Values, Scope, and Aim of the Journal

Conspectus is the journal of the South African Theological Seminary. The journal is fully accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training. Like the Seminary, the values of the journal are encapsulated in the phrase, “Bible-based, Christ-centered and Spirit-led.” Operationally, the journal is marked by four distinctives:

  1. With interdisciplinary discourse being a prized research objective at SATS, the journal publishes articles from across the broad spectrum of theological studies (Biblical Studies, Practical Theology, Systematic Theology, Studies in Church and Society), as well as studies that link with extra-theological disciplines.
  2. Conspectus is a Christian journal whose ethos does not divorce academic reflection and engagement from belief in God, obedience to the Scriptures, and commitment to the church. Consequently, Conspectus welcomes articles that are soundly Scriptural in perspective, approach, and content. The tone should reflect a commitment to the inspiration, authority, and relevance of Scripture, and to a theology that serves the church and honors God.[1] Publishing articles that employ reader-centered methodologies for exegesis does not lie in Conspectus’s purview.[2]
  3. Like the Seminary, Conspectus prioritizes representation and input from various nations, ethnicities, and denominations under a broadly evangelical umbrella. This is reflected in the Editorial Board, Editorial Team, Board of Referees, and the journal’s content.
  4. As SATS is based on the African continent, its journal is largely representative of the Majority World—reflecting on/from and speaking into this context. Although this emphasis is apparent, this does not preclude contributions and contributors from elsewhere in the world.

Conspectus is an open-access journal, meaning that the journal is made available to readers at no cost. The journal is catalogued under ATLA (American Theological Library Association), Logos Bible Software, Galaxy Software, Sabinet, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), African Journals Online (AJOL), and is available on the SATS website. To be published in Conspectus, an article must go beyond a summary of secondary sources and present the results of sound theological research into a biblical or practical problem in a way that would be valuable to the church, including scholars, pastors, students, missionaries, or other Christian workers.

Licensing, Copyright, and Open Access Policy

All issues of Conspectus are open access, implying that they are available for download at no cost from https://sats.ac.za/conspectus/. Subscription fees and embargo periods do not apply, and readers and authors are allowed to freely share the links and content. Readers can read, print, share, link, or use articles without the permission of the Editorial Team or authors.    

Once an article is published in the journal, copyright is transferred to SATS. Conspectus is protected by Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), as stipulated here.

After publication, authors are entitled to:

  • share their work on any chosen platform (including conferences and educational purposes),
  • expand and edit the article for a thesis or dissertation, and
  • republish the article elsewhere, provided the new publisher is made aware of the former publication. In addition, the republished article must include a citation of the original article in Conspectus.

Publication Fee

The publication of the journal is primarily funded by the South African Theological Seminary. A fee of 4500 ZAR is payable upon publication. This fee only applies to authors who are formally affiliated with a South African public university and hence benefit from the subsidy provided by the South African government. Publication fees do not apply to those with no such affiliations. 

Review and Editorial Process

Conspectus subscribes to a double-blind peer review process. The Editorial Team commits to ensuring anonymity of both authors and reviewers. Each article is reviewed by three members of the review board[3] and reviewers are appointed based on expertise. The review process takes between 4 and 8 weeks.

The editorial process is divided into ten phases. Each phase describes the tasks specific to the phase, the person(s) responsible, and signals the phase to follow.

Phase 1: Article Submission

An article is submitted to the editors of Conspectus via email ([email protected]). The deadlines for submissions are as follows:

  • End of April for the October issue.
  • End of October for the April issue.

Phase 2: Preliminary Evaluation

The editors conduct a preliminary assessment of the submissions before they are sent for double-blind peer review. Articles will only be considered if they are accompanied by the Author’s Agreement (See §6 in the Author Guidelines). If an article does not adhere to the requirements stated in the Author Guidelines or does not align with the theological scope, aims, or values of the journal, the editors reserve the right to send it back to the author for revision or to decline it. In such a case, the editors’ decision is final and need not be explained to the author(s).

Phase 3: Double-blind Peer Review

The editors send selected articles for double-blind peer review. Prior to sending the documents, the editors ensure the anonymity of authors by removing personal details and clearing author information from the Word document. The editors send referees the following:

  • The article(s).
  • The Conspectus author guidelines (Annexure A).
  • The Conspectus Review Form (Annexure B).

Reviewers are given up to four weeks to return their reviews to the editors. Reviewers are asked to pay special attention to the following: title; abstract; major claim; methodology; argument; trends and sources; style and formatting; contribution; scriptural engagement; suitability.

Phase 4: Collating Reviews and Determining Outcomes

After receiving the three reviews, the editors, in consultation with the content editor, agree on the outcome. The comments from the review panel are converted into one master feedback document per article.[4] These documents are passed on to authors by the editors. The outcome can be one of the following: accepted; accepted with minor corrections; accepted with major corrections; resubmit; decline.

Should an author wish to appeal the outcome of a review, they are to contact the journal editor who will consider the case alongside the Editorial Team. Once the appeal has been processed, the decision made by the Editorial Team is final.

Phase 5: Feedback to Authors and Amendments

Upon receiving the documents, authors are given the opportunity to make all the necessary amendments. Using the feedback form, authors are expected to send a report outlining changes made and motivating those not adhered to upon submitting their revised articles. The revised article and report are then sent to the editors for another round of review. If the outcome was a resubmission, the article will be considered for the next volume. Once such an article has been revised, it is sent for review to the original reviewers and the process will repeat itself. The Editorial Team only allows one resubmission. If a resubmitted article is not accepted in the second round of reviews, it will be declined.

Phase 6: Internal Copy Editing

The revised articles are sent to the internal copy editor, who uploads it to SATS’s plagiarism software and liaises with the authors to ensure that the articles adhere to the Author Guidelines, SBL Handbook of Style (2014), and Chicago Manual of Style (2017). Once the copy editor is satisfied with an article it is typeset into the parent document by the proofreader.

Phase 7: Internal Editing of Parent Document

The editors and proofreader work together to edit the master copy to its final form before sending it to the external typesetter.

Phase 8: External Typesetting and Layout

The editors send the parent document to the external layout artist. During this phase, the layout artist will transfer the edited Word document onto the dedicated template for the issue, making necessary changes where appropriate. Once complete the new document is sent to the editors for review.

Phase 9: Final Checks

Upon receiving the typeset articles, the editors, copy editor, proofreader, and authors read through each article. The Editorial Team evaluates the work done by the layout artist and typesetter, noting mandatory changes and adjustments. The layout artist/typesetter incorporates the required changes into the document and sends the revised document back to the editors for approval.

Phase 10: Publication and Announcement (May/November)

Once the editor approves of the document, the media manager liaises with the content manager and webmaster concerning the publication of the issue on SATS’s platforms. The editors also communicate with the following parties:

  • The editors congratulate authors on their publications. The editors attach the final articles and the complete issue to the congratulatory messages.
  • SATS’s Management Team is informed.
  • The Editorial Team is thanked for the successful publication of the issue.
  • The Editorial Board is informed and thanked.
  • SATS academics and friends of SATS are informed.

Plagiarism

The Conspectus Editorial Team considers plagiarism (whether intentional or unintentional) a serious offense. All articles are uploaded to plagiarism software during internal copy editing. If an author should be found guilty of plagiarism, the article will be immediately rejected or retrospectively removed if plagiarism is discovered at a later stage. Potential plagiarism will be investigated by the editor, associate editor, and copy editor, in conversation with the Academic Dean and Principal. Authors will be given an opportunity to explain irregularities before the outcomes are determined. All cases are evaluated along four levels of severity: accidental, isolated, significant, and pervasive.

If an author is found guilty of significant or pervasive plagiarism, if they are a repeat offender, or if they refuse a meeting with the Editorial Team, the editors reserve the right to inform the author’s superiors. In such a case, all responsibilities towards SATS will be immediately terminated and the author will be permanently banned from submitting articles and reviews to Conspectus.

If an author is found guilty of unintentional or isolated plagiarism, their article will be removed from the journal. However, they will be free to rewrite and resubmit it for review after a year. If an Editorial Board member is found guilty of plagiarism on any of the four levels of severity, their seat on the board will be suspended. In the case of unintentional or isolated plagiarism, the suspension can be temporary.

Archiving

Conspectus is currently catalogued under ATLA (EBSCOhost), Logos Bible Software, Galaxie.net, Sabinet, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), African Journals Online (AJOL), and the Seminary’s website (available here). All published content is uploaded to Portico for electronic archiving. Since January 2022, all articles and book reviews have been allocated a DOI issued by Crossref.

Corrections and Retractions

Once an article is published in the journal, copyright is transferred to SATS. Typological errors cannot be amended after publication, but major errors with ethical implications, such as plagiarism or theological error, will be reviewed upon request. If an article is retracted, a retraction note will be added to the published PDF.

[1] A high view of Scripture implies that the divine inspiration, veracity, and authority of God’s Word are acknowledged. Rather than adopt a hermeneutic of suspicion, in which the biblical texts are regarded as filled with fabrications and contradictions, the interpretive approach to Scripture adopted in Conspectus is affirmatory in disposition, in which the antiquity, coherence, and lucidity of God’s Word are recognized. While the tools of higher criticism are appreciated for their potential usefulness in clarifying the erudition and complexity of Scripture, the main objective is not to ferret out, often in a subjective manner, the presumed sources (whether oral or written) and redactions of biblical texts. Instead, the goal is to exegete the final canonical form of God’s Word.

[2] Such methodologies include, but are not limited to, reader-response criticisms; a hermeneutic of suspicion; feminist/womanist/queer paradigms.

[3] The Review Board is an independent body, meaning that none of its members serve on the Conspectus Editorial Team or Editorial Board.

[4] Reviewers and editors do not work on the article using comments and track changes. Rather, a separate Word document is opened with changes indicated in the following format: “P. 24, par. 2, line 13: Add a period.”

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