ASWDNet Guide to Writing (Journals)

Writing, editing, formatting and presentation styles of journals vary. This ASWNet Guide covers journals and related publications that we host. However, the advice in this guide is useful for preparing manuscripts in general, including those not targeted for ASWNet related publications. This guide is part of a larger guide that covers most writing and publishing done by academics, practitioners and students in the social, human, community or development disciplines.

Length of manuscript

Manuscripts should be no more than 5000 words including references.

Title 

It should be not more than 15 words in length. The theme of the title should clearly fit the journal policy and journal name. Ensure that your main key words are included in your title. The geographical location and country of study should usually be included.

Abstract

An abstract is a summary of the main elements of your research, report, paper, article or manuscript. It should be a shortened but succinct version. Should be about 200 words or between 175 – 225 words. It is written in the past tense.  Ensure that all key words are included in the abstract. It should be one standard paragraph with an opening sentence, abstract body and closing sentence. The body should include the purpose or aim and gap addressed, the methodology used, summary of all results or findings or main ideas presented, conclusions reached and implications or recommendations. An abstract summarises everything about your research, report, paper, article or manuscript and a reader must understand all your research is about from the abstract. Do not use headings unless specifically asked to do so. Do not cite in the abstract. Limit scientific terms, abbreviations, professional jargon and statistics.

An abstract should ideally be a paragraph of six sentences covering the following: Social problem/issue followed by questions or hypothesis; Philosophy or philosophical approach that shaped the understanding of the problem and the approach to the study or thinking; Theory that shaped analysis and discussion; Methods used to bring out the data; Results/findings and conclusions; and Implications and recommendations. Please note: We openly, actively and proudly promote use of Africa philosophies and theories as a journal. We do this to revalue Africa knowledge that has for long been neglected or colonised. If Africa writers use Africa literature, theories and philosophies, this can be achieved easily.

For journals under ASDWNet, you can also submit an abstract in an African Indigenous language and as a video. See details below.

Cover page

Your abstract should also be accompanied by the following details makes up a cover page: Title, Author/s names in full, Affiliation of Authors (Academic title [if you have it], Unit or Department, Institution or Community, Village or Community or Town or City, Country, Email address), Key terms. Phone number and physical address are usually not required.

Key terms

Put between 5 and 8 key terms. Ensure that each key term appears in the abstract, introduction and that your main key terms appear in the title. Arrange your terms in alphabetical order. Include the country or main geographical location for the research or report as a key term. Separate each term with a comma. Do not capitalise words. Do not capitalise the first letter unless it is a noun. Abbreviations must be written in full followed by ( ).

Including some of your key terms in an African language of your choice is good research practice.

In other journals, you are asked to provide key points on top of key words, see below.

Key points

These are key take home messages, not descriptions of the research. Each point tells the reader what your article has contributed to knowledge. This includes contribution to methods (e.g. new methods used, old methods improved), theory (new theory generated, old theories improved), findings, conclusions, implications and research gaps. Each point should be less than 20 words.

Author/s details

Include SURNAME in capital letters to distinguish it from first names followed by First names (it is ok to include clan name, praise name or respect name); Qualifications or Title; Unit or Department, Institution or Community, Village or Community or Town or City, Country; Contact email. Unless otherwise indicated, the first author shall be the corresponding author. Phone number and physical address are usually not required.

It is important to also include details that will help the editors and readers know you, and how you relate to the topic being discussed. For example, if you are writing about disability, and you have a disability, at times it helps to include this.

Introduction

An introduction is a welcome. That is, you are welcoming people to your research article or report. It should be one standard paragraph of between 8 and 15 lines. Ensure that most key words are included in the introduction. Include purpose of research and methodology, briefly. The final sentence must tell the editor or reader what to expect, i.e., how the paper is arranged and what it contains. The introduction closely resembles the abstract but they are different in that the introduction does not tell you everything about the research. An introduction is mainly about conceptualizing the main issue being discussed and showing readers what to expect.

