South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Peer Review Process 

All manuscripts will be subject to double anonymised peer-review by two independent expert referees and the decision of the Editor will be final. The anonymised peer-review process is also applied to SASPEN Case studies. Articles submitted for consideration by the Editor should not have been published before, either in total or in part, nor be currently submitted to any other publisher. The Editor retains the right to stylise and shorten any material accepted for publication. Accepted manuscripts will be copy edited and galley proofs will be sent to the author for approval. Find out more about what to expect during peer review and read guidance on publishing ethics.

Opinions expressed in the Journal should not be taken to represent the policies of the SAJCN, the Association for Dietetics in South Africa, the Nutrition Society of South Africa, the South African Soceity for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition or NISC (Pty) Ltd.  

Disclaimer

It is permissible for Editors and Editorial Board members to publish original articles (as authors/co-authors) in the South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A strict recusal process is in place, i.e. Editors/Editorial Board members are not involved in the peer review or editorial decision-making process for their own articles. Every effort is made to minimise any bias in the review process by having another associate editor fully manage the peer review independently of the editor or the author in question. 

Open Access

South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition is an open access journal and only publishes open access articles. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibilty, readership, and impact of your research.

Copyright

Material submitted for publication in the SAJCN is accepted provided it has not been published elsewhere. Copyright forms will be sent with acknowledgement of receipt. SAJCN authors retain copyright of the material published.

The SAJCN does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.

Article Publishing Charges (APC's)

To support full Open Access publishing, SAJCN applies an article publishing charge (APC) to articles accepted for publication. 

The standard APC for the South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition is:

Authors from Sub-Saharan Africa:  ZAR13 000
Authors from the rest of the world: USD1 500

VAT is added where applicable.

The APC is levied upon acceptance of the article and will need to be paid before publication.

Contributions to the journal that are not peer-reviewed, including editorials, guest editorials, case reports, book reviews, and conference reports, will not attract an APC. Authors who do not benefit from institutional or other research support and, as a consequence, are unable to pay the APC may apply to the Editor-in-Chief for a waiver of part or all of the APC.All articles will be made freely and permanently available online through gold open access publication. 

Article Publishing Charges (APC) discounts and waivers

You may be able to publish your article at no cost to yourself or with a reduced APC if your institution or research funder has an open access agreement or membership with Taylor & Francis. Discounts and waivers may also be available for researchers in selected countries when publishing in open access journals.

CPD Questionnaire and CEUs

CPD accredited articles will appear in each journal volume. The CPD questionnaires and CPD certificates can be found at:

https://www.mpconsulting.co.za.

Authors, co-authors and all SAJCN peer reviewers can earn CEUs for published articles/reviews performed. The number of CEUs are according to the HPCSA CPD guidelines. Authors, co-authors and all SAJCN peer reviewers are requested to add their HPCSA registration number to their SAJCN Editorial Manager account. The SAJCN will submit the information to the HPCSA on behalf of authors/reviewers.

CEUs will be allocated as follows:

•  Authors and co-authors: at the point of acceptance.
•  Reviewers: at the conclusion of the review process.

Abstracting and indexing

The South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition is abstracted/indexed in:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Embase
• Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
• Scopus

Clinical Trials Registry

In order to be published in a Taylor & Francis journal, all clinical trials must have been registered in a public repository at the beginning of the research process (prior to patient enrolment). Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section. The registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-forprofit organization. For a list of registries that meet these requirements, please visit the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). The registration of all clinical trials facilitates the sharing of information among clinicians, researchers, and patients, enhances public confidence in research, and is in accordance with the ICMJE guidelines.

Complying with ethics of experimentation

Please ensure that all research reported in submitted papers has been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and is in full compliance with all relevant codes of experimentation and legislation. All papers which report in vivo experiments or clinical trials on humans or animals must include a written statement in the Methods section. This should explain that all work was conducted with the formal approval of the local human subject or animal care committees (institutional and national), and that clinical trials have been registered as legislation requires. Authors who do not have formal ethics review committees should include a statement that their study follows the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Protection of patient's rights to privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives informed written consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. (www.icmje.org)

Ethnic classification

Work that is based on or contains reference to ethnic classification must indicate the rationale for this.

Consent

All authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements on privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants. Please confirm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person’s parent or legal guardian) in any research, experiment, or clinical trial described in your paper has given written consent to the inclusion of material pertaining to themselves, that they acknowledge that they cannot be identified via the paper; and that you have fully anonymized them. Where someone is deceased, please ensure you have written consent from the family or estate. Authors may use this Patient Consent Form, which should be completed, saved, and sent to the journal if requested.

Health and safety

Please confirm that all mandatory laboratory health and safety procedures have been complied with in the course of conducting any experimental work reported in your paper. Please ensure your paper contains all appropriate warnings on any hazards that may be involved in carrying out the experiments or procedures you have described, or that may be involved in instructions, materials, or formulae.

Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice. Authors working in animal science may find it useful to consult the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare and Guidelines for the Treatment of Animals in Behavioural Research and Teaching. When a product has not yet been approved by an appropriate regulatory body for the use described in your paper, please specify this, or that the product is still investigational.

Authorship

All named authors must give consent to publication. Authorship should be based only on substantial contribution to: (i) conception, design, analysis and interpretation of data; (ii) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (iii) final approval of the version to be published. All three of these conditions must be met (Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals; www.icmje.org/index.html).

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We do not permit the use of Large-Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI in the creation and manipulation of images, figures and original research data, as well as the generation of original text, for use in our publications. Large-Language Models (LLMs), generative AI, and chatbots must not be listed as an author. Authors must, however, acknowledge all sources and contributors included in their work. Where AI tools are used, such use must be declared with suitable justification, and documented appropriately.

Editorial Manager

This journal uses Editorial Manager to peer review manuscript submissions. Please read the guide for
Editorial Manager authors before making a submission. Complete guidelines for preparing and
submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.

Please submit your manuscript electronically at https://www.editorialmanager.com/sajcn

Preparing your paper

All authors submitting to the South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition (SAJCN) should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).