Linguistic Forum - A Journal of Linguistics

Aims and Scope

Linguistic Forum (LinFo) under ISSN Online 2707-5273, is a peer-reviewed and an open access scholarly journal whose major concern is the promotion of understanding of the field of Applied Linguistics to the scholars and providing a forum for publishing their research articles in a journal with proper credentials.

LinFo aims to present discussions and the developments of multidisciplinary research and generate broad and practical applications for the study of languages in the world of today. LinFo warmly welcomes contributions of scholars and researchers working within any linguistic and theoretical approach.

LinFo publishes an original research articles, reviews, reports, theses, and proposals on the linguistic debates and issues. LinFo publishes quarterly and it is a platform which acknowledges the research works submitted through a quick process at Linguistic Forum - Register which are initially reviewed by the expert editors who decide about the articles to be forwarded for review process or not on the basis of parameters developed covering plagiarism policy, paper length, clarity and organization of the content, and the overall write-up quality.

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 bottom of the first page of the published text:

Published by Licensee MARS Publishers. Copyright: © the author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).