Peer Review Policy
All manuscripts submitted to the Editorial office of the Journal of Language & Education are subject to mandatory double-blind or open peer review.
The type of peer review is chosen by the authors themselves, and they prepare the manuscript for submission to the editorial office based on the selected type of peer review. Double-blind review implies that neither the reviewer is aware of the authorship of the manuscript, nor the author maintains any contact with the reviewer. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their identities and institutional affiliations are excluded from the manuscript. In the case of open peer review, it is the authors' responsibility to include this information as specified in the journal's Template for each article type.
Submitted manuscripts are initially checked against minimal acceptance criteria to verify that their research subject fits the aims and scope of Journal of Language & Education and that all formal requirements set out in the Author guidelines are appropriately addressed. In cases where a manuscript is presented in a form contradicting the requirements given in the Author guidelines, the author/s are requested to re-submit the text in the appropriate form.
If the manuscript does not meet the journal's requirements, the editor conducting the initial screening has the right to make a decision to reject the manuscript without sending it for peer review (desk rejection). After that the author may be sent an explanation of the reasons for the rejection, such as issues with the structuring of the manuscript, the functionality of its structural components, the quality of style and presentation, doubts about the validity of the results due to the lack of justification in the research design, and others.
A submitted manuscript that meets the minimal acceptance criteria is forwarded to peer review by two or more experts in the corresponding research field.
Peer review is performed by leading researchers, including the Editorial board and Editorial council members. The Editor-in-chief or Deputy editors select reviewers for each submitted manuscript.
The peer-review process in Journal of Language & Education is normally completed within the period of 1 month. However, upon the request of the reviewer/s, or if an additional expert evaluation is required, the peer-review period can be extended. The author/s are notified in writing on the extension of the peer-review period.
Reviewers are informed that the manuscripts sent for review are privileged communications and are the private property of the author/s. Reviewers should decline a peer-review invitation in the case of any relationships that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest, since such relationships may affect the impartial evaluation of the work under review.
Upon the completion of peer review, reviewers are requested to make one of the following recommendations:
(1) accept the manuscript for publication it its current form;
(2) invite the author/s to revise their manuscript following the presented suggestions;
(3) suggest that the publication decision be reached following additional reviewing by another expert;
(4) reject the manuscript outright.
Reviewers are requested to include the assessment of the following aspects in their report: (1) relevance of the presented research to the contemporary achievements in the corresponding field; (2) novelty and impact of the obtained results; (3) advantages and disadvantages of the research design; (4) quality of figures and tables, as well as other illustrative materials; (5) functionality of the manuscript sections, including the quality of references, the abstract, etc.
The texts of the reviews are forwarded to the author/s. Authors' refusal to revise the manuscript according to the reviewers' comments is considered by the editorial team as a withdrawal from publication. However, the author is not required to follow every single comment from the reviewers. If the author disagrees with a reviewer’s comment, they should justify their disagreement (or partial agreement) with the suggested revisions in the cover letter. This approach fosters genuine communication between authors and reviewers and contributes to the substantial improvement of the manuscript.
If a reviewer declines to conduct a re-review of the revised manuscript, a new reviewer will be assigned. In cases where the reviewers' opinions are polarized, an additional reviewer may be invited, or a meta-reviewer may be appointed (particularly when more than two reviews have already been received for the manuscript).
The revised version of the manuscript should be re-submitted within the period of maximum 2 weeks for final assessment. The revised manuscript is additionally sent for review to the same reviewers.
Revised manuscripts re-submitted more than 2 weeks after receiving the initial review are withdrawn from the publication process. Authors must submit these manuscripts as new submissions. The Editorial board will treat them as entirely new submissions.
Positive reviews do not guarantee the acceptance, since the final decision on the publication lies exclusively with the Editor-in-chief.
Manuscripts that have been rejected following the peer-review process cannot be submitted to Journal of Language & Education again.
Upon the decision to accept the manuscript for publication, the author is notified of the scheduled period of publication.
All conflict situations arising during peer review are resolved exclusively by the Editor-in-chief.
Original reviews of submitted manuscripts remain deposited during the period of 5 years.
No fee is charged for providing peer review.