About the Journal

Who we are:

We are a peer-reviewed, and open-access academic research journal (ISSN 2709-9997) Online and (ISSN 3006-1059) Print that publishes research from African students and professional practitioners. At the Student’s Journal of Health Research Africa, we know that there are so many unique academic concepts that are developed by students in Africa and none of these get a chance to be known by other scientists across the world.  Some of this work is health research with great potential to improve the quality of services that patients get but none of this information comes up to a common online library for discussion.

Being African, we understand the challenges African student faces as they work towards achieving great things good science can bring. Our focused editorial system working closely with peer reviewers of diverse expertise is well-calibrated to bridge this knowledge gap in Africa.

The core vision of our efforts is to increase evidence-based decisions by improving research on the African continent.  Through all of our endeavors, we hope to display the conviction behind our beliefs with three major objectives;

  1. To promote research by reaching the health sciences students and professionals with genuine research ideas at all academic levels.
  2. To share good research with others across the world to assist in informing policy.
  3. To promote scientific freedom among Health science students

In January 2021, the Journal introduced the Student’s Journal of Information Technology, Planning, and Management to serve as an interdisciplinary setting for the dissemination of information technology, health policy, and management research from students of different academic backgrounds. It brings together individual specialties from different fields into a dynamic academic mix. SJITPM is intended to enhance communication among health system researchers and administrators, policy and decision-makers, legislators, practitioners, educators, students, and other types of professionals in the research that might have an effect on the healthcare delivery systems.

Open Access policy

Student’s Journal of health research Africa is committed to information sharing and transparency. Our policies help authors achieve a high level of openness with their research and support them to improve the quality of the work they do. We have adopted an Open Access policy that enables the unrestricted access and reuse of all peer-reviewed published research.

Our Open Access policy contains the following elements:

  1. Publications are discoverable and accessible online.

Publications will be deposited in a specified repository(s) with proper tagging of metadata. 

  1. The publication will be On “Open Access” terms.

Licensing policy

Student’s journals publish under the Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 international (CCBY-NC-ND 4.0) license which allows you to Share, Copy and redistribute the materials in any medium or format. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms;

  1. Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  2. Non-commercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Commercial use is one primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation.
  3. No Derivatives: if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
  4. No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Peer review process and timeline:

SJHR-Africa’s process of peer review involves an exchange between a journal editor and a team of reviewers. After the referees receive a paper from the editor, they read it closely and provide individual critiques, usually within two to four weeks. In their critiques, they:

  • Comment on the validity of the science, identifying scientific errors, and evaluating the design and methodology used.
  • Judge the significance by evaluating the importance of the findings.
  • Determine the originality of the work based on how much it advances the field.
  • Reviewers also identify missing or inaccurate references.
  • Recommend that the paper be published or rejected.
  1. Publications will be accessible and open immediately.

All publications shall be available immediately upon their publication, without any embargo period. An embargo period is a period during which the publisher will require a subscription or the payment of a fee to gain access to the publication.

Editorial process and timeline:

After a paper is submitted to SJHR-Africa, an immediate response is provided acknowledging reception of the paper in not more than 1hr from the time of submission. The editor-in-chief assigns the paper to the relevant Editor of the section in the Journal. The journal editor then screens the manuscript and decides whether or not to send it for full peer review. Only after clearing the initial screening is when the manuscript be sent to one or more peer reviewers. Finally, journal editors consider the peer reviewers’ reports and make the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript for publication.

During the initial screening, journal editors mainly check the following: 

Editors go through the abstract and may even skim through the introduction, figures, and tables, or other sections of the paper to determine whether the manuscript passes the SJHR-Africa quality threshold.

Peer review

A minimum of 2 peer reviewers (up to 3) are chosen for the peer review. SJHR-Africa built a pool of peer reviewers that have a good track record of producing high-quality reviews. These have sufficient subject matter expertise to do justice to the manuscript and usually provide feedback in a period, not more than 4 weeks. Highly technical papers or papers from niche subject areas may take longer to review (about 2months), because it may take editors some time to locate appropriate reviewers from academic platforms in Africa.

The peer review is completed once all the reviewers send the journal a detailed report with their comments on the manuscript and their recommendations. 

