About the Journal

Social and Health Sciences (formerly the African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention) is a multidisciplinary forum for critical discussion and debate among scholars, practitioners, activists, students and policy-makers whose interests and work intersect with the social and health sciences. The journal welcomes theoretical, empirical, applied and policy submissions on such topics as: violence in its multiple forms, injury, health and safety promotion, community engagement, epidemiology, health economics, health systems research, structural and social determinants of health, and knowledge production in the social and health sciences. While based in Africa, Social and Health Sciences invites submissions from the broader Global South, as well as the Global North. Social and Health Sciences is published by the University of South Africa Press (Unisa Press). The journal is owned and housed in the Unisa Institute for Social and Health Sciences. It is accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Social and Health Sciences is published biannually and features original full-length articles, theoretical papers, reviews, commentaries, reflections, and short communications.

Editorial Policy

This journal subscribes to the ASSAf National Code of Best Practice in Editorial Discretion and Review for South African Scholarly Journals.

All users of the journal (including members of the Editorial Board) will have the right to submit articles for possible publication to the journal. Only the Editors will be excluded from this ruling.

Errata: Factual or conceptual errors in published articles that change the intended meaning of the text will be corrected after verification by the Editors. This will be done by publishing an Erratum that states the correction made. The erratum will be linked to the original publication.

Peer Review Process

Social and Health Sciences uses a double-blind peer review system to ensure the anonymity of both the author and the reviewer. Submissions are usually sent to two external reviewers. The final decision whether to publish any article remains with the Editors.

Publication Frequency

Social and Health Sciences publishes two issues per annum. In addition, a supplementary open access issue may be published.

Individual articles are published online under "Latest articles", as and when they are ready. The latest articles will move to a scheduled issue when that issue is published. Such articles are in their final form and may be cited by using their article number or DOI.

Plagiarism

Manuscripts containing plagiarism will not be considered for publication in the journal. Plagiarism is defined as the use of another's work, words or ideas without attribution or permission, and representation of them as one's own original work. Plagiarism may take many forms, ranging from major plagiarism (the copy-and-paste of large amounts of text), to minor plagiarism without dishonest intent (e.g. when an author uses parts of an introduction from an earlier paper) and even self-plagiarism (the reuse of significant, identical or near-identical portions of one's own work without citing the original version).

SaHS subscribes to plagiarism detection software and all contributions submitted to the journal will be scanned to verify originality. Ithenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/) is currently used.

If major plagiarism is brought to light after a manuscript has been published, the journal will proceed to conduct a preliminary investigation. The journal reserves the right to formally retract such manuscripts and publish statements to reference material as plagiarism.

All records are archived.

Authorship and AI Tools

Unisa Press adheres to the COPE Guidelines on Authorship and AI Tools which state that AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. Authors are required to acknowledge the use of AI Tools in any aspect of the generation of their article.

Competing Interests Policy and Procedure

As an academic journal publisher, we recognize the importance of managing potential competing interests in order to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and transparency. We have established clear policies and procedures for handling potential competing interests among our authors, reviewers, and editorial team.

Policies:

  1. Disclosure: All authors are required to disclose any potential competing interests that may be relevant to their research, such as financial or personal relationships with organizations or individuals that may have an interest in the research. All reviewers are required to disclose any potential competing interests that may affect their ability to provide an impartial and objective evaluation of the manuscript.
  2. Evaluation: Our editorial team carefully reviews all disclosures of potential competing interests and assesses whether the competing interest is relevant to the manuscript. If a competing interest is deemed relevant, the editorial team will consider the potential impact of the competing interest on the manuscript and its publication.
  3. Recusal: In cases where a competing interest may affect the impartiality or credibility of the publication, the editorial team reserves the right to reject a manuscript or recuse a reviewer. Reviewers may also recuse themselves from the review process if they have a potential competing interest.

Procedures:

  1. Disclosure: Upon submission of a manuscript, all authors are required to complete a disclosure form that outlines any potential competing interests. Reviewers are also required to disclose any potential competing interests before accepting a review assignment.
  2. Evaluation: Our editorial team evaluates all disclosures of potential competing interests and determines whether the competing interest is relevant to the manuscript. If a competing interest is deemed relevant, the editorial team will consider the potential impact of the competing interest on the manuscript and its publication.
  3. Recusal: If a competing interest is deemed relevant and could potentially affect the impartiality or credibility of the publication, the editorial team will reject the manuscript or recuse the reviewer. Reviewers may also recuse themselves from the review process if they have a potential competing interest.
  4. Transparency: We believe in maintaining transparency throughout the publication process. All disclosures of potential competing interests will be made public upon publication of the manuscript.

