Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

Advances in Language and Literary Studies is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal and welcomes submissions for review and publication in the following areas;

  • Applied Linguistics 
  • Linguistics
  • Corpus Linguistics
  • Translation studies &
  • Literature.

 

Section Policies

Articles

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

ALLS uses double-blind system: the reviewers' identities remain anonymous to authors, while the reviewers can see authors' identities. The paper will be peer-reviewed by three experts; one is chief editor and the other two are internal editors and external reviewers. 

  • Peer Review / Responsibility for the Reviewers

As an editor or a reviewer you are requested to find out about the originality of the manuscript you are urged to review. Therefore, it is recommended that you also see the Author Guidelines and Polices page to see which points authors should take into consideration prior to submission of their papers for the publication.

Although reviewed articles are treated confidentially, reviewers’ judgments should be objective. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders, and reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited. 

  • Editorial Responsibilities

Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article. Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept, only accept a paper when reasonably certain, when errors are found, promote publication of correction or retraction,  and preserve anonymity of reviewers.

  • Review Guidelines

ALLS highly appreciates their kind support by agreeing to review an article for our journal. Before they consent to evaluate any paper, the reviewers are requested to consider a number of points. First, if the paper is not in your area of research interest and expertise, please inform the editor and feel free to refuse to review it. Second, if you have no free time to evaluate the paper before the deadline, kindly inform the editor. Third, in case of any conflicts of interest, the reviewer’s acknowledgement can be very useful in our final decision. Therefore, if by any chance you have read the paper before or happen to know the authors, please inform the editor about this.

Kindly make sure you review the paper confidentially. Please avoid contacting the authors. In addition, should you feel the need to ask a third party for their comments, please make sure to inform the managing editor in advance.

Before they are sent to reviewers, all ALLS papers are previewed by our editor(s)-in-chief. The papers are also checked for their originality using the turn-it-in/ithenticate software. However to our experience, there have been cases of plagiarism which the software has failed to detect. If you doubt the originality of any part(s) of the work you are reviewing, please inform the editor. In addition, if you suspect the accuracy or truth of any part(s) of the work under review, make sure to inform the editor about it.

ALLS reviewers are requested to evaluate the articles based on a number of evaluative criteria available in the review from including the clarity, quality, thoroughness, relevance, significance, and soundness of the works. The reviewers score each of these criteria based on the quality of the work. Reviewers may leave comments in the manuscript itself and in the review form. These comments are very valuable for the professional development of any authors and will unquestionably help them improve their work.

Reviewers may also add their comments in the second section of the Review Form. Having reviewed the paper, the reviewer is requested to make any of the following decisions:

  • Accept as it is
  • Accept with some minor or major corrections 
  • Revise and resubmit 
  • Reject

This decision should be based on the merits and demerits of the work under review.

Finally the reviewers are requested to take the following tips into account while reviewing manuscripts:

 
This brief guideline seeks to help ALLS reviewers criticize the manuscripts they have been requested to evaluate more effectively:
1. Focus on behavior: Focus on what the author wrote. Avoid the tendency to assume that you know why the author did one thing rather than the other:
 

Criticism as attack

Criticism as support

I wasn’t interested in your topic.

I would have liked to see more variety in your writing. It would have made me feel that you were more interested.

You should have put more time into the work.

I think it would have been more effective if you had proofread and edited the final draft.

You didn’t care about your audience.

I would have liked it if you had accounted for the audience.

 
2. Stress the positive: Strengthen the already positive aspects of the author’s performance. Instead of “Your text didn’t make any sense to me,” state what you liked first then bring up the weak point and suggest how it might be improved.
3. Be specific: Statements like, “I liked your study; it was really great,” don’t specify how the author can improve the work. Refer to specifics as clarity, structure, etc. When giving negative criticism, specify and justify: “I thought the way you introduced your statistics was vague; I wasn’t sure where the statistics came from or how recent or reliable they were; it might have been better to say something like: The U.S. Census figures for 2014 show …”
4. Be objective: Transcend your biases as best as you can. Stating “Your proposition was unfair” will show that you did not judge from the view point of a detached critic. It’s equally important to avoid positively evaluating a text because it presents a position with which you agree as in “I liked the paper; learners must have a right to choose.”
5. Be constructive: Your primary goal should be to provide the author with insight that will prove useful in future writing. Stating “The introduction didn’t gain my attention,” doesn’t tell the authors how they might have gained your attention. Instead you may state, “The example in the discussion would have more effectively gained my attention in the introduction.”
6. Own your criticism: Take responsibility for your criticism. Use “I-messages” rather than “you-messages”. Instead of “You needed a better review of literature” state, “I would have been more persuaded if you had used more recent literature to support your findings.” Avoid attributing what you found to others. Instead of stating, “Nobody will be able to understand this section,” state, “I had difficulty understanding this section.” Equally avoid “should-messages”: Instead of “You should have linked the two ideas”, state, “I didn’t see the connection between the two ideas”.

Source: DeVito (2012, pp. 373-4)

Joseph DeVito (2012) Human Communication: The Basic Course 

 

ALLS papers are proofread before they are published, and the reviewers are by no means obliged to correct or mark language errors or typos. However, if the reviewers detect such cases, they are most welcome to highlight them.

ALLS corresponds with its reviewers only through email; therefore, you are requested to email your report and in-text comments (if any) to the ALLS managing editor.

Reviewing is undoubtedly an invaluable and noble act that cannot be compensated by any means. However, ALLS hopes to return this favour, at least in part, by occasional discounts for its reviewers if they wish to publish their works with us.

 


Disclaimer

The journal editorial assistant(s) is not involved in editorials decisions. 

 

Publication Frequency

  • From 2014 Onward, the frequency of publication changed to bimonthly. 
  • Publication Dates:   February | April | June | August | October | December
  • ALLS frequency of publication was biannual [January & July] between 2010-2013.  

 

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

 

Archiving

Apart from this journal’s interface, the journal also utilizes LOCKSS system, the National Library of Australia, and Academia.edu to distribute and archive the journal contents among participating libraries, authors, and readers and permits them to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. 

In addition, authors are allowed and suggested to archive the final published version of their articles in any open access repositories.

 

Abstracting & Indexing

ALLS is now indexed, abstracted, listed, and/or archived in the following databases;

Disclaimer

The journal editors and the publisher are doing their best for this journal to be included in the abstracting and indexing databases; however, for the journal to be or to remain indexed in any indexing body is definitely beyond their control. All the journal editors can do is to ensure the papers published are of high quality and all the publisher can do is recommending the journal to the indexing and abstracting bodies as well as controlling the quality of its published material, but they have no power to decide where/whether/when a published paper is indexed, and all authors are expected to be aware of this matter.

 

Subscription

There is no online subscription fee for individuals and institutions, but ALLS holds a liberal policy to allow the authors, readers, universities, and public libraries to order the hard copies of any particular number/ issue, volume or set of volumes of the journal. The cost of the subscription to a print copy is AUD$200 which covers the shipment via airmail. Those who are subscribed to a print version will receive the hardcopy subsequent to the publication of an issue. Subscriptions can be made directly through the journal. Alternatively, you may visit AIAC's  Store at LuLu Press Inc. to place your order for the past issues. We DO NOT accept any responsibility if the book(s) is damaged during the mailing or delivery process. Waiver or discount policy is applicable. All requests can be sent directly to the editorial assistants.

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