Editorial Policy

JOURNAL SCOPE

Image & Text has been published annually since 1992 (primarily as a journal for design) and was accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training in 1997. Since 2011, it has been repositioned as a multi- and interdisciplinary journal for research in visual culture. The aim of the journal is to draw perspectives from a broad field of interests and subjects: visual anthropology, material culture, visual arts, design culture, visualising sciences and technologies, art history, philosophy, fashion, media and film studies, architecture, literary studies, tourism studies, new media and cyber theory, and so forth. The grounding provided by visual culture studies as a comparative and enabling premise for all these approaches, subjects, interests, fields and theories, is located in the global South, not only geographically but also critically.

The editors invite articles that address or intersect with the visual from any of the fields mentioned above. One of the aims is to showcase new and young academic voices, as well as more established voices.

TYPES OF ARTICLES arrow icon

Image & Text publishes research articles (5000 – 7000 words including references) that adhere to the aim and scope of the journal.

We also publish reviews of books and exhibitions (2000 words).

Authors are responsible for the professional technical and language editing of their submissions. The Editorial Board reserves the right to send a manuscript that has not been copy-edited back to the author. Only material deemed to be of a suitably high standard is published. Articles may only be submitted in English.

Authors may wish to discuss the scope or applicability of their articles prior to submission and are encouraged to contact the editors in this regard. 

STATEMENT ON AUTHORSHIParrow icon

If more than one author has contributed to an article, authors must agree on the order in which they are listed before the manuscript is submitted. All authors are required to sign the Journal’s Publishing Agreement and specify each author’s affiliation. Manuscripts must comply with research and publishing ethics and the policies of the journal. All authors are responsible for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content of their manuscript. AI tools or large language models cannot take responsibility for the content of a manuscript and therefore do not meet the criteria for authorship. If an article is accepted for publication, the author/s agree/s to peer review an article for the journal in the future.

Image & Text publishes free to the author and free to the user. No article processing charges (APCs) are levied.

PEER REVIEW PROCESSarrow icon

All manuscripts received are first read by members of the Editorial Board, who may recommend changes before submitting the manuscript for peer review, or reject manuscripts outright that are deemed inappropriate or not up to standard. Manuscripts are sent for refereeing to at least two subject specialists in a double-blind refereeing process. The referees are chosen from other tertiary institutions or fields of expertise as appropriate. The comments and recommendations of the referees are conveyed to authors as necessary, and they may re-submit manuscripts once changes, if necessary, have been effected. If articles are rejected by both referees, authors are not encouraged to re-submit. Authors may provide the names of one or more potential referees for consideration by the Editorial Board. Names and email addresses of suggested referees must be submitted on the cover letter. Authors may also indicate if they oppose any potential referees. The selection of referees is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. All authors are subject to the same rigorous review process. Image & Text does not offer open peer review.

STATEMENT ON OPEN ACCESSarrow icon

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. The journal does not accept preprints.

All articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0); copyright is retained by the authors. Thus, the author(s) retain full copyright and full publishing rights on articles published by Image & Text.

REPOSITORY POLICY

The author has the right to deposit all versions of an article in an institutional or other repository of the author’s choice without embargo.

PLAGIARISM POLICYarrow icon

Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s work (book, article, website, image, etc.) or idea without acknowledging them as the source, whether it be paraphrased or copied verbatim. All submitted manuscripts will be screened for potential plagiarism before peer review using similarity detection software. We encourage all authors to check their submissions for plagiarism before submitting to the journal. All cases of suspected or alleged plagiarism are considered very seriously. Image & Text uses similarity detection software that also detects content generated by AI. Should an author have used AI for language editing this must be disclosed upfront and in the publishing agreement.

When a similarity report indicates a potential offence, the report and manuscript will be examined by the Editor-in-Chief who will determine whether or not the material has been plagiarised and, if so, the extent of the plagiarism. If material has been plagiarised, the corresponding author will be informed by the Editor-in-Chief that the manuscript is rejected on these grounds. The author/s’ institution/s and funding bodies will be informed of the offence if the plagiarism is extensive or admitted to. The Editor-in-Chief will send them the submitted and plagiarised material. Authors found guilty of submitting manuscripts containing plagiarism will be banned from submitting to Image & Text in the future.

POLICY ON COMPLAINTS AND APPEALSarrow icon

Authors have the right to appeal a decision on their submission if they believe the decision was unfair. To appeal a decision, authors should submit a letter (within 10 days of the decision) detailing the nature of the appeal and indicating why the decision is viewed as unfair. The Editor-in-Chief will review all relevant documentation relating to the submission, may consult the Editorial Board or Reviewers and may appoint a new referee to evaluate the submission before making a decision. The decision of the Editor-in-Chief will be final.

Complaints relating to the policies and procedures of the journal or the conduct of editorial staff, should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief. All complaints directed through the correct channels will be acknowledged and investigated. The Editor-in-Chief will bring the matter to the attention of the Editorial Board who will attempt to resolve complaints as quickly and transparently as possible.

POLICY ON CONFLICTS OF INTERESTarrow icon

Authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest during the submission process in the Publishing Agreement. A conflict of interest occurs when you, or your employer, or sponsor have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organisations, or with the people working with them, that could influence your research. Should a potential conflict of interest exist, it will be included in the published version if the article is accepted for publication. A submission will not necessarily be rejected if a potential conflict of interest exists.

Members of the Editorial Board are permitted to publish in the journal. Submissions received from Board members are treated in the same manner as other submissions with respect to anonymous reviewing and confidentiality. When Editors are the authors of manuscripts for peer review, they will withdraw as editor for that manuscript for the duration of the peer review process.

POLICY ON ETHICAL OVERSIGHTarrow icon

The journal focuses on scientific integrity and adheres to ASSAf’s code of best practice in scholarly journal publishing, editing and peer review. The Editorial Board will investigate any ethical concerns regarding the data associated with a submitted manuscript or a published article. The Editorial Board reserves the right to remove links to a published data set and/or associated content in order to address a legal or ethical concern, a publication ethics issue, or a breach in journal policy.

POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSIONS AND CORRECTIONSarrow icon

Published articles should remain extant and intact. However, under exceptional circumstances involving plagiarism or data errors, articles may need to be retracted, removed or replaced in order to protect the integrity of the journal. The need for a retraction will be determined by the Editor-in-Chief, but may be initiated, in cases of flawed data or conclusions, at the request of the author/s. Post-publication errors and falsifications will be corrected and/or retracted in a later issue by means of an erratum. Articles found to contain extensive plagiarism after publication will be retracted.

ARCHIVINGarrow icon

Preservation and archiving are provided by SciELO (Portico).

USE OF AI & LARGE-LANGUAGE MODELSarrow icon

Image & Text takes a zero-tolerance approach to the use of AI in the drafting, writing, and researching of manuscripts. AI-generated content will thus not be considered. If AI is used for language-editing, authors must disclose this use in the Publishing Agreement. Authors remain fully responsible for the scientific integrity of their submissions. Reviewers of articles may not use AI tools when compiling their reports. The Editors of Image & Text do not use AI-based tools in the writing of their decision letters.

CONTACTarrow icon

Visual Arts Building
University of Pretoria
Hatfield
Pretoria
Gauteng
South Africa
0002
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 2353

Acknowledgement is gratefully given to the South African Journal of Science (SAJS), whose policies were consulted in the compilation of parts of this document.

Last updated on: 13 March 2025.