The name of the journal shall be The Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies (herein after referred as "the journal").

3.1. Author: An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. S/he must take responsibility for at least one component of the work, should be able to identify who is responsible for each other component, and should ideally be confident in their coauthors' ability and integrity (Guidelines and Procedures for Publication and Extension (2013, p.6).

3.2. AC: AC means academic commission (herein after referred as the AC).

3.3. JU: JU means Jimma University (herein after referred as the JU).

3.4. CSSH: CSSH means College of Social Sciences and Humanities (herein after referred as the College).

4.1 Open Access Policy

Publications are available immediately upon publication freely, without any payment.

4.2 Vision and Mission

The vision of EJSsLS is to be one of the most preferable journals in Africa with the mission of disseminating quality publication to the wider readership.

4.3 Editorial Policy

Editorial policies are subjected to protect and strengthen the journal's integrity and quality aiming reader's interest. All the articles are produced with respect to the scope of the journal based on their significance, novelty and usefulness to the Journals readership. Decisions on manuscripts are not affected by the author's origin, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or political beliefs. No government policies or agencies away from the journal will determine the decision. Decisions taken are strictly based on the articles validity and importance to the scientific readers.

4.4 Aims and Scope

4.4.1 Aims

It aims to provide a platform for the research community to share their findings, insights and views about all aspects of Social Sciences and Language.

4.4.2 Scope

The Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Language Studies (EJSSLS) is an open access peer- reviewed journal published in both printed and online versions (The online version is free to access and download) two times in a year (June and December). The journal accepts the research papers from the diverse fields of social sciences, languages, and allied disciplines. The quality research in the areas of applied linguistics, communication, public relations, media studies, environmental studies, and related fields, is also invited for its publication in the journal. Papers can be submitted in the form of full- length original research, review articles, book reviews, commentaries, and Editorials - Policies, news and comment or letters to editor.

4.5 Readership

The primary audience of this publication would be academicians, research scholars, graduate students, and anyone interested in research.

4.6 Author Guidelines

Submission of a paper implies that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript and its contents, and that they are aware of the responsibilities connected to authorship. Signatures from all the authors are not required; it is the corresponding author's responsibility to obtain agreement from all authors supporting the submission. The corresponding author will be notified upon receipt of a new manuscript and upon acceptance of a manuscript, and the editorial board corresponds only with the Corresponding Author, whose responsibility is to communicate with all other authors.

4.7 Declaration

Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and that neither itself, nor parts of it, have been published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript to the Journal, the authors guarantee that they have the appropriate authority from their employers and/or funding agencies to publish the work. Any related work under consideration, review, revision or accepted for publication elsewhere must accompany the submission if they are relevant to its scientific assessment. Authors should submit complete unpublished and original works, which are not under review in any other journals. When submitting the manuscript, the authors should declare that the manuscripts have not been published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. They should also declare in the cover page and/or the methodology section about their AI use (see 4.11.3 below for detail).

4.8 Conflicts of Interest

In the interests of transparency and to help editors and reviewers assess any potential bias, the Journal requires authors of original research papers to declare their specific contribution to the work and any competing commercial interests in relation to the submitted work. It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, but as a practical guideline, we would suggest this to be any undeclared interest that could embarrass you were it to become publicly known. Referees and editors are also subject to Conflict of Interest regulations.

4.9 Submission Policy

Manuscripts should be submitted online in A4 paper in single spacing (for cost minimization of the printed version). To facilitate the rapid publication and reduce administrative costs, EJSSLS accepts only electronic submissions in word format. The journal requires all authors who submit manuscripts to register an account with the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). ORCID iDs for all authors and co- authors must be included in the author information at the time of submission, and they will be published alongside the paper if it is accepted.

