About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Community Engagement in Social Sciences and Humanities (CESSH) is a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on community engagement, community development, and the application of knowledge in the fields of social sciences and humanities. The journal provides a scholarly platform for academics, researchers, practitioners, and community stakeholders to disseminate research findings, community-based initiatives, and innovative practices that contribute to addressing social and cultural challenges.

CESSH welcomes national and international contributions that connect scholarly knowledge with community needs and practices. The journal's scope includes, but is not limited to:

Community Engagement and Empowerment

Research and practice related to community participation, empowerment, capacity building, civic engagement, and collaborative approaches to addressing community needs.

Community Development and Social Innovation

Studies addressing sustainable community development, social innovation, local initiatives, community resilience, and collaborative solutions to social challenges.

Education and Community-Based Learning

Studies on community education, service learning, lifelong learning, educational empowerment, literacy, and knowledge transfer involving communities.

Culture and Humanities

Research and community initiatives concerning culture, local wisdom, heritage, language, arts, identity, history, and other humanities-based perspectives.

Communication and Digital Society

Studies examining communication, community media, digital inclusion, digital literacy, technology-mediated engagement, and the social implications of digital transformation.

Public Policy, Law, and Governance

Research on public policy, governance, legal empowerment, public participation, institutional collaboration, and policies affecting communities and social development.

Economics and Community Entrepreneurship

Studies addressing local economic development, community entrepreneurship, micro and small enterprises, social enterprise, economic empowerment, and inclusive economic participation.

Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities

Interdisciplinary studies integrating perspectives from the social sciences and humanities to understand and address contemporary social, cultural, economic, educational, and community challenges.

Peer Review Process

CESSH implements a double-blind peer review process to ensure the quality, originality, methodological rigor, and academic integrity of published manuscripts. The identities of both authors and reviewers are concealed throughout the review process.

Each manuscript that passes the initial editorial screening is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise in community engagement, social sciences, humanities, or related disciplines.

Editorial Review Process

  1. Initial Screening: The Editorial Team evaluates the manuscript's relevance to the journal's focus and scope, academic quality, formatting, originality, and compliance with submission requirements.
  2. Similarity Check: Submitted manuscripts undergo similarity screening to identify potential plagiarism, inappropriate textual overlap, or other publication concerns.
  3. Reviewer Assignment: Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are assigned to at least two independent reviewers.
  4. Peer Review: Reviewers evaluate originality, theoretical foundation, methodology, analysis, scholarly contribution, presentation, and relevance to community engagement, social sciences, humanities, and related interdisciplinary fields.
  5. Author Revision: Authors may be required to revise their manuscript in response to reviewer and editor comments.
  6. Final Decision: The Editor-in-Chief makes the final publication decision based on reviewer recommendations and the quality of the revised manuscript.

Editorial Decisions

  • Accept Submission
  • Minor Revisions Required
  • Major Revisions Required
  • Reject Submission
Review Type Double-Blind
Minimum Reviewers 2 Reviewers
Final Decision Editor-in-Chief

Open Access Policy

CESSH is an open-access journal that provides immediate and unrestricted access to its published scholarly content. The journal supports the principle that freely accessible research contributes to the wider dissemination and exchange of scientific knowledge.

Readers may access, read, download, share, and use published articles in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license, provided appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and source.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

CESSH is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly communication. Editors, reviewers, authors, and the publisher are expected to uphold ethical academic conduct throughout the publication process.

Duties of Editors

  • Evaluate manuscripts based on academic merit, originality, relevance, and scholarly contribution.
  • Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
  • Ensure fair and objective peer review.
  • Avoid and appropriately manage conflicts of interest.
  • Respond appropriately to allegations of research or publication misconduct.
  • Make editorial decisions independently and transparently.

Duties of Reviewers

  • Conduct reviews objectively, fairly, professionally, and confidentially.
  • Provide constructive and evidence-based recommendations.
  • Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe whenever possible.
  • Identify relevant literature that may have been overlooked.
  • Report suspected plagiarism, duplication, or substantial textual overlap.
  • Declare potential conflicts of interest.

Duties of Authors

  • Submit original and unpublished scholarly work.
  • Ensure the accuracy and integrity of research data and findings.
  • Properly acknowledge and cite relevant sources.
  • Ensure appropriate authorship attribution.
  • Disclose funding sources and potential conflicts of interest.
  • Avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, and citation manipulation.
  • Participate responsibly in the peer review and revision process.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving community members, children, vulnerable groups, or other human participants must comply with applicable ethical requirements. Where relevant, authors should provide information regarding informed consent, institutional ethical approval, confidentiality, privacy, and protection of vulnerable participants.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, and readers may submit complaints or appeals concerning editorial decisions, peer review, publication ethics, or alleged misconduct through the journal's official editorial contact. Complaints will be handled objectively, confidentially, and independently.

Advertising Policy

CESSH does not currently accept commercial advertising within published scholarly articles. Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by commercial, financial, or advertising interests.

Any future sponsorship, promotional content, or advertising activities will be clearly distinguished from editorial content and will not influence peer review or publication decisions.

Author Guidelines

Manuscripts submitted to CESSH should present original scholarly work relevant to community engagement, social sciences, humanities, and related interdisciplinary fields and must comply with the journal's formatting and ethical requirements. Authors are strongly encouraged to prepare manuscripts in clear academic English.

Title

The title should be concise, informative, academically appropriate, and clearly represent the focus of the study.

Author Name(s) and Affiliation

Author information must be entered accurately in the OJS metadata. Identifying information should be removed from the manuscript file when required for double-blind review.

Abstract

The abstract should concisely describe the research background, objectives, methodology, principal findings, and conclusions or implications of the study.

Keywords

Provide relevant keywords that accurately represent the main concepts, variables, context, or area of community engagement, social sciences, or humanities addressed.

Introduction

Present the research background, scholarly context, relevant literature, research gap, novelty or contribution, and objectives of the study.

Methods

Describe the research design, participants or data sources, instruments, procedures, ethical considerations where applicable, and data analysis techniques sufficiently for scholarly evaluation.

Results and Discussion

Present findings clearly and interpret them critically in relation to relevant theories, previous research, the study objectives, and their implications for community engagement, social development, policy, practice, or related fields.

Conclusion

Summarize the principal findings, scholarly contribution, implications, limitations where appropriate, and potential directions for further research.

References

References should follow the APA 7th Edition. Authors are encouraged to use reference management software such as Mendeley or Zotero and prioritize relevant, current, and reputable scholarly literature.

Publication Frequency

CESSH is published twice a year. The journal may publish articles through an online-first or continuous publication mechanism where applicable, while articles are subsequently assigned to the corresponding issue.

Issues / Year 2 Issues
Access Open Access

Articles published in CESSH are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

This license permits users to copy, distribute, display, reproduce, and adapt published material in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), the source of publication is acknowledged, a link to the license is provided, and any modifications are indicated.

Authors retain appropriate rights to their scholarly work and may share or archive the published version in personal websites, institutional repositories, academic networks, and other scholarly repositories in accordance with the applicable license.

Author Fees

Information regarding submission fees, review fees, and Article Processing Charges (APC) will be transparently communicated through the journal website. No payment should be made unless officially requested through the journal's authorized editorial process.

Plagiarism and Generative AI Policy

CESSH requires all submissions to represent original scholarly work. Submitted manuscripts may undergo similarity screening to identify plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate textual overlap, and other potential publication misconduct.

Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors. Human authors remain fully responsible and accountable for the accuracy, originality, integrity, citations, data, arguments, and conclusions contained in their manuscripts.

Authors should transparently disclose substantial use of generative AI tools in manuscript preparation, including the tool used, its purpose, and the extent of its involvement where relevant.

Potentially acceptable uses with appropriate human oversight may include:

  • Language and grammar refinement;
  • Brainstorming and organizational assistance;
  • Formatting or presentation assistance;
  • Supporting non-substantive aspects of manuscript preparation.
Prohibited practices include: fabrication of data or references, plagiarism, misrepresentation of research findings, undisclosed substitution of AI for substantive scholarly responsibility, and inappropriate disclosure of confidential manuscripts or peer-review materials to public AI systems.

Retraction and Correction Policy

CESSH is committed to preserving the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record. Published articles may be corrected, retracted, replaced, or, in exceptional circumstances, removed when necessary to address significant errors, misconduct, ethical violations, or legal concerns.

Article Retraction

An article may be considered for retraction when:

  • The findings are substantially unreliable due to error or misconduct;
  • There is evidence of fabrication or falsification;
  • The article contains substantial plagiarism;
  • Duplicate or redundant publication has occurred;
  • Serious authorship or ethical violations are identified.

Article Correction

Corrections may be issued when errors do not invalidate the overall findings but require amendment to maintain an accurate scholarly record.

  • Erratum: correction of errors introduced during publication;
  • Corrigendum: correction of errors originating from the author(s);
  • Addendum: additional information or clarification related to the article.

Article Removal

Removal will only be considered in exceptional circumstances, including serious legal concerns, court orders, violations of rights, or content that poses significant risks if it remains publicly accessible.

Archiving Policy

CESSH is committed to supporting the long-term preservation and accessibility of its scholarly content through the digital preservation mechanisms available within the Open Journal Systems (OJS) publishing infrastructure and other preservation services adopted by the journal.

Information regarding the journal's active digital preservation arrangements and archival services will be maintained transparently on the journal website.

Indexing and Abstracting

CESSH is a newly established scholarly journal. Information regarding indexing and abstracting services will be updated as the journal becomes registered, indexed, or included in relevant national and international scholarly databases.

The journal is committed to progressively expanding the discoverability, accessibility, and international visibility of its published research.