Information for Authors

Readership

ELT Journal is truly international, with subscribers in almost every country in the world. Readers of ELT Journal teach EFL, ESL, EAP, and ESP in a range of local contexts and conditions. They work in primary and secondary schools, in colleges and universities, in the state and private sectors. Some are teacher trainers and others are teachers in training. Many hold posts of responsibility and manage ELT programmes and projects.

General information concerning submissions

We have now set up a web-based online submission system for articles, features and reviews. We can now only accept contributions through this system.

Full details of how to make online submissions can be found on the Manuscript Submission webpage.

Authors are requested not to make multiple submissions of the same article to different journals at the same time. We hope that you will have written a submission especially for the specific readership of ELT Journal, so please do not send it to other journals until you have heard back from us. Articles must not contain libellous or defamatory material.

Please do not send more than one submission at a time. ELT Journal will only publish one article per author in each volume of the printed journal.

All submissions are blind reviewed by two experts, one internal and one external. The first is a member of the Editorial Advisory Panel; the second a practitioner or academic in the wider community. In order to maintain anonymity during the peer review process, please avoid stating your name when making a reference to your own work, either in the text or References, and use ‘Author’ instead.

Before you consider submitting your article to ELT Journal, please familiarize yourself with the Journal and the type of article we publish. If you do not have access to recent copies, you may view a sample issue on our website.

ELT Journal invites submissions in a number of categories:

Articles

We welcome articles that draw on experience with new methods, techniques, materials, syllabuses, means of assessment, approaches to teacher training, and other areas of professional interest.

Articles focusing on aspects of the English language (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse features, etc.) are also welcome, so long as they do not require specialist knowledge of linguistics, and so long as they are not purely descriptive or analytical. Readers are interested in the practical applications of language description or analysis.

We are interested in receiving articles that describe carefully planned and executed experiments, provided that the experiment is designed to throw light on a topic which is itself of interest to our readers.

We are also glad to receive articles which deal with the issues implicit in English language teaching in context, e.g. the effects of educational policy, aspects of management, the planning and development of projects, review and evaluation procedures, cultural aspects of ELT, and so on.

Contributors are asked to take into account the following important factors when writing their articles:

Articles should be of interest and relevance to the readers of ELT Journal.
They should be clearly and coherently written so that the contents are internally consistent and accessible to the readership.
ELT Journal is not a journal of primary research. There should be a balance between theory and practice in all submissions. Descriptions of practice should be related to underlying theoretical principles; theoretical concepts should be clarified by reference to their practical applications.
Articles that deal with a particular teaching or learning context should have clear implications for people working in a wide variety of different situations.
Articles must demonstrate an awareness of other and recent work carried out in the area on which they report.
The presentation and discussion of data must not pre-suppose more than a basic knowledge of statistics or of specialized terminology.
Care must be taken not to over-reference articles by supplying lists of sources which contain more than the key references. Articles should contain no more than 15 references. Of these, no more than two should relate to the author’s own work.

Reviews

Unsolicited reviews cannot be accepted for publication. If you are interested in writing a review for ELT Journal, please contact the Reviews Editor at the address given in the Journal or on our website. The website address is given at the end of this guide.

Key concepts in ELT

Key Concepts’ is a feature of the Journal that provides clear and concise accounts of important concepts in the field of ELT. It aims to assist readers in developing an appreciation of central ideas in ELT from a perspective informed by current debate. Unsolicited key concept articles cannot be accepted for publication. The website address is given at the end of this guide.

The View from Here

The View from Here reports on specific topics of interest or issues being dealt with in diverse ELT contexts across the globe. The focus should be on a topic or issue that is of relevance for your local setting that you feel passionate about. The main idea is to report on local issues from your perspective but also consider what lessons or ideas can be drawn for readers in other settings across the globe. It should be locally situated writing with a global message.

