About the Journal

ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Studies

ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (ISSN Online: 2790-5403; Print: 2790-539X) is a double-blind, peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Hawassa University, College of Social Sciences and Humanities. The journal provides a platform for the dissemination of high-quality scholarly work addressing issues, policies, theories, and practices in the social sciences, humanities, and development studies, with particular emphasis on Ethiopia, the region, and the broader African context.

The journal welcomes interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary contributions from fields including, but not limited to, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Geography, Governance, Development Studies, Tourism, Journalism, Communication, Linguistics, Language Studies, and Literature. It also encourages innovative and integrative approaches that contribute to knowledge development and synthesis.

ETHIOINQUIRY publishes a range of scholarly works, including original research articles, review articles, reflective papers, book reviews, special issues, and short communications.

The journal is published biennially and follows a fully open access model. All articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication without subscription or access charges. The journal does not charge any article processing or publication fees.

Open Access and Licensing

From Volume 5 onward, all articles published in this journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.

Articles published in Volumes 1–4 remain under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license under which they were originally published.

Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of first publication.

FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION

Frequency and regularity are the primary factors that directly influence the credibility of journals. In connection to this, the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences publishes biannually. This means the journal publishes two issues annually. The publication schedule is indicated as follows:

Period for publishing 1st issue: January-June

Period for publishing 2nd issue: July-December

ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM POLICY

The articles are submitted to the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. As part of the submission process, the authors are required to check the submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to the authors if they do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration in any other journal.
  2. The manuscript is based on the original research work submitted to the journal and is not plagiarized as a whole or any part of the manuscript.   
  3. The manuscript submitted holds nothing that is obscene, defamatory, abusive, fraudulent, or illegal. If the author(s) send the same manuscript to any other journal within or outside the country, they will, in anticipation, let us know that it will be considered a voluntary withdrawal from the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.
  4. The plagiarism policy is followed strictly in letter and spirit to ensure the quality parameters from all requisite dimensions.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

Submission of Paper

The corresponding author can submit research work for potential and prospective publication in the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences via the online journal system.

Editorial Office Assessment

The ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences editorial office checks the submitted manuscripts’ format and composition in line with the author's guidelines and the scope of the journal. This is the stage of scrutiny that assesses the quality of research.

The Editor-in-Chief’s Appraisal

The chief editor ascertains whether research work is original, has potential for novelty, and is appropriately aligned with the journal’s scope. If the manuscript doesn’t meet the aforementioned criteria, it is liable to rejection at this stage without being considered for any further review.

Chief Editor’s Assignment to an Associate Editor

After appraising the manuscript, the chief editor assigns the task of further appraisal to associate editors through desk review/editing. The associate editor scrutinizes the manuscript in light of the journal scope and contents requirements of ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences and recommends the potential improvements and incorporation in the manuscript.

Communicating Suggestions to Authors

The associate editor’s desk review suggestions for potential revisions and improvements of the manuscript are shared with authors for incorporation. After these necessary changes are made, the manuscript proceeds to the experts’ review phase.

Invitation to Reviewers

The associate editor invites potential reviewers within the specialized fields for the manuscript review. The manuscript is sent out to the reviewers in light of the responses received from them. As per the journal’s policy, the manuscript is sent to at least two reviewers.

Review Conducted

The potential and expert reviewers spare ample time to read the manuscript, and this is reflected in the way they highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the research work. If they find major issues in the manuscript, reviewers have the freedom either to completely reject it or suggest major revisions. The reviewers submit their reviews to the journal’s editorial team with the recommendations of either accepting (with/out minor or major revisions) or rejecting.

 Evaluation of the Reviews's Comments

The journal’s editorial team considers and scrutinizes all the reviewers’ comments and decisions before reaching a final decision. In case of wider differences in/among the reviewers’ comments, the editor might invite an additional reviewer (if deemed appropriate) to get further opinions before making the final decision.

Decision Communication

The editor-in-chief/the associate editor communicates the decision with authors via the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences  communication channel containing relevant reviewers' comments and advises the authors to incorporate all the changes as per the reviewers’ suggestions.

 Final Decision

After receiving the revised draft from authors, the editorial team ensures the incorporation of all reviewers’ suggestions, and if found suitable in all respects, the manuscript is sent to copyediting. After this process, the manuscript is moved to the production phase as per the specified schedule for publication.

ARTICLE PROCESSING/PUBLICATION FEE

ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences is managed under the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Hawassa University, Ethiopia. The publication costs and associated expenses of many journals are covered by the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and thus do not demand any publication charges. ETHIOINQUIRY Journal is determined to index the published articles in well-reputed indexing agencies and ensures standard parameters to bring up the journal at par with the international level.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS AND PROVISIONS

 For Authors

All manuscripts, articles, original research reports, book reviews, comments, reviews, and letters that are submitted to the journal must be accompanied by a conflict-of-interest disclosure statement or a declaration by the authors that they do not have any conflicts of interest. To facilitate this policy, all authors must privately disclose their potential conflicts of interest to editors at the time of submission. These include financial and non-financial interests and relationships with other organizations. Authors should disclose any conflict of interest that may have influenced either the conduct or presentation of the research to editors, including but not limited to close relationships with those who might be helped or hurt by publication, academic interests and rivalries, and any personal, religious, or political convictions relevant to the topic at hand. In the article, authors must include a draft statement that discloses all relevant conflicts of interest and affiliations.

For Editors and Reviewers

Editors and reviewers must reject/decline to be involved with the submission when they have a recent/current publication or submission with the author. Share recent affiliations with the author, collaborate, have close relationships with the author, have financial interest/gain, or feel unable to be objective. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Reviewers must declare any remaining interests in the ‘Confidential’ section of review form, which will be considered by the editor. Reviewer(s) must declare any conflict of interest that may affect their review work. In cases of conflict of interest, reviewer(s) are requested to notify the editorial team of their inability to review a particular research paper. Editors and peer reviewers should disclose interests that might appear to affect their ability to present or review work objectively. These might include the relevant financial interests or the personal, political, or religious interests and detailed descriptions about the tasks and responsibilities of all parties on how to avoid and manage COIs.

CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS OF RESEARCH ARTICLES

Well-defined and precise knowledge sharing is the chief objective of the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Development. It aims to facilitate information distribution to the academic community. Furthermore, to serve the academic community, ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences has a strong faith in intelligibility through delivering correct information and maintaining all essential records. The journal explains this procedure from initial submission till the final stage, and the publications are available in diverse volumes and issues. Once a manuscript is published, the editorial team displays the volume and issues of the journal at the journal website, which can be easily explored, read, downloaded, and shared through an open-access policy. The journal is also distributed to the academic community in printed copy.  

The ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences offers prospects to authors for getting their manuscripts proofread beforehand and the availability of the online version, which ensures the accuracy of content. Further, even after a manuscript is published, partial corrections might be made at the decision of the editorial team of the journal. Therefore, to improve the quality of published research work, the editorial team might opt for the minor alterations and corrections at any stage, as they are vital to ascertain the integrity of the published materials to ensure the quality and transparency of research.

The ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences takes a serious note of the issues related to copyright infringement, plagiarism, and violation of other ethical codes in the publication process. In this respect, sometimes, whenever any violation of publication ethics and copyright infringement is exposed, the journal reserves the right to proceed with appropriate and necessary actions to correct the record on a priority basis no matter whether the authors present it either intentionally or unintentionally and communicate with the journal's editorial team. Consequently, materials that this journal has already published become the journal’s intellectual property, and it holds the rights to replace the accurate materials in the best interest of the journal and the academic community. If the copyright infringement is serious, the article published in the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences will be retracted. 

POLICY AND PRINCIPLES ON RESEARCH DATA

The principle and policy towards the research data signify authors’ responsibility to submit reliable and accurate research data for publication with the following description:

The contents of the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences are open, as archives are freely available on its website. Thus, for copyright and licensing, the journal follows open access and open archives policies to facilitate the users of the journal. However, the users are required to cite the work with proper reference wherever they are using contents of the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is the responsibility of the journal to maintain metadata of articles processed for publications submitted to the journal, which can be communicated on-demand where required.

ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences is an open access journal; that means its contents are available for free to the users. Without asking any prior permission from the publisher, the users are allowed to read, download, and use its contents for lawful purposes wherein, by using its contents, the users are required to quote the materials with references where they are used in citations that is prescribed under predetermined conditions specified by guidelines and codes of conduct. Thus, authors hold copyright for their work and can use it for their legal purpose without any permission from the journal.

The copyright of manuscripts published in the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal is retained by the author/authors by granting the first publication rights to the journal. The ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Science and the editorial team will not be responsible for any subsequent use of the author(s)' work, and even if desired, it is the responsibility of the author(s) to bring an encroachment action by providing a clear statement about the conflict of interest in the copyright agreement between the authors and the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences to ensure the transparency of the publication ethics.

DISCLAIMER

The aim of this disclaimer is to apprise the readers and users of the contents of this journal that all the viewpoints and ideas contributed by the authors are their sole property and are exclusively related to them and not inevitably related to the author(s') employer, committee, organization, or any other group. All such opinions expressed by the author(s) through diverse sources by exploring participants’ views from any institution or organization(s) do not essentially replicate the opinions and views of the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. Additionally, it clarified that all standpoints, opinions, findings, and conclusions that are expressed and articulated either in the submitted and published research work or any other content are exclusive to the authors and do not reflect the standpoint of the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences team and publisher.

COPYRIGHT

Authors who publish in the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences retain the copyright of their work. By submitting and publishing in the journal, authors grant the journal the right of first publication.

From Volume 5 onward, all articles published in this journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.

Articles published in Volumes 1–4 remain under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license under which they were originally published.

Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of first publication.

The journal and its editorial team are not responsible for any misuse or unauthorized reuse of published materials by third parties. Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality of their work and for declaring any potential conflicts of interest in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics. Prior to submission of research work to the journal, authors are advised and required to make sure to comply with all of the following guidelines; otherwise, submissions might be returned to authors:

The submission file must be in the Microsoft Word, Open Office, or RTF document file format with no restrictions.

The work has neither been previously published nor is it for consideration to be published by any other publisher.

The text follows the formal, stylistic, and bibliographic prerequisites thoroughly outlined in the Author Guidelines.

The text is written single-spaced, 12-point font, and all figures, illustrations, and tables are placed within the text at exact points.

The manuscript includes nothing that could be or be interpreted as abusive, defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, libelous, or proscribed.

In case of sending the same research work to any other publisher either within or outside the country, authors are liable to let us know in anticipation, and that would be considered their voluntary withdrawal from the ETHIOINQUIRY Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.