. Where errors may occur in publication, the author/s should notify the editor and necessary revisions will be made and an erratum published. Where deemed necessary, an article may be retracted.
Misconduct and unethical behaviour if and when identified must be brought to the attention of the editor and publishe. Minor misconduct will be dealt with rapidly and a ‘guilty’ party can respond electronically to establish their case in a collegial fashion. Any informant should also be collegial and provide sufficient information and evidence of error or intentional oversight, in order for an investigation to be initiated. All allegations are be taken seriously and treated in the same way, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached. Evidence must be presented and no allegations will be made beyond those who need to know. The editor may consult with experts for advice and his/her decision will be binding. Where there has been misconduct, there will be a formal notice detailing the misconduct and the outcome thereof.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
The Pharos Journal of Theology does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. Any liability claims against the author in respect of damage caused by the use of the information provided, including any kind of information which is incorrect or incomplete, are therefore excluded. The journal reserves the express right to supplement, publish less or additional articles in a volume, modify or delete in part or in whole sections of articles in volumes posted on this website, without prior notice.
The Editor-in-Chief and africajournals disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any possible publication process oversight, rejection of an article, or ideas expressed in the articles. The text of this disclaimer is deemed legally binding.
Ethical and malpractice statement
The Publishers and editors shall take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred.
In no case shall the journal or its editors encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
In the event that a journal’s publisher or editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct the publisher or editor shall deal with allegations appropriately.
The journal may retract or correcting articles when needed and will provide the authors with reasons.
We are willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
The author(s) of respective articles appearing in this Journal is/are solely responsible for the content of their article/s; the publication of an article shall not constitute or be deemed to constitute any representation by the Editors, or africajournals that the data presented therein are correct or sufficient to support the conclusions reached or that the design or methodology is adequate in totality.Readers should thus make their own evaluation as to the appropriateness or otherwise of any research methodology described in any article.
The authors of articles must accurately reflect who did the work. All published work should be attributed to one or more authors. Authors must declare in their articles that they have acknowledged all significant contributions made to their publication by individuals who did not meet the journal's criteria for authorship, such as for example statisticians, translators etc.
The journal encourages authors and readers to inform them if they discover errors in published work.
The Editors will then publish corrections if errors are discovered that could affect the understanding of information presented in an article.
Cautionary
Authorship
Inclusion/s of a person/s who were not involved in the writing of a manuscript is a violation of publication ethics.
Plagiarism
Submitted manuscripts must be the original works of the author(s). This why we require a plagiarism report such as Turnitin for each manuscript.
Duplicate Manuscript
It is highly unethical for authors to submit a manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously. This includes the submission of any manuscripts derived from the same data in such a manner that there are clearly no substantial differences in the submission. Submitting the same article in a different languages to another journal is also unethical.
Fabrication / Falsification of Data
Fabrication, manipulation or falsification of data is a severe violation of publication ethics. Where there is suspicion of false or fabricated data, legal steps may be taken against authors.
Citation Manipulation
Only articles/sources relevant to the article must be cited.
Articles are published and made freely available for all via open access online, this form of copyright agreement allows the owners of intellectual property (authors) to maintain copyright in their journal articles
Archiving
We have an electronic backup system in place to maintain access to the content of the journal in the event that we no longer publish. All articles are kept on no less than three memory sticks.
The statements and opinions contained in the publications in volumes are solely those of the individual author/s and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors or the publisher.
For any queries email:
africajournals@hotmail.com
Article Processing Charges
There is no charge to submit a paper, but publishing a paper in Pharos Journal of Theology requires paper processing charges. Publication charges includes publishing and administrative expense. The charge is currently R4650.00.
Open Access
PHAROS JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY is free from all access barriers, allowing for the best possible global dissemination of your article.
Retain Copyright
You retain copyright and are free to disseminate your article, make copies for any use, and/or deposit in any repository or archive you like, and thus retain publishing right without any restriction.
PLEASE SEE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED under the submission section.