4.10 Data Collection and Presentation

Presented data must represent the findings in a fair and accurate manner. This includes appropriate statistical analysis and image processing (For further details, please refer to the General Guide to manuscript submission). The Editors deserve the right to request original versions of figures and the source data that were used to assemble the figure from the authors of a paper under consideration, or of a paper already published in The Journal.

4.11 Originality, Plagiarism, and AI Use

4.12 Correction Policy

When any errors are noticed on published manuscripts, authors should inform the journal's Editor- in- Chief and/or Managing Editor so that corrections are made at the journal's discretion. EJSSLS encourage readers and authors to notify them (the board members) if they find errors, especially errors that could affect the interpretation of data or information presented in an article. If there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings or the reliability of the data, it is not appropriate to retract a publication solely on the grounds of an authorship dispute. The correction procedure depends on the publication stage of the article:

Online First publication

The Online First (or published ahead of print) version is considered the version of record, and not an opportunity to make changes prior to print publication. EJSSLS will consider replacing this version with an updated version which corrects the error and notifies that the change has been made (in a correction notice at the end of the article). The correction notice will be retained in the print version for record.

If the article has already appeared in an issue, a correction notice will be printed in the next available print issue. The online version of the article will link to the correction notice, and vice versa.

4.13 Publication Ethics and Misconduct Policy

4.14 Citation

Comprehensive and accurate citation of the relevant literature is essential. We require citation of the primary literature wherever appropriate. See General Guidelines for Manuscript Submission.

4.15 Language Policy

English is the language the Journal uses. Authors must use consistently either UK or American English. In the future, Ethiopian languages (e.g., Afan Oromo and Amharic) can be considered based on need and feasibility assessment.

4.16 Copyrights and Licensing

Authors keep the copyright to their published papers and give the publisher a non- exclusive license to publish the article, to be credited as the original publisher upon reuse, and to distribute it in all formats and media. The articles are released under the "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)" license.

4.17 Subscription Fee

The online publication is accessible freely. Authors are not requested to pay during submission for publication and to access after publication. However, for the print version, the subscription fee per issue and postage service varies for individual subscribers, institutional subscribers, and countries (local and overseas). The fee is determined based on the existing situation as publication and postage prices may vary from time to time or Issue to Issue.

EJSSLS follows double- blind system for peer- review. Reviewers can be from different or the same institute depending on reviewer availability (Internal and external, internal and internal, and external and external). The external and external approach is the first option the journal follows.

5.1 Paper Selection and Publication Process

1. After receiving a manuscript, the Editor/managing editor documents the manuscript using the code or identity number the OJS assigns. The author and reviewers may use this in further correspondence for enquiries.
2. After receiving a manuscript, the Editor sends an E-mail of confirmation to the corresponding author within 1-3 working days. If the author does not receive this confirmation in this given time, s/he has to contact without delay the contact person/editor.
3. Initial decisions are held by Editors- in- Chief and submitted manuscripts will undergo unbiased preliminary assessment for the suitability to the scope of the journals.
4. As an extension to the process, the assessed manuscripts are returned to the author for revision if they are not relevant and consistent to the guidelines of the journal. This saves the precious time of the reviewers and speeds up the review process.
5. If/when the assessed manuscripts are found relevant and consistent to the policy or guide of the journal, they will be forwarded to at- least two expert reviewers in the field.
6. Both reviewers and authors' identities remain anonymous. Reviewers are given 2- 3 weeks to send their fair and constructive reviews to Editor/managing editor, and Editors- in- Chief are aimed to take the final decision within 6 weeks from the manuscript submission.
7. The editor in- chief or editorial board members decide accepting or rejecting a manuscript based on reports from at least two reviewers.
8. The result of review is notified by OJS or E- mail.
9. The authors revise paper provided that his/her manuscript is accepted.
10. After publication, the corresponding author will receive two copies of printed journals, free of charge.
11. E- journal in PDF can be downloaded freely from the journal's webpage.

Submission Queue Editor assigns submission to Section Editor to see through the editorial process

Source: https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Journal_System, CC-SA

1) Bodies of the Journal

a) The journal shall have such bodies as:

1. Advisory board
2. The Editorial board
3. Managing Editor
4. Secretary

b) The Editorial board

The number of members the editorial board shall be seven (Guidelines and Procedures for Publication and Extension, 2013, p.5). The board shall compromise: one Editor- in- Chief, one associate Editor- in Chief, and five editors. However, the Editor- in- Chief shall assign additional editors from different institutes and international advisory board members of EJSSLS, as suggested by EIFL (Electronic Information for Librarians). He/she can also assign associate editors when the journal publishes separate sub- sections to be handled by a particular associate editor in chief.

1. The Editorial Board shall be directly accountable to the Collage's AC.
2. The term of office for the editor - in - Chief shall be four years and for other editors three years.
3. A web site manager and a secretary are hired for the office work.
4. The editorial board shall, from time to time, contact and convince individuals with an outstanding contribution to the academic world or to the society to be members of the advisory board.

c) General Eligibility Criteria for Appointment to the Editorial Board

The eligibility criteria for appointment as an editor in the editorial board shall include the following:

• Demonstrated scholarly expertise and ethical leadership.
• A minimum of two publications is required.
• Demonstration of excellence in the review process.
• Stated commitment to attend meetings and to carry out responsibilities.

d) Nomination and Election Process

Editorial Board members shall be nominated and elected as follows: The Social Sciences and Humanities Collage Academic Commission (AC) members must nominate from the academic staff fulfilling the eligibility criteria and elect from the nominated ones through a vote, and candidates who get 3/4 and the highest of the votes of the attending AC members shall be appointed as member of the editorial board. In composing the editorial board, the AC shall ensure the members' expertise on various fields and disciplines. If a candidate is appointed by the AC Members, she/he shall serve for a specified term of three years except the editor- in- chief whose term of office shall be 4 years, and a member who is absent for 4 months shall be replaced by other member. Continued membership of the Editorial Board will be reviewed every four years for the editor- in chief and three years for other members by the AC. The AC can remove an editor including the editor in chief before his/her term expires when and if the editor is not in a position to discharge his/her responsibilities mentioned in this document and other relevant documents for any reason (e.g. Recklessness, absence, sickness, etc).

e) General Responsibility of the Editorial Board and Its Members

1. Develop its own working procedures and revise, improve, or change authors', editors' and reviewers' guide of EJSSLS.
2. Editors should hold the responsibility for the whole Journal content.
3. Contribute to Journal development and management through generous relationship with other board members.
4. Update reviewers and authors with new policies and guidelines.
5. Assure the integrity in the published work.
6. Encourage authors for submission of sound articles that falls within the scope of the journal.
7. Editors should ensure the protection of individual data and maintain confidentiality.
8. Every Editorial Board member may ensure submission of at least one manuscript in a year for publication.
9. Ensure constructive, fair and timely feedback to the authors for their contribution.
10. Elevate Journal's reputation among their affiliated academic community.
11. Represent and promote the journal at academic meetings and conferences.
12. If or when appropriate, encourage authors whose primary language is not English to seek mentorship or assistance from a colleague prior to submitting a manuscript for review.

f) Editor-in-Chief's Responsibility

1. The Editor-in-Chief must have a minimum of three publications in a peer reviewed journals and an academic rank of an assistant professor or above.
2. The Chair of the Editorial Board is the Editor(s)-in-Chief.
3. The Editor-in-Chief has a vital role in the success of a Journal. He/she should guarantee the quality and integrity of the content found in the Journal. It is his/her primary responsibility to educate and communicate the vision to the authors, readers, editorial board members and publisher. The Editor- in- Chief should put consistent efforts to enhance quality and elevate the significance of published articles to the corresponding community.
4. Editor- in- Chief should take the whole responsibility of the Journal and she/he should be familiar with the subject literature, research design, statistics, publication ethics and standards. He/she should also possess extensive editorial and interpersonal skills.
5. Should strive for the development of the Journal and suggest the publisher for further improvisations with additional policies.
6. Should encourage submission of quality articles by writing Editorials on the Journal's performance.
7. Should be responsible in selection and rotation of Editorial Board members, maintenance and development of Journal, participation in review process and look for appropriateness.
8. Should conduct annual meetings and educate the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.
9. Sets annual objectives and assign responsibilities to the Board members for peer review process and ensure their timely completion.
10. Sets annual objectives on peer review process and timely publication, evaluate the performance of Board members and encourage promotions appropriately.
11. Should act accordingly in taking action to improve the objectives that are not achieved timely.
12. Generally, after the peer review process and initial editing, the manuscript comes to the Editor-in-Chief for the final approval. The final decision to accept or reject of an article will be held with Editor-in-Chief. She/he should cross check the content quality, writing style and construction, grammar, spellings, data presentation and organization prior to take the final decision.
13. Should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere. If the
14. Should supervise and support the publisher in handling complaints and appeals, responding genuinely to ethical problems regarding publication of any duplicate or fraudulent work.

g) Associate Editor -in- Chief Responsibility

1. The Associate Editor-in-Chief must have a minimum of two publications in peer reviewed journals, an academic rank of assistant professor and above.
2. She/he assists the Editor-in-Chief in judging a manuscript to be accepted or rejected, supports in taking decisions and communicating with other Board members. S/he, fills the role of both serving as an editorial board member in review process as well as ensuring the publication of high quality papers in the Journal.
3. Senior Editor should assist the Editor-in-Chief and also involve in the peer review process.
4. She/he is responsible for the quality of Journal content and the published articles.
5. Encourage submission of high quality papers.
6. She/he provides fair and constructive feedback to the contributors, Editors, and Reviewers.
7. She/he provides Editorials on the Journal performance and promoting new policies when introduced.
8. She/he assists Editor-in-Chief in conducting annual meetings and educates the Editorial Board members with updated information and new policies of the Journal.
9. She/he assists Editor-in-Chief in setting annual objectives and assigns responsibilities to the Board members for peer review process and ensures their timely completion.
10. She/he should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere.
11. Should support Editor-in-Chief in handling ethical issues, complaints and appeals regarding the publication standards.
12. She/he suggests publisher with new policies and for the development of the Journal.
13. She/he needs to take up the role of Editor-in-chief when not available.

h) Editors' Responsibilities

1. The Editor must have a minimum of two publications in peer reviewed journals and an academic rank of assistant professor or above.
2. The Editor has to assist both the Senior Editor and the Editor-in-Chief in guaranteeing the quality of content found in Journal and communicating its vision for the journal to authors, Editorial Board members, readers, and publisher. Associate Editor should be mindful with the policies of the Journal and publisher, Author guidelines, Editor Guidelines and Reviewer guidelines.
3. The Editor should guide the Authors, Editors and Reviewers with the guidelines.
4. She/he encourages submission of high quality articles in the Journal and assist Senior Editor in monitoring the content quality.
5. She/he participates in conducting annual meetings and other meetings.
6. She/he monitors the manuscripts for writing style, language, presentation according to the Journal's policy and instructions.
7. She/he should ensure effective peer review process and timely publication.
8. She/he should ensure the integrity of the Journal content and quality in the published articles.
9. She/he should ensure that the manuscript is neither plagiarized nor published elsewhere.
10. She/he suggests publisher with new policies and for the development of the Journal.
11. She/he should suggest eminent reviewers during the peer review process.
12. She/he should carry out any task assigned to him by the editors-in-Chief.

i) The Managing Editor

The Managing Editor who is accountable to the Editorial Board has the following duties and responsibilities.

