SPECIAL ISSUE: Call for Papers

The Guest Editors of the South African Journal of Communication Disorders Special Issue titled “The impact of COVID-19 in SLH Professions in LMICs: Challenges and Opportunities Explored” (Prof Katijah Khoza-Shangase, Dr Nomfundo Moroe, & Dr Joanne Neille) invite research papers from academics, researchers, and clinicians, for their special issue.

The special issue aims to collate current contextually relevant and responsive evidence that fills the gap in innovative practices, and re-imagining future practice in SLH professions, different models of service delivery, while responding to the call for evidence to be contextually relevant.

The goal of the Special Issue is to reflect on the impact of COVID-19 on the SLH professions in terms of research, teaching, service provision, ethical challenges, as well as its impact on speech-language, hearing, swallowing, and balance functions. The special issue will therefore look at new discoveries, challenges, as well as solutions for SLH professions in LMICs. Papers can be original research or review papers.

Papers should address any of the following sub-themes that are either directly or indirectly related to the main theme.

Sub-themes:
• Impact on training
• Impact on research
• Impact on speech-language, hearing, swallowing, and balance
• Contextual factors influencing SLH professions’ clinical response to COVID-19
• Policy and legislation in SLH Professions’ response to COVID-19
• Impact on service delivery

Guidelines for submissions of abstracts

Submissions of abstracts (in MS word files) should be done on the website where indicated. The submitted abstracts should adhere to the following guidelines:
1. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words.
2. Abstracts should reflect the research purpose, objectives, methodology, findings and conclusions.
3. Abstracts of papers must be submitted on line in electronic format as a separate file attachment in MS word.
4. The language of the abstracts should be English.
5. Abstracts will follow a process of blind peer-review.
6. All Article Processing Charges (APC) will need to be covered by the authors. Please provide evidence of funding source for APCs with abstract submission.
7. Abstract authors will be informed of editorial decision for inclusion in the Special Edition.
8. The Editors will have the final decision about inclusion in the Special Edition.

Deadline for submission of abstracts as 07 December 2021

Submissions deadline for manuscripts: 31 January 2022

Read the author guidelines which include information about the types of articles received for publication and preparing a manuscript for submission.