ISSN

2707-1618 (PRINT)
2617-2798 (ONLINE)

Focus and scope

The African Journal of Psychological Assessment (AJOPA) focusses on original research studies, theoretical papers, test reviews and methods papers in the areas of psychometrics and psychological assessment. Manuscripts must demonstrate a clear contribution to the field and be relevant to the African context. Manuscripts can focus on amongst others ethics in assessment, the establishment of the psychometric properties of an instrument, methods in assessment, research on core issues in psychological assessment (e.g. assessment in low resource settings, multicultural assessment, acculturation and assessment, language and assessment, assessing people with disabilities). They can also focus on specific areas in assessment (e.g. cognitive, personality, vocational, intelligence, aptitude) and/or particular settings (clinical, educational, forensic, organisational, and neuropsychological assessment). AJOPA serves as a means of combining the current disparate research being conducted as well as opening up opportunities for collaboration and indigenous knowledge production. The journal will be of value both locally and internationally since the submissions will interrogate the current Eurocentric and Western cultural hegemonic practices that dominate the field of psychological assessment.

Historic data

South Africa has, since 1994, experienced and still is experiencing a rapid transformation in all spheres of functioning, social, political and economic. It has become vital in this climate that past inequalities be redressed. Psychology, particularly psychometrics and assessment, has played a controversial role in the previous political dispensation of the country and, since 1994, researchers have argued that there is a pressing need for transformation in the field to meet the needs of the majority of South Africans. Psychological testing and assessment was used on a large scale to determine who gained access to economic and educational opportunities. The reform of testing practices was one of psychology’s core priorities within the transformative space post-1994.

In 1998 the Employment Equity Act was promulgated, and Section 8 stipulates that: 'Psychological testing and other similar assessments are prohibited unless the test or assessment being used (a) has been scientifically shown to be valid and reliable, (b) can be applied fairly to all employees; and (c) is not biased against any employee or group' (Government Gazette, 1998). This stipulation partially alerted stakeholders to the required reforms within testing and assessment. Unlike other countries where professional psychology organisations address issues of bias and fairness that are binding on their members, South Africa stressed the importance of fair and unbiased testing and assessment by incorporating it into national law. Despite this, research in the field of psychological testing and assessment has been fragmented.

There has been little coordinated effort in bringing together current research for teaching, research and/or practical purposes. However, across the country, various groups and individuals produce research that would be beneficial to a wider audience on a regular basis but forums for doing so are lacking. AJOPA with its focus on assessment issues provides such a platform. The journal is affiliated with PsySSA.

Publication frequency

The journal publishes one volume each year. Articles are published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional collections may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed.

Types of articles published

Read full details on the submissions guidelines page.

Open access

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. Learn more about the journal copyright, licensing and publishing rights.

Review process

The journal has a double-blinded peer review process. Manuscripts are initially examined by editorial staff and are sent by the Editor-in-Chief to two expert independent reviewers, either directly or by a Section Editor. Read our full peer review process.

Marketing

AOSIS has a number of ways in which we promote publications. Learn more here.

Membership

AOSIS is a member and/or subscribes to the standards and code of practices of several leading industry organisations. This includes the Directory of Open Access Journals, Ithenticate, Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, CrossRef, Portico and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Learn more here.

The journal is DHET accredited because it is listed on the following approved indexing services:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - DHET Approved Index from 2021

All articles published in the journal are included in:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• EBSCO Host
• GALE, CENGAGE Learning

We are working closely with relevant indexing services to ensure that articles published in the journal will be available in their databases when appropriate.

The full text of the journal articles is deposited in the following archives to guarantee long-term preservation:

• AOSIS Library
• Portico
• SA ePublications, Sabinet
• South African Government Libraries

AOSIS is also a participant in the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) initiative. LOCKSS will enable any library to maintain their own archive of content from AOSIS and other publishers, with minimal technical effort and using cheaply available hardware. The URL to the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest for the journal is, https://ajopa.org/index.php/ajopa/gateway/lockss. Please inform us if you are using our manifest as we would like to add your name to the list above.

A journal's Impact Factor was originally designed in 1963 as a tool for libraries to compare journals, and identify the most popular ones to subscribe to. It was never intended to measure the quality of journals, and definitely not the quality of individual articles.

The Impact Factor is a journal-level measurement reflecting the yearly average number of citations of recent articles published in that journal. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field; journals with higher Impact Factors are often deemed to be more important than those with lower ones. Therefore, the more often articles in the journal are cited, the higher its Impact Factor.

The Impact Factor is highly discipline-dependent due to the speed with which articles get cited in each field and the related citation practices. The percentage of total citations occurring in the first two years after publication varies highly amongst disciplines. Accordingly, one cannot compare journals across disciplines based on their relative Impact Factors.

We provide several citation-based measurements for each of our journals, if available. We caution our authors, readers and researchers that they should assess the quality of the content of individual articles, and not judge the quality of articles by the reputation of the journal in which they are published.

The journal is accredited by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). This accreditation enables AOSIS to offer Continuing Education Units (CEU) certification to authors, co-authors and reviewers of the journal.