Author Guidelines

Updated 2022/08/12

APA

(Unisa Press)

This style guide uses the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association  (7th ed., 2020).  It focuses on two major aspects: 1) Guidelines for technical preparation; 2) Citation guidelines

1. Guidelines for Technical Preparation of Manuscript

Layout

General

Submit manuscripts electronically as Microsoft Word files.

All graphic material has to be positioned at the correct place in the text and should be of a good quality. Do not add supplementary files with graphic content.

Manuscripts must be presented as: A4 pages; normal margins; 12pt Times Roman; 1.5 line spacing.

Proofing language must be set as UK English (colour—not color; travelled—not traveled; organise; organisation; organising—not -ize).

 Do not type double spaces anywhere; not between words, at the end of sentences or after colons.

Type hard spaces (shift + control + space bar) when phrases are preferred to be presented as a unit, e.g.10_000; Vol. 1(2):_22–21.

Articles should not exceed [the specified length for your specific journal].

Make sure you follow the guidelines for ensuring a blind peer review.

Present an abstract of not more than 250 words. Abstracts should not contain any footnotes or citations. Do not type the abstract in italics.

Below the abstract, please provide 5–8 keywords for indexing (only proper nouns should be capitalised). Distinguish between keywords/phrases with a semicolon, e.g. Pentecostal; hymnal records; migration; southern regions of Africa

Authors should include their ORCID and affiliation below their name, after the title of the article.

Book reviews

Please note the format and order of information required:

Reviewed Book, <Book title in italics> by Andy Author <Book author name(s) and surname in roman>

Unnamed University Press. 2014. Our Book Series. xiv + pp. 368. <Publisher, date of publication, series, and number of pages>

ISBN: 978-0-0000000-0 <ISBN>, https://doi.org/00.000/00000000.000.0000 <DOI>

Reviewed by Randy Reviewer <Reviewer details>

https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000 <ORCiD>

Unnamed University, Country <Affiliation: Institution, Country>

email@email.com <email address>

Style

Do not use the ampersand (&) in the running text; use “and” instead. However, please use the ampersand to separate authors’ names (where appropriate) in parenthetical citations, tables and captions, and in the reference list.

In text, emphasise words by using italics only sparingly. Italicisation should otherwise be reserved for titles of standalone works and words from a language other than that of the text.

Italicised words/phrases in another language are glossed by an equivalent word/phrase in the language of the text placed in parentheses, e.g. indoda (a man). Words well-known in South African English are set as roman, for example, “lobola,” “ubuntu,” “indaba.”

Words/terms that need to be singled out as being “borrowed” from another author/source may be placed in double inverted commas.

Titles of standalone publications must be in headline style (significant words are capitalised) and in italics when typed in the running text. Titles of articles are placed between “double inverted commas.” However, also see the citation guidelines below.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements appear at the end of the article, should be brief, and recognise sources of financial and logistical support and permission to reproduce materials from other sources. Save a copy of documentation granting such permission. Adherence to copyright rules remains each author’s sole responsibility.

Footnotes

Please do not place any footnote markers before the beginning of the article’s main text. I.e., no footnotes may follow the article’s title or the author’s details (with the exception of the dagger (†) to indicate that an author is deceased).

Footnotes with references in Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3—do not use i, ii, iii) are allowed on condition that these are limited to essential notes that enhance the content without impeding the fluent reading of the article.

Footnotes are typed in 10pt. font and single spacing; hanging indent.

A note number should generally be placed at the end of a sentence or at the end of a clause. The number normally follows a quotation. Relative to other punctuation, the number follows any punctuation mark except for the dash, which it precedes.

Examples are:

"This," wrote George Templeton Strong, "is what our tailors can do.”¹

The bias was apparent in the Shotwell series²—and it must be remembered that Shotwell was a student of Robinson’s.

Though a note number normally follows a closing parenthesis, it may on rare occasion be more appropriate to place the number inside the closing parenthesis—if, for example, the note applies to a specific term within the parenthesis:

(In an earlier book he had said quite the opposite.)³

Men and their unions, as they entered industrial work, negotiated two things: young women would be laid off once they married (the commonly acknowledged “marriage bar”⁴ ), and men would be paid a “family wage.”

Endnotes are not allowed.

Footnotes do not replace the alphabetical list of references at the end of the text. References in notes are regarded as in-text references and not bibliographic information.

Quotations

When quoting from a source, use “double inverted commas.”

To quote within a quote, use ‘single inverted commas’.

When quoting more than 40 words, indent. Do not print indented text in italics and do not use quotation marks. A citation after the indented quote follows after a full stop, e.g.

According to the report the council will discuss the matter at the next council meeting to be held on 5 January 2017. (Smit, 2002, p. 1)

When quoting inside an indented quotation, use double inverted commas.

Final full stops and commas are placed before the closing quotation mark.

Colons and semicolons are placed after the closing quotation mark.

Question and exclamation marks are only placed inside quotation marks if they form part of the quoted material:

Do you know if she is “accredited”?

He asked: “Are you accredited?”

When adding notes to a quote or changing a quotation, use square brackets.

E.g. [own translation/emphasis]

… their [the children’s]

Numbers

In text, numbers one to nine are in words; numbers 10 and above are in digits.

At the start of a sentence all numbers are in words.

In parentheses, all numbers are in digits; as for numbers of tables, figures and chapters.

All percentages are expressed in numerals, followed by the percent sign: 13.5%

Decimals—e.g. 7.5—are always in digits.

The letters in ordinal numbers should not appear as superscripts (e.g., 122nd and NOT 122^nd).

Equations

Use Mathtype for display and inline equations, but not for single variables. Single variables should be inserted into the text as Unicode characters.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations that begin and end on the same letter as the word, do not get a full stop (Mr/Dr/Eds), but note Ed./Rev.

Degrees: (Preferably without any punctuation)

BA; DPhil; MSc

Ellipsis

Use the ellipsis when indicating that text has been left out in the middle of a quoted sentence—preferably not at the start or end of the sentence. It is a given that text has been left out preceding and following your quote.

Insert spaces before and after the ellipse.

Use only three full stops for an ellipse (A full stop is added before an ellipsis to indicate the omission of the end of a sentence, unless the sentence is deliberately incomplete. Similarly, a full stop at the end of a sentence in the original is retained before an ellipsis indicating the omission of material immediately following the full stop.)

E.g.

In May 1862, two new missionaries, Endeman and Albert Nachtigal, joined Grützner and Merensky. … It was decided that Endeman and Grützner continue working. … The latter two eventually established the mission station Botshabelo … which later would play an important role in the Ba-Kopa history.

Dashes

The unspaced em-dash (—) is used (Alt 0151).

An unspaced en-dash (–) (Alt 0150), NOT A HYPHEN (-), is used to indicate ranges (e.g. of numbers or page numbers: 15–21).

Initials

One initial: Steyn, P. 2009.

Multiple initials

Steyn, P. R. G. 2009. (spaces between initials)

Steyn, P. R. G., R. T. Robbins and W. R. N. Boshoff. 2011.

Capitalisation of personal names

Names and initials of persons, real or fictitious, are capitalised. The reference lists in some journals (especially in the natural sciences) always use initials instead of given names. A space should be used between any initials.

Examples are:

Jane Doe

George, S. McGovern

1. D. James
2. F. K. Fisher

Acronyms

Give the full name when first mentioned (with acronym in parentheses), thereafter use the acronym uniformly and consistently:

Unisa; CSIR; HSRC; Sabinet/SABINET

et al.

et al. (not italics) Never use in the reference list.

When citing a text with three, four or five authors, use only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in text, but list all authors in the reference list:

E.g.: Kisangau et al. (2007)

Should multiple references shorten to the same form, list as many authors’ names as necessary to differentiate them.

Authors with the same surname

If the reference list includes publications by two or more first authors with the same surname, please include the first authors’ initials in all in-text citations.

Tables and figures

Table headings are in headline style, appear above the tables and are numbered:

Table 1

Our Table

Figure captions appear below the figures and are numbered.

Captions of figures other than artworks should be short and descriptive.

Include cited authors in the reference list.

Supply the source below the table or figure, if material is copyrighted.

2. Citation Guidelines: APA

In text:

Within the body of your text, citations are indicated in parentheses with the author's surname, publication date, and page number (if needed, as when quoting direct words), e.g. (Smith, 2012, p. 45).

Citations are placed within the text where they offer the least resistance to the flow of thought, frequently just before a punctuation mark.

Single-author citations: If the author’s name appears in the text it is not necessary to repeat it, but the date should follow immediately:

Malan (2014, p. 4) refers to this …

Single author with two or more works in the same year:

(Gray, 2009a, 2009b)

One publication with two authors:

… contested by Smith and Jones (2013, p. 16). Also (Smith & Jones 2013, p. 16)

One publication with three or more authors:

… posited by Clark et al (2020, p.10)

Multiple publications:

… venture failed (Bergin, 2009; Chance, 2008, pp. 14–17).

When citing multiple publications/authors do so in the same order as in the reference list (Louw, 2010a, p. 3; Ncube, 2008, p. 77; Zeiss, 1993, p. 4).

No page numbers are needed if citing a text on the internet, e.g. academic freedom (Smith, 2014), unless page numbers are available.

When citing a secondary source:

… greater good (Mullins as cited in Khan, 2014, p. 6).

Mullins (as cited in Khan, 2014, p. 6) argues …

References: (See examples below)

Use the heading: References.

Only list sources actually referred to in the text.

Authors

 List authors alphabetically. Use surnames and initials.

The entries are additionally sorted by the work’s date of publication (oldest to newest).

Do not use a dash to replace author names.

If no author or editor, order alphabetically by title (corresponding with text citation).

A single-author entry precedes a multi-author entry beginning with the same surname and initial.

Successive entries by two+ authors where the first author is the same are alphabetised by co-authors’ surnames.

Titles

 Use sentence-style capitalisation in titles and subtitles of works and parts of works such as books, articles or chapters (i.e., Biology in the modern world: Science for life in South Africa). Capitalise only the first word of the main and title and subtitle.

Use headline-style capitalisation for titles of journals and periodicals (i.e., Journal of Social Activism).

Compound sources

 Source within another source: Smit, R. (2012). Where to now? In S. Y. Tovey and T. Rosti (Eds.), Climate Change in the Next Decade (pp. 200–234). Van Schaik.

Treat pamphlets, reports, brochures and freestanding publications (such as exhibition catalogues) as books. Give sufficient information to identify the document.

Electronic references (NB: The text reference must correspond with the alphabetical reference list)

Author’s surname, name and initials (if available); title of article/publication. website address (URL):

Macdonald, F. (2017, September 20). The extraordinary life of the 1920s Lady Gaga. BBC Culture. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170920-the-extraordinary-life-of-the-19th-century-lady-gaga

Personal communications

Cite personal communications in-text only, using the following format:

1. K. Lutes (personal communication, April 18, 2001)

Preferred form of publishers’ names

Omit: Inc., Co. Publishing Co. etc. from the name of the publisher.

Journals

Parentheses with issue number: When volume and issue numbers are used, the issue number is placed in parentheses.

Example: Morasse, S., Guderley, H., & Dodson, J. J. (2008). Paternal reproductive strategy influences metabolic capacities and muscle development of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) embryos.Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 81(4), 402–413.

Examples (For more examples, please consult chapter 7 of the APA Publication Manual or visit apastyle.org)

R: Reference list

T: Text citation

Books

One author

R: Pollan, Michael. (2006). The omnivore’s dilemma: A natural history of four meals. Penguin.

T: (Pollan, 2006, p. 99–100).

Two to twenty authors

R: Ward, G. C., & Burns, K. (2007). The war: An intimate history, 1941–1945. Knopf.

T: (Ward & Burns, 2007, p. 52).

Please see the guidelines above on how to cite texts with more than two authors.

If a text has more than 20 authors, list the first 19 authors’ surnames and initials, and add an ellipsis, followed by the last author’s surname and initials.  

Editor, translator, or compiler instead of author

R: Lattimore, Richmond (Trans). 1951. The Iliad of Homer. University of Chicago Press.

T: (Lattimore, 1951, pp. 91–92).

Editor, translator, or compiler in addition to author

R: García Márquez, G. (1988). Love in the time of cholera (E. Grossman, Trans.). Cape.

T: (García Márquez, 1988, pp. 242–255).

Chapter or other part of a book

R: Kelly, J. D. (2010). Seeing red: Mao fetishism, Pax Americana, and the moral economy of war. In J. D. Kelly, B. Jauregui, S. T. Mitchell, & J. Walton (Eds.), Anthropology and global counterinsurgency (pp. 67–83). University of Chicago Press.

T: (Kelly 2010, p. 77).

 Book published electronically

If a book is available in more than one format, cite the version you consulted. For books consulted online, list a URL. If no fixed page numbers are available, you can include a section title or a chapter or other number.

R: Austen, J. (2007). Pride and prejudice [Kindle version]. Penguin Classics.

T: (Austen, 2007)

R: Kurland, P. B., & Lerner, R. (Eds). (1987). The founders’ Constitution. University of Chicago Press. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/

T: (Kurland & Lerner, 1987, chapter 10, document 19)

Journal articles

 Article in a print journal

In the text, list the specific page numbers consulted, if any. In the reference list entry, list the page range for the whole article.

R: Weinstein, J. I. 2009. The market in Plato’s Republic. Classical Philology, 104(4), 439–458. https://doi.org/10.1086/650979

T: (Weinstein, 2009, p. 440)

 Article in an online journal

Include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if the journal lists one. Do not put a full stop after the DOI—A DOI is a permanent ID that, when appended to https://doi.org/ in the address bar of an Internet browser, will lead to the source. If no DOI is available, list a URL.

R: Kossinets, G., & Watts, D. J. (2009). Origins of homophily in an evolving social network. American Journal of Sociology, 115, 405–450. https://doi.org/10.1086/599247

T: (Kossinets & Watts, 2009, p. 411)

Article published ahead-of-issue

When referencing an article published ahead of issue, please include the phrase “Advance online publication” instead of the volume and page range information.

Other sources

Book review

R: Kamp, D. (2006, April 23). Deconstructing dinner [Review of the book The omnivore’s dilemma: A natural history of four meals, by M. Pollan]. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html

T: (Kamp, 2006)

Thesis or dissertation

R: Choi, M. (2008). Contesting imaginaires in death rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty (Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago).

T: (Choi, 2008)

Paper presented at a meeting or conference

R: Adelman, R. (2009, November). “Such stuff as dreams are made on”: God’s footstool in the Aramaic targumim and Midrashic tradition. Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana.

T: (Adelman, 2009)