Quality is Never an Accident

Manuscript Submission Guidelines

1. Introduction

For a manuscript to be valid for submission, it should be original and it should not have been submitted elsewhere for publication. Authors should write a cover letter that should be attached with the manuscript and then submit both soft and hard copies to the following addresses: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

2. Manuscripts

Manuscripts to be submitted must be formatted to fit on one side of A4 size paper in double spacing throughout and with margins being at least 2.5 cm wide all around. All pages must be numbered consecutively and the page numbers should be aligned at the bottom centre, beginning with page 1 on the title page.

3. Layout

Except in the case of short communication and technical reports, manuscripts should normally be divided into appropriate and conventional sections set out in the following order: title, acknowledgements, abstract, introduction, body of text and references.

4. Font Size and Font Type

The font size should be 12 in Times New Roman or Garamond.

5. Title

The title should be concise and should reflect the contents clearly.

6. Abstract

The abstract should not exceed a page.

7. Introduction and Main Text

For a book manuscript, there should be equal division of chapters from the introduction to the conclusion. For a journal article, the manuscript should be divided as appropriate into conventional sections i.e. Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion.

8. Acknowledgements

Only authentic acknowledgements should be included in this part.

9. Quotations

Authors are advised to undertake critical qualitative analysis of fieldwork responses. In any case, a page should not carry more than three quotations.

10. References

• The recommended style is APA
• All references should be in alphabetical order
• No numbering
• Author’s name(s) and initials (in upper case only). In case of multi-authored manuscripts, successive authors’ names should be separated by commas, with an ampersand (&) between the penultimate and last name
• Year of publication should not be in brackets
• Title of a book should be italicised (each content word should be in capital letter)
• For a journal article, a title of a journal should be capitalised in each word and italicised. The journal volume number, and page numbers of the article (from first to last page) should be included.

10.1. Examples of Reference Citations

(a) A book

James, K. & Olowojoyeku, A. 2002. Tax Law and Theory of Income Tax. Liverpool: Liverpool Academic Press.

Louis, K. 2011. The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

(b) An article

Omari, C. I. 1977. The historical development of vocational education in mainland Tanzania, 1884-1970: A study on underdevelopment. Papers in Education and Development, No. 4, pp. 87-112.

NB:         For citations in the text (in-text citation), all references should be cited by using the surname(s) of the author(s) and the date. For example (hypothetical examples), Masawe & Mabula (1943) suggest that English should be authorised in all work places in the country. OR ‘English should be used from primary schools to university level’ (Johnson & Greenbaum, 1972).

In the text, successive references by the same author should be separated by commas, and those of different authors by semi-colons: (Abrams, 1990, 1991; Mrema, 1961; Al-Mazrui & Al-Said, 1972). Moreover, one can write: English is ‘an international language’ (Xi and Yu, 1943; Abrams, 1990, 1991).

11. Tables

Tables must be numbered chronologically in Arabic numerals e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.

The font type should be the same as that of the manuscript i.e. Times New Roman or Garamond. Make sure that the tables and their contents are clear and readable.

When referring to Tables in the text, the word ‘Table’ should be spelt out in full and given a capital initial letter e.g. Table 2.

12. Figures

Figures should conform to the dominant font type of the manuscript i.e. Times New Roman or Garamond. They should be clear and readable.

13. Illustrations

Illustrations should be clear and visible. The texts (captions) about the illustrations should conform to the dominant font type of the manuscript i.e. Times New Roman or Garamond.

14. Acceptance of Manuscripts

All manuscripts received are submitted to editorial and professional reviewers for critical appraisal. Once done, the reviewers’ comments and report are forwarded to the author for revision and resubmission. Once all reviewer’s comments are addressed, or at least 80% of them, then the author should submit the revised version for further publishing processes.

The author should return the revised version within one month.

NB:         Publishing is a process and therefore there is no shortcut. All manuscripts submitted must undergo the following processes: Assessment, Review, Editing, Typesetting, Proofreading, and Cover Design.

Donwnload the Manuscript Submission Guideline Here.

Publishing work Flow

1. Assessment

This is the first process in which the manuscript is examined by an editor or the whole editorial team to see if it is publishable or not following DUP guidelines. When it is confirmed that the manuscript is publishable and henceforth accepted for publication, the client is informed and DUP decides whether the accepted manuscript needs an external reviewer or not. This process normally takes 1 day to 2 weeks.

2. Reviewing

If the manuscript needs the external reviewer, it is then sent to the anonymous reviewer – an expert in the field. Once a reviewer has assessed the work, s/he is supposed to write a report to the client guiding him/her on how to improve his/her manuscript. 

Upon the receipt of the reviewer’s comments and report, DUP editor in charge of the manuscript checks them and then submits both the report and the manuscript with reviewer’s comments to the client on behalf of DUP after being given a go ahead by the Manager.

Immediately after working on the reviewer’s comments both in the report and the manuscript, the client is expected to send his/her work back to DUP for further

publishing processes. The reviewer is normally given a maximum of two months upon the date s/he received the manuscript.

3. Editing

As pointed out in (ii) above, once the client has worked on all the reviewer’s comments, his or her work enters into this editing stage.

After the editing is completed, the manuscript is sent to the client with track changes. The client should accept all or at least 80% of the changes made to his/her manuscript and work on all comments given by the editor. Then s/he can submit the modified version back to DUP.

Upon the satisfaction of the client’s modified version, the editor can pass the manuscript to the typesetter.

Normally, the editor can work on 20 to 30 pages per day for the substantive editing. Thus, editing a manuscript of 200 pages, for instance, can take 10 days or even a month to be accomplished because the editor needs to go back and forth for satisfaction before submitting the manuscript to the client.

4. Typesetting

Once the editing is over, the manuscript gets to this typesetting stage. This can take 1 to 3 days depending on the nature and size of the manuscript.

5. Proofreading

This is the final stage in which the editor is now working on the manuscript which is complete by simply looking at the format and minor grammatical errors that may seem obvious after the typesetting.

This could take a week or even a month to be accomplished. This is because the proofreading is done twice: first, it is done immediately after typesetting before the

manuscript is being submitted for sample printing; and second, it is done after the printing of the sample before the production of mass printing.

6. Cover Designing

This can be done at any publishing stage (at the beginning, middle or at the end). The designer works on this in collaboration with both the editor and the client. The

designing becomes complete only upon the agreement and satisfaction from the designer, editor and client.

This can take a maximum of three days unless the client needs to change the design at the last stage. This might take a week.

Ms. Rahma Abdallah Muhdhar is the Editor at Dar es Salaam University Press (DUP). She earned her Bachelor of Arts with Education (Hons) and Master of Arts in Linguistics from the University of Dar es Salaam. She also taught two courses: Introduction to Linguistics Structure and General Phonetics at the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics at the University of Dar es Salaam for 12 years.

Areas of Expertise:

• Editing and Proofreading
• English Speaking and Listening Skills
• The Art of Public Speaking
• Communication Skills
• Phonetics
• Linguistics (Code-Switching and Code-Mixing, Language Policy, Classroom Interaction, and Bantu Language Description)

She also participated in and attended several trainings, workshops, seminars, and conferences concerning Publishing, Editing, Language Policy, and Linguistics in different parts of the world including Gothenburg and Stockholm – Sweden, Bristol – UK, Florida, and Kansas – USA, Durban and Cape Town – South Africa, and Dar es Salaam, Moshi and Dodoma – Tanzania.