Background

Here you provide background to your research and the problem or social issue. Your background should use subheadings to illustrate the following:

• Problem or issue, including your research aim, objectives and questions. There is no need to put a short heading or subheading for research aim, objectives and questions, just include them in the problem. Include qualitative (e.g. a story or personal/community experience) and quantitative evidence to show the depth of the problem and to clarify it. Provide main references for this problem or social issue, including main organisations dealing with this issue at local e.g district or county, national e.g. Rwanda, regional e.g. ECOWAS or continental e.g. African Union. If the problem has been reported in media or social media, include this.
• Theories, theoretical framework, conceptual framework or models (how do theories explain this problem). Prioritise African theories, concepts and models. 
• Literature – you can include a section about literature in the Background or have a separate Literature section. If you want to include a separate Literature section, information is provided later. For most manuscripts literature review is not possible, but literature scoping, which is a quick check on what authors have said about the problem. If your whole article is based on literature review, then please read the section about Literature below. At the end of the literature, show the gaps in literature (there is no need to study what is already known unless you are reviewing it). Whether you are providing a literature subsection under Background, an independent section on Literature or you are publishing a literature review only paper, the methodology of the review MUST always be there.
• Justification, motivations and connection to the research e.g. is it part of a larger research project, do you have any personal or community motivations, do you have personal/ family or community experience (positionality), what is your expertise and that of your team members? Are you an outsider – from a different race, philosophy, culture, community etc from those being studied?

Methodology

This is a story about the practical aspects of your research, please avoid duplicating what is in textbooks, tell your story. It is a unique story or journey starting with how you identified the problem, what you did to research it and ending with how you disseminated findings to the community that you researched about. First person narrative is allowed, though this should be limited. Should be no more than 3 standard paragraphs. Unlike a research report, in journal manuscripts, subheadings are not recommended for the methodology although about 3 subheadings might improve structure of the methodology section. Ethics should not be superficial – include how you obtained local consent from local, community or traditional leaders. Was your research application reviewed by a university ethics committee or other committee, please name the committee and provide review number if available. The ASWDNet has an ethics committee that you could use, indicate in your report if you received ethical advice from them. Tell us how you obtained community feedback on your results, and what the feedback was. More importantly, tell us how you reported the results in ways that are accessible, including language and publications accessible at community level. In Africa, we are interested in the role that the community play in reviewing your work not just peer and editorial review. It is unethical to not make results of our research available to communities concerned or involved. More information about ethics in the African Research Ethics and Malpractice Statement (AREMS) and The San Code of Research Ethics (San Code). If you do not have access to an ethics application, you can use the African Independent Ethics Committee (AIEC).

While the methodology is a story of how you intent to do research or how you did it, it should also be grounded in a methodological framework or theory. African research frameworks, theories and methods covering research philosophy, ethics, data collection, data analysis etc are available here: Research Questions and Methods. An example of a framework is the African Research Methods, Ubuntu Research Approach, Decolonial Approach, Indigenisation Approach and Afrocentric approach.

*Whether you are providing a literature subsection under Background, an independent section on Literature or you are publishing a literature review only paper, the methodology of the review MUST always be there. The section below provides information about literature review types and methods.

Literature

At times, authors are submitting an article based solely on a review of literature. This is possible. When you do literature review, your focus is analysing the findings, conclusions, recommendations, implications, research methods and the data reported in the literature. Every literature review has a methodology. In your methodology, tell us how you did the review, where you got the papers to review e.g. data base or library, inclusion/exclusion criteria and a final list of the literature that you included etc. The rest of the manuscript will be similar to a field research paper/report. There are many types of literature reviews. Please note that document analysis is not a form of literature review. Except for meta-analysis which is statistical and quantitative, all other reviews are narrative or qualitative. See the following section for more details.

Click the tab below to read about the 16 types of literature reviews.

Types of Literature Reviews

1. Decolonising literature review (DLR): a lot of literature exists that would not be accepted by the people who were researched for one or more reasons. We can use a review process to examine this literature and address its shortcomings. the process of DLR will be as follows (i) create criteria for literature you want reviewed (ii) read the literature with a selected group of people who are part of those the literature refers to (iii) report what was confirmed and what was rejected.

2. Scoping literature review: this is what most writers provide in their articles. Then intention is to measure and report the size (amount) of literature available on a certain topic and scope of the literature, that is what it covers. It is not comprehensive but based on literature available to the writer at the time. This can also include literature already cited in books. It starts with a research question/s, followed by gathering available literature, reading the literature and picking themes, writing key themes and making conclusions then reporting. The scoping review report contains (i) a brief of the questions the review answered (ii) the summary of the methodology used (iii) a list of the literature reviewed (iv) a summary of key themes or points from the literature (v) discussion of each theme or point supported by data from the literature reviewed – all reviewed literature must be included (vi) conclusions and implications of the review. This report is usually presented as a section in a journal article, book chapter, book, thesis or research report. It can also be presented as stand alone report just reporting the literature. A scoping review is not as comprehensive as a systematic review but it has to be methodological, strong and useful. It is not just to show what is known, but this is done in a critical way to show the strength and gap in knowledge and to derive lessons useful to change or improve interventions.

