Linguistic Forum - A Journal of Linguistics

Aims & Scope

Linguistic Forum - A Journal of Linguistics is a peer-reviewed, international and interdisciplinary journal publishing original research articles and significant contributions to language studies. The journal is a valuable resource for linguists, teachers, counselors, supervisors, educational administrators, school principals, educational policymakers, curriculum planners, and educational researchers as they consider the structure of tomorrow's educational system.

LinFo publishes research employing a variety of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research and approaches in all areas in the field of language studies. The goal of the journal is to increase understanding of learning and teaching in early childhood, primary, secondary, vocational and higher education in order to contribute to the improvement of educational processes and outcomes.

MARS Publication Ethical Statement

LinFo hopes to be a member of the Higher Education Commission and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). MARS Publishing takes the responsibility to enforce a rigorous peer-review together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. MARS Publishing takes such publishing ethics issues very seriously and our editors are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy. To verify the originality of content submitted to our journals, we use turnitin to check submissions against previous publications.

Peer Review Policy

The practice of peer review is to ensure that only good science is published. It is an objective process at the heart of good scholarly publishing and is carried out by all reputable scientific journals. Our referees play a vital role in maintaining the high standards LinFo and all manuscripts are peer reviewed following the procedure outlined below. 

Initial Manuscript Evaluation 

The Editor first evaluates all manuscripts. It is rare, but it is possible for an exceptional manuscript to be accepted at this stage. Manuscripts rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the minimum criteria are normally passed on to at least 2 experts for review.

Types of Peer Review 

LinFo employs double blind reviewing, where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process. 

How the Referee is selected? 

Whenever possible, referees are matched to the paper according to their expertise and our database is constantly being updated. 

Referee Reports

Referees are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript:

• is original
• is methodologically sound
• follows appropriate ethical guidelines
• has results which are clearly presented and support the conclusions
• correctly references previous relevant work.
• Language correction is not part of the peer review process, but referees may, if so wish, suggest corrections to the manuscript. 

How long does the review process take? 

The time required for the review process is dependent on the response of the referees. Should the referee’s reports contradict one another or a report is unnecessarily delayed, a further expert opinion will be sought. In rare cases for which it is extremely difficult to find a second referee to review the manuscript, or when the one referee’s report has thoroughly convinced the Editor, decisions at this stage to accept, reject or ask the author for a revision are made on the basis of only one referee’s report. The Editor’s decision will be sent to the author with recommendations made by the referees, which usually includes verbatim comments by the referees. Revised manuscripts might be returned to the initial referees who may then request another revision of a manuscript. 

Final Report 

A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the referees, and may include verbatim comments by the referees. 

Editor’s Decision is final 

Referees advise the editor, who is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.

Becoming a referee for LinFo 

If you are not currently a referee for LinFo but would like to be considered as a referee, please contact the editor. The benefits of refereeing for LinFo include the opportunity to read see and evaluate the latest work in your research area at an early stage, and to contribute to the overall integrity of scientific research and its published documentation. You may also be able to cite your work for LinFo as part of your professional development requirements for various Professional Societies and Organisations.

Copy Right / Open Access

Articles published in LinFo will be Open-Access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The copyright is retained by the author(s). MARS Publishing will insert the following note at the start of the published text:

• © 2021 by the authors; licensee MARS Publishers. This article is an open access and licensed under the terms of conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).