Submissions

Author Guidelines

Summary of Important Items when submitting a manuscript

• Be certain that your manuscript contains suitable material for the journal (Middle East Journal of Applied Linguistics). Out of scope articles will be returned to authors without review. Please read the Aims & Scope of the journal.
• Please read the web page on Publishing Ethics: Mejal.net
• Please provide a covering letter explaining the contribution of the manuscript.
• Grammar, spelling and accuracy are considered as the most important screening criterion. If your manuscript contains errors in English, it will be returned. Non-English speaking authors are encouraged to have their manuscript checked and edited by a native English speaker. Alternatively, the use of language editing services can be used to improve the English of a manuscript.
• Manuscripts, which do not meet the novelty, significance, and competence criteria (Aims & Scope of the journal) will be returned to authors at any stage, at the discretion of the Editor.
• References must follow the format as stipulated in this guide. Your manuscript will be returned if the format of the references is not correct.
• Ensure that figures are adequately labelled (coordinates, scale bar, orientation) and the resolution is sufficient for publication scale.
• Choose the appropriate article type (Research or Review. see Aims & Scope). Ensure your manuscript falls within the word limit for the article type that you choose (i.e., max 7000 words). Please note: maximum word count is based on the text, excluding abstract, keywords, references and captions.
• If you are submitting a revised manuscript, CLEARLY address, point-by-point, to the comments provided by the reviewers. This includes any request for improvements in the English.
• Briefly, the format of your manuscript must be:

1. in a word processing format (i.e. MS Word). DO NOT SUBMIT PDF DOCUMENTS).
2. single column.
3. The text is single-spaced between lines: uses 12 point font and underlining only where underlining is required in the final publication.
4. line numbers
5. adhere to the reference format standard for the journal (APA Style Format 6th Edition).
6. No references to papers published in Academia.edu, black listed or Predatory Journals.
7. figures and Tables must be placed and properly labelled in the manuscript submitted.

Peer Review Process

MEJAL is a double blind peer-reviewed journal. Each submission is reviewed by two reviewers with expertise in the content area of the paper. The identities of the author(s) and the reviewers remain anonymous throughout the process.

Reviewers are asked to comment on:

• The relevance of the paper to the focus of the journal which is the teaching, learning or use of English in Middle East and North Africa or by Middle Easterners outside the Middle East.
• The originality of the paper's content.
• The quality of the paper in terms of language accuracy and structuring of ideas.

Acceptance of papers
The procedure for acceptance of papers is in two parts: the initial editor’s screen check and the double blind peer review. These are detailed below:

a) Initial editor’s screen check
Before assigning the submission to peer review all papers will be checked by the editor for:

• Relevance of content to the scope of the journal (see scope of the journal)
• Word length (maximum length is 7000 words)
• Similarity of content to other published work

If papers fail one or more of these checks the editor will contact the author(s) for further discussion.

1. 
   b) The peer-review process
   All papers which pass the initial editor’s check will undergo a process of double-blind peer review to inform editorial decisions and to improve papers (where relevant). This means that papers will be reviewed by two members from the list of submissions reviewers who are requested to conduct the review by the editor based on their own areas of expertise (click here to see the criteria for the review). Authors and reviewers will not be informed of each other’s identity. The reviewers will offer their advice to the editor who will then decide on the course of action to be taken. In exceptional circumstances the editor may request advice from a third reviewer. In all cases, the editor will include the reviewers’ advice in the final reply to the author. This is done regardless of the editorial decision because it offers the author(s) useful feedback about their paper, including advice about other relevant research that authors may not have mentioned, and demonstrates the rationale for the editorial decision. Articles remain confidential until such time as they are published.

 

 

Registering with the Journal #

To make a submission to an OJS 3.1 journal, you will first need to register a user account with a journal and log in). After that, when you login, you will be taken to your Dashboard.

It is currently empty as you have made no submissions.

Submitting an Article #

Start a new submission by clicking the New Submission button on the right side of the screen. You will be taken to Step 1 of a 5-Step process to upload and describe your submission.

Step 1 #

In Step 1 you will provide preliminary information about your submission.

To begin select the appropriate section for your submission (e.g., article, review, etc.). If you aren’t sure which section is appropriate, make your best guess.

Read and agree to the statements in the submission checklist by checking each box. Include any comments for the editor, read the journal’s privacy statement, and then click the Save and Continue button to move to Step 2.

Step 2 #

On Step 2, a window will open allowing you to upload your submission file.

First, you MUST select an Article Component. This lets the system know whether the file is the body of the manuscript, an image, a data set, etc. This must be selected before your file will upload.

Once you’ve made that selection, you can then upload your first file. It is important to note that you can only upload one file at a time. Additional files can be uploaded later in the process. Typically, this first file will be the body of your manuscript. Hit the Continue button once the file uploads.

After uploading the file, you will be asked to review the name of the file. Use the Edit link to make any changes.

Click the Continue button.

Next, you have the option to repeat the process to upload additional files (e.g., a data set or an image).

Once you have finished uploading all of your files, click Complete; this will close the upload window.

You will be brought back to the Submit an Article screen where you will see the files you’ve uploaded. If you need to make changes, expand the blue arrow to the left of your file and make any changes using the Edit link.

Click ‘Save and Continue’ to move to Step 3.

Step 3 #

On Step 3, you will be asked to add more information about the submission, including the title of the submission (broken down into prefix, title, and subtitle), the abstract, and scrolling down…

…any additional contributors.

You can add more contributors (e.g., co-authors), by clicking the Add Contributors link. This will open a new window with fields to enter their information.

Hit Save, and the new contributor will appear on the screen.

Depending on the journal you are submitting to, you may see additional fields to complete, such as keywords.

To enter keyword, simply type the word or phrase and hit your Enter key. The word or phrase will be formatted as a keyword.

Click Save and Continue to move forward.

Step 4 #

On Step 4, you will be asked to confirm that you are happy with your submission.

Click Finish Submission.

A box will pop up asking you to confirm you are finished. Click OK.

Step 5 #

Your submission is now complete! The editor has been notified of your submission. At this point, you can follow the links to:

• Review this submission
• Create a new submission
• Return to your dashboard

Once you complete a submission, you cannot make changes to it. If you want to replace the file you submitted or make other changes to the submission, you will need to contact the editor through the Pre-Review Discussions tool.