Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Our Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors  and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers  provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (https://publicationethics.org/files/Code%20of%20conduct%20for%20publishers%20FINAL_1_0.pdf).

The journal editorial board uses a creative commons licensing system: https://creativecommons.org/

Ethical & behavioral standards, based on the COPE Guidelines, for International Journal of Multilingual Education (IJME) commits editors, reviewers, authors and a publisher to the highest ethical standards in furtherance of journal's mission of advancing knowledge of theory, research and practice in the field of multilingual and multicultural education as well as in language acquisition.

For Editors:

The editorial Board of the journal evaluates submitted manuscripts on the basis of their academic merit (importance, originality, study’s validity, clarity) and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy.

Editors will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Editorial board members will not use unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research purposes without the authors’ explicit written consent.

Privileged information or ideas obtained by editors as a result of handling the manuscript will be kept confidential and not used for their personal advantage. Editors will recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers; instead, they will ask another member of the editorial board to handle the manuscript.

The editors ensure that all submitted manuscripts being considered for publication undergo peer-review by at least two randomly selected reviewers who are expert in the field.

Editors (in conjunction with the publisher and/or society) will take responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised with regard to a submitted manuscript or published paper.

For Reviewers:

The professors of consortium member universities participate in the peer review process, which assists editors in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with authors, may assist authors in improving their manuscripts.

Any manuscripts received for review are confidential documents and must be treated as such; they must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editorial board members.

Reviews should be conducted objectively and observations formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that is an observation, derivation or argument that has been reported in previous publications should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other manuscript (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.

Any invited referee who has conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors or institutions connected to the manuscript and the work described therein should immediately notify the editors to declare their conflicts of interest and decline the invitation to review so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

Unpublished material disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the authors. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for the reviewer’s personal advantage.

For Authors:

The authors of the articles can be program participants, academics and/or independent researchers.  They should meet these authorship criteria to be listed as authors in the manuscript as they must be able to take public responsibility for the content: (i) made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis/interpretation of the study; and (ii) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and (iii) have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.

All persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, writing and editing assistance, general support) but who do not meet the criteria for authorship must not be listed as an author, but should be listed as co-authors and should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgments" section. The corresponding author should ensure that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list and also verify that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Authors should submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Information obtained privately (from conversation, correspondence or discussion with third parties) or  in the course of providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

All new submissions to the journal are automatically screened using Turninit Software for Similarity Check by an editor.

The articles should be submitted in English and they will be published in English.

Papers describing the same research should not be published in multiple journals.  Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. Submission of a manuscript concurrently to more than one journal is unethical publishing behavior and unacceptable.

Authors should, at the earliest stage possible, disclose any conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. Examples of potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include financial ones such as honoraria, educational grants or other funding, membership, employment, consultancies etc. as well as non-financial ones such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed.

Authors are obliged to cooperate fully by responding promptly to editors’ requests for clarifications and proof of ethics approval and copyright permissions. In the case of a first decision of "revisions necessary", authors should respond to the reviewers’ comments systematically, point by point, and in a timely manner, revising and re-submitting their manuscript to the journal by the deadline given.

When authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editors or publisher and cooperate with them to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum. 

For Publisher:

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question.

The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with journal indexing agencies/membership organizations and maintaining journal content.

References:

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf

https://creativecommons.org/

Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files.

To upload articles, you must visit the journal’s website, section: SUBMISSION. Then select FOR AUTHORS, you will get detailed instructions for uploading the article (INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS) and you will go to the section: REGISTRATION AND SUBMISSION PROCESS.

It is necessary to register in the system: after filling in, you will automatically register in the system. You select the AUTHOR column and you can start uploading the article according to the steps.

After uploading the material, the system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.

Use of wordprocessing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts

Article structure

Subdivision - numbered sections

Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Method

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Include an analysis of data subsection in which you describe what analyses you will use to test a specific hypothesis and what result will be considered to be supportive. This section should be organised by hypothesis.

Theory/calculation

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Results

Results should be clear and concise. Organize this section by hypothesis. Do not interpret the results here; interpretation is reserved for the discussion section.

Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is sometimes, though rarely, appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc.

Essential title page information

  • Title.Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
  • Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
  • Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that phone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
  • Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum length 300 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. If something is important, consider including it in the text, otherwise eliminate it. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Table footnotesIndicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

Artwork

Electronic artwork

General points

  • Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
  • Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
  • Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
  • Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
  • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
  • Provide captions to illustrations separately.
  • Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the printed version.
  • Submit each illustration as a separate file.

Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

References

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

References in a special issue

Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference style

Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-0561-5, copies of which may be ordered from http://books.apa.org/books.cfm?id=4200067 or APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville, MD 20784, USA or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK.

Submission checklist

The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

  • E-mail address
  • Full postal address
  • Phone numbers

All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:

  • Keywords
  • All figure captions
  • All tables (including title, description, footnotes)

Further considerations

  • Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
  • References are in the correct format for this journal
  • All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
  • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
  • Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print, or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
  • If only color on the Web is required, black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes

Type of Peer Review

The International Journal of Multilingual Education  employs double blind reviewing, where both the referee and the author remain anonymous throughout the process. Authors should remove any personal reference of their previous work to ensure that the review process is double blind.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves.