ISSN

0258-5200 (PRINT)
2071-0763 (ONLINE)

Focus and scope

The SA Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP) provides a forum for cutting-edge, peer reviewed research in all fields related to investigations into the ways in which the individual can balance their daily activities (socially, culturally or linguistically) against the larger context of corporate, organizational and institutional values.

Historic data

During the mid-seventies the academic and research activities of South African industrial psychologists escalated to such an extent that the establishment of a local journal became imperative. Professor I. van W. Raubenheimer (former head of the Department of Industrial Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch) and a group of fellow scholars identified this need in 1974 (Raubenheimer, 1994, http://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/579/529). During 1974, the viability of a journal solely focused on industrial psychology was discussed and deliberated. The year 1975 saw the launch of the A5-format journal Perspectives in Industrial Psychology/Perspektiewe in die Bedryfsielkunde with its distinctive light yellow cover. According to Professor Raubenheimer (1994), the founding editor, the sole aim of the journal was to function as an independent publication medium, responsible for distributing information on theoretical, empirical and applied work carried out in the field of industrial psychology. From the outset the journal was a non-political, non-ideological publication, aiming for the widest possible readership. No preference was expressed in favour of a particular viewpoint, language or scientific orientation in the compilation of any edition. The only pre-requisite for publication was (and still is) that the content be of the highest scientific quality, and that it should meet the typological and reference guidelines of the American Psychological Association. Manuscripts would always be blind-peer reviewed by at least two field-related experts before publication. In its initial years, the journal published annually (or, depending on the number of articles received, biannually) and was disseminated free of charge to various stakeholders; the costs of publication were covered by Departments of Industrial Psychology at numerous South African universities (Raubenheimer, 1994). This later changed as a result of the high demand for the journal due to its accreditation with the Department of Higher Education (South Africa) and the subsidy received by authors upon publication (Raubenheimer, 1994). From 1985, a subscription fee for the journal was charged.

In 1985, the journal was accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education.  This brought about new changes to the journal. Firstly, the name was changed to the Journal for Industrial Psychology/Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde. Secondly, the publication type was changed from the traditional A5 format to the new (and current) A4 format. Thirdly, according to Raubenheimer (1994), a set of core operational and survival guidelines were established and implemented. Raubenheimer indicated that the journal should (1) be hosted by a university to ensure consistency and congruence, (2) maintain an ethos of action, (3) be non-ideological, and (4) always be independent and neutral. In his final sole article as editor, Professor Raubenheimer (1994) is quoted as saying: ‘[N]ew circumstances bring forth new challenges. Amendments to the editorial functioning and process would probably be needed in the future. Whatever these circumstances may be, the journal can only be successful if the operational/survival principles are adhered to.’ With these farewell words, Professor Raubenheimer stepped down as editor (1975–1994) and nominated Professor Gert Roodt (1995–2013) as the new editor-in-chief for the Journal of Industrial Psychology.  Strictly adhering to the founding principles of the journal during his editorship, Professor Roodt developed and implemented various initiatives to enhance the impact, stature and scientific credibility of the journal. Some of Professor Roodt’s major contributions to the journal are listed below:

• Firstly, in 2001 the journal started to publish in dual media: both in a hardcopy (traditional A4 format) as well as in an electronic format via the website of the Rand Afrikaanse Universiteit.
• Secondly, with the online medium a name change was again brought about. In 2002, the Journal of Industrial Psychology’s name was changed to the SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/ SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde.
• Thirdly, from 2002 Professor Roodt developed, implemented and refined the new guidelines and standards for scientific articles (in line with international standards) that were to be published in the journal.
• Fourthly, in 2008, Professor Roodt entered into an agreement with Open Journals Publishing such that the journal was to be published on an open access, rolling publication basis, with one hard copy issue published each year. The open access platform resulted in exponential growth in national and international exposure for both the journal and its contributors. The relationship with the new publisher also led to the introduction of the journal’s own website and publication platform in 2008.
• Fifthly, as a result of the open access platform, the journal was indexed in various international research repositories.
• Sixthly, the culmination of all of the above resulted in an increase in the Global Impact Factor (GIF) of the journal. In 2011, the journal’s GIF was 2.48 and in 2013 it increased to 3.66.
• Seventhly, Professor Roodt was instrumental in ensuring that the journal was submitted for accreditation by various international bodies such as the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). (The journal is currently being evaluated for an ISI listing.)
• Eighthly, Professor Roodt ensured that the editorial committee of the journal is representative of academic departments of universities in South Africa and involves international scholars with high standing in the field of industrial and organisational psychology.

