Published on 16th April 2021

Tanzania Journal of Community Development (TAJOCODE)

Call for Papers

Introduction

Tanzania Journal of Community Development (TAJOCODE) is the peer review and indexed journal of the Community Development Professionals Association of Tanzania (CODEPATA) publishing original research of high quality. The full call can also be accessed at click here

CODEPATA is a professional, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit, non-partisan, and non-religious organization whose mission is to promote and protect the community development profession for people’s sustainable development. CODEPATA is registered under Societies Act Cap. 337 RE of 2002 of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania. The registration number is S.A 21457.

TAJOCODE is devoted to improving knowledge and practice in the community development profession in Tanzania and beyond. TAJOCODE advances inclusive community development research, and practice in all domains of community development. The journal publishes research, and practice in all aspects of community development with a view of contributing towards tackling various development challenges in Tanzania and the rest of the world.

The journal welcomes high quality English and Kiswahili articles that report original research and practice in the community development profession. The submissions should examine community problems; and analyse community development profession in Tanzania and elsewhere. We welcome submissions that focus on any community development issue including poverty; gender; community participation; social justice; economic development; budgeting; decentralisation; community empowerment; sustainable development; Asset Based and Citizen-led Development (ABCD); rural and urban community development; microfinance and other relevant community development topics.

TAJOCODE submissions should be aligned with the Community Development profession and should clearly document methodology, data-driven results, success stories, resources and/or lessons learned. Citations of research and resources are expected in every manuscript. TAJOCODE promotes a basic set of core values for the practice of community development. They include:

• Promote the participation of all community members in urban and rural areas to actively and meaningfully influence the decisions that affect their lives.
• Promotes the engagement of community members in learning about community issues in all aspects including economic, social, cultural, environmental, political, legal, and psychological issues.
• Does not support any effort that is likely to adversely affect the marginalized community members such as women and disabled people.
• Accommodates the diverse interests and cultures of communities
• Dedicates to enhance the leadership capacities of community members, community leaders, and groups within the communities
• Strives to towards the long-term sustainability and wellbeing of marginalized communities.

Organization of the Article

Overall, TAJOCODE manuscripts invariably follow the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format. The articles should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, brief literature review (including theory or theories used in a separate sub-section), materials and methods (methodology), results (findings), discussion; conclusion and references.  The author should include the following data at appropriate pages: appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (in the text); figures; figure captions (in the text). On a separate page, the author should include acknowledgments; and declaration of interest statement.

The details on the sub-sections are as follows:

Title: author(s) should state the titles in the fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents of the paper. Titles should be specific, short and clear.

Abstract: abstracts should contain the following information: the purpose of the article, the type of literature that the article drew on, sample size, the average age of participants, method of data collection, the sampling procedure and the study area(s), the method of data analysis e.g. framework approach, the findings of the paper, and summary of your recommendations. All English abstract should be translated to Kiswahili. Likewise, all Kiswahili abstract should be translated to English. Please contact the chief editors, if you need some assistance in this area.

Introduction: The Introduction should serve three purposes: (1) to call attention to and clarify or define the specific topic or hypothesis that the author(s) are to discuss, (2) to provide background and justify a study relative to its important and the results of other studies, and (3) to list the objectives of the research project or to give the audience information on what the author(s) plan to accomplish in the article. That is, the introduction needs to situate the research within a broader context in the world before moving on to the local level i.e. globe, continent (Africa), region (East Africa) and country (Tanzania). Author(s) should also state the problem or opportunity under investigation clearly and concisely. Sources of problem statement can come from issues at the workplace or institution, personal experience, literature from authors’ field of study, or a desire to replicate the work of other researchers in an attempt to better understand or explain a phenomenon. Observe the following format: write the background about the problem; state the problem statement; and explain the significance of the problem. Author(s) should outline their research question(s) or objectives in the early stages of the introduction to guide readers. It would be useful for the author(s) to include a summary of their main arguments in the introduction.

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

The major points of a theory need to be stated very clearly so that they can be used in the discussion section. That is, author(s) should use a systematic theoretical approach to discuss their findings. Further, author(s) need to outline similar studies on the subject following the following formant i.e. the globe, regional (Africa), sub-region (East Africa), and country level (Tanzania). Author(s) should briefly explain the gaps in those studies that they believe their study is going fill.

 Methodology

Author(s) should take note that research questions or objectives narrow down the focus of a study. As such, research questions or objectives are the methodological point of departure. Below are details on different kinds of research methodologies.

• Quantitative Methodologies:
  • The researcher wants to determine “if something happened,” “did something happen,” and “to what degree did something happen” by collecting and analysing numeric data.
  • They are deductive in nature because the results can be used to test hypotheses stated from the outset.
• Qualitative Methodologies:
  • Qualitative Methodologies focus on answering the following questions Who?”, “What?”, “When?”, “Where?”, “Why?”, and “How?”
  • Qualitative Data collected from sources such as interviews and transcripts and are analysed inductively with the idea that the results can be used to better understand a specific event or scenario.
• Mixed Methodologies
  • mixed methods studies collect both quantitative and qualitative data in order to answer both quantitative and qualitative research questions taken together

• Further, there should be clarity in writing about the research methods used, particularly about the methods of data collection. For example, the nature of data needs to be explained well. Is it qualitative or quantitative?
• Author(s) should explain how they triangulated the data from the various sources – interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), surveys and observations.
• Author(s) might explain whether there were differences in responses of the different respondents and how they worked with these differences in their analysis and interpretation.
• Author(s) should also answer the following key questions:
  • How many questions did author(s) have in the interview schedule?
  • How long did each interview last i.e. for how many minutes?
  • How was the data analysed? e.g. Framework approach etc
  • Did the author(s) use any software?
  • How did author(s) establish trustworthiness?
  • What was the unit of analysis?

Findings and Discussion

• Although we recommend to interwoven results and discussion, authors are free to separate the two sections.
• Author(s) should make clear immediately the extent to which they have proved or disproved the hypothesis and then carry the reader from one display of data to another with logical development, showing how their findings satisfy the objectives of the study. Results should be presented in the same order as the objectives and the experimental procedures. However, we recommend that authors should focus on one objective per article.
• Discussion provides meaning or an interpretation of the results and shows relationships with other research
• The discussions should have a structure and flow. Readers should be able to see where the author(s) was/were going.
• The discussion section could be further enhanced by fine-tuning the development and flow of author(s) arguments, ensuring that it maintains a logical sequence.
• For qualitative studies, ensure to include themes/sub-themes for the discussion section.
• In the discussion compare the findings with what literature says- what are the points of agreement/disagreement?

 Conclusion

• The conclusion is composed of concluding statements. It is not a summary of the findings. Here, authors should briefly reiterate the objective of the study and provide a general statement on the extent to which they have accomplished it.
• Authors should make sure to draw together outcomes of the objective and enumerate these conclusions succinctly. They should not just restate the results.
• Concluding statement may be the points that stay longest in the reader’s mind.
• Concluding statements should sufficiently relate to the findings and the objective of the study.

References

• Please use Harvard Referencing when preparing your article.

• Check your reference list to ensure consistency in referencing style

Formatting and Templates

You should submit your article in Word only. All manuscripts must be formatted to 2.5cm x 2.5 cm margins, double-spaced, with 12 point font, Times New Roman. You should ensure consistence throughout the article.

Editing Services

To help you improve your manuscript and prepare it for submission, TAJOCODE provides affordable editing services. Please contact the editors for pricing.

Checklist: What to Include

• Cover page: the cover page should be on a separate file and should contain author details.All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the cover page. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted. 
• Anonymous article on a separate page without author details. The editors will send suitable anonymous article reviewers
• The Anonymous article should contain a title and an unstructured abstract of 100-200 words.
• Once an article has been reviewed and accepted for publication, the author(s) will produce a 2 page policy brief, based on their research, targeting practitioners and policy-makers. The policy brief should focus on ‘lessons learned’ and ‘policy and practice recommendations.’
• The Anonymous article should contain between 3 and 6 keywords. The keyword will make your article more discoverable.
• Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies at the cover page
• Disclosure statement.This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research.
• Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.

Tips for Writing Articles for TAJOCODE

• Submissions should be useful to researchers, decision makers, community development practitioners or anyone interested in the field and practice of community development. 
• Given that the journal’s readership comprises, Kiswahili and English-speakers, we recommend that author(s) request assistance (e.g. from a Kiswahili and English professional editing service) to ensure that Kiswahili as well as English grammar and expression conforms with current usage throughout the paper. This will aid in assuring that their articles achieves maximum clarity.

Length   

Optimal length is generally 5,000 to 8000 words for an article. The article should be sufficient to present solid coverage of the issue. Writing style should hold the reader’s attention. Photos, graphics, and illustrations are encouraged when they support understanding of the content provided.

Process

The papers will be blind reviewed by two to three community development practitioners and specialists who have volunteered to review and who have expertise that relates to the subject matter presented in the paper. The goal will be to have the decision on the submission within four weeks of receipt.

How to submit or for more information

The chief editors of TAJOCODE are Dr. Rasel Madaha (PhD), Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania,  Email: rasel.madaha@sua.ac.tz or rasel.madaha@fulbrightmail.org or raselmpuya@gmail.com  and Dr. Regina Malima (PhD), the Open University of Tanzania, Email: regina.malima@yahoo.co.uk

Submit your article via email to the chief editors. Make sure to copy all of the two CHIEF Editors. Other contacts are provides below:

Associate Editors

• Dr. Ponsian Sewando (Tengeru Institute of Community Development-TICD: ponsiansewando@gmail.com)
• Novatus Justinian Kaijage (kaijagecd@yahoo.com)

 Managing Editors

• Stephen Wambura, Tengeru Institute of Community Development, Email: danielstephenkoica@gmail.com

• Paschal Mahinyira, Buhare Community Development Training Institute(CDTI), Email: pajom2002@yahoo.com

TAJOCODE sreens papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper to TAJOCODE you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review and production processes. TAJOCODE strongly recommends that you keep a copy of your Accepted article. The article might be needed in case of misplacement.

Publication Charges

There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for this journal. We do not publish colour figures.

Copyright Options

All authors must give Copyright of their articles to TAJOCODE.

Queries

Should you have any queries, please contact the chief editors via their email.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

The deadline for the submission for the August 2021 issue is 12^th May 2021. Late submissions will be considered for future issues. For details about the journal click [here]

Journal Identifiers: Online: ISSN 2773-675X Print: ISSN 2773-6725  

Copyright © Tanzania Journal of Community Development (TAJOCODE) and Community Development Professionals Association of Tanzania (CODEPATA)