By establishing these policies and procedures, we aim to ensure that potential competing interests are managed appropriately and that our publications maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and transparency.

Data Policy

By publishing in the journal authors are encouraged to provide a data availability statement in their articles. Authors are encouraged to share their data but not required to. The decision to publish will not be affected by whether or not authors share their research data.

Optional / Encouraged

  • Data availability statements
  • Data citation
  • Data sharing via repositories for all research data

Definition of research data

This policy applies to the research data that would be required to verify the results of research reported in articles published in the journal. Research data include data produced by the authors (“primary data”) and data from other sources that are analysed by authors in their study (“secondary data”).

Research data includes any recorded factual material that are used to produce the results in digital and non-digital form. This includes tabular data, code, images, audio, documents, video, maps, raw and/or processed data.

Definition of exceptions

Research data that are not required to verify the results reported in articles are not covered by this policy.

This policy does not require public sharing of quantitative or qualitative data that could identify a research participant unless participants have consented to data release. The policy also does not require public sharing of other sensitive data, such as the locations of endangered species. Alternatives to public sharing of sensitive or personal data include:

  • Deposition of research data in controlled access repositories
  • Anonymisation or deidentification of data before public sharing
  • Only sharing metadata about the research data
  • Stating the procedures for accessing your research data in your article and managing data access requests from other researchers

Embargoes

Embargoes on data sharing are permitted.

Supplementary materials

Sharing research data as supplementary information files is discouraged.

Data repositories

The preferred mechanism for sharing research data is via data repositories. Please see  https://repositoryfinder.datacite.org/​ for help finding research data repositories.

Data citation

The journal encourages authors to cite any publicly available research data in their reference list. References to datasets (data citations) must include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI). Citations of datasets, when they appear in the reference list, should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite and follow journal style.

Data licensing

The journal encourages research data to be made available under open licences that permit reuse freely. The journal does not enforce particular licenses for research data, where research data are deposited in third party repositories. The publisher of the journal does not claim copyright in research data.

Researcher/ author support

Questions about complying with this policy should be sent to shs1@unisapressjournals.co.za

Data availability statements

The journal requires authors to include in any articles that report results derived from research data to include a Data availability statement. The provision of a Data availability statement will be verified as a condition of publication. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Where research data are not publicly available, this must be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for accessing the data. Data Availability statements must take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple types of research data):

  • The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
  • The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current​ study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
  • The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current​ study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
  • Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were​ generated or analysed during the current study.
  • All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this​  published article [and its supplementary information files].
  • The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].

Digital Preservation Policy

SaHS uses the PKP preservation network.

Language

The journal publishes in English.

Disclaimer

SaHS, the Unisa Institute for Social and Health Sciences and Unisa Press make every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information contained in our publication. However, SaHS, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the contributions. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by SaHS, the Unisa Institute for Social and Health Sciences and Unisa Press. SaHS, the Unisa Institute for Social and Health Sciences and Unisa Press shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to, or arising out of the use of the content of the publication.

Subscription Access

Social and Health Sciences is accessible via subscription access. Please see the "Subscribe" tab for subscription options and information on how to subscribe or follow the link provided. https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/SaHS/about/subscriptions

Individual articles may be purchased for USD 3 per article.

Open Access

Social and Health Sciences allows authors to opt for individual articles to be made open access by paying an Article Publication Charge (APC). Please enquire about this option from the editors only after the article has been through the peer review process and was accepted for publication. Article Publication Charges are R7860 but discounts and special offers are sometimes available. Open access articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Social and Health Sciences also offers Green Open Access as contained in the self-archiving policy below.

Self-archiving Policy

Author's Pre-print:

  author can archive pre-print (ie pre-refereeing)

Author's Post-print:

  author can archive post-print (ie final accepted version post-refereeing)

Publisher's Version/PDF:

  author cannot archive publisher's version/PDF

General Conditions:
  • On Institutional Repositories, social media repositories (Research Gate) and subject repositories 18 months embargo (from date of acceptance).
  • Must link to publisher version
  • Published source must be acknowledged with DOI