Contributions to The View from Here should be approximately 1,500 words in length with a maximum of 5 references. There is no rigid fixed structure to follow but you should try to cover the following content:

Outline issue/topic
Describe your local setting
Present your personal experience and perspective
Reflect on the wider implications of your experience for others in diverse contexts

If you are interested in contributing to The View from Here, please contact Sarah Mercer ([email protected]) for further information.

Comment

This is a feature in which individuals are invited to express their personal, and sometimes controversial, views on professional issues. These views are not necessarily those of the Editor, the Editorial Panel, or the Publisher. The maximum length of contributions is 1,000 words.

Readers respond

This is a forum for readers to contribute their own reactions, perspectives, or experiences in relation to a specific article published in a recent issue. Submissions, which must be a maximum of 1,250 words, will be considered by the Editorial Panel before being accepted for publication.

Correspondence

We welcome letters from readers in response to published articles, features, and reviews. Letters must be a maximum of 500 words and may be edited for length or content.

Preparing an article

In preparing your article, please pay close attention to the following:

Authors

Because of space and layout constraints, we cannot list more than two authors for an article on the contents page. However, all authors will be listed on the first page of the article. In the case of multiple authorship, names will appear in the order in which contributors give them, even if that order is not alphabetical. For purposes of online tagging, please ensure author names are supplied with the first name first, followed by the surname or family name. Please also provide the country along with your affiliation/address.

Length

Articles of around 3,500 words in length are preferred. It is not possible for us to accept articles over 4,000 words long. Please give a word count at the end of your article. Word counts should include tables and appendices, but may exclude the abstract and the list of references.

Style

Please try to make your article as easy to read as possible. Use short headings and subheadings to make the structure of your article clear. If appropriate, illustrate your article with examples, diagrams, tables, etc. If you introduce a term which you think may not be familiar to some readers, give a short definition in a note at the end of the article. The use of 'he' and 'his', 'she' and 'her' is acceptable only when a definite person is being referred to. Please use ‘he or she’, ‘his or hers’; ‘they’ or ‘them’; or plural nouns, e.g. ‘students’, ‘teachers’, etc.

Spelling

Please use standard British English spelling of words such as ‘centre’ or ‘colour’. Where British English has alternative spellings of words such as ‘recognize’/‘recognise’, please use the ‘z’ form, e.g. ‘summarize’. But note that in British English ‘analyse’ is spelt with ‘s’. Please use ‘for example’ in the text and ‘e.g.’ in lists of tables/figures. There should be no comma after ‘e.g.’ or ‘i.e.’.

Please use:

cooperative, email (no hyphen); internet (capital letter not necessary, but please be consistent); online (no hyphen); per cent (two words – only use % in tables/figures); sociocultural (no hyphen); website (no hyphen); learnt (not learned); focus, focuses, etc. (one ‘s’); none the less (three words); on to (two words).

Numbers

One to ten (in words), 11, 12, and so on in figures, unless these appear at the beginning of a sentence or when both a small and large number appear in the same sentence, e.g. … ‘5 classes of 28 …’. When using thousands, please use a comma separator, e.g. 2,500. Fractions should be written in words and hyphenated. Percentages in the text are normally given as whole numbers, e.g. 27 per cent, but can be given with decimal points in tables/figures where necessary.

Lists

First level lists should be numbered first, with lower-level lists being alphabetized.

Numbered and alphabetized lists should have no full points or brackets around the initial number / letter, e.g.

1 The house they lived in was green.
a It used to be blue before it was green.
b It used to be red before it was blue.
2 The building they worked in was blue.

Alphabetized lists:

a The house they lived in was green.
b The building they worked in was blue.

Bulleted lists should have no punctuation at the end except for the final point:

houses were green
buildings were blue
garages were red.

Commonly used abbreviations

The following do not need to be spelt out in either the abstract or text:
EAP, EFL, ESP, ELT, ESOL, TESOL, NS (native speaker), NNS (non-native speaker), IATEFL, L1, L2, IT, CELTA

Countries and organizations: United States of America (USA, or US for descriptive purposes); United Kingdom (UK). (No full points.)