The double-blind peer review system

Double-blind review, in which the identities of the author and Editors are both hidden, making it easier for reviewers to focus on the paper itself without being swayed by any preconceived ideas about the author or their institution.

Final decision

 The journal editor considers the feedback provided by the peer reviewers and arrives at a decision. The following are the most common decisions that are made at SJHR-Africa:

  1. accept without any changes (acceptance): the journal will publish the paper in its original form
  2. accept with minor revisions (acceptance): the journal will publish the paper and asks the author to make small corrections
  3. accept after major revisions (conditional acceptance): the journal will publish the paper provided the authors make the changes suggested by the reviewers and/or editors
  4. revise and resubmit (conditional rejection): the journal is willing to reconsider the paper in another round of decision making after the authors make major changes
  5. reject the paper (outright rejection): the journal will not publish the paper or reconsider it even if the authors make major revisions.

Once approved, articles undergo proofreading, copy-editing, and typesetting processes.

  1. Editors identify what works, what doesn’t and evaluate a manuscript’s potential.
  2. Editors help the author make the manuscript better through revision guidance.
  3. Editors polish the writing and make it read as well as possible.
  4. Editors make sure the copy is correct and ready for publication.

Publication of approved papers:

SJHR-Africa publishes articles every quarter. A complete issue is usually made up of 5-100 articles.

Preservation and Archiving policy:

SJHR-Africa uses the CLOCKSS and LOCKSS systems allowing libraries to collect, preserve, and provide our readers with access to material published on our Website. Our main goal is digital preservation.

Repository Policy:

SJHR-Africa allows authors the use the published version of an article for self-archiving on either the author's website or archiving in a University repository. This can be done as soon as after publication without any embargo period. The published source must be acknowledged and a link to the journal home page or articles' DOI must be set.

Journal Charges:

Being an open-access journal, we do not charge fees to publish or access content published by the journal. This is so because we believe that to promote research freedom among African Students, Publications should not be influenced by the author's ability to pay. The journal can facilitate its editorial process through donations, and the manuscript handling fee of 146,000UgX, (40 US dollars).

Waiver policy:

At the students’ Journal of health research Africa, we understand that most African students may have limited funding for their research activities.  Thus, we have instituted a generous waiver system that may ease the payment of the manuscript handling fee when they choose to publish their manuscripts in our journal. Because our editorial decisions are never influenced by the author’s ability to pay, we ensure that editors are not involved in correspondence with authors regarding payment of manuscript handling fees. The automatic waiver system will be managed by administrative staff not involved in decisions regarding article acceptance. We ask authors not to discuss any issues concerning payment with editors since it will not help.

The authors from the following countries may be granted up to 100% waiver if the application is successful,

  1. Angola
  2. Benin
  3. Botswana
  4. Algeria
  5. Burkina Faso
  6. Burundi
  7. Cameroon
  8. Cape Verde
  9. The central African Republic
  10. Chad
  11. Comoros
  12. The Democratic Republic of the Congo
  13. Republic of the Congo
  14. Djibouti
  15. Egypt
  16. Equatorial Guinea
  17. Eritrea
  18. Ethiopia
  19. Gabon
  20. The Gambia
  21. Ghana
  22. Guinea
  23. Guinea-Bissau
  24. Ivory Coast
  25. Kenya
  26. Lesotho
  27. Liberia
  28. Libya
  29. Madagascar
  30. Malawi
  31. Mali
  32. Mauritania
  33. Mauritius
  34. Morocco
  35. Mozambique
  36. Namibia
  37. Niger
  38. Nigeria
  39. Rwanda
  40. Sao Tome and Principe
  41. Senegal
  42. Seychelles
  43. Sierra Leone
  44. Somalia
  45. South Africa
  46. South Sudan
  47. Sudan
  48. Swaziland
  49. Tanzania
  50. Togo
  51. Tunisia
  52. Uganda
  53. Zambia
  54. Zimbabwe

Membership:

Our electronic journals offer unrestricted, unlimited, free access to any reader, with no subscription or registration required. Our members support the project through the payment of annual membership fees, allowing them to submit an unlimited number of manuscripts for consideration. All manuscripts undergo a meticulous and stringent double-blind peer review process, and only manuscripts deemed of sufficient quality and relevance will be accepted for publication. For each journal, we aim to publish the most relevant research and to guarantee the highest visibility of all articles by including our contents in the most important academic indexing and abstracting databases.

