Author Guidelines

Guidelines for authors
Submissions
Please, submit your manuscript online to erjssh@gmail.com. All correspondence is done via
internet.
If the manuscript does not meet the requirements and/or the thematic scope of the Journal the
editors reserve the right to reject it.
Your submission will include:
- Two versions of the manuscript, one anonymous and one provided with the full names of the
author(s) as well as contact information. 
Submission of a manuscript for ERJSSH will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not
being considered for publication elsewhere. Evidence of plagiarism (amounting to 20% of the
text or beyond) will lead to the automatic rejection of the manuscript.

Manuscript Preparation
Articles are to be written either in English or, in cases when the thematic requires it, in Amharic.
The file format should be supported by OpenOffice and Microsoft Word and files should be
submitted in doc/docx, or alternatively also in rtf or opd, formats. Contributions may not exceed
25 typed pages, or 8,000 words, including tables, footnotes and references. 

Format and Style
Texts should include the following specifications: Times New Roman or Bookman Old Style,
1.5-spaced throughout, 12-point font size and margins of 2.5 cm on the left and right. All notes
are to be set as footnotes.  Footnotes, however, should be reduced to a minimum and authors
have to follow in-text citation with APA style.
Contributors should seek clarity, brevity, and simplicity of expression and avoid long sentences
and unduly lengthy or short paragraphs. Authors, particularly those whose first language is not
English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker
before submission. This is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the
paper is fully understood by the editors and any reviewers. 
Only standard abbreviations and acronyms should be used and explained in the footnotes at the
first appearance. 
Spelling (in English) may follow either British or American convention but must be consistent.
The use of diacritical marks is not recommended although in specific cases, e.g. for articles in
philology or linguistics, the use of diacritical marks will be accepted. Diacritical marks should be
those supported by the Unicode system (see www.unicode.org). 
For further information on how to prepare your manuscript see
http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/sample-experiment-paper-1.pdf

Abstracts and Blurb
The author is required to submit the article with an abstract of 140 to 200 words as well as 4 to 8
keywords.  
The author is asked to attach a blurb including his/her academic career, affiliation, highest
degree, mailing and e-mail addresses as well as any desired acknowledgement of research
support or other credit.

Tables, figures and photos
All tabular materials, flow charts, etc. can be typed in the main file or on separate pages of the
same size and fonts as the text. In case they are typed on separate pages they should be
intelligible without reference to the text. All tables and figures must include an accompanying
caption, including title of the caption and sources. 
Tables and figures should be numbered with Arabic numbers in the order of appearance in the
text. They should be cited in the manuscript, for example, Table 3 or Figure 3. The author
should indicate where in the text the tables and figures should be placed, e.g.: <Table 1 here>.
Legends for tables and figures should be placed just above and below the image, respectively.
Graphs, diagrams, drawings and photographs are considered as figures. The original drawings
should not be larger than 16×12 cm. All drawings must be made with black drawing ink on
tracing paper suitable for direct photocopy. Either the original or glossy prints are acceptable.
Avoid any unnecessary use of colors. Photographs should be saved at 300 dpi and sent as tiff,
jpg or png files.
In tables and figures the author(s) and year should be indicated. Contributors are responsible
for obtaining permission to reproduce any material in which they do not hold copyright and for
ensuring that the appropriate acknowledgements are included in their manuscript. 

Informants and expert interviews
The authors of manuscripts including informants and expert interviews should be able, upon
request, to produce documentation of prior informed consent about the interview to the ERJSSH
editors. Authors are expected to provide all relevant information on the experts or informants
(name, position, date and place of the interview and other relevant information). Exceptions to
this rule (i.e. anonymizing) will have to be justified before the editors.
Informants and participants in surveys and focus group discussions are generally coded and
anonymized. Authors shall submit empirical evidence thereof upon request by ERJSSH editors.

Acknowledgements
At the end of the manuscript the author should acknowledge briefly: (a) contributions that need
acknowledging but do not justify authorship; (b) acknowledgements of technical help received
by the author; (c) acknowledgements of financial and material support received by the author,

specifying the nature of support; and (d) study subjects and others who contributed in the
design, data collection, and analysis of the study.

References
References, citations, and the general style of manuscripts is to be prepared in accordance with
the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual (with a modification
concerning Ethiopian and Eritrean names, see below). Citations and references in the text
should be done by (author, year, p. and page number), e.g. (John, 1983, p. 13). In the case of
Ethiopian or Eritrean names, both the personal name and father’s name should be given and
quoted in that order. For books published in Ethiopia and that follow the Ethiopian year, this has
to be indicated by placing A.M. after the year, e.g.: Tesfaye Tafesse (2001 A.M., p. 129).
A complete list of references is to be provided at the end of the article as shown in the following
examples:
a) Journal:
Firestone, W. A. (1987). Meaning and Method: the Rhetoric of Quantitative and Qualitative
Research. Educational Researcher, 16(7), 16-21.
b) Book:
Rapport, N., & Overing, J. (2000). Social and Cultural Anthropology: the Key Concepts. London:
Routledge (Special Indian Edition).
c) Edited Book:
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.). (2001). Children of color: Psychological interventions with
culturally diverse youth. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 
d) Essay or chapter in edited books:
Ospina, S. (2002). Qualitative Research. In G. Goethals, G. Sorensen & J. MacGregor
(Eds.), Encyclopedia of Leadership (pp. 239-252). London: SAGE Publications.
e) Internet source:
Marshall, E. (2007). Chidi Amuta’s A Dialectical Theory of African Literature: Categories and
Stringboards. Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http:// www.rlwclarke.net/courses/LITS3303/2009-
2010/ 04DAmuta,ADialecticalTheoryofAfricanLiterature.pdf
For further information on the APA style see the following websites:
http://www.apastyle.org/ 
http://wiki.ubc.ca/images/6/6f/Apastyle.pdf
http://web.calstatela.edu/library/guides/3apa.pdf
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/