Foreign characters

These appear most commonly in names, and should be marked up for the typesetters. Foreign language words should appear in italics without single quote marks, e.g. ‘… the word platano means ‘banana’ in English’.

Title and abstract

Please give your article a brief, clear, and informative title. Titles should preferably be no more than 50 characters long, with an absolute maximum of 70, including spaces. Begin your article with an abstract of no more than 150 words summarizing your main points. Please do not make reference to other publications in the abstract; any abbreviations defined in the abstract (other than those listed above) should be spelt out again on first mention in the text.

Format

See the separate file ELTJ template for guidance on formatting your article with the correct layout. It is not necessary to format first submissions.

Headings and subheadings

Headings and subheadings should be on a separate line, ranged left. Underline main headings, but do not underline subheadings. Do not use a numbering or lettering system for headings. Do not try to format your submission in the style of a published article.

Page numbers

Please make sure that pages are numbered.

References in the text

If you wish to make references in the text to other publications please do so clearly and in the following way: author’s surname, date, and page number in parentheses, e.g. (Kramsch 1993: 35). If the reference is to a general argument or topic covered by the author, you may omit the page number. However, a quotation or a specific point made by an author must be supported by a page number reference. If you refer to the same publication twice (or more) in quick succession, please use the following form on the second or subsequent occasion, e.g. (Kramsch ibid.: 156). If you refer to the same publication more than once, but not on the same page, then please use the following form on the second or subsequent occasion, e.g. (Kramsch op.cit.). Please remember not to over-reference your article either in relation to specific points you make in the text (maximum of two references to support any specific point), or overall (maximum of 15 references overall). In your article, please make sure you refer to no more than two of your own previous publications.

As previously stated, in order to maintain anonymity during the peer review process, please avoid stating your name when making a reference to your own work, either in the text or References, and use ‘Author’ instead. If a publication has two or more authors/editors, please list all names in the References and in the first instance in the text (then use et al. thereafter); if referring to two or more publications, please list these chronologically rather than alphabetically, e.g (Waters 1998; Seedhouse 2004).

List of references

Please give full bibliographical details of references and list them in alphabetical order of author, following the style of the examples given below. Page numbers for journal articles should be truncated where possible (e.g. ELT Journal 63/1: 25–9; ELT Journal 60/3: 213–21). However, no page ranges are required for books.

British Council. 2006. Future Perfect-English Language Policy for Global Transition Conference Report. Available to download as a pdf. (accessed 18 December 2007). [Note that for internet/web references, a full web address is required together with a date accessed.]

Donato, R. and F. Brooks. 1994.'Looking across collaborative tasks: capturing L2 discourse development’. Paper presented at AAAL Conference, Baltimore, Maryland.

Johnson, K. 2008. An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching (Second edition). Harlow: Pearson Longman.

Littlejohn, A. 1992. 'Why are ELT materials the way they are?'. Unpublished PhD thesis, Lancaster University, UK.

Nunan, D. 1990. 'Action research in the language classroom' in J.C. Richards and D. Nunan (eds.).

Pennington, M.C. 1990 'A professional development focus for the language teaching practicum' in J. C. Richards and D. Nunan (eds.). [Note this format when your list of references contains two or more mentions of an edited collection.]

Richards, J. C. and D. Nunan (eds.). 1990. Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J. 1989. 'Service English programme design and opportunity cost' in R.K. Johnson (ed.). The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Note this format when your list of references contains only one mention of an edited collection.]

Wenden, A. 1986a. 'Helping language learners think about learning'. ELT Journal 40/1: 3-12.

Wenden, A. 1986b. 'What do second language learners know about their language learning?' Applied Linguistics 7/2: 186-201.

Footnotes

Short notes can appear in the text within brackets; longer ones should be collected together at the end of the article. There will be no footnotes on individual pages. Please number your notes consecutively, giving clear superscript numbers in the appropriate places. You should not include more footnotes than are absolutely necessary.

