Linguistica ONLINE is an international refereed electronic journal whose goal is to publish and re-publish linguistic papers and by so doing to make them available without charge in an electronic form. We are convinced this is a good way to support and enrich linguistic research and education.

Everyone is invited to submit his or her papers so that they could be easily accessible to other scholars. Please, consult the information below.

The journal especially welcomes contributions from PhD candidates and recent PhD graduates wishing to disseminate their work and gain experience of peer-reviewed academic publication. See below for more information.

Submitting an Original Paper

We will be most happy to publish your original paper (i.e. a previously unpublished one). All contributions will be anonymously peer-reviewed by our reviewers, and if recommended for publication, will be judged by the editorial board. Once approved, the paper will be published online in the next available issue. It will be available for free to anyone on the internet. Issues are published twice a year or as soon as a sufficient number of paper is available.

Length
There is no restriction on the length of the paper. We welcome in particular:

• Research Notes (c. 1,000-2,500 words)
• Article-length submissions (c. 5,000-12,000 words)
• 'Minigraphs', i.e. short monographs (c. 12,000-20,000 words)

Topics
The topic should fall within the domain linguistics, broadly defined, but there are no other restrictions. Synchronic and diachronic papers are welcome, from core linguistics to "hyphenated" or applied linguistics. We particularly welcome submissions in phonetics, phonology, functional linguistics (in the broad line of development from the Prague School and related approaches in Moscow, Paris, Geneva, or Copenhagen, for example), etymology, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics. Both theoretically and descriptively oriented papers are sought. Contributors whose work is less directly concerned with linguistics (e.g. in translation or the history of linguistics) are encouraged to discuss their proposals with the editors before submission.

Reviews, shorter notices (up to 2 pages) and review/discussion articles of standard article length, are also accepted in the same areas of interest as above.

Accepted Languages
English (preferred) and Czech. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, we cannot handle other languages at the moment.

Abstract
Every paper must contain an abstract (c. 150 words), preferably written in English, but German or French is accepted, too.

Guidelines
We leave quoting conventions, list of references etc. up to you, though we have a recommended style sheet. For details of how to cite a paper published in Linguistica ONLINE see below.

Format
Please send your paper in one of the following formats: docx or doc (Microsoft Word document type), rtf (Rich Text Format) or odt formart (Open Document format, as used by OpenOffice.org). Also, send us a pdf or printed version of your paper.

Fonts
In case you need to use non-standard characters, i.e. special fonts, send us the fonts used. However, we prefer Unicode fonts.

Submission Address
The email address to which articles should be sent is: linguistica at phil.muni.cz.

Printed versions, CDs with papers etc. are to be sent to:

Linguistica ONLINE
Ústav jazykovědy a baltistiky / Department of Linguistics and Baltic Languages
Filozofická fakulta Masarykovy univerzity
Arna Nováka l
602 00 Brno
Česká republika / Czech Republic
(http://www.phil.muni.cz/jazyk/)

Submitting a Previously Published Paper

Linguