The South Asian Journal of Transactional Analysis welcomes contributions from all fields of practice - counselling, education, psychotherapy and organisation. No field or practice or theoretical frame of reference will be privileged in the evaluation of manuscripts submitted for review and publication. All theoretical perspectives within Transactional Analysis, not limited to quantitative and qualitative research, case studies, literature surveys, book reviews and reflective essays, are welcome.

Submission Requirements for Authors

Only original material—not previously published in English and not under review by another English-language publication—is eligible for consideration and inclusion in the SAJTA. As an exception, any paper previously published in a language other than English will be considered if professionally translated into English prior to submission.

If you are an author considering a submission to the SAJTA, the first step is to determine that your paper is well written in terms of content, structure and style. The second step is to prepare your manuscript according to the following technical requirements and then to submit it as a Word document via e-mail to the SAJTA Managing Editor at journal@saata.org.

To be published in the January issue, your manuscript must be mailed by 15 Oct of the previous year and for the July publication, by 15 April of the same year.

General Writing Guidelines

• Manuscripts must be submitted in Word format with a target length of 2,500 words, allowing for a flexibility range of ±500 words (i.e., between 2,000 and 3,000 words). This word count excludes bibliographic references, keywords, and the author biography. Authors are advised to adhere strictly to this word limit, as any additions or deletions during the revision process may significantly impact the final word count. For research articles, specific word count requirements may be adjusted in accordance with the scope and nature of the submission and will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

• Your manuscript is free of any information that would identify you as its author. Do NOT mention names of your trainers, mentors, supervisors, etc.

• Follow APA style of formatting, references, citations and bibliography (http://www.apastyle.org/).

• Use formal language. Avoid using casual phrases, expressions and slangs, unless quoting verbatim.

• Use British English and do a ‘Spelling and Grammar’ check before you submit.

• Keep sentences short and precise. Where there are multiple ideas, construct as two or more sentences.

• Use simple and easy-to-understand words. Remember that your audience may not be Transactional Analysis literate or even use English as their first language.

• Review the paper for redundancy, where the same idea is expressed multiple times.

• Provide English translations to any vernacular quotations that are made in the article.

• As part of our learning, we have decided to only accept single part articles that align to the theme of the issue. Multi-part series will only be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the relevance and timeliness of the topic.

Scientific Writing Guidelines

• Write scientifically on topics - original thoughts, research, application in professional or personal context, reviews, experiences, opinions - which can be explained primarily using Transactional Analysis concepts.

• Double-check Transactional Analysis terminologies and their definitions, e.g., names of games, components of script, drivers, injunctions etc. Transactional Analysis full form, not TA, to be used. All terminologies to be in small case, e.g., script not Script.

• Quote the original authors of any concepts / ideas used. Reference accordingly.

• The article should not be published anywhere before, including in SAATA Diploma or Advanced Diploma exams. We are open to answers modified into a journal article.

• Select a strong title, which crisply explains what the article conveys.

• Begin with an abstract / introduction, which describes what readers can expect.

• Convey the main content / discussion (methods, data, evidence, results, links), using appropriate sentences, paragraphs and apt headings / sub-headings.

• Use diagrammatic representations where appropriate, labelling figures and tables.

• Include a conclusion and list of references at the end.

Review Process

Once you have met the above submission requirements and timelines, you will receive a ‘receipt of your submission’ mail in a week. Over the next 3-4 weeks, your manuscript will be anonymously reviewed by at least two of SAJTA’s co-editors, who will assess basic readability (i.e., professionally written English, clarity and novelty of the ideas presented, relevance for the transactional analysis community and its contributions to the evolution of transactional analysis theory, principles, and practice) as below.

Evaluation/Review Criteria

• How is the paper relevant to organisational, educational, counselling, or psychotherapy applications?

• Is there an adequate review of the relevant literature - transactional analysis as well as the literature of other related fields, such as cognitive research, neuroscience studies, organisational behaviour and consultation, mother/infant research, systems theory, educational theory and practice, psychoanalytic perspectives, ethics, anthropology, social/political literature, etc.?

• The editors and reviewers also consider whether the author’s writing is professional and clear:

• Is the title both engaging and reflective of the paper’s content?

• Is the abstract accurate, concise, quickly comprehensible and informative?

• Does the overall structure of the paper help to represent the author’s ideas and facilitate the reader’s understanding?

• Does the text include sub-headings that help organize the material for readers?

• Is the author’s writing style easy to read and lively? Is it professional, for example, taking care to avoid use of the male pronoun when referring to people in general?

• If the paper includes figures, tables, or other graphic images, are they necessary, easily understood, and integrated well into the main text and with the ideas of the paper?

• Does the author end the article with a conclusion (rather than a summary), one that engages the reader in thinking about further questions the article might raise, how others might build on or further develop the ideas presented, creative uses of the material, etc.?

• The editors and reviewers also check to see that the paper has been prepared with care, especially in regard to proper grammar, correct (British English) spelling, and an absence of typographical errors:

• Are quotations and publications referenced correctly in the main text of the paper, giving author name, year of publication, and page number(s)?

• Is there any plagiarism of ideas or concepts which have not been appropriately referenced?

• Does the author preserve anonymity by referring to her or his previous publications in the third person, for example, “Smith (2001) has argued...” instead of “In an earlier paper, I (Smith, 2001) argued...”?

Acceptance of Manuscript and Publishing

Around 4 weeks after your submission, you will be notified if your manuscript has been accepted for publishing and if additional modifications are needed. If not accepted, reasons will be shared. A Co-Editor from the SAJTA editorial team is assigned to work with each author over the next 3-4 weeks. They will collaborate closely - to challenge ideas or thinking, question the logic or rationale or make suggestions. The work will go through a few iterations before both Author and Reviewer agree it is ready for publishing. Some minor changes might occur as part of the final editorial process, prior to publication.

Once ready for publishing, you will be required to submit an electronically signed Author Consent Form allowing exclusive publication rights to SAJTA and a short 150–200-word biography of yourself, with email ID for readers to correspond with you.

We hope this is useful, as you contemplate contributing to the journal.