SJHR-Africa Institutional Membership:

Institutions interested in supporting open access and increasing the proportion of their publications available to the broad public are welcome to join Student’s Journal of Health Research Africa institutional membership. The institutional membership benefits all affiliated researchers with the possibility of unlimited submission and can be pursuit by an annual flat fee based on the number of students and staff of the institution who choose to publish with us.

For a membership quote please contact us at membership@sjhresearchafrica.org

Why become a member?

  • You are supporting a not-for-profit, open-access organization
  • No further costs or processing charges are required.
  • Complete access to the up-to-date status of each manuscript submitted
  • Authors retain the copyrights of their published work

Benefits of our membership:

  • Unlimited sharing of knowledge among the academic community is assured. 
  • Students get to work directly with our expert editors at all stages of the research project development.
  • Demonstrate our professionalism with guidance and resources 
  • Widen your network and share your ideas with our community  
  • Students access academic content and information to build knowledge and expertise 
  • A journal correspondent is assigned to the research office to assist in promoting good research.
  • Capacity building at the selected departments.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES:

These online publications may not match identically with the information contained in the print versions, and to the extent that such differences exist the online editions of all journals officially published by the SJHR-Africa are the versions of the record.

These publications are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Descriptions of, or references to, products or publications do not imply endorsement of that product or publication.

In no event shall SJHR-Africa be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the use of the articles or other material derived from these journals, whether or not advised of the possibility of damage, and on any theory of liability.

SJHR-Africa is under development, and changes may be made in these publications and programs at any time. All advertising appearing in the SJHR-Africa is the sole responsibility of the advertiser. SJHR-Africa does not endorse or warrant any product advertised or any statements made in any advertisements.

Company’s Terms and Conditions/Refund/Cancellation Policy:

Refundable items

The Journal only publishes scholarly materials for an international readership. It does not have any other items it deals with indirectly.

The refund/Cancellation process

The Journal billing office will only invoice an author who has successfully met the set standards for the journal and has responded to all comments from the peer-review stages to the expectations of the peer-reviewers and section editors where the article will be published. Once the author makes payment and later wishes to withdraw his/ her scholarly material before the publication date, they should bring this to the attention of the Journal editor 30 days before the publication date on editor@sjhresearchafrica.org. 

Once a request to withdraw an article is received, the journal editor will examine the application and recommend a refund to the author in a period not exceeding 3 months from the period the approval is provided. Typically, the money will be refunded back onto the credit or debit card the customer paid with.

Ownership and management

The Student's Journal of Health Research Africa is owned and managed by SJC Publishers Company Limited a private not-for-profit company registered to support open-access publication in Uganda.

Allegations of Research Misconduct

The Student's Journal of Health Research Africa is strict on research misconduct and whenever this occurs our editors will bring it to the attention of the authors and the academic institution management where the misconduct has come from. Such discount may include but not limited to;

  • Plagiarism
  • Citation Manipulation
  • Data falsification

Research papers suspected of any of the above will be investigated and if found true, they will be rejected.

COLLECTIONS AND SPECIAL ISSUES POLICY

Due to the knowledge gap in Africa, Journals published by SJC Publishers company have the desire to make information available as much as possible. To achieve this, we publish collections and special issues from different Universities, Conferences, and other academic organizations. Such materials may include slides used during the presentations, Original pictures, Abstracts, and normal manuscripts. 

All content is peer-reviewed in line with the journal's standard peer-review policy and is subject to all of the journal’s standard editorial and publishing policies. Because most of our editors and reviewers are from academic institutions, it’s a requirement for them to declare no competing interests with the submissions that they have handled through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editor who has no competing interests.

For consistency, the journal can publish collections and special issues only 4 times a year, and these include the months of January, April, August, and November. Authors and academic institutions who wish to contribute to the special issues need to contact the editor and request for the publication month 40 days before the desired month of publication.

COMMUNICATIONS CODE OF CONDUCT

At the SJC Publishers Company, we believe that good communication that involves respect for all persons is the way we can contribute to communicating research findings more. Whereas we encourage everyone we work with to express themselves freely, we expect this to be done with respect. 

Our staff are expected to behave professionally and respectfully at all times when engaging with authors, reviewers, and readers. Likewise, we expect the same standards of behavior from the academic community and the public in their interactions with our staff.

We do not tolerate aggressive behavior, or any form of harassment, bullying, or discrimination directed against SJC Publishers Company staff. We reserve the right to bring serious cases to the attention of employers, Universities, institutions, or local authorities in Uganda and other countries where we operate, if needed, and may refuse to interact, or do business, with individuals and institutions who repeatedly or seriously violate this policy.

CONSENT FOR PUBLICATION POLICY

Human Research Participant Publication Approval.

Students should draft consent forms that include a provision that allows participants to consent and the details must state that the details/images/videos will be freely available on the internet and may be seen by the general public. Such consent should be reviewed and accepted by a committee in place. For all manuscripts that include details, images, or videos relating to a person, written informed consent for the publication of these details must be obtained from that person (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18 years old). In Unfortunate circumstances when the person has died, consent for publication must be obtained from their next of kin. The manuscript must include a statement that written informed consent for publication was obtained.

Research Supervisor Approval.

SJC Publishers Company understands that most of the studies published have students as the principal investigators. Students have the right to publish any materials that they present in their final thesis or dissertation. Once the research supervisor and the institution have approved the student's study and findings, and there is evidence that the student received adequate support in the study, students retain the right to prepare any results within the approved dissertation for publication. In such cases, approval from the supervisor may not be required. All papers submitted to us without evidence that their studies were supervised and approved by the research supervisor and faculty will not be accepted for publication. The final decision on whether to publish lies with the Editor.

ETHICS AND CONSENT POLICY

Ethics approval for Student Research.

SJC Publishers Company to a greater extent publishes research from students. All forms of Research involving human participants, human material such as blood, or human data, must have been performed by the Declaration of Helsinki and must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.

For Authors in Uganda, research published should be approved by the independent IRB that is recognized by the National Council for Science and Technology. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption).

In circumstances where the institution or the University does not have an IRB, it is encouraged to form local committees for research that should guide the students on the ethics and consent processes of studies. Such members will need to be trained on how to support students through the research process as the institution waits for approval from NCST. Evidence of training for research supervisors may be requested as a condition for accepting results for publication.

For authors outside Uganda, we expect to see approval from the local ethics regulatory bodies in your countries, and In rare cases, the Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information in case something is not clear.

Should the author and their affiliations fail to prove that ethics was observed,  and the study participants consented fully during the conduct of research, such reports or Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate international ethical framework.

Consent to participate in students' Research.

For all research involving human participants, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18 years old) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. For manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups (for example, unconscious patients) where there is the potential for coercion or where consent may not have been fully informed, manuscripts will be considered at the editor’s discretion and may be referred to an internal journal ethics editorial team for further scrutiny.

New clinical tools and procedures for case reports.

Authors reporting the use of a new procedure or tool in a clinical setting must give a clear justification in the manuscript for why the new procedure or tool was deemed more appropriate than usual clinical practice to meet the patient’s clinical need. Such justification is not required if the new procedure is already approved for clinical use at the authors’ institution.

Authors will be expected to have obtained approval from the head of the department and informed patient consent for any experimental use of a novel procedure or tool where a clear clinical advantage based on clinical need was not apparent before treatment. This information has to be written clearly in the ethics consideration section of the manuscript.

Retrospective ethics approval for student's research.

If a study has not been granted ethics committee approval before commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.

POLICY ON AUTHORSHIP

Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions;

  1. The conception
  2. Design of the work
  3. The acquisition, analysis
  4. Interpretation of data
  5. The creation of new software used in the work
  6. Have drafted the work or substantively revised it
  7. Have approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author's contribution to the study)
  8. Have agreed both to be personally accountable for the author's contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature.

SJC Publisher Company journals encourage collaboration with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted and expect their inclusion as co-authors when they fulfill all authorship criteria described above. Contributors who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section of the paper.

Each journal we publish has its Submission Guidelines for information on the format for listing author contributions. Please check to ensure that you comply with the journal of choice.

Any changes to the author list after submission, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of authors, must be approved by every author. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Authors, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not permitted after acceptance of a manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Corresponding authors are responsible for ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors, and that all authors receive the submission and all substantive correspondence with editors, as well as the full reviews, verifying that all data, figures, materials (including reagents), and code, even those developed or provided by other authors, comply with the transparency and reproducibility standards of both the field and journal.

This responsibility includes but is not limited to:

  1. Ensuring that original data/original figures/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis.
  2. Confirming that data/figures/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original paper.
  3. Foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work. The corresponding author should be responsible for managing these requirements across the author group and ensuring that the entire author group is fully aware of and in compliance with best practices in the discipline of publication.

POLICY ON COMPETING INTERESTS

Our journals require authors to declare all competing interests in their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

Competing interests may include;

  • Competing interests may be financial or non-financial.
  • A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by or may be perceived to be influenced by, their personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations.
  • Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment if they were to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Editorial Board Members, Guest Editors and Editors

Editorial Board Members, Guest Editors, and Editors have to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. 

In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors.

Where an Editor, Guest Editor, or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor, Guest Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the same review process as any other manuscript.

Editorial Staff

SJC Publishers Company editorial staff are required to declare to their employer any interests that might influence, or be perceived to influence, their editorial practices. Failure to do so is a disciplinary offense. SJC Publishers Company has a strict policy of editorial independence in individual acceptance decisions and editorial standards of quality and significance should never be compromised. Our editors are financially incentivized to achieve journal growth, despite this, we are clear in our internal policies and individuals’ contracts or formal objectives that this should be achieved by ensuring submissions of sufficient quality and never by compromising editorial standards.

RESEARCH POLICY INVOLVING ANIMALS

Students and lecturers who would wish to write research papers for publication out of the experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee.

All studies that students do should be approved by the head of the department, and then later by the ethical review board for clearance. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript.

Manuscripts presenting studies that have employed anesthesia or euthanasia methods inconsistent with the commonly accepted norms of veterinary best practice (e.g. chloral hydrate, ether, and chloroform) will not be considered.  For experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also document informed consent from the client or owner and adherence to a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care.

Field studies and other non-experimental research on animals must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where available should have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licenses must be included in the manuscript.

RESEARCH POLICY INVOLVING THE USE OF PLANTS AND SEED SPECIMENS

Experimental research and field studies on plants (either cultivated or wild), including the collection of plant material, must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international guidelines and legislation.  

Manuscripts should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licenses for the collection of plant or seed specimens. For example, for the sake of Uganda, if a plant species of interest is from Entebbe Botanical Gardens, then the student researcher should demonstrate that they have got the authorization to collect this specimen.

To support reproducibility, voucher specimens for all wild plants described in a manuscript must be deposited in a University herbarium or other public collection that provides access to deposited material. Information on the voucher specimen and who identified it must be included in the manuscript. The editors may request to look at the pictures taken throughout the research process.

STANDARDS OF REPORTING

SJC Publishers Company adopts the use of the following checklists and reporting guidelines:

  • Protocols for randomized controlled protocols (SPIRIT)
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
  • Observational studies (STROBE)
  • Case reports (CARE)
  • Qualitative research (COREQ)
  • Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARD and TRIPOD)
  • Economic evaluations (CHEERS)
  • Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)

POLICY TO WITHDRAW A PAPER

The purpose of this policy is to outline the procedures and guidelines for the withdrawal of a paper submitted to the journals published by SJC Publishers Company Limited. The withdrawal of a paper may be necessary due to various reasons such as errors in content, ethical concerns, author requests, or any other valid reasons.

Scope:

This policy applies to all authors, reviewers, editors, and staff involved in the submission, review, and publication process of any journal Published by SJC Publishers Company Limited.

Withdrawal Procedure:

Author Request: If an author wishes to withdraw their paper from consideration for publication, they must submit a formal request to the Editorial Office of a specific journal.  The request should include the manuscript title, corresponding author details, reasons for withdrawal, and any supporting documentation if applicable.

Editorial Decision: Upon receiving a withdrawal request, the Editorial Office will assess the request and communicate the decision to the corresponding author. If the withdrawal request is approved, the paper will be withdrawn from the publication process.

Notification: Once the withdrawal request is approved, the Editorial Office will notify all co-authors, reviewers, and any other relevant parties about the withdrawal of the paper.

