How to write English language articles

 

Guide for Authors

 

Journal of Language Research welcomes research papers in either English or Persian. Authors are encouraged to submit unpublished and complete original works that are not currently being reviewed in any other journal. They are kindly requested to register according to the instructions provided in the journal website at http://zabanpazhuhi.alzahra.ac.ir.

Each manuscript must include the title page, the blind manuscript, the extended abstract for papers in Persian, the abstract in Persian for English papers, cover letter, and the declaration of conflict of interest. The title page (with author details) should include the title, author name(s), affiliation(s), and a complete address of the corresponding author including an academic e-mail address.

The cover letter should simply address the editor noting the title and authors and indicating that the submission is an original manuscript that has not been published or submitted for publication in whole or part to any other publishing source. If data are reported, authors should indicate that the work complied with relevant ethical standards for human subjects protections.

 

 

Submission Requirements

  • Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract.
  • Submission to this journal is via an online submission platform you will be guided stepwise through the creating and uploading of your files. Manuscripts submitted via email are not processed.
  • Before submitting your paper, please ensure that your manuscript complies with the guidelines provided below; submissions that do not comply with the requirements will not be considered for review.
  • All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic excellence.
  • Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of both).
  • The editor-in-chief is free to accept or reject articles.
  • The issue of the acceptance certificate relies on the approval of the editorial board.
  • According to the recent act of the editorial board on 07/07/2024, limited case study research based on the old theories will not be placed in the acceptance priority.

 

Article Structure

Each paper contains the following components:

  • A title (up to fifteen words);
  • Abstract (maximum 250 words, including a statement of the problem, purpose, methodology and results);
  • Keywords (4-8 terms);

Blind manuscript (no author details); The main body of the document should be divided clearly into the following sections:

  • Introduction: This includes the topic of the article, the explicit statement of the research problem, a background completely related to the research, theoretical foundations, and a general picture of the structure of the article;
  • Methodology;
  • Results;
  • Discussion;
  • Conclusion;
  • References.

Those manuscripts submitted in English should also provide a Persian translation of the abstract and keywords.  

 

Formatting Requirements

The authors are strongly recommended to stick to the following guidelines in formatting their manuscripts:

  • Use Times New Roman font in size 12 double-line spacing.
  • Use bold for your article title, with an initial capital letter for all words except functional words (e.g. prepositions, articles, etc.). The title should describe the main message of the article using a single scientifically accurate phrase, and should not contain puns or idioms.
  • The abstract should be no more than 250 words.
  • Margins should be at least 2.5 cm (1 inch).
  • The manuscript should be between 6000 to 8000 words.

 

 

Glossing the examples:

It is required to gloss the linguistic examples in the body of the article. Glossing is a method of providing definitions for words or phrases in a text that may be unfamiliar to the reader. For a more comprehensive guideline on how to gloss your linguistic examples please see The Leipzig Glossing Rules at https://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources/glossing-rules.php.

 

IPA symbols and transcription

  • Phonetic transcription should make use of the symbols and conventions of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in its latest revision (available at https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart).
  • In IPA transcription, throughout the entire manuscript and all other files, please use a Unicode-compliant IPA serif (i.e. Times-like) font set which includes a full range of IPA symbols (e.g. Doulos SIL - downloadable from here - Charis, and LaserIPA Unicode). Fonts that are not Unicode-compliant (e.g. IPAKiel) should not be used.
  • Please embed any font used in the paper following these steps: file>options>save>check mark this option: “embed fonts in the file”>ok

 

 

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).

The main title and the subtitles of each section should be separated by a blank line from the previous part and it should be written in bold type. The first line of each subdivision should not begin with an indentation.

 

  • Examples which are presented in the form of clauses or sentences must be numbered in series outside the paragraph and refer to the examples by their number such as:
  1. a) Ali came in late today.
  2. b) Ali came into the office late yesterday morning.

 

Figures and tables embedded in text

  • Please ensure that the numbers and tables included in the single file are placed alongside the relevant text in the manuscript. All graphs, curves, figures and maps must be labeled as “Figure”.
  • All tables and figures should be labeled and formatted in APA style with numbering, title, notes, etc.
  • The figure/table title needs to be placed on the top of that figure/table and their notes immediately appeared above the figure/table.
  • Number all tables sequentially as you refer to them in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.), likewise for figures (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).
  • Use 10-point Time New Roman font for labels and text in the tables and figures.

You can find illustrative examples for the tables and figures in the APA style at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-tables and https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-figures respectively.