In 2013, Professor Roodt was promoted to the Vice Dean of Research at the University of Johannesburg and stepped down as editor of the journal. Both Professor Roodt and Professor Raubenheimer served 19 years each as editor for the journal. Upon his resignation from the journal, Professor Roodt nominated Professor Melinde Coetzee as the new editor-in-chief and Dr Llewellyn van Zyl as associate editor. Professor Roodt, although no longer the active editor of the journal, is still involved with the journal and serves on its national review board. Since Professor Coetzee’s editorship, new initiatives have been introduced to ensure the sustainability of the work and impact of Professor Raubenheimer and Professor Roodt. Four of the most significant initiatives are: (1) repositioning the editorial committee and board for broader international exposure, (2) enhancing customer relations with authors, (3) capacity building of ‘junior’ researchers and reviewers, (4) formalising the charter of the journal and in effect also the relationships between key stakeholders, and (5) providing incentives to peer reviewers and section editors. Despite the rapid growth in the field of industrial and organisational psychology, the journal has stayed, and will always stay, true to the founding principles of Professor Raubenheimer. All of these initiatives and the contributions of the editors aim to ensure a scientific publication, with international merit and scientific excellence.

Publication frequency

The journal publishes one volume each year. Articles are published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional collections may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed.

Types of articles published

Read full details on the submissions guidelines page.

Open access

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. Learn more about the journal copyright, licensing and publishing rights.

Review process

The journal has a double-blinded peer review process. Manuscripts are initially examined by editorial staff and are sent by the Editor-in-Chief to two expert independent reviewers, either directly or by a Section Editor. Read our full peer review process.

Marketing

AOSIS has a number of ways in which we promote publications. Learn more here.

Membership

AOSIS is a member and/or subscribes to the standards and code of practices of several leading industry organisations. This includes the Directory of Open Access Journals, Ithenticate, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, CrossRef, Portico and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Learn more here.

All articles published in the journal are included in:

• AGORA
• Chartered Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Guide 2021
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EBSCO Host
• GALE, CENGAGE Learning
• GOALI
• Google Scholar
• Hinari
• IBSS
• Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers, Level 1
• OARE
• ProQuest
• SciELO SA
• SCOPUS
• Web of Science Other Coverage, Emerging Sources Citation Index, ESCI

We are working closely with relevant indexing services to ensure that articles published in the journal will be available in their databases when appropriate.

The full text of the journal articles is deposited in the following archives to guarantee long-term preservation:

• AOSIS Library
• Portico
• SA ePublications, Sabinet
• South African Government Libraries

AOSIS is also a participant in the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) initiative. LOCKSS will enable any library to maintain their own archive of content from AOSIS and other publishers, with minimal technical effort and using cheaply available hardware. The URL to the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest for the journal is, https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/gateway/lockss. Please inform us if you are using our manifest as we would like to add your name to the list above.

A journal's Impact Factor was originally designed in 1963 as a tool for libraries to compare journals, and identify the most popular ones to subscribe to. It was never intended to measure the quality of journals, and definitely not the quality of individual articles.

The Impact Factor is a journal-level measurement reflecting the yearly average number of citations of recent articles published in that journal. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field; journals with higher Impact Factors are often deemed to be more important than those with lower ones. Therefore, the more often articles in the journal are cited, the higher its Impact Factor.

The Impact Factor is highly discipline-dependent due to the speed with which articles get cited in each field and the related citation practices. The percentage of total citations occurring in the first two years after publication varies highly amongst disciplines. Accordingly, one cannot compare journals across disciplines based on their relative Impact Factors.

We provide several citation-based measurements for each of our journals, if available. We caution our authors, readers and researchers that they should assess the quality of the content of individual articles, and not judge the quality of articles by the reputation of the journal in which they are published.