Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Author Guidelines

Manuscripts should be formatted as anonymised word documents, double spaced in 12pt type with numbered pages to aid reviewers in making comments.  Images, figures and tables, where used, should be in the body of the text and appropriately numbered.  Footnotes rather than endnotes should be used.  We do not enforce a particular citation style, recognising that our diverse authors prefer to make use of a standard referencing format, such as Harvard or APA that is in common usage in their professional or academic context. Please make sure that it is used consistently in your paper.


Frequently Asked Questions

“Is there a strict word or character limit for submissions?”

IJCLE as an online journal does not have strict minimum/ maximum character counts for submitted work.  However, we are an academic peer –reviewed journal and our readers will have certain expectations about the length of different types of article and for this reason we offer guideline lengths as follows:

Reviewed Articles – 6,000- 8,000 words
Practice Reports – 5,000- 6,000 words
From the Field – 2,000- 4,000 words
Reviews (Books and other media) – 2,000- 3,000 words.

An advantage of the online journal is that we have the capacity to include more figures, diagrams and pictures (of course with necessary permissions) than print-only titles.

If your work does not fit into these categories, please contact the editor in the first instance to discuss it.


You can view a podcast about writing for the IJCLE here.


“When should I submit my paper and when will it be published?”

The journal currently appears three times a year (February, July and November).  All content is subject to some form of review: everything is initially reviewed by the section or managing editor and then From the Field and Reviews given direct feedback, normally within four weeks.  After the initial editorial check (usually within one week of submission) reviewed articles and practice reports are assigned to blinded peer review by two reviewers. The peer-review process is dependent upon the generous contribution of our reviewers and while we aim for the first round of reviews to be completed within a month, this is not always possible.  There then follows a process of proof-reading and copy-editing for publication.  This means that pieces judged to need no revisions at all could be ‘in press’ after a minimum 6-8 weeks.  However, the quality of the feedback given by our reviewers means that many authors wish to make minor amendments to enhance their papers.  Many papers are accepted subject to minor revisions, a process which can take as little as a few weeks.  More substantial revisions are occasionally requested and this may, of course take considerably longer.  Once a paper is ‘in press’ it is likely to appear in the next edition, with the caveat that the editors may choose to hold papers over so as to place them alongside others in order to create debate or enhance the discussion. This process takes place in transparent communication with  the authors.

Reviewed Articles

These articles will be blind peer-reviewed by an Editorial Board Member and an external reviewer. Feedback from these reviews will be given to the author by the strand editor.  Authors wishing to submit papers as Reviewed Articles will need to remove all identifying details from the paper before submission.

Practice Reports

These reports will be internally reviewed by the Editorial Board.  Authors submitting papers as Practice Reports do not have to anonymise their work, though they can do so.

From the Field

News of practice and innovation from a particular geographical or jurisdictional context.

Reviews

Reviews of book, articles, events and multimedia resources of between 200-800 words.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
     
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

 

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