Author Guidelines

Article Types

Original contributions should be in English and may take the form of original research articles, review articles, book reviews or commentaries.

Peer review

Please note that The Fountain: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies employs a double-blind peer review process (both authors and reviewers are anonymous).

All contributions will be initially assessed by the Editor-in-Chief, or the Guest Editor in the case of certain special issues. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two reviewers to assess the academic quality of the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of all articles. The Chief Editor's decision is final.

Open access

The Fountain: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies is an online open access journal. Readers may access all articles free of charge. There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for this journal.

Who can submit?

Anyone may submit an article to be considered for publication in The Fountain: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. The author should own the initial copyright to the work being submitted, or be authorized by the copyright owner or owners, to submit the article.

Important information for Authors

• The Editors pre-screen all submissions for compliance with author guidelines prior to forwarding manuscripts for peer review.
• All manuscripts will be screened for plagiarism.
• Authors must ensure that their manuscript text is written in good English (Zimbabwean or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors are encouraged to use English language editing services to eliminate grammatical and spelling errors.
• Submitted manuscripts are generally limited to between 4000 and 7,000 words for original articles and reviews, 1,000 and 3,000 words for commentaries, and about 800 words for book reviews.
• Manuscripts with missing information, or not conforming to submission guidelines will be returned to the author(s) for corrections and resubmission.
• Articles should be submitted electronically via the journal website by clicking the following link: http://journals.cuz.ac.zw/index.php/fountain/about/submissions

Manuscript preparation

Authors wishing to submit articles for consideration for publication in The Fountain: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies are requested to follow the instructions outlined below:

• Articles should be marked into clearly defined and numbered sections.
• Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc.
• Text should be in Arial, 1.5 line spacing applied, and 2.5 cm margins on all sides.
• The font size should be 12 point.
• All manuscript files should be formatted to contain Page numbers and Line numbers.
• Upper case should only be used for the first letter of sentences or words, except for acronyms and initials, which should always be spelt in capitals.
• Acronyms should be spelt out at their first occurrence in the text.
• Quotes should be enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Quotes within quotes should be enclosed in single quotation marks.
• Quotes of more than 25 words should be set out as a separate, indented paragraph.
• Titles of databases, books, journals, computer programs, and online resources should be italicised.

Manuscript Structure

Authors are strongly encouraged to follow the structure outlined below when preparing and submitting original research articles.

Introduction

Authors are encouraged to provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature review. The objectives of the article should be clearly stated in the introduction.

Methodology / Material and methods

Authors should provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference.

This section should address the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and analysing data, as well as literature inclusion criteria, where appropriate. Selection and description of participants, selection of the observational participants, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the study population, should be discussed.

Qualitative and Statistical data analysis software used, if applicable, should be identified and clearly described. Statistical methodology should be described with sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader to verify the reported results.

Informed consent: Authors are required to include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardian/s.

Results / Findings

Results / findings should be clear and concise.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions

Authors should state the main conclusions of the study. They are encouraged to state the policy relevance of their work where appropriate.

Linking the conclusions with the goals of the study, while avoiding unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data, is of importance.

Title page

Title

The title should be brief (preferably no longer than 20 words) but should contain enough information for reliable information retrieval. Abbreviations and formulae should be avoided where possible.

Author names

Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author. It is the responsibility of the authors to check that all names are accurately spelled.

Author affiliations

Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding author

Clearly indicate, by an asterisk immediately after the author’s name, who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication, and post-publication.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract not exceeding 200 words is required. The abstract should be a synopsis of the article and its contribution, not merely a reiteration of the first or concluding paragraph of the article. It should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions.

Additional information

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Authors must define abbreviations at their first mention in the article.

Units of measurement

Metric (SI) units must be used. Time should be in terms of the 24-hour clock.

Tables

Tables should be used sparingly. The tables must be referred to in the text, but they should not duplicate information already presented in the text. Each table should be numbered sequentially, using Arabic numerals, as they appear in the text. A brief, descriptive title of 10-15 words should be provided for each.

Figures

Each figure (graph, line, drawing, etc.) should be numbered sequentially. Letters and other symbols must be easily legible after reduction. Freehand or typewritten lettering is not acceptable. A brief, descriptive caption for each should be included. Each figure should be referred to in the text.

Photographs

Photographs should be numbered in the same series as Figures.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements should only be made in a separate section at the end of the article, before the references

Declaration of conflicting interests

Authors are required to disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest, including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work.

Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Financial or personal interests with an organisation which features prominently in the submitted manuscript
• Any financial or personal interests with any company or organization sponsoring the research reported in the submitted manuscript.
• Limiting the manuscript to a single political view without discussing alternative views and merits.

Author contributions statement

For transparency, authors are encouraged to include in their manuscripts an “author contributions statement” detailing the individual contributions of each author. Author names must be listed as initials. For example, "A.B and C.D wrote the main manuscript text and E.F prepared figures 1-3. All authors reviewed the manuscript."

References

Authors should ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). All references should be listed alphabetically at the end of the article.

References in the text should be formatted according to the Harvard Style, for example, (Bullington & Smith 1998: 85) or "Bullington and Smith (1998: 85) established that…".

Use of digital object identifiers (DOIs) is highly encouraged as these are permanent links to electronic article which are guaranteed never to change.

Books

Dick, A.L. 2002. The philosophy, politics and economics of information. Pretoria: Unisa Press.

Journals

Onyancha, B.O. 2006. Empowering the South African community's AIDs intervention workforce: an informetric study of HIV/AIDs research projects, with special reference to masters and doctoral dissertations and theses. South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science, 72(1): 56-71.

Electronic Journals

Bullington, J.S. and Smith, P. 1998. Tips for new librarians: what to know in the first year of a tenure-track position. Research Libraries News, 59(2):85-88. [Online]. http://www.abc.co.za/Research/News 59-2.htm (25 March 2007).

Conference Proceedings

Ingwersen, P. 2000. The cognitive information structures in information retrieval. Proceedings of the 1st ProLISSA conference. 24-25 October 2000. Pretoria: Center for Information Development. 205-219.

Titles of periodicals should not be abbreviated.

Entries should be in the language of source (not necessarily that of the manuscript).

Acknowledgement of sources of support, technical assistance, and intellectual contributions not associated with authorship must be made.

Submission

Articles should be submitted electronically via the journal website by clicking the following link: http://journals.cuz.ac.zw/index.php/fountain/about/submissions

Please follow the five-step submission process as stated under "Start a New Submission".

Submissions should be produced in Microsoft Word documents (Version 6 or later) (Windows 95 or later).

Cover letter

Authors are requested to submit a cover letter. The cover letter should be typed in the “comments for the Editor” box under step 1 of the submission process. Authors may choose to type their letter on a word processor and copy-paste it into the “comments for the Editor” box once they have finished.

Submission checklist

You are strongly encouraged to use this list to carry out a final check of your manuscript before you upload it for review. Ensure that the following items are included on your manuscript:

• One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
  • E-mail address
  • Full postal address
  • All necessary files have been uploaded:
• Manuscript:
  • Include keywords
  • All figures (include relevant captions)
  • All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
  • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
  • Supplemental files (where applicable)
• Further considerations
  • Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
  • All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
  • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
  • A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Ethics
  • Authors should make sure that manuscripts do not include potentially identifying participant information.
  • In addition, make sure that a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardian/s is included in the methodology/material and methods section of the manuscript.

After acceptance

Proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Authors are requested to use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. Proofreading is solely Authors’ responsibility.