An Insider Look at a Foreign Language Journal

1. An Insider Look at aForeign Language Journal  Zheng-sheng Zhang (???) San Diego State University Editor, JCLTA zzhang@mail.sdsu.edu FLTA conference, Washington, DC. December 2009

3. Why Read Journals ? present original research represent current, on-going research stringently peer-reviewed shorter, sharper focus

4. Why Write for Journals ? no financial rewards: a few free issues and off prints �Publish or perish!� journal articles often more important for promotion than books contribute to the intellectual discourse! make an impact on the field! good for the writer; writing helps develop ideas (�Writing makes an exact man�, Francis Bacon)

5. Language Journals for practitioners, by practitioners practical as well as theoretical broader scope literature, linguistics, culture !pedagogy good forum for developing/sharing innovations

6. Where to Find Language Journals? Academic OneFile (Gale/Cengage Learning) Bibliographie Linguistique/Linguistic Bibliography Bibliography of Linguistic Literature/Bibliographie Linguistischer Literatur (BLL) British Education Index Database on English Language Teaching for Adults in Australasia EBSCO Academic Search EBSCO Communication and Mass Media Index EBSCO Current Abstracts EBSCO Education Research EBSCO MasterFILE EBSCO Professional Development Collection Educational Research Abstracts Online ERIC European Reference Index for the Humanities Humanities and the Social Sciences IBR International Bibliography of Book Reviews of Scholarly Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences IBZ International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Fields of Arts and Informationszentrum f�r Fremdsprachenforschung (IFS) Institut de l�Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST) International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts MLA International Bibliography OCLC Electronic Collections Online Periodicals Archive Online Periodicals Index Online ProQuest Education Complete Scopus Wilson Education Abstracts Wilson OmniFile

7. General Language Journals published in English on general issues of language teaching/learning issues in specific languages that may have general implications

11. Journals with Narrower Focus Technology in language teaching Heritage language issues

15. Language-Specific Journals Bilingual (English and target language) In addition to general issues, also those that are specific to the target language only, e.g., Unusual script and tones for Chinese Diglossia in Arabic Honorific system in Japanese Aspectual system in Russian

29. The Manuscript: Content matters ideas are everything do you have anything new to say highlight your own contribution everything you say must be relevant if not necessary, apply Occam's razor !

30. The Manuscript: Form Matters follow accepted format typical length of article: 20-30 pages be reader friendly (background, terminology ) beware of differences in rhetorical styles do proofread (with native speaker help)

31. Besides the Typical Article

33. How to Submit?

34. Submission Dos & Don�ts

35. The Review Process �double-blind�, peer reviewed more than one reviewer (not just editorial board) no money is involved comments general/specific on/off paper to author/editor maybe negative maybe conflicting Tip: never take the criticism personally

36. JCLTA Review Form Please rate the manuscript on each of the following criteria: excellent, good, fair, poor/weak, or not applicable Statement of thesis, purpose, or research problem Awareness of prior study on same or related subject Contribution to the field Clarity, organization, and quality of writing Quality of the research and soundness of the conclusions Does this article have implications or practical applications? Importance or relevance of the subject matter to the field

37. JCLTA Review Form (continued) Recommendation (select one): Accept for publication (almost never) Accept conditionally pending satisfactory completion of suggested revisions Reject in current form, but encourage the author to revise and resubmit Reject for reasons given (at the discretion of the editor, comments may be sent to author)

38. Revision, Revision don�t put the paper away! Get to work! once may not be enough all it takes may be just reframing/reorganizing the materials no need to follow all suggestions in resubmission, indicate clearly what you have (not) changed do not �dialog� with reviewers in the article

39. Final Edit �There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.� (English novelist Anthony Trollope) every word/comma counts. take extra care with those pesky References! a lot is at stake! example: A paper going through final edit

40. How Long does it Take? normal: 3 month, 6 month, 1 year or longer why? review?revision ? review�. delay by reviewers/editors/authors Tip: Some journals give turn-around time

41. More Readings on Academic PublishingSuggestions on Writing for Publication in Language Learning JournalsGeorge Jacobshttp://www.georgejacobs.net/suggestions_on_writing_for_publi.htmTips for Academic PublishingMary Bucholtz, UCSBhttp://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/sociocultural/publishingtips.html

42. Questions?If you would like a copy of the ppt, please write to: Zheng-sheng Zhangzzhang@mail.sdsu.edu