Guidelines for Authors

Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies is a peer reviewed journal that provides a forum in which research on English language teaching and learning from various perspectives can be combined. Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies encourages scholarly contributions from a wide range of international contexts to explore both commonalities and differences in language teaching policy and practice in settings where activity is deliberately organized to promote language learning. It publishes manuscripts which are focused on and have clear implications for language teaching and learning.

All Manuscripts submitted to Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies are generally expected to strictly follow the latest edition of the APA manual (now the seventh edition). Some of the more specific details include the following:

I. In-text citations

All references in the text and notes must be specified by the authors’ last names and date of publication together with page numbers for direct quotations from print sources.

Note the following for the style of in-text citations:

1. If the author’s name is in the text, follow with year in parentheses:

Ellis (2008) has argued...

2. If author’s name is not in the text, insert last name, comma and year:

Several studies (Ellis, 2006; Long, 2005; McNamara, 1996) have described ...

3. For direct quotations, the page number follows the year, preceded by ‘p.’ (not a colon):

It has been noted (Robinson, 2005, p. 51) that...

4. Where there are two authors, always cite both names, joined by ‘and’ if within running text and outside of parentheses

Read (2001) and Wigglesworth (1994) stated that…

5. For a work with three or more authors, include the name of only the first author plus “et al.” in every citation, including the first citationas with no comma after the first author, as shown below:

Ellis et al. (2014) found that…

6. If two or more references by the same author are cited together, separate the dates with a comma (in chronological order):

It has been stated in several studies (Ellis, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006) ...

7. If there is more than one reference to the same author (or by the same two or more authors in the same order) and year, insert the suffixes ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc. after the year of publication and repeat the year. The suffixes are assigned in the reference list, where these kinds of references are ordered alphabetically by title (of the article, chapter, or complete work):

It was described (Ellis, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c) ...

8. List two or more works by different authors who are cited within the same parentheses in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname, separated by semicolons:

It has been noted (Clark, 2001; Miller, 2001) ...

9. When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons: (Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017)

10. If multiple sources are cited within the narrative of a sentence, they can appear in any order: Suliman (2018), Gutiérrez (2012, 2017), and Medina and Reyes (2019) examined . . .

11. When names of groups (e.g. government agencies, universities, etc.) serve as authors, these are usually spelled out each time they appear in a text citation. However, some group authors can be spelled out in the first citation and abbreviated thereafter:

First text citation:

(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2000)...

Subsequent text citation:

 (NIMH, 2000)...

12. Citations from personal communications are not included in the reference list; cite in text only, giving the initials as well as the surname of the communicator and provide as exact a date as possible:

 (R. Ellis, personal communication, April 28, 2000).

II. Reference List

A. General

1. Check that the list is in alphabetical order by surname of the first author

2. Names should be in initial cap, then lower case.

3. Where several references have the same author(s), the name must be repeated each time.

4. Last names containing de, van, von, De, Van, Von, de la, etc. should be alphabetized according to the language of origin.

5. Names containing Jr or II should be listed as follows:

Author Last Name, Initials, Jr. (year).

Author Last Name, Initials, II (year).

6. When ordering several works by the same first author:

Single-author references arranged in date order, the earliest first

Single-author entries precede multiple-author entries beginning with the same surname

Two or more author references in alphabetical order according to the second author’s last name, or if the second author is the same, the last name of the third author, and so on.

References with the same authors in the same order are arranged by year of publication, the earliest first:

Brown, J. (2003)

Brown, T. R., & Yates, P. (2003)

Brown, W. (2002)

Brown, W. (2003a)

Brown, W., Hughes, J., & Kent, T. (2003)

Brown, W., & Jones, M. (2003)

Brown, W., & Peters, P. (2002)

7. Check that all periodical data are included – volume and page numbers (complete span, not shortened), and publisher.

8. Provide surnames and initials for up to and including 20 authors. When there are two to 20 authors, use an ampersand before the final author’s name: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.

9. When there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (but no ampersand), and then add the final author’s name.

B. Reference Styles

Journal article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Name, vol no.(issue no.), xx–xx.

Miller, A. J., Thomson, F., & Callagher, D. (1998). Affluence in suburbia. Suburbian Studies, 12(1), 9–12.

Book

Author, A. A. (1994). Book title. Publisher.

Lin, K. L. (2020). Perspectives on the introductory phase of empirical research articles: A study of rhetorical structure and citation use. Springer.

Chapter in books

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (1994). Chapter title. In A. Editor, B. Editor & C. Editor (Eds.), Book title (pp. xxx–xxx). Publisher.

Connor, U., Ene, E., & Traversa, A. (2016). Intercultural rhetoric. In K. Hyland & P. Shaw (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English for academic purposes (pp. 270-282). Routledge.

Website

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Online article title. Online Journal, xx, xxx–xxx. Retrieved from http://xxxx.xxxx.xx.xx/xxxx/xxxxxx/

Miller, A. J., Thomson, F., & Callagher, D. (1998). Epping case study. Suburban studies, 12, 1–9. Retrieved from http://xxxx.xxxx.xx.xx/xxxx/xxxxxx/

III. Manuscript Style

Manuscripts submitted to Journal of Modern Research in English Language Studies should be based on empirical, or data-based, not review studies and should not be under consideration by any other journal. Neither should they have been published in full or partial form in any other journal or full-length conference proceedings. Exceptions to this rule are conference presentations and books of abstracts. The letter accompanying the submission of a manuscript should contain a clear statement to this effect, i.e. the manuscript has not been published and is not under review by any other journals.

Submissions should be produced using a standard word processing program, such as MS Word. Figures or artwork should be supplied in a finished form, suitable for reproduction, as these cannot be redrawn by the journal. Footnotes/Endnotes should be avoided.

Please ensure that the files are saved as Word files. Any consistent spelling style is acceptable. Use double quotation and use single quotation marks within double if needed.

Typing: Manuscripts submitted for publication should be word processed and single-spaced throughout.

Length: The length of the manuscript should not exceed 8,000 words, including tables and references, with an abstract of 150 -250 words and up to six key words separated by semicolons. Manuscripts not observing this length will not be reviewed for publication.

Spacing and paragraphing: All paragraphs (except for abstracts) should be indented. All paragraphs should be justified and no additional, i.e. space, is needed between paragraphs. Each paragraph is single-spaced for both initial and final submission.

Titles: Titles and section headings should be clear and brief. A manuscript should strictly follow the section structure below; all headings and subheadings must be numbered consecutively.

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

3. Method

3.1. Participants

3.2. Materials and Instruments

3.2.1. Instruments One

3.3. Procedure

3.4. Data Analysis

4. Results and Discussion

5. Conclusion and implication(s)

Tables and Figures: Tables and figures should be numbered and have descriptive titles. The journal will not print color images. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Please, note that table titles and figure captions appear on top of the tables and figures, as shown in this section. For table and figure captions, use the same font size (point 10) and font style as those used in the paragraphs. Use font size of 10 point for the content of tables with initial capital nouns single-spaced. Tables and figures should be supplied in the actual place in the text.

Cover sheets: The manuscript should have a cover sheet with the following information: Title of the paper, name of author(s); institutional affiliation (department, university, city, and country), a biographical note of no more than 80 words, email and postal addresses; and telephone number, and word counts for the manuscript and for the abstract. The same information should be supplied for a Persian abstract. Give the names of all contributing authors in the order you wish them to appear in the published article. The cover sheet should be part of the same file as the paper.

Table 1

Category Statistics

Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Title: Use bold for your article title, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns and font 12 point.

Abstract: Indicate the abstract paragraph with a heading or by reducing the font size to 12 point. The abstract should have five sections: background, purpose, method, results, and conclusions/implications. All lines should be single-spaced.

Figure 1

Shared 4-, 5-, and 6-Word Bundles between English writers (EC) and Persian writers (PC)

Headings and subheadings: Please indicate the level of the section headings in your article. Please, see Template on the journal homepage for more information on headings and suheadings. Running heads are not required when submitting a manuscript for review.

IV. Journal Ethics and PrinciplesSupervisors’ names: All manuscripts primarily based on theses and dissertations should include the supervisor’s name irrespective of the time lapse between the defense session and submission of the manuscript unless the supervisor sends an email or letter to the journal stating his/her decision as to not being willing to be named as an author. The journal’s definite preference is the inclusion of the supervisor as the first author. The author submitting the manuscript, either the supervisor or the co-author, is considered to be the corresponding author unless otherwise indicated.

Review policies and decisions: The review process normally takes three months. Papers submitted to the journal are first screened through in-house review to ensure that submission guidelines have been largely observed and to determine whether the paper merits further independent review. Next, they undergo rigorous peer review. This involves anonymized reviewing by two anonymous reviewers and where there is a split decision by a third reviewer. A manuscript may be accepted without revision, with minor revision without being returned to the reviewers after modification, with major revision, or rejected. In case a manuscript requires revision, reviewers’ comments will be sent to the author. For manuscripts rejected after in-house review, the author will not receive any detailed comments.

The corresponding author is expected to acknowledge the agencies or individuals who have funded (or have made contributions to) the research.