3. Rapid literature review: it focuses on what is already known about a topic. The focus is to know about exists as quickly as possible. It usually follow same method as scoping reviews.

4. Systematic literature review: it is more comprehensive and it involves collecting all literature that is available at a particular place, library or database about a particular topic covering a defined period. It has a specific research question/s. In this type of review, you do not include literature cited by others, you need to get hold of the literature you are reviewing and read it yourself. The process starts with a research question/s, followed by gathering available literature in a systematic manner (specific year, library or database), reading all the literature and picking themes, writing key themes and making conclusions then reporting (the methodology followed, number of articles found and included, key themes, conclusions and implications). The systematic review report contains (i) a background to the problem or research topic, including significance of the review (ii) the questions the review answered (iii) a theory or approach that shaped the review (iv) a detailed methodology used – databases or libraries used, inclusion/exclusion criteria, who did what, how analysis was done, orature used, gray literature used etc (v) a list of the literature reviewed including description of each literature included – where it was found, authors, year of publication, key points etc (vi) a summary or list of key themes or points from the literature as a whole (vii) discussion of each theme or point supported by data from the literature reviewed – all reviewed literature must be included (viii) conclusions and implications of the review. This report is usually presented as a journal article, book chapter, thesis chapter or standalone research report.

5. Meta-analysis: a type of systematic literature review that use statistical methods (quantitative) to analyse findings of different researches. For example, you could review the different rates of HIV infection provided in 300 journal articles. When you put these rates together, you could generate statistical data including means, mode, variations, quartiles etc. You could do a lot of things with that data and make conclusions.

6. Meta-synthesis – a type of systematic literature review that uses narrative analysis (qualitative) to integrate data from multiple researches. For example, you could collect 30 articles that describe stigma in HIV/AIDS and derive common themes.

7. Review of reviews – this is a systematic review of existing reviews. For this to happen, you need to know the reviews that have been done. Can be quantitative and qualitative in orientation, or mixed.

8. Critical literature review: the intention is to examine literature to determine which one offers the best evidence. The reviewers looks at how the evidence was created, the authors and their experience, where and how it was reviewed and generally the quality of the articles. Critical literature review can be combined with other methods.

9. Mixed-reviews – as the name suggests.

10. Orature review – this type focuses on non-written literature. the stages are (1) deciding the type/criteria of orature to review (2) selecting the orature that meets the criteria (3) collecting the orature (4) analysing it. Because orature varies, the analysis involves listening to it, watching it, observing it and even touching it. The result can be presented as a story, list of themes or drawings.

11. Document reviews or analysis – When you do a document analysis, you focus on the an analysis of the titles, headings, pictures, the authors, the source, the publisher, the year published, the font type and colour, formatting, language and the type of document. In this method, documents include book covers, books, photos, newspapers, fliers, written walls, advertisements, diaries, note books and other formats but does not usually include research articles. This method is not a literature review. Steps include (1) deciding the type/criteria of documents to include (create a criteria guide) (2) deciding what to analyse (3) collecting the documents that meet the criteria (4) analysing the documents (create an analysis guide). Analysis has these steps (4a) Observe each document several times (4b) Write down the themes coming out as you observe (4c) Observe again, adding more themes. (4c) You then observe the 3rd time, adding and revising the themes. By this time you should have a good list of themes. To ensure strengths, give someone else (or more people) to observe, create themes themes and compare before coming up with the final list. Another option to ensure strengths is to do group analysis. You can also observe at times times, for example within a week or month and revise themes.

12. Media reviews or analysis – (1) deciding the type/criteria of media to analyse (2) selecting the media that meets the criteria (3) collecting data from the media (4) analysing the data for themes. Media includes television, radio, internet, websites, newspapers, bill boards and others.

13. Social media reviews or analysis – the process is as above but focusing on social media. You can focus social media content or social media reactions (comments, replies, reactions, likes and follows).