Acknowledgements

Please do not include acknowledgements to colleagues or students who may have helped you during the writing of the article. It is often difficult to find space to credit all those who might be credited and we have therefore decided to leave it to authors to express their thanks personally.

Illustrations

If your article is to contain essential illustrations (including diagrams, tables, charts, etc.), please supply them in electronic form in a separate file from the main document, labelled Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. References to illustrations should be clearly indicated in parentheses in the text, e.g. (Insert Figure 1 here).

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work. 

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs.

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article.

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.

Reusing copyrighted material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, or images. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following:

nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in ELT Journal
rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
lifetime rights to use the material
worldwide English-language rights

Our publisher, Oxford University Press, provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information. Do be sure to find the original rights holder for each image, particularly by avoiding Google Images, Wikimedia Commons, etc, and also blogs in many cases (unless there is a credit line pointing to the rights holder).

Biographical note

It is not necessary to include biographical details with a first submission.

Data collection materials

ELTJ encourages authors to consider uploading their data collection materials to the IRIS database which is an online repository for data collection materials used for second language research. This includes data elicitation instruments such as interview and observation schedules, language tests, pictures, questionnaires, software scripts, url links, word lists, teaching intervention activities, amongst many other types of materials used to elicit data. Please see the IRIS webpage for more information and to upload. Any questions may be addressed to [email protected].

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, ELTJ strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.

Data Citation

ELTJ supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

[dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Preprint policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Pre-submission language editing

If your first language is not English, language editing to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers is optional. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. For further information on this service, please see the language services webpage. Several specialist language editing companies offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

Terms of acceptance

The Editor does not undertake to return any copies of the manuscript. Contributors are advised to retain at least one copy for themselves.
Contributions to ELT Journal are sent to members of the Editorial Advisory Panel and acceptance is dependent upon their recommendation for publication. Within approximately three months of receiving it, the Editor will try to let you know whether, and if possible when, your contribution will be published.
The Editor reserves the right to ask for reformatting of articles not submitted in the way indicated in this guide.
The Editor reserves the right to make editorial changes in any manuscript accepted for publication to enhance style or clarity. A copy-edited version of the article will be sent to authors for approval, and should be returned with comments and/or corrections by the given date. Please, therefore, give your full address, fax number, and email address (if available).
The cost of all fees payable for permission to use copyright material shall, unless otherwise agreed, be borne by the author.
The Editor will assume that an article submitted for consideration has not been previously published, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere, either in the submitted form or in a modified version. Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals, authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form. It is a condition of publication in ELT Journal that licence is assigned to Oxford University Press, subject to the following conditions:
1. In assigning licence, you may use the article in subsequent publications written or edited by yourself, provided that acknowledgement is made of ELT Journal as the place of original publication, and that permission is obtained from the Publisher.
2. The Publisher will normally give permission to a third party to reproduce your work in whole or in part, provided that your consent is also obtained. You are asked to refer to OUP all enquiries from third parties to reproduce your work.
3. Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. Please notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

Open access options for authors

ELT Journal offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals, authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Third-party content in open access papers

If you will be publishing your paper under an Open Access licence but it contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content
Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.

Author Toll Free Link and Discounts

All corresponding authors will be provided with a free access link to their article upon publication. The link will be sent via email to the article’s corresponding author who is free to share the link with any co-authors. Please see OUP’s Author Self-Archiving policy for more information regarding how this link may be publicly shared depending on the type of license under which the article has published.

All authors have the option to purchase up to 10 print copies of the issue in which they publish at a 50% discount. Orders should be placed through this order form. Orders must be made within 12 months of the online publication date.

Tips on promoting your article

At OUP, we ensure that your article is highly discoverable and can be found by the people who need to read it. In addition, as author of your article, you’re uniquely well-placed to raise the profile of your research within your network; our marketing team have put together a list of simple self-promotion tips to help you.

ELT Journal website