PHAROSJOT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
The Pharos Journal of Theology is Indexed on DHET, ERIH PLUS - Norwegian Social Science Data Services LEVEL 1 we are also indexed in BIBP - Bibliographic Information Base in Patristics (Université Laval) and EZB Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek (EZB - electronic journals database) as well as in AcademicKeys. We are currently applying for Scopus indexing.
Periodicity: One Volume per annum
Articles: A maximum of 60 articles per annum are accepted in a volume.
Special editions: one is allowed per year comprising of 30 articles.
Accreditation: DHET South Africa
Submissions: mailto:africajournals@hotmail.com
Special editions may be considered on request from individuals, groups or institutions. To this end a proposal (see 16 and 17 below) must be submitted to AFRICAJOURNALS at africajournals @hotmail.com for final consideration and formal approval.
A Special Edition is supplementary to any of our journals’ regular issues and should focus on topics that may be under-researched or deliberate on leading-edge developments in the field that require some attention. The theme of a special issue and its constituent papers must form a coherent narrative while remaining relevant to the scope of the publishing journal.
The Editors need to assume responsibility to guarantee that the selected papers meet with the desired standard.
The interested individual, group or institution needs to submit a detail proposal as to what they envisage (see 16 and 17 below) to the Editor in Chief of the journal in question who is required to adhere to the following guidelines:
- Those calling for a special edition must make submit a detailed proposal to Africajournals (see 16 and 17 below) who will make a final decision on the matter after deliberation with the Editor in Chief of the journal in question. No reason needs to be furnished for non-acceptance of a special edition request.
- Special edition themes must be well-defined and within the scope of the journal concerned, and be of interest to a wide audience.
- Special Editions can be organized and edited by a maximum of 3 editors, the senior editor will be referred to as the Editor in Chief of that particular journal or as the Guest Editor (as may be decided) and the others as Associate Editors.
- The Editor in Chief is responsible for describing the aims and scope of the special issue and choosing associate editors if required. However this is generally the Guest Editor’s role.
- Special Edition articles should satisfy all the standard requirements of any individual Africajournals article as per that journals website.
- The Editor in Chief OR Guest Editor as the case may be, is responsible for the selection of papers and reviewers and will screen accepted manuscripts for quality and select papers must be accepted based on scientific merit.
- The Editor in Chief or Guest Editor as may be decided, will oversee the peer review process. This means that that person appoints reviewers for each paper, communicates with the authors about the review comments, and makes decisions on revisions, rejections, and approvals. It should however be noted that a Guest Editor’s decision to approve of a paper for publication is in essence a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief who makes the final decision.
- The Editor-in-Chief will have access to the referee reports, the authors’ responses, etc. Where there is/are Guest editor/s they are required to uphold the high quality. requirements of Africajournals and deliberate with the Editor-in-Chief on all doubtful cases.
- A special edition should have 25-30 articles maximum and a minimum of 25.
- Editorials are required for each special edition and must be written by the Editor in Chief or the Guest Editor as the case may be.
- The journals code of ethics must be adhered to as stated on the respective journal websites.
- Editors (Editor in chief or Guest Editor/s) must disclose and declare any conflicts of interests to the Africajournals.
- The Editor in Chief is accountable for setting up a timeline and sticking to publishing deadlines.
- Any special edition that is not finalized within the stipulated timeline will be discarded.
- Where there are guest editors they are requested to adopt the publishing journal’s editorial and review policies to make the special issue a success
- Initial proposal and agreement in principle
- The format of the proposals:
- Proposals should be detailed and formal and include where available, the titles and abstracts of the proposed articles. This proposal format must contain:
The title of the Special Edition.
A brief CV/s of the proposed Guest Editor/s (usually no more than three).
A statement of the Special Edition significance for the journal concerned and a
draft introduction of individuals, groups or institutions likely to be involved.
Where available, titles and draft abstracts of each of the proposed articles and any
draft papers that are available. Preferably, there should be at least 40 proposed
articles to allow for possible rejections.
Brief details of contributors.
An outline timetable for the Special edition.
We need to add a call for special issue papers to the journal in question’s website or
simply advertise it – thus we will require the Special Edition name, (which may be
based on a conference etc), a logo (where applicable) that may legally be used and
the expected date of publication of the Special Edition.
