Sponsoring Organizations

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Introduction

All our readers and authors enjoy the benefits of free open access. We believe that open access of the journal promotes accessibility and uptake worldwide, serving the best interests of the professional and scientific community and the public at large.

Since no fees are charged for access, AOSIS offsets the publication expenses – including those of peer review management, journal production and online hosting and archiving – by charging Article Processing Charges (APC), also known as page fees, to authors, institutions or funders for each article published.

1. Article Processing Charges (APC)

The APC for this journal is R1 275.00 (excl. VAT) per A4 output page in PDF format. The average length of an article in this journal is 9 pages.

This APC is valid for the current calendar year and may be changed at any time at the sole discretion of the publisher.

The APC for articles published as special collections in the journal may vary depending on the scope of the project. The publisher will provide a quotation to the proposer of a special collection.

The submitting author is responsible for payment of the APC and must confirm, at the time of submission, that s/he will organise payment of the APC, should the article be accepted for publication. This responsibility may not be delegated to any third party unless agreed to by the publisher.

2. Article Submission Charges (ASC)

ASC does not apply. 

3. Book supplement chapter publication fee

The publication fee per 11 500 word block in a book supplement is R14 300.00 (excl. VAT).

This fee is valid for the current calendar year and may be changed at any time at the sole discretion of the publisher.

4. Text changes after layout

Authors will be given the opportunity to revise and approve the text of the accepted manuscript in the final phase of copy-editing. After author approval the manuscript will go to design layout. The author will be asked to proofread the final galleys before going to publishing. Proofreading is intended to correct typesetting mistakes and not to introduce new changes to the text; such changes will require new layout of the pages. If new changes are introduced at this final proofreading stage, the publisher will charge Galley Change Fees (GCF) to the author, based on the cost incurred to make such changes. 

The GCF per hour is R450.00 [excluding VAT].

Invoicing

The final APC is derived from an estimated A4 PDF page count, based on the finally approved manuscript word count, and no changes will be made after invoicing. 

Only one invoice shall be issued per article (no splitting of invoices) in order to expedite publication and keep costs to a minimum. All amounts are due within 30 days from invoicing. Payment can be made by Credit Card and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). The article will only be published once full payment has been received. If payment is done by EFT from a non-South African bank account, the author will be responsible for any bank transfer charges at the time of the transaction. In all cases a receipt will be sent by email once payment has been received. Learn how to make a payment

Subsidy opportunities

Authors are encouraged to contact their institution, funder or the Editor-in-Chief of the journal for more details of possible APC subsidy opportunities. Possibilities are: covering APC in the research grant, utilizing the open access funds of the institution, or a direct APC waiver by the publisher. 

Funding body agreements         

AOSIS complies with the requirements of funding bodies such as the Wellcome Trust and the National Research Foundation, to help authors comply with their open access terms.

Waiver of APC

Authors may apply to AOSIS for waiving of the APC, which may be granted at the sole discretion of AOSIS/the funder. In order to be fair to all authors, a full waiver of the APC is only granted under exceptional circumstances.

To consider your APC waiver request we need the following:

  • A letter from the Research Director, Faculty Dean or Departmental Head, confirming that the author’s institution cannot pay the APC.
  • A letter signed by all authors, declaring that they have exhausted all possible funding sources before applying for APC waiver.

Publication fee policy

The journal adheres to our publication fee policy, which includes our reimbursement policy.

Peer Review

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HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies has a double-blinded peer review process. Manuscripts are initially examined by editorial staff and are sent by the Editor-in-Chief to two expert independent reviewers, either directly or by a Section Editor. The editors do not inform the reviewers of the identity of the author(s). The reviewers’ identities are not disclosed to the authors either. The reviewers’ comments as well as recommendations regarding an article’s form may be passed on to the corresponding author and may also include suggested revisions. Manuscripts that are not approved for publication will not be returned to the submitting author in any format. Please note that AOSIS do not retain copies of rejected articles.

The peer review process aims to ensure that all published articles:

  • present the results of primary scientific research
  • report results that have not been published elsewhere
  • are scientifically sound
  • provide new scientific knowledge where experiments, statistics and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail so that another researcher will be able to reproduce the experiments described
  • provide conclusions that are presented in an appropriate manner and are supported by the data
  • are presented in an intelligible and logic manner and are written in clear and unambiguous English, Afrikaans and Dutch.
  • meet all applicable research standards with regard to the ethics of experimentation and research integrity
  • adhere to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability.

The journal publisher, AOSIS, is a member of the CrossCheck plagiarism detection initiative. All works are submitted to CrossCheck and is available to the editors of the journal to detect instances of overlapping and similar text. In the event of high percentage overlap, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines will apply (learn more).

Open Access Policy

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This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. Learn more about the journal copyright, licensing and publishing rights.

Publication Scheduling

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The journal publishes at least one issue each year. Articles are published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional issues may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed.


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2072-8050
print ISSN: 0259-9422