14. Systematic Review of Things (SROT) – when everything that contains knowledge is reviewed systematically.

15. Reviews of applications – this includes reviews of websites and apps.

16. Artificial Intelligence Reviews (AIR) – this type of review is NOT about using AI to do a literature review, but reviewing content generated by AI. To use this method, create a guideline or protocol that shows what you are going to search (topic and question), how you are going to search it (search words, phrase or sentence and prompts), where you are going to search it (applications), how you will record, analyse and report. Analysis of AIR includes comparison with a literature review report from any of the other methods of literature reviews reported above. Since AI has day dreams, errors and colonising content, these should be picked and reported extensively. AVOID asking AI to include sources but consider AI to be one source. This is because AI picks letters and words to create meanings from different sources but does not take meanings from its sources. AIR are publishable in journals, books and blogs.

Findings

At times called the Results section, this section shows us the new data that you obtained from the research after analysis. Start with a short summary of key data or a list separated by commas or semi-colons. Then present each result or data under headings and sub-headings. It is recommended to transform your research questions or objectives into headings. Separate Findings or Results section from the Discussion section. Important parts of this section should be:

1. A brief about how the data is organised.
2. A summary of key data, for example, data category, main themes.
3. A visual e.g. word tree or cloud, mind map or infographic (for qualitative studies) OR table, graph or chart (for quantitative studies) summarising the data.
4. Each category or theme presented under own heading with supporting evidence from the data. Supporting evidence will be a combination of the following, depending on type of research:
   • Sub-themes
   • Direct quotes (long short, sentences or phrases.)
   • Repeated words
   • Visuals, tables, graphs, charts, diagrams, mind maps, concept maps etc
   • Stories – short stories called vignettes or long stories
   • Cases, profiles or portraits
   • Key statistics
   • Timelines
   • Dialogues
   • Poetry/poetic transcription of quotes
   • Photographs
   • Geographical map
   • Photovoiced visuals, that is, visuals generated by participants
   • Multimedia (if journal allows it)
   • Metaphors or analogues
   • Thick description, that is, detailed, context-rich narrative that captures the complexity of lived experiences and settings
   • Narrative summaries, that is, synthesised descriptions of participant accounts or group experiences, used to show how ideas unfold or evolve.
   • In quantitative presentations:
     • Tables: simple univariate, complex multivariate or more complex.
     • Graphs: Bar charts, histograms, pie charts, line graphs, scatter plots, box plots, heatmaps, dashboards, infographics, population pyramids, geospatial maps (GIS), error bars on graphs
     • Descriptive statistics: usually shows mean, median, mode, standard deviation etc
     • Inferential statistics: t-tests, chi-square, ANOVA, regression plots, survival curves (Kaplan-Meier), forest plots, path diagrams / SEM diagrams, factor loading tables etc
   • Some combinations: data storytelling with visuals, annotated graphs, comparative summaries, time-series animations or sliders.
5. An explanation (not discussion) of the data presented including what it means in the context of the study itself, explanation of any technical or cultural terms used etc.

Discussion

This section interprets your new data in relation to your background information, theory, literature, anecdotal evidence, any emerging information and your own experience. Do not add new data when discussing. If you discuss in the findings/results section, you do not need a separate discussion section. We strongly recommend that the Discussion is separated from the Findings/Results.

This section should be written as follows:

1. Mention the theme or category you are discussing without repeating the data.
2. Comment in detail about this theme or category referring to your background information, theory, literature, anecdotal evidence, any emerging information and your own experience.
3. Conclude this theme or category
4. Repeat 1-3 until all major categories or themes have been discussed
5. Provide a list of the all the conclusions reached. More information about conclusions is provided in the box.

Implications and Recommendations

Make clear statements (3-5) about what is the usefulness of your results in relation to social work or development in your country and in Africa, and of course globally. What needs to be done by professionals, policy makers, service users, students, communities etc. What are future research gaps? What methods of research do you recommend in future? Why? Dot points are allowed. You would normally start by saying, Based on our finding that…..Following our conclusion that says…. In this section, it’s about your own voice, speak your mind, provide your expertise here but link to your findings. Contribution of your research or analysis must be clear: new theory, new definition, new model, new framework, new concept, new solution, new gap, threat or problem discovered, new policy proposed or new educational tool.

Conclusion

A conclusion is a goodbye. This is not the same as conclusions of the discussion. It summarises what the research report/article covered. Make this part between 8 and 12 lines. It is written in past tense. The final sentence must usually provide a ‘final punch’.

