MANUSCRIPT TYPES

Journal of Contemporary Langauge Research (JCLR) is pleased to publish Research Papers, Case Reports, Conference reports, and Book Reviews.

Main Format 

The first page of the manuscripts must include the title and the name(s) of the author(s) typed in Cambria (font sizes: 16pt in capitalization for the title, 11pt for the section headings in the body of the text, and 10pt the main text; single spaced in A4 format with 2cm margins). The manuscript must be saved in a .doc or.docx format. It is not allowed to have abbreviations in the article title. You can download the template for preparing your manuscript.

Manuscripts should be prepared in the following order:

1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction 
4. Methodology
5. Selection and Description of Samples/Participants
6. Technical Information
7. Statistics
8. Results
9. Discussion
10. Conclusion
11. Declaration section
12. References
13. Tables
14. Illustrations (Figures)

 

ARTICLE SECTIONS FORMAT

Title should be a short phrase explaining the contents of the manuscript with the first letter of each word typed in upper case. The Title Page should contain the author(s)’s full names and affiliations, the name of the corresponding author along with e-mail address. JCLR encourages the listing of authors’ Open Researcher and Contributor Identification (ORCID).

Abstract

Abstract should be descriptive and fully self-explanatory, the subject of study should be briefly presented, the nature of the studies should be specified, relevant data should be presented, and significant observations and conclusions should be pointed out. Abstracts should not exceed 350 words. It is necessary to use complete statements, active verbs, and the third person while writing the abstract in the past tense. It is appropriate to use regular nomenclature and avoid abbreviations. There should be no literature cited in the abstract. For this reason, references should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). For research articles, use a structured abstract with the following headings:

Introduction: Provide a short background and clearly state the main objectives of the study.

Methodology: Mention the study design, the sample(s), and the employed methods for data collection.

Results: Report the main findings.

Conclusion: State the outcome in relation to the hypothesis and possible directions for future studies.

 

Following the abstract, there should be about 3 to 7 keywords that will provide indexing references. Keywords should be arranged alphabetically.

Introduction 

Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of scientific disciplines.

A concise statement of the issue, the related literature on the subject, and the proposed method or solution should be presented in the introduction. This section should be written in an understandable way to the research community involved in a wide range of scientific disciplines.

-Authors can have a separate section for the literature review/theoretical framework in case they need the feed to elaborate more on the background of the study.

Methodology

Materials and methods should be sufficiently complete to allow the replication of experiments. However, only genuinely new procedures should be described in detail; the employed procedures in the previously conducted studies should be cited, and important changes to the published procedures should be mentioned. This section involves a clear description of the sample collection, including eligibility and exclusion criteria. It is also important to note the employed methods, methods, equipment (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures. To further the method section, authors are required to explain the statistical methods to provide the chance for the readers to judge their appropriateness and verify the reported results. For further information, contact us at jclr@rovedar.com

Ethical approval for human use in research should be indicated by a separate title in this section. The method section should involve the ethical approval obtained from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board), and the certificate number should be stated.

Results

The obtained results of the study should be presented with clarity and accuracy in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. The result section should be written in the past tense when describing the findings of the author(s)’s experiments. Findings of previously published articles should be written in the present tense. The results should be clarified, but mostly without reference to the literature. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. Discussion, speculation, and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the results but should be put into the discussion section.

Discussion 

Discussion should interpret the findings regarding the obtained results of the study with reference to previous studies. Do not repeat in detail data or other information given in other parts of the manuscript, such as in the Introduction or the Results sections. At the end of the paper, state the conclusions in a few sentences. Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data. Avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless the manuscript includes the appropriate economic data and analyses.

Declarations Section

Please ensure that the following sections are included at the end of your manuscript in a Declarations section.

-Acknowledgement

-Funding

-Authors’ contribution

-Competing interest

-Availability of data and materials

-Ethical consideration

 

 Acknowledgment

JCLR encourages the author(s) to acknowledge anyone who contributed to the study but does not meet the criteria for authorship. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

Funding

This section includes the sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. Authors are expected to declare any restrictions regarding the submission of the report for publication, or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement or restrictions regarding publication. The following wording should be used if there was no funding: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors".

Authors’ contributions

Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4”. Authorship is an important aspect of research publication, and all involved authors should agree on the whole contents of the document including authorship. Contributors should be differentiated from authors.

JCLR does not allow authorship correction after publication unless the editorial staff makes an obvious mistake. Before publication, authorship can be changed when all authors request the authorship correction.

Competing interest

Authors are responsible for disclosing all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work.  The corresponding author of an article is required to inform the Editor of the authors’ potential conflicts of interest/competing interests possibly influencing the research or interpretation of data. The authors should declare any potential conflicts of interest by filling out the competing interest form and disclosing them in the cover letter even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. Then we utilize COPE workflow to transparently handle it. Such conflicts may include financial support, political pressure from interest groups, or academic problems. The Editor will decide whether the information on the conflicts should be included in the published paper.

Availability of data and materials

Authors are asked to inform the Editor of JCLR about the availability of data to the community, especially if the study is financially supported by any institution, sector, or sponsor.

Ethical consideration

Authors are asked to declare that they have observed ethical issues, including plagiarism, double submission,  and data originality.

COPE Recommendations on Chatbots

Authors should note that any chatbots, such as ChatGPT do not meet COPE authorship. Therefore, all authors who participate in the manuscript should meet the authorship criterion, meaning that chatbots cannot be considered authors.

When using chatbots, authors are required to transparently mention the chatbot used (name, version, model, source) and method of application in the paper they are submitting (query structure, syntax), which is in line with  COPE recommendation of acknowledging writing assistance.

Authors should take responsibility for the text produced by a chatbot in their paper. This includes the accuracy of the produced content, the absence of plagiarism, and the appropriate attribution of all sources. Authors are expected to mark the text produced by the chatbot.

References

In-text citation should be based on APA 7^th ed (For more information visit: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/) .

The last page of your paper is entitled References. DOI number or the link of the article should be added to the end of each reference. List all references in order alphabetically, not by number. 

Illustrations (Figures)

For figures of all types, please check that

-images are clear,

-lines are smooth and sharp,

-font is simple and legible

-Units of measurement are provided

-axes are clearly labeled, and elements within figures are labeled or explained.

Figures should be numbered sequentially based on their appearance in the text. The figure number should be presented below the figure and the legend should appear below the figure number in italic title case. Authors are requested to supply the legend separately, not attached to the figure.

Tables

Tables are to be presented in editable text format instead of images, either placed next to relevant text or on separate pages. Tables should be numbered sequentially based on their appearance in the text. The table number should be presented above the table and the caption should appear below the table number in italic title case. Data in the tables should not duplicate information given elsewhere in the article. Additionally, any notes related to the table that cannot be understood from the table title or body alone (e.g., definitions of abbreviations) should be placed below the table body.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The JCLR online submission system allows supplementary information to be submitted together with the main manuscript file and cover letter. JCLR word template can assist you by modifying your page layout, text formatting, headings, title page, image placement, and citations/references such that they agree with the guidelines of the journal. If you believe your article is fully edited per journal style, please use our MS Word template before submission.

Supplementary materials may include figures, tables, methods, videos, and other materials. They are available online and linked to the original published article. Supplementary tables and figures should be labeled with an "S", e.g. "Table S1" and "Figure S1".

The maximum file size for supplementary materials is 10 MB each. Please keep the files as small as possible to avoid the frustrations experienced by readers with downloading large files.

 Submission to the Journal is on the understanding that:

1. The article has not been previously published in any other form and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
2. All authors have approved the final draft of the manuscript for submission.

 

SUBMISSION

Articles submitted to JCLR are managed using Open Journal Systems, also known as OJS. The manuscript and other correspondence should preferentially be submitted via our online submission system. To submit each manuscript, it is necessary to send the following files according to the instructions mentioned above: title page, anonymous manuscript file (containing title and abstract on the first page and all subsequent parts including tables and figures), cover letter, competing interest form, suggested reviewers, and figures (optional). Once the submission is complete, the system will generate a manuscript ID and send an email to the author’s contact emails.

Author(s) should note that the submission of a manuscript to JCLR does not guarantee its acceptance. The suggested reviewers provided by authors during the submission process will be utilized for other articles and will not be taken into account for their own manuscript.

All manuscripts must be checked (by a native English speaker) and submitted in English for evaluation (in a totally confidential and impartial way).  In case authors feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use our English Language Editing Service.

 

REVIEW/DECISIONS/PROCESSING

Firstly, all manuscripts will be checked by iThenticate, a plagiarism-finding tool. In the next step, the manuscript is subjected to the blind reviewing model used by JCLR for non-plagiarized papers. The manuscript is reviewed by three reviewers selected by the managing editor of JCLR. Furthermore, a reviewer result form is filled out by the reviewer to guide authors. Possible decisions include accept as is, minor revision, major revision, or rejection. Authors should submit back their revisions within 14 days in the case of minor revision, or 28 days in the case of major revision.

Authors need to submit a revision through JCLR online submission system. After the article is reviewed and edited and linguistically edited by a language editor, the corresponding author is asked to apply all suggested corrections to the final formatted proof. The authors should know that no modification is possible after this phase of the publishing process and the corresponding authors are responsible for any probable mistakes in the final publication. The authors should send the finalized proof and the declaration form to the journal for the publication of the accepted manuscript. 

PEER REVIEW POLICY

JCLR operates a single-blind peer-review system. Manuscripts are initially screened by the journal's Editorial team (Editors-in-Chief, Senior Editors, and Associate Editors) and suitable manuscripts are sent to at least three independent reviewers for consideration. Decisions will be made on the recommendations of the reviewers, but final decisions lie with the Editorial team. In case the manuscript is rejected, the journal sends the necessary explanations regarding the reasons for the rejection to the author.

 

PLAGIARISM

There is a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) in the JCLR journal. Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism by iThenticate, a plagiarism-finding tool, before or during publication, and if found they will be rejected at any stage of processing.

 

DATE OF ISSUE

The journal is issued quarterly.

 

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE

Production costs are covered by Article Processing Charges (APC) paid by the authors/institutions/funders upon acceptance of their manuscripts (more information below). There is no charge for submitting a paper to  JCLR. Additionally, there are no editorial processing charges, page charges, or color charges. Upon acceptance of your manuscript, you will be charged a one-time APC. This fee covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available. From January 01, 2025, the APC for the accepted articles with a maximum word count of 4,000 words will be 150 euros. Accepted articles with more than 4,000 words will be charged 240 euros. All submitted articles will be processed and published free of charge up to January 01, 2025.

Withdrawal fee

Withdrawing the article from JCLR database at submission time, during the peer review process, and before the acceptance is free of charge. The accepted and paid manuscript can be withdrawn based on reasonable requests but the APC of the article will not be refunded.

 

Waiving policy

The APC will be fully waived for authors of manuscripts who are residents of a low or lower-middle-income country listed on World Bank, provided that all authors of the manuscript must be residents of these countries in order to qualify. The APC for authors of the manuscript who are residents of middle-income will be reduced to 50% based on the World Bank Middle-Income list. Please communicate with JCLR editorial office to ensure the waiver is correctly applied in this instance. Requests for waiver of APC must be submitted via a separate cover letter at the time of submission by the corresponding author and cosigned by an appropriate institutional official to verify that no institutional or grant funds are available for the payment of the fee. It is expected that waiver requests will be processed and authors will be notified within 2 working days. Author fees or waiver status do not affect editorial decision-making.

POST-PRODUCTION CORRECTION

Please note that no correction to a paper already published will be made by JCLR. Authors are required to ensure the accuracy of the submitted manuscript, especially before the article is published online.

Authors’ corrections to Supplementary Data are made only in exceptional circumstances (for example major errors that compromise the conclusion of the study) as the Supplementary Data is part of the original paper and hence the published record, the information cannot be updated if new data have become available or interpretations have changed.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

JCLR is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. 

 JCLR is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.