L2 Journal Submission

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About

The L2 Journal is an open access, fully refereed, interdisciplinary journal that aims to promote the research and the practice of language learning and teaching. It publishes articles on all aspects of applied linguistics broadly conceived, i.e., second language acquisition theory and practice, second/foreign language pedagogy, bilingualism and multilingualism, language and technology, curriculum development and teacher training, testing and evaluation. The L2 Journal unites the academic rigor of the traditional scholarly review process with the benefits of open-access publication. Timely publication and wide electronic distribution are made possible by the University of California's eScholarship Digital Information Repository.

The journal is housed in the Berkeley Language Center.

L2Journal is indexed in the following services:

  • DOAJ
  • EBSCO
  • ERIC
  • JournalsPedia
  • MLA International Bibliography
  • Scopus

Focus and Scope

The L2 Journal is an open-access, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that aims to promote the research and the practice of world language learning and teaching, particularly languages other than English. The journal is housed in the Berkeley Language Center at the University of California, Berkeley. It publishes articles in English on all aspects of applied linguistics broadly conceived, i.e., second language acquisition, second language pedagogy, bilingualism and multilingualism, language and technology, curriculum development and teacher training, testing and evaluation. The L2 Journal unites the academic rigor of the traditional scholarly review process with the benefits of open-access publication. Timely publication and wide electronic distribution are made possible by the University of California's eScholarship Digital Information Repository.

The L2 Journal seeks submissions of previously unpublished manuscripts on any topic related to the area of world language learning and teaching. Articles should be written so that they are accessible to a broad audience of language educators, including those individuals who may not be familiar with the particular subject matter addressed in the article. General guidelines are available for reporting on both quantitative and qualitative research, as well as on pedagogical reports and think pieces. 

Submission Checklist

The L2 Journal publishes three types of articles: Articles, Teachers’ Forum, and Brief Reports. Please ensure that your submission aligns with the selected submission category as well as the submission guidelines. 

Articles

Submissions in this section may have (1) a theoretical orientation and contribute to building educational theory and/or (2) a research orientation and contribute to understanding and improving world language learning and teaching. All submissions in this section should contribute to both the theory and the practice of world language teaching/learning and should link to previous appropriate research, theory, practices, from existing academic literature (e.g., world language education, second language acquisition, applied linguistics).

All articles in this section are blind peer-reviewed and will be evaluated on general interest; importance/significance to the field; depth, coherence and suitability of the literature review; rigor of methods (for empirical pieces only); and clarity of expression. For empirical manuscripts, authors should follow general guidelines for reporting qualitative and quantitative studies, as outlined in applied language studies. Recommended guides for reporting world language education research can be found via Foreign Language Annals and Second Language Research and Practice. 

Articles in this section should be written in English, with an average length of approximately 8,500 words, including references. 

Teachers' Forum

This section of the journal invites 1) reflective and 2) practical reports on world language teaching. In doing so, the Teachers’ Forum section provides a space for practitioners to reflect on and share insights and innovations from their own practice with a larger community. Although focused primarily on practice, all reports should reference appropriate academic literature (e.g., world language education, second language acquisition, applied linguistics).

All reports are peer-reviewed and will be evaluated with particular attention to their general interest; relevance; value to a broad readership of language educators; style; and quality of writing. All reports should include an implications section, wherein lessons for instructors in different contexts are drawn. 

Submissions to Teachers' Forum should be no longer than 4,500 words, including bibliography but not including appendices, and supplementary materials.

This section has two primary types of submissions: Reflective Reports and Pedagogical Reports.

1) Reflective Reports:

2) Practical Reports: 

  • These reports present innovative curricular or instructional projects in world language education (e.g., curricular projects, pedagogical practices or activities, professional development examples, etc). 
  • In addition to being anchored in appropriate literature, practical reports should include a section on outcomes (descriptive, not necessarily empirical) and on implications.
  • Example reports written in this style

Brief Reports

This section is for short empirical papers on any aspect of world language learning theory and practice. The editors encourage manuscripts that either present preliminary findings or focus on some aspect of a larger study. 

In all cases, the discussion of issues should be supported by empirical evidence and collected through qualitative or quantitative investigations. These brief research reports should present key concepts and results in a manner accessible to our diverse readership. 

Submissions to this section are peer-reviewed and will be evaluated on general interest; relevance value to a broad readership of language educators; style; and quality of writing. 

Submissions to the Brief Reports section should be no longer than 2,000 words (including references, notes, and tables).

Submission Checklist

  • All submissions must be uploaded through our online management system. Before submitting your manuscript, you will be asked to first register and log in to use the online system. Complete instructions are provided on the site. 
  • All article submissions must be properly anonymized. Please delete author names from the text, with “Author” and “Year” used in in-text citations, references, and footnotes, instead of the authors’ name, article title, etc. Author identification should also be removed from all submitted files.
  • Manuscripts should be submitted as a Microsoft Word (.docx) or OpenOffice (.odt) file. 
  • In the online submission system, please provide the names, institutions, e-mail addresses, and a 50-word biographical statement for each author.
  • The main manuscript file should include the title, abstract, body text, references, and appendices (optional). Please include all tables, figures, and images inline in the manuscript. 
  • Please include page numbers in your manuscript file. 
  • Research Articles should be no more than 8,500 words in length. Teachers Forum articles should be no more than 4,500 words in length. Brief Reports should be no more than 2,000 words in length.
  • Titles of articles should not exceed 12 words and should adequately describe the content of the article. 
  • The submission should include an abstract that does not exceed 250 words.
  • Entries in the list of references should include a DOI or URL.
  • All manuscripts should be double spaced and in a 12-point font.
  • All submissions should conform to the requirements of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2020). Authors are strongly encouraged to have their manuscripts proofread by an editor familiar with English academic prose and APA guidelines. 
  • Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references and citations.
  • Authors are invited to take advantage of the electronic format by including hypermedia links to multimedia and other materials both within and outside the manuscript.

 

Copyright Notice

The following is an agreement between L2 (the Journal) and the submitter (the Author), governing the work currently being submitted, including the primary contribution as well as any supporting materials such as an abstract, data sets, media files, figures, or tables created by the Author and any co-authors (the Submission).

The Journal is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to readers or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

1. As consideration for publication in the Journal, the Author grants the Journal the following rights:

1.1. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to publish, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute the Work in perpetuity throughout the world in all means of expression by any method or media now known or hereafter developed; and

1.2. A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free right to license others, including databases or printing vendors, to do any or all of the above on a non-exclusive basis.

2. The Author warrants that:

2.1. The Author is the author of the Submission, or is authorized to act on behalf of the author(s) and copyright holder (if different from the author(s)), and has the power to convey the rights granted in this agreement.

2.2. If the Submission has multiple authors, the other authors are identified in the Submission, and the Author will inform the other authors of the terms of this agreement.

2.3. Any textual, graphic or multimedia material included in the Submission that is the intellectual property or work of another is identified and cited in the Submission.

2.4. If the Submission reproduces any material that is the intellectual property of another, the Author has received permission to publish that material in the Submission, or the material is being incorporated based on an informed, reasonable, and good faith application of fair use.

2.5. The Submission is the original work of the Author(s). To the best of the Author’s knowledge, it does not contain matter that is obscene, libelous, or defamatory; it does not knowingly violate another’s right of privacy, right of publicity, or other legal right; does not contain false or misleading statements; and is otherwise not unlawful.

2.6. The Submission has not been previously published, and is not pending review elsewhere. If this is not the case, the Author will provide the Journal with information about the other locations where the Submission appears or is pending review. Prior distribution of a Submission does not mean a Submission will not be considered for publication; the Journal is primarily concerned with other appearances in similar publications.

2.7. If the Author is a student, the Author agrees to share their work and waive any privacy rights granted by FERPA or any other law, policy or regulation, with respect to the Submission, for the purpose of publication. If the Author has any student co-authors, the Author will obtain a signed copy of this agreement from those co-authors.

2.8. The Submission complies with all relevant Journal policies and submission guidelines provided on the Journal’s website at the time of submission, including any policies on conflict of interest, informed consent, human and animal rights, or appropriate content.

3. Indemnification

The Author will indemnify and hold the Journal harmless against loss, damages, expenses, awards, and judgments arising from breach of any of the above warranties.

4. Author’s Rights and Obligations

4.1. Nothing in this agreement constitutes a transfer of the copyright by the Author. As such, the Author retains all rights not expressly granted herein, including but not limited to, the right:

4.1.1. To reproduce and distribute the Submission, and to authorize others to reproduce and distribute the Submission, in any format;

4.1.2. To post the Submission in an institutional repository or the Author’s personal or departmental web page.

4.1.3. To include the Submission, in whole or in part, in another work.

4.2. If the Author distributes the Submission on another website or in another publication (as described above), the Journal will be cited as the source of first publication.

5. Rights for Readers

The Journal and the Author agree that the Submission will be distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), or other later version of the same license, that allows others to copy and redistribute the Submission, as long as they provide appropriate credit to the author(s) and do not use the Submission for commercial purposes. Anyone who uses or redistributes the Submission under this license must indicate any changes that were made, must link to the license, and cannot imply that the author(s) endorse them or their use. Anyone who translates, adapts, or builds upon the Submission may not distribute the modified material. More information about this license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

6. Termination

The Author agrees to the terms of this agreement for the Submission being considered for publication. If the Submission is declined, this agreement is terminated.

Peer Review

To support the quality of scholarship published and to support the editors’ decision making, L2 Journal employs a double-blind model of peer review. All article types, with the exception of articles in the “From the Editor” section of the journal, are subject to this review process.

For every article subject to peer review, journal editors select 2-3 reviewers who have expertise in the relevant subject areas. Peer review generally takes 6-8 weeks.

Editorial decisions draw on peer review assessments but ultimately lie with the journal editors. 

Once received, all articles undergo a two-step review process.

Step 1: Internal Review. The editors of the journal first review each manuscript to ensure that it meets the basic requirements for articles published in the journal. In the case of articles, the basic criteria include considerations of the originality of the research or framework that links previous research, applied linguistics, and teaching practices, and that it is of sufficient quality to merit external review. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements are not sent out for further review, and authors of these manuscripts are encouraged to submit their work elsewhere. This internal review takes about 1-2 weeks. Following the internal review, authors are notified if their manuscript will not be sent out for external review with an explanation for the decision.

Step 2: External Review. Submissions that meet the basic requirements are then sent out for double-blind peer review from 2-3 experts in the field, either from the journal's editorial board or from our larger list of reviewers. This second review process takes 2-3 months. Following the external review, the authors are sent copies of the external reviewers' comments and are notified as to the decision (accept as is or with minor revisions, accept with major revisions, revise and resubmit, or reject). Most manuscripts fall under the "Revise and resubmit" category. Revisions may take a few months and final acceptance may require that the revised manuscript be sent out to one or the other of the original reviewers. 

 

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Cycle

As of 2021, L2 Journal publishes on a continuous publication model, i.e., articles are published as soon as they are ready, without the need to wait for a traditional issue to be compiled. 

 

Sections

Section or article type

Public Submissions

Peer Reviewed

Indexed

Special Issue

Article

Teachers' Forum

Brief Reports