Declarations

At times writers are asked to declare conflict of interest, authorship, ethical approval and funding sources and also to include acknowledgements, a statement indicating the originality of the work and confirmation that the work submitted shall not be submitted to another publication unless rejected or withdrawn. A declaration must also be made to the effect that co-authors took part in the research process, and that their inclusion to the publication has been gained and that they are not ‘ghost’ writers.

AI Policy

Citing and References List

Key issues

1. Prioritise African literature, definitions, ethics and theories in your background, literature review, methodology and discussion. We recommend that at least 75% of your sources be African sources.
2. We understand there is a lot of oral literature (orature) for African social work, please cite and reference it.
3. Follow our referencing guide word for word, comma for comma, colons, dots, full stops, italics etc. 
4. References should be less than one page in length or not more than 20 references or authors. 
5. We expect more than ¾ of these to be peer reviewed sources not more than 20 years old but government reports, research reports and books are also useful.
6. Unnecessary citations must be avoided and only works of value to your paper must be cited. 
7. No numbering or bulleting of your sources. 
8. Put all reference details for same author/authors in a single line. 
9. Only book titles and journal names (including volume and issue numbers) should be italicised. 
10. For online references, use: Available at: www…. (Accessed: 28 January 2020).
11. Put year of publication in brackets/parenthesis.
12. Remove all highlights and hyperlinks (especially for internet references).
13. Do not include the words ‘volume’, ‘issue’ or ‘number’ when referencing journal articles. See examples below.

Examples of reference list entries

Journals

Mugumbate J., and Nyanguru A., (2013). Exploring African philosophy: The value of Ubuntu in social work. African Journal of Social Work, 3(1), 82-100.

Books

Samkange S. and Samkange T. M., (1980). Hunhuism or Ubuntuism: A Zimbabwean indigenous political philosophy. Harare: Graham Publishing. 

Edited book

Mupedziswa R., Rankopo M. and Mwansa L., (2019). Ubuntu as a Pan-African Philosophical Framework for Social Work in Africa. Social Work Practice in Africa Indigenous and Innovative Approaches. Eds J. M.  Twikirize and H. Spitzer. Kampala: Fountain.

Institution/organisation

Make sure you write the name of the organisation in full, then show the abbreviation.

Council of Social Workers (CSW), 2012. Social workers code of ethics. Statutory Instrument 146 of 2012. Zimbabwe.

Document

Simba J.,  (2014). Social work in east Africa. Document. Makerere University, Uganda.

Newspaper

Mahoso T., (2013). Ngozi. Sunday Mail Newspaper, 14-20 July 201,3 p. D2. Zimbabwe.

Cameroon Tribune, (2020). UN Human Rights Commission Report: Government Decries Subjective Position. Cameroon Tribune., 15 October 2020, p. 1. Cameroon.

Online

At times you read an article from the internet and use it in your writing. To make it easy for that article to be located, you could provide the link to the website page that contains the article. There are two ways of achieving this as shown below. You could copy the full link and add it to your reference in the list of references or create a hyperlink. In most cases, it is important to indicate the date you accessed the content as well.

African Union (AU), (2018). The African Union, in its effort to ensure the decolonization of the Chagos Archipelago, takes part in the oral hearing before the International Court of Justice. Retrieved on 12 December 2019 from https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20180903/african-union-its-effort-ensure-decolonization-chagos-archipelago-takes-part

African Union (AU), (2018). The African Union, in its effort to ensure the decolonization of the Chagos Archipelago, takes part in the oral hearing before the International Court of Justice. Retrieved on 12 December 2019.

Government policy or document

South African Government, (1996). White Paper on Welfare. Government Gazette Number 16943.

How to cite a proverb, song, forklore

Shona people. ‘Mwana asingachemi anofira mumbereko’ (A baby who does not cry does not get the mother’s attention). Proverb. Zimbabwe. (Please note that no year is required because this is a timeless resource).

How to cite a popular saying

Mandela M. N., (2003). ‘Ubuntu is peace’. South Africa. (You can add a year if you know it, otherwise it is ok to not put a name or to write Date unknown).

How to cite your personal experience or experience of someone you know

Massi D., (2011). ‘Growing up in Maputo’. Personal experience. Mozambique.(You can add a year if you know it, otherwise it is ok to not put a name or to write Date unknown).

How to cite an artist (musician, sculptor, actor etc)

Achebe A. C., (1958). Things fall apart. London, Penguin.

Keita S., (1995). Africa. Song from Folon album. Mango, Mali.