1. The Managing Editor must have a minimum of two publications in peer reviewed journals and has a minimum of MA degree in Communication or related fields.
2. Be able to handle open journal system.
3. Holds and manages the office of publication.
4. Works closely with the Editor-in-Chief.
5. Calls for manuscript contribution periodically.
6. Collects manuscripts from contributors, acknowledges the receipt of them, and codes any manuscript for evaluation and edition.
7. Makes preliminary screening of manuscripts and presents suggestions for the Editorial Board in general and editor-in-Chief in particular.
8. Collaborates with editor-in-chief to determine issues' content and topics.
9. Distributes manuscripts selected for review to designated evaluators.
10. Reminds manuscript evaluators to return the evaluated manuscripts within the allocated time.
11. Collects reviewed manuscripts from evaluators in electronic copies.
12. Disseminates comments received from evaluators back to manuscript contributors and collects final improved versions of manuscripts from contributors with explanation notes how the issues raised by assessors have been treated by the author(s).
13. Resolves issues that arise during the review process especially when contributors resist accepting comments given from manuscript assessors.
14. Makes communication tactfully with contributors and reviewers.
15. Communicates regularly with a progress report and asks questions or clarifications if necessary.
16. Sends again the improved manuscripts to the evaluators so that they check whether their comments have been incorporated especially when the manuscript is suggested for major revision.
17. Presents the selected manuscripts for publication to the editorial board members.
18. Sends the selected manuscripts for publication to copy editor.
19. Sends finally selected manuscripts for typesetting, checks that those manuscripts are properly typeset, and submits them to the selected online and print publisher.
20. Disseminates the Journal and makes sure that the copy of the Journal has been disseminated in hard copy to the concerned stakeholders.
21. Disseminates the Journal and makes sure that the copy of the Journal has been disseminated in soft copy (PDF) to the contributors.
22. Ensures the manuscripts are always available online.
23. Writes editorials of EJSSLS.
24. Prepares agenda for the meetings of the Editorial Board in consultation with the Editor- in-Chief.
25. Records minutes of the Editorial Board.
26. Keeps confidential information related to manuscripts submitted to the Journal.
27. Supervises the activities of the office secretary.

j) Content and Technical Editor

The primary responsibility of the technical editor is to make sure that the Journal is technically accurate - no errors in the text or in any non- text elements (for example, illustrations and tables). The content and technical editor performs the following functions.

1. Checks and verifies all facts and references.
2. Ensures that the document's structure reflects the hierarchy of the content (i.e., more important information should precede secondary information).
3. Ensures the readability of the manuscript.
4. Verifies that navigational aids such as cross-references and links are accurate and functional.
5. Checks illustrations and captions are correct.
6. Ensures consistency throughout the entire manuscript and the Journal.
7. Checks and verifies all graphics, figures, listings, tables and other non-text items.
8. Checks the images against the text and convert the final images to the appropriate output form (file type). Make sure the files are properly named.
9. Carries out technical editing in compliance with the formats of EJSSLS.
10. Oversees proofreading procedures and edit copy when necessary.
11. Oversees the webpage of the Journal and updates it.
12. Edits the content of manuscripts in consultation with specialized experts of various disciplines, when necessary, to ensure that an article is up to the desired standard by the EJSSLS.
13. Compares the final version of the document with the marked- up version to make sure that all corrections have been made.
14. Consults contributors, whenever necessary, for further clarification of content.
15. Checks that all the necessary information to understand a given manuscript is properly appended at the end of each paper.

k) Language/Copy-editor and Layout Editor

A language/copy editor should be excellent in written English, including spelling and grammar. A copy/language editor makes sure that a text is readable, accurate and ready for publication. The language and layout editor performs the following activities.

