ISSN 0258-5200 print version
ISSN 2071-0763 online version

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

• Basic Information
• Historic Overview
• Indexing Sources
• Copyright
• Sponsorship
• Peer Review

The South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP) is a premier southern African journal that focuses on innovative research and scholarship from both local and international sources within the fields of Industrial and Organisational Psychology.

The journal publishes 1 volume a year. As articles are approved, they are published online.

The journal’s key abbreviated title is SA j. ind. Psychol..

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.

From 1975 to 1986 SAJIP was known as Perspectives in Industrial Psychology (South Africa). The founding editor was Professor I. van W. Raubenheimer.

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, the most prolific being: see Indexing sources
• 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.

• DHET SA List
• SciELO SA
• SCOPUS
• Thomson Reuters Web of Science Other Coverage, Emerging Sources Citation Index, ESCI
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EBSCO Host
• GALE, CENGAGE Learning
• Google Scholar
• ProQuest
• Hinari

The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.

Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose.

AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Read more here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The authors retain the non–exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.

The journal has no sponsor or affiliation.

All manuscripts undergo a double–blinded review process.