INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Submission of articles

Articles submitted for publication should express original research/critical study and should not be under consideration in any other publication at the same time, in any form or shape.

 The length of articles published in the Pharos Journal of Theology ranges from 5,000 to 9,000 words. The editors welcome any enquiries, prior to submission, relating to the suitability of any article intended for submission.

 Articles should be submitted by e-mail attachment, in word doc format to: Africajournals@hotmail.com

Articles must be submitted with a Turnitin or other similarity report.

Web: www.pharosjot.com

Please supply full contact details, full names and designation, names of co-authors and their designation/s, including an email address and phone number for the corresponding author/s.

Article Processing Charges
No article will be published unless the requisite fee is paid. Note that local South African authors will need to pay the amount of R3950. 00  for accepted articles while others will pay at the prevailing ZAR/US$ exchange rate on the day payment is made.

Proof of payment must be made via email.
Banking details will be provided on invoices sent out to authors.
Please note: If articles are not paid for by the stipulated date on the invoice, they will be permanently removed from the site and  reserve the right not to re-accept them under any circumstances. If authors provide a valid reason for late payment this will be considered in the interests of academia.

WAIVER POLICY- We look favourably on articles from developing nations being published for free. Authors may write to us to ascertain who qualifies.

The Harvard referencing style is used for this journal.

There are often minor variations in style of Harvard articles you read. This must not be a source of concern-simply submit your article as per the requirements and guidelines stated below

When using the work of any other writer/s in articles submitted, you need to provide correct references, no matter whether you paraphrase the work or quote from it. References need to be provided according to the clearly defined reference style stated below and this must be applied consistently throughout the article.

Articles should be single-spaced in Arial font (11-point). Notes may be used and should be placed at the foot of any page.
The abstract should be between 150 and 250 words placed at the beginning of the article and there should be five keywords. Double space between all paragraphs.

The title must be in Arial 18 single spaced. Only the first letter/proper nouns in caps. Author/s details to reflect only institution/s, and not any department.

All articles must have an introduction and a conclusion. All headings must be bold.

To facilitate anonymous double blind peer reviewing, the author's name and institution should not appear at the head of the article but on a separate page before the title.

The titles of any biblical and/or apocryphal work should only be in Roman type;

Biblical references must follow the following format: Mark 3: 6–7, Romans 2:5-8, Revelation 6:1, 4, 7; 8:2, 5 (i.e. with no spacing between the colon and the numbers). 'Old Testament' and 'New Testament' should not be abbreviated at all.

Use only single quotation marks except for those quotations within other quotations.

If a quotation exceeds 40 words, you must indent it from both left and right margins. In this case, you do not need to enclose it in inverted commas.

The Bible version you make use of must be listed in the References at the end. The references must be listed at the end under the heading 'References' and must be alpahabetically arranged according to author surnames and then chronologically. When using internet references state when these were retrieved.

Do not do any of the following: underline any quotation; neither must you print it in bold or in a larger font than the main text; also do not use a different font style for a quotation.

Do not use IBID or OP. CIT.

Make use of the original script if possible for Greek, Coptic, Hebrew, etc. texts. All Latin text should be placed in italics as should all other languages except Greek, Coptic and Hebrew.

Abbreviations of classical and Byzantine periodicals must be those recommended by the Byzantinische Zeitschrift and L'Annee Philologique.

Page numbers should be stated as such:  11, 13-44, 177-178.

When making reference to any patristic works, forms such as 9.xvii.67 must be used.

For citations of an era, please note and use: BCE (‘before the common era’) and CE (‘common era’) follow the year: 75 BCE, 145 CE, etc.

When you specify centuries, the ordinal should be spelled out: the fifth century (and not: the 5th century). Number all pages at bottom right.

When citing more than one author arrange them according to year of publication e.g. (Cole, 1999; Smith, 2001; Green, 2009)
Also  for example Smith et al. 2008 for multiple authors in text.


General referencing at the end

Ambrose of Milan. (St.). (1989). De institutione virginis. In Verginità et vedovanza: Tutte le opere di Sant'Ambrogio, 14/2. In F. Gori (Ed). Editing and translations. Franco Gori, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.

Cyril of Alexandria. (St.). Patrologia Graecae (P.G.), Ixxvii, 992, b.

Ward, R.W. (1992).The Protestant Evangelical Awakening, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 43-48.

Horkheimer, M. & Adorno, T.W. (2002). Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments, ed. by G. S. Noerr, trans. by Edmund Jephcott , Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Lossky, V. (1951). Mariology. In P.Edwall, E.Hayman & W. Maxwell (Eds). Ways of worship-the report of a theological commission of faith and order, SCM Press Ltd., London. 263-276.

Ambrose of Milan, (St.). (1896). Concerning Virginity (Book II). In H. de Romestin, E.de Romestin & HTF. Duckworth (Ed). Editing and translations. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 10. Edited by P. Schaff & H. Wace, Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34072.htm>.

Healy, P. (1910). Jovinianus. The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. New Advent. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08530a.htm (Retrieved June 19, 2014).

Language editing pre-submission

Pre-submission language editing is required for all articles submitted to us.

Copyright Issues

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts authors must complete the copyright agreement and email this to us along with a plagiarism report.

Manuscripts submitted will be expected to contain original work and should not have been published in abridged or other form elsewhere. It is a condition of publication in this Journal that all authors give an exclusive licence to the journal and your article is published online open access and free. As part of the licence agreement, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Pharos Journal of Theology is acknowledged as the original place of publication.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding author and that the Pharos Journal of Theology may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article if applicable. You must agree to notify us immediately if your contact details change. Once your article is accepted for publication we will contact you using the email address you have initially used. Please note that by submitting an article to us, does not guarantee publication and we do not keep copies of rejected articles. Furthermore we do not have to furnish a reason for rejection of any article.

 Open Access and copyright/plagiarism issues

NB: Pharos Journal of Theology authors may be required to submit a plagiarism report and copyright agreement along with their submission/s. Failure to do so will automatically disqualify the author.

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 aspects

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.

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