Publication frequency

JALaLit publishes one issue a year.

Journal sections and review process

JALaLit publishes mainly original research articles and considers other scientific contributions such as review articles, notes, discussions, fieldwork material and book reviews. Original research articles undergo a double-blind evaluation process. Every research article that is accepted for consideration will be evaluated by two external referees, selected by the Editors based on their areas of expertise.  The Editors will make the final decision about publication or assess the need for further revision.  We endeavour to get a decision back to authors within 12 weeks of submission.

These are the stages of the review process:

– The author submits his or her manuscript to JALaLit (see Submissions). By submitting an article to JALaLit, the author ensures that the text is original and not already published, and that it is neither in whole nor in part under evaluation in other journals. The author also ensures that he or she has not submitted competing proposals (i.e. proposals that discuss and analyse the same problem in the same terms) to multiple journals.
– The manuscript is reviewed by an internal editor: if the manuscript complies with the guidelines and meets the criteria established by JALaLit, then it is anonymised and sent to two external reviewers. If the manuscript does not meet the criteria set by JALaLit, then the author receives a rejection notification with the relevant reasons. This step takes 1-2 weeks.
– The external reviewers complete their work within 10 weeks. Exceptionally, due to the specificity of submissions to JALaLit, it may happen that the identification of a reviewer and the review itself take longer than 10 weeks. Should this happen, the editorial team will endeavour to update the author on the new timeline.
– Upon receipt of the reviewers' comments and suggestions, the author commits to send the editors a list of changes to be made. Should the author decide not to make one or more of the changes suggested by the reviewers, he/she shall give reasons for doing so.

The list of external reviewers is disclosed every two years. The judgments and opinions of external reviewers on submitted contributions are anonymous.

The contributions in the sections ‘Review articles’, ‘Notes and dicussions’, ‘Fieldwork material’ and ‘Reviews’ are not considered to be original research papers. They are evaluated in single blind mode by an external reviewer.

As per editorial policy, JALaLit generally does not publish articles by the same author two years in a row.

Authors may provide the Editor in Chief with the names of persons they feel should not be asked to review a manuscript because of potential conflicts of interest.

Roles of Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor(s), Editors, and Scientific Board in relation to the review process

Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor(s)/Editors/Scientific Board are responsible for the content of the journal and for ensuring the integrity of all work that is published in it.

• Publication Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor(s) have the right to make the final decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript with reference to the significance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript and its relevance to the journal.
• Review of Manuscripts: JALaLit follows a double-blind review process, whereby Authors do not know Reviewers and vice versa. The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor(s)/Editors are responsible for securing timely, independent and anonymous peer review from suitably qualified reviewers who have no disqualifying competing interests, of all manuscripts submitted to the journal. The Editor/Guest Editor(s) are responsible for ensuring that the journal has access to an adequate number of competent reviewers. The reviewers’ list is disclosed every two years and is published on the journal website.
• Selection: The members of the Scientific Board are active participants in the article selection process. They evaluate editorial proposals and provide recommendations on their scientific validity. The Scientific Board is consulted whenever a peer-reviewed article receives conflicting assessments. Exceptionally and as a last resort, a member of the scientific board may be asked to act as a reviewer in the double-blind review process.
• Fair Review: The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor(s) and the whole editorial team must ensure that each manuscript received by JALaLit is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, etc. of the authors.
• Confidentiality of submitted material: The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor(s) and the whole editorial team will ensure that systems are in place to ensure the confidentiality and protection from misuse of material submitted to the journal while under review and the protection of authors’ and reviewers’ identities and will themselves take all reasonable steps to preserve the confidentiality of authors’ and reviewers’ identities.
• Disclosure: The Editor/Guest Editor(s) should ensure that s qubmitted manuscripts are processed in a confidential manner, and that no content of the manuscripts will be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, as appropriate.
• Conflicts of Interest: The Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor(s) should excuse themselves from considering a manuscript in which they have a real or potential conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, financial or other relationships or connections with any of the Authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript.
• Authority: The Editor-in-Chief must have ultimate authority and responsibility for the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief should respect the Journal’s constituents (Readers, Authors, Reviewers, Guest Editors, Members of the Scientific Board, Editorias), and work to ensure the honesty and integrity of the Journal’s contents and continuous improvement in journal quality.

Repository policy

All versions of a paper (Submitted Manuscript Under Review, Accepted Manuscript, Version of Record) may be deposited in an institutional or other repository of the author's choice without any form of embargo.

Ethical statement

JALaLit is committed to the principles of academic integrity, scientific dissemination, and accessible knowledge.

The Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, and the Editorial and Scientific Board members adopt the principles illustrated in the COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors as the ethical standards of their editorial policy and practice.

Any submission to JALaLit is checked against these guidelines. The Editor-in-Chief and UniorPress are responsible for the fulfilment of such policy.

Research ethics and informed consent

In overseeing the ethics of research practices, The Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, and the Editorial and Scientific Board members adopt the principles outlined in the Anthropological Association of America's Statement on Ethics. In particular, JALaLit ensures that published articles demonstrate, where appropriate, implementation of and compliance with the following principles:

1. Do No Harm
2. Be Open and Honest Regarding Your Work
3. Obtain Informed Consent and Necessary Permissions
4. Weigh Competing Ethical Obligations Due Collaborators and Affected Parties
5. Make Your Results Accessible
6. Protect and Preserve Your Records
7. Maintain Respectful and Ethical Professional Relationships

Anti-plagiarism

All articles submitted to JALaLit are carefully checked to detect any misuse of other texts, including the use of anti-plagiarism software such as Compilatio.
 When plagiarism is detected, action will be taken as recommended in the guidelines drawn up by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

If, on the other hand, readers report plagiarism in a JALaLit article, the editors will: 1) inform the person who reported the abuse of the procedure that will be immediately initiated;
 2) verify the degree of actual coincidence of the JALaLit article with the allegedly plagiarised text(s);
 3) inform the entire editorial staff of JALaLit of the incident in order to collectively decide the next steps;
 4) transmit to the author of the article the evidence that emerges from the comparison with the plagiarised text(s), if any, and ask him/her to account for it.

If it turns out that the author has indeed plagiarised other texts, the JALaLit editors will: 1) inform the author of the plagiarised contribution and the editor of the journal and/or series in which it appeared; 2) publish an official retraction of the article that appeared in JALaLit; 3) withdraw the contribution from the Internet; 4) apply a 5-year embargo to any editorial proposal or submission by the plagiarist.

Retraction, modification and debate

Authors should inform JALaLit as soon as possible if they find errors in their published article, particularly errors that could affect the interpretation of data or the reliability of the information presented. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that a consensus has been reached between all listed co-authors before requesting any corrections to the article. A correction notice will be issued when it is necessary to correct an error or omission where the interpretation of the article may be affected, but the academic integrity or original findings remain intact. A correction notice, where possible, should always be written and approved by all authors of the original article. On rare occasions, when it is necessary to correct an error made during the publication process, the journal may be required to publish a correction without direct input from the authors. However, should this happen, the journal will make every effort to inform the authors.

JALaLit encourages scientific debate and has no preclusions regarding the possibility of publishing research that challenges previously published work. Authors must always be given the opportunity to respond to criticism and the journal has no foreclosure against studies that propose negative results.

Open access

JALaLit is an Open Access journal published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

With the CC-BY licence, authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to download, re-use, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author(s).

No further permission needs to be sought from the author or the journal's board.

This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of Open Access.

Articles processing charges (APC)

JALaLit does not ask for articles processing (APC) or submissions charges. 

Privacy statement

Your name and email address will be used only for the purposes of communicating with you regarding your submission or subscription. Your name or email address will not be disclosed to a third party.