New voices in Psychology Journal

Introduction

The UNISA Department of Psychology is pleased to announce the revival of its New Voices in Psychology (NVP) Journal that had been published by UNISA Press under the custodianship of the Psychology Departmental Chair. The NVP Journal was first published in January 2005 (Volume 1, Issue 1) was a peer-reviewed journal published bi-annually by UNISA Press. It aimed to nurture the work of young researchers and to encourage the development of new ideas in the discipline. The journal carried contributions on all topics in psychology but with a bias towards issues relevant to the African context and toward critiques of psychology as a discipline and profession. Unfortunately, a range of challenges resulted in the journal’s cessation with its last issue (Volume 12, Number 2) being published in 2017 and UNISA Press officially announcing in 2019 that it was discontinuing publication.

Notwithstanding these challenges, the need for a journal such as NVP has remained and its cessation was always meant to be temporary. Thus, UNISA Press has agreed to publish the revived journal. In addition to this, Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) as Learned Society has agreed to make available its demonstrable intellectual, organisational, and administrative prowess to partner with UNISA in this regard. The revived journal will maintain the focus of providing an outlet for student and early scholarship, but also to broaden the scope and focus to include decolonial perspectives on the psychological study of social issues.

The journal will initially publish one volume/issue each year. Articles will be published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional collections may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed. The journal will also be open accessed and follow a double-blind peer review system. Efforts will be made to have the journal listed on a variety of platforms, including among others, Web of Science and Scopus, with the longer-term goal to have the journal accredited by the Department of Higher Education Training.

Call for Submissions

Pursuant to its revival, New Voices in Psychology hereby issue a general call for submission (no submission deadline) to prospective authors to submit unpublished manuscripts not submitted for publication elsewhere to be considered for publication in NVP. The journal will carry contributions on all topics in psychology but with a bias towards issues relevant to the African context and that address issues related to decolonial psychology.

In addition to this, the journal will consider critical book reviews that provide a critical analysis, and/or evaluation of the quality, meaning, and significance of a book that is consistent with the journal’s focus and scope. Generally, reviews will be limited to a maximum of 2000 words, but may be longer depending on the length and complexity of the book being reviewed, the overall purpose of the review, and whether the review exams two or more books that focus on the same topic.

Submission Guidelines

When submitting, please adhere to the following submission guidelines:

• Before submitting a paper to a journal, the author/s should ensure that it consistent with the NVP scope and focus.
• All manuscripts must follow the APA guidelines for Manuscript Preparation, including title page for blind review, referencing, and tables and figures. 
• Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. 
• Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources.
• Articles previously published or submitted for publication in any other journal will not be accepted.
• Manuscripts should be written in English and submitted in Microsoft word file format (using size 12 Times New Roman font and one and a half spacing).
• The length of submitted articles should be at least 5000 words and not exceed 6000 words, including references, footnotes and illustrations. 
• The second page should contain the title of the paper, and abstract of between 150 and 200 words, and up to five keywords.
• Each a manuscript should be accompanied by a similarity index generated through plagiarism software such as Turnitin.
  
  

Submissions are currently accepted online via the following link:

https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/NV/about/submissions.

Manuscripts judged to be consistent with the journal’s scope and focus, and of potential interest to our readership will be sent to two reviewers for formal review, The editors will make a decision based on the reviews. The outcome of a reviewed manuscript will typically be one of the following:

• Accept submission – with or without editorial revisions.

• Invite author revision – addressing specific concerns before a final decision is reached.
• Reject – but indicate to the authors that further work might justify a resubmission.
• Reject outright – typically on the grounds of specialist interest, lack of novelty, insufficient conceptual advance or major technical and/or interpretational problems.

For enquiries please conatct:

Prof C Adonis: adonick@unisa.ac.za

Click here to download the flyer.