Publication Status: If the paper has not been published online or in print, it will be removed from the publication queue and will not appear in any future issues of the journal.

Ethical Considerations: a. Misconduct: If a withdrawal request is based on concerns related to research misconduct, ethical violations, or other serious issues, the Editorial Office may initiate an investigation as per the journal's policies on research integrity and publication ethics. b. Author Responsibilities: Authors are reminded of their responsibility to ensure the accuracy and integrity of their research findings. Any errors or discrepancies should be promptly reported to the Editorial Office for appropriate action.

Exceptions: a. Legal Mandates: In certain cases where legal mandates or regulations require the withdrawal of a paper, the Editorial Office will comply with such directives. b. Editorial Discretion: The Editorial Board reserves the right to withdraw a paper if it is deemed necessary to maintain the integrity and reputation of the journal.

Re-submission: a. Authors who wish to re-submit a withdrawn paper must adhere to the journal's submission guidelines and undergo the standard review process. b. Re-submission of a withdrawn paper does not guarantee acceptance for publication.

Policy Review: a. This policy on the withdrawal of a paper from any of the journals will be periodically reviewed and updated as necessary to ensure its effectiveness and relevance. b. Any proposed changes to this policy will be communicated to all stakeholders and implemented after due consideration.

Cost Implications:

Authors are required to read the author guidelines and the journal peer review processes before submitting the paper for publication. A request to withdraw the paper will attract a fee of 50,000UgX if the paper is accepted for publication. This decision will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Contact Information: For inquiries regarding the withdrawal of a paper or any related matters, please contact the Editorial office at studentsjournal2020@gmail.com or admin@sjpublisher.org or you can WhatsApp at +256775434261

PUBLISHER POLICY ON HANDLING CORRECTIONS TO PUBLISHED ARTICLES.

  1. Purpose: The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines and procedures for handling corrections to published articles in journals published by SJC Publishers Company Limited. Corrections may be necessary to rectify errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in published content, ensuring the integrity and credibility of the journal.
  2. Scope: This policy applies to all authors, reviewers, editors, and staff involved in the publication process of journals published by SJC Publishers Company Limited.
  3. Types of Corrections: Errata: Minor errors that do not significantly impact the scientific or scholarly content of the article. b. Corrigenda: Substantial errors or inaccuracies that require formal correction and may affect the interpretation or understanding of the article. c. Addenda: Additional information or updates that are deemed necessary to supplement the published article.
  4. Correction Procedure: a. Identification: Errors may be identified by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, or journal staff. Upon identification, the individual should promptly notify the Editorial Office b. Assessment: The Editorial Office will assess the nature and severity of the error to determine the appropriate course of action. c. Correction Decision: Based on the assessment, the Editorial Office may decide to issue an erratum, corrigendum, or addendum. d. Author Notification: If the correction requires author involvement (e.g., factual errors, or data discrepancies), the corresponding author will be contacted to verify and approve the proposed correction. e. Publication: Once approved, corrections will be published in a subsequent issue of a given journal indicating the original article title, author(s), and nature of the correction.
  5. Correction Format: Errata: Minor errors may be corrected with a brief notice specifying the error and the corrected information. b. Corrigenda: Substantial errors will be accompanied by a detailed correction notice explaining the nature of the error, the correct information, and any implications for the article's findings or conclusions. c. Addenda: Additional information will be presented in a separate section clearly labeled as an addendum, providing context and relevance to the published article.
  6. Ethical Considerations: Transparency: Corrections will be made transparently, acknowledging the nature of the error and the corrective action taken. b. Accountability: Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their published work and are expected to cooperate with the correction process as necessary.
  7. Retraction: In cases of serious errors, ethical concerns, or research misconduct, the Editorial Office may consider retracting the article by the journal's retraction policy.
  8. Policy Review: This policy on handling corrections in the journal will be periodically reviewed and updated as necessary to ensure its effectiveness and adherence to best practices. b. Proposed changes to this policy will be communicated to all stakeholders and implemented after due consideration.

Contact Information: For inquiries regarding the withdrawal of a paper or any related matters, please contact the Editorial office at studentsjournal2020@gmail.com or you can WhatsApp at +256775434261