Peer Review Process
• All manuscripts are blind reviewed by three external reviewers.
• All manuscripts must follow the Author Guidelines for publication in SARE as set out on the website (Author Guidelines).
• All must be edited and conform to a high quality of composition and rigour, including language,
APA style, and grammar.
• A letter from a professional proofreader must be submitted along with the manuscript.
• A separate document containing author details must accompany submitted work to facilitate the blind review. The reviewers only receive the manuscript and not the author page.
Journal Focus
SARE welcomes manuscripts that are highly readable and captivating, providing critical insight and
discussion of education in the Southern Africa region from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Given that SARE covers the Southern Africa region with a keen focus on comparative education, education policy, and sociology and history of education, there are a few criteria that should be met if authors seek to publish their work in the journal. The following are guidelines we provide to all reviewers of the submitted manuscripts:
• Does the article have a regional or South African context dimension?
• Does the article have a comparative or historical dimension? Although this is not compulsory, it is preferred.
• Does the article have a global comparative dimension in the area of comparative, and history of, education? Again, not compulsory but preferred.
• Is the submission original and its contribution novel for the SARE audience/readership?
• Is the manuscript thorough, focused in its orientation, and of high quality deserving publication?
It should be noted that:
• SARE does not encourage submission of solely descriptive manuscripts or uncritical policy recommendations. The preferred focus is focused critique and academic argument grounded in comparative, historical, sociological, or education policy analysis.
• A greater focus on argument and intellectual discussion is preferred over methodology and interpretation of findings.
• Further information is provided on the website under Focus and Recent Restructuring.
Questions Authors Should Ask Themselves Before Submitting:
Is the submission of a quality suitable for submission? Key questions in this regard include:
• Does your paper have distinctive merits? Not necessary, but would privilege selection of the paper.
o Does the paper shed light in insightful ways on aspects of comparative education, sociology or history of education, or other debates that have not received sufficient
attention in the literature?
o Does the paper present any new empirical data that shed light on such debates?
• What are your paper’s conceptual and theoretical contributions?
o Does the paper present a conceptual framework that allows for plausible
conclusions to be drawn?
o What are the key arguments and tangents in the paper? Are there clear threads that hold these together and fit with the main narrative?
o Did you adequately consult the broader body of literature and use it to ground your arguments and provide support thereto?
• Are the arguments clear and focused throughout?
o Is the abstract sharp enough and does it convey the thrust of the paper?
o Is there a clear research question being analysed?
• Are your insights presented in ways that make them new, original, or interesting?
• Does the article include all the various dimensions of a quality article, namely, a good introduction, a strong argument, clear threads linking the arguments, and a conclusion
that leads the reader to new ways of thinking about the highlighted issues?
• Does the article sufficiently cite the research and articles of other scholars?
• Do the style and format of the article conform to SARE’s Author Guidelines?
• Is the language consistent and of high quality? Is the article readable for international audiences?
• If your arguments are based on empirical data, are these sufficiently described and applied in a critical and thoughtful way? Is the generation of data reliable, appropriate,
and sufficient? Are the data well presented and interpreted (with consideration of alternative interpretations) and adequately discussed with reference to the relevant issues?
• Does the article provide different insights or interesting contributions to existing debates?
• Technical points include:
o Is the manuscript between 5,000 and 7,000 words? In exceptional cases, maximum 7,500 words (inclusive of tables, illustrations, references, etc.).
o Is an abstract of about 200–300 words provided, with 4–6 keywords?
o Does the article follow the APA 7 referencing style?
o Manuscript must be typed on A4 in Microsoft Word format.
o Text must be in Arial font, 12 point, with 1.5 line spacing. Margins must be 2.54cm.
o Figures must be clear black and white originals. Do not use colour or grey shading.
o Tables and figures must be numbered consecutively with a descriptive heading.
o Use decimal points (and not decimal commas) in all text and tables.
o Manuscript should contain little to no self-referencing by the author(s).
A Key Point
Have you submitted your article for the required plagiarism test? And does it contain any material that may be libelous, plagiarised, or an infringement of copyright? Please record this in your submission note.
Recommendations
Once reviewed, please follow one of the following recommendations:
• Accept: the manuscript is accepted as is.
• Declined: the manuscript is not suitable for the journal, nor is it of a quality in its current form that it can easily be reconceptualised or rewritten.
• Revisions Required: The article is accepted on condition that minor revisions are made according to all the recommendations provided by reviewers.
• Resubmit for Review: The article cannot be accepted in its current form because major revisions are needed. In this case, the resubmitted article will either be returned
(once revised) to the original reviewer, or subjected to a completely new review.
Editors
Editor-in-Chief is Ewelina K Niemczyk (NWU), assisted by an editorial collective comprising of:
Linda Chisholm (University of Johannesburg)
Louw de Beer (North-West University)
Aslam Fataar (Stellenbosch University)
Peter Kallaway (University of Western Cape)
Mark Mason (The Education University of Hong Kong)
Yunus Omar (Centre for International Teacher Education)
Crain Soudien (Human Sciences Research Council)
Procedure for Manuscripts Accepted for Publication
• SARE has no institutional location, and is managed by email. Manuscripts can be submitted for consideration to sare@saches.co.za.
• Article Processing Fees (APC) is R3,500 per published article. Authors will be invoiced on acceptance of the article.