 

Footnotes

  • Footnotes should include explanatory material not included in the body of the text. All footnotes should begin with lowercase letters, except for proper nouns and theoretical principles.
  • Footnote numbering should restart from 1 on each page.
  • Footnotes should be written by font Times New Roman in font size 10.

 

 

Acknowledgments

This should come after conclusion. This section shouldn’t be numbered. Its purpose is to thank all of the people who helped with the research but did not qualify for authorship. Acknowledge anyone who provided intellectual assistance, technical help (including with writing and data analyses), or special equipment or materials.

This section should also be used to provide information about funding by providing specific grant numbers and titles. List the name(s) of the funding organization(s) in full, and identify which authors received funding for what.

 

 

In-text citation

  • All citations for less than three authors in the text should include both the name of the authors and the year of publication.
  • For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus "et al." and the year of publication. Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically).
  • Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically; e.g. (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan & Jones, 1995).
  • According to APA instructions, for direct quotes of less than 40 words, incorporate them into the text and enclose the quote with double quotation marks. For an example and to learn more on this, please check: https://libraryguides.vu.edu.au/apa-referencing/7GettingStarted#s-lg-box-wrapper-24941437.
  • For direct quotes of 40 or more words start on a new line and indent the whole block ~1 cm from the left, do not add any additional space before or after the quote. The entire quote should be double-spaced. Quotation marks are not required.
  • When you include a direct quotation, include the author, date, and page number on which the quotation can be found, e.g. (Pullman, 1996: 21).
  • For references with the same author, the references of the same author with multiple works are arranged alphabetically and chronologically by author’s surname follwed by appending letters to the years. A comma is used between each work. For example, “…in his work on rock art (Bednarik, 2001a, 2003b, 2003c, 2003d).”
  • In order to refer to different authors with the same surnames, the first letter of their first names should be mentioned, too. For instance: Sadeghi, L. (2014), Sadeghi, V. (2020).
  • For works with no date, “n.d.” is used in each citation.
  • For the works to be published soon, “in-press” is used after the author’s name (Sadeghi, in-press).
  • When a group author with an abbreviation should be cited, for the first citation in the parenthetical form, the complete name should be metioned plus the abbreviation inside brackets followd by date, for instance, (American Phonetics Association [APA], 2020). For the subsequent citations, only the abbreviated form should be applied. In the case of the narrative citation, the complete name, in the first citation, should be mentioned, and the abbreviated form and the date are put in parentheses, for exapmle, American Phonetics Association (APA, 2020). The abbreviated form should be used for the subsequent citations.
  • All references mentioned in the reference list must be cited in the text, and vice versa.

 

Reference formatting

In the reference list, all online documents should include a DOI if they have one, and if not available, use a URL.

 

Within the references section, the citations should be formatted based on APA style (7th ed.), as below:

 

Books:

Last Name, F. N. (Date of Publication). Title (E. F. N. Editor Last Name, Ed.; Edition). Publisher.

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

Nourbakhsh, M. (2013). Doing physical phonetics using a computer. Elm publication. [In Persian]

 

Articles:

Last name, A. F., & Lastname, A. F. (Date of Publication). Title. Magazine, Volume (Issue), pages Used. https://doi.org/DOI

Petit, C., & Sieffermann, J. (2007). Testing consumer preferences for iced-coffee: Does the drinking environment have any influence? Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 18(1), 161-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2006.05.008

Noorbakhsh, M., Bijankhan, M., & Rohani, H. (2010). Perception of voice onset time (VOT) in Standard Persian initial stops. ZABANPAZHUHI (Journal of language research), 1(2), 173-203. https://10.22051/jlr.2014.1046 [In Persian]

 

Chapters:

Last Name, A. A., & Last Name, B. B. (Date of Publication). Title of chapter: Subtitle. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book: Subtitle (edition*, pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI or URL (if electronic)

Le Couteur, D., Kendig, H., Naganathan, V., & McLachlan, A. (2010). The ethics of prescribing medications to older people. In S. Koch, F. M. Gloth & R. Nay (Eds.), Medication management in older adults (pp. 29-42). Springer. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-457-9_3 

 

Thesis/Dissertations:

Last Name, S. (Date of Publication). Title of [Unpublished master’s thesis/doctoral dissertation]. Name of the University.

Stewart, Y. (2000). Dressing the tarot [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Auckland University of Technology.

 

Websites:

Roberts, N. (2020, June 10). Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, qualifies to run for elected office. BET News.https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/06/10/trayvon-martin-mother-sybrina-fulton-qualifies-for-office-florid.html

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml