About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Scriptura is an independent journal which publishes contributions in the fields of Biblical, theological, and contextual hermeneutics, broadly understood. It is international in scope, but special attention is given to topics and issues emerging from or relevant to Southern Africa. Scriptura publishes contributions in English but also in other languages relevant to the Southern African region (such as Afrikaans, Xhosa, Sesotho, Zulu, French and German).
Peer Review Process
All research articles submitted to Scriptura are submitted to rigorous peer review which involves initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by at least two anonymous referees. The reviewers are requested to complete a brief written on whether the article is suitable for publication in the journal.
No editorial consideration will be given to manuscripts that have been published previously or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. To preserve the advantages of anonymous peer reviewing, authors are requested to avoid self-identification in the manuscript.
Open Access Policy
Scriptura 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 BOAI definition of Open Access.
For statistical purposes, researchers downloading the article from your repository must cite the original publication available at https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/index. When archiving the article as part of your repository, please use the final publishers version as it appears at https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/index, and keep the layout and branding intact.
Articles from this journal can be submitted to institutional repositories, under the following conditions:
1. Always upload the final publishers' version as published at http://scriptura.journals.ac.za
2. Acknowledge Stellenbosch University as the publisher.
3. Cite the article as part of the metadata and include the doi as part of the citation to the article.
Scriptura Publication Policy*
*Based on the ASSAF (2018) Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review document.
Core Publication Principles
Scriptura will:
- Only publish findings and conceptual insights that are original and have not been published elsewhere
- Consider manuscripts for publication only when authors certify that the paper is not under consideration by another publication
Citation and Authorship Standards
Scriptura will:
- Require appropriate and correct citation of existing relevant literature, with limited self-citation by authors
- Encourage citation of original research findings rather than subsequent work
- Include in authorship only those who have made significant intellectual, practical, or conceptual contributions
Publication Requirements
Scriptura will:
- Clearly identify speculative statements and limit them except where appropriate to the nature of the contribution
- Require disclosure of funding sources and potential conflicts of interest
- Include author affiliations reflecting both the study period and current situation
- Publish corrections for post-publication errors and falsifications through errata or retractions in subsequent issues and on digital platforms
- Encourage comprehensive presentation of research rather than fragmented short publications
Peer Review Process
Scriptura will:
- Implement a rigorous peer review policy for all published articles
- Carefully match submissions with appropriate reviewers
- Send each manuscript to at least two reviewers
- Conduct double-blind peer review where neither authors nor reviewers know each other's identities
- Require reviewers to declare any conflicts of interest
Editorial Standards
Scriptura will:
- Carefully assess reviewer reports to make publication decisions
- Reserve the right to reject papers without review if inappropriate for the journal or fundamentally flawed
- Maintain comprehensive records of peer reports and substantive correspondence
- Keep an annual list of peer reviewers, including their review activity
- Monitor peer review practices regularly to ensure effectiveness
- Publish the journal's peer review policy and process on its website
- Apply standard peer review procedures to postgraduate thesis or dissertation submissions
- Prevent editors from reviewing papers they are handling
Review Quality Standards
Scriptura will require reviewers to:
- Scrutinize research methodology and results for consistency
- Evaluate quality of interpretation
- Provide constructive feedback to improve manuscript quality
Accreditation & Indexing
- Dept. of Higher Education and Training (DHET), South Africa
- ATLA Religion Database® (ATLA RDB®)
- Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete (IZBG)
- New Testament Abstracts, Cambridge, Mass
- Index of South African Periodicals (ISAP)
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Author Fees
This journal charges no submission fees.
If this paper is accepted for publication and you are affiliated at a South African Institute, you will be asked to pay an Article Publication Fee to cover publications costs.
Article Publication Fees are R650,00 (ZAR) per page.
APC: R650*12 = R7800
Publication Frequency
Scriptura publishes annually on a rolling basis.
Scriptura publishes Research Articles, including Editorials, Summaries of Publications and Book Reviews.
Digital Preservation
Scriptura. This journal is in the process of migrating from the Stellenbosch University preservation platform to the PKP PN (Preservation Network) platform.
ORCID iD
This journal programme cannot read the ORCID iD. Please do not add it when you Register or when submitting a paper.
After Registration, can you Edit your Profile and then insert the ORCID iD, or please send your ORCiD ID, along with the name of the journal to, scholar@sun.ac.za to add to your Profile.
Stellenbosch University researchers/authors can create an ORCID iD here.
ORCID iD is a persistent, unique, numeric identifier for individual researchers and creators. It distinguishes you from researchers and creators with the same or similar names. ORCID iD is similar to ResearcherID, Scopus Author ID, ISNI and other systems for identifying and distinguishing researchers and creators.