1. Checks text to ensure it is well written and logically structured.
2. Ensures the text is in line with the EJSSLS' format.
3. Ensures documents for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style, and s/he provides guidance to authors to ensure accuracy, completeness, organization, logic, clarity, relevance, and stylistic consistency.
4. Edits the overall language of an article, corrects or improves so that it maintains the standard language in similar article of similar reputable journals.
5. Edits the discourse of a manuscript whether it is up to the standard of a research discourse.
6. Ensures that the language style and the overall organization of a manuscript are readable to the major target readership of the EJSSLS.
7. Monitors the diction, mechanics and syntax of a manuscript in such a way that it is readily comprehended by the target readership.
8. Checks that the overall layout of a manuscript including margins, line spacing and layout of the EJSSLS are properly maintained.
9. Checks that all the manuscripts have been organized as per styles and formats of EJSSLS.
10. Maintains the overall standards of the EJSSLS in terms of language and layout in general.

l) Manuscript Assessors

The manuscript assessors have the following duties and responsibilities.

1. Assess articles using the manuscript assessment format or checklist given in this publication guide.
2. Review the given manuscript within the EJSSLS's set deadline for assessment and submit to the Managing Editor or the Editor-in-Chief.
3. Treats the manuscript as confidential.
4. Return the manuscript without review to Managing Editor or the Editor- in- Chief if the manuscript is not the area of their academic specialization, or if they think the manuscript is not anonymously sent to them, or if they lack time to review, without undue delay.
5. Will not retain or copy the submitted manuscript in any form; to comply with data protection regulations, as appropriate.
6. Respect the intellectual independence of authors.
7. Make known any conflicts of interest that might arise.
8. Provide professional supports for the quality of the Journal.
9. Must certify they won't share... manuscripts to be reviewed with unauthorized peer- review participants.
10. Do not review the manuscript using tools based on large language models and generative AI.

m) Secretary (Typist)

The secretary typist performs the following duties and responsibilities.

1. Has MA in TEFL/Communication.
2. Keeps information related to manuscripts of the Journal confidential.
3. Handles the secretarial activities of the publication office, such as organizing and keeping files, typing letters and reports, and dispatching outgoing letters, and recording incoming letters.
4. Maintains routine correspondences with Managing editor and Board Members.
5. Typesets the selected manuscripts for publication and makes them camera-ready for publication.
6. Follows up-to-date formats for typesetting and selecting the most appropriate design for the Journal.
7. Arranges appointments and editorial board meetings, and prepares materials for them.
8. Compiles or organizes manuscripts according to their types (e.g. accepted, pended, rejected; Original article, Review article).
9. Performs other duties being accountable to the Managing Editor.
10. Schedule appointments and update event calendars.
11. Prepares reports.
12. Handles incoming and outgoing telephones, mail and faxes.
13. Prepare memos, invoices, or other reports.
14. Checks whether the necessary Inc and papers for print are available.
15. Transfer comments on a print copy to soft copies.
16. Maintains databases and filing systems, whether electronic or paper.
17. Performs basic bookkeeping.

n) Privileges of the Authors, Advisory Board, Editorial Board and Support Staff

1. The Journal shall be published bearing the names of the Advisory Board members, Editorial Board members, and support staff.
2. A copy of every issue of the Journal will be distributed to the Advisory Board members, Editorial Board members, support staff, and the assessors of the articles which appeared in the issue free of charge.
3. Two copies of the issue of the Journal will be given free of charge to the authors in which their articles appeared.
4. Owns recognition letter.

This constitution may be amended only in accordance with the following procedure. First, a proposed amendment shall be introduced at a meeting of the editorial Board of editors by the editor- in- Chief. If the proposed amendment is approved by 3/4 of the total number of editorial board members, next it shall be introduced to the Collage's AC by at least 3 members of the AC or the Board of Editors. If the proposed amendment is approved by 1/2 of the AC members, the amendment shall come in to force. Then the Senate will be notified about the amendments through formal letter.

This constitution shall become effective when approved by 1/2 of the total members of the Academic Commission on the meeting called for that purpose. This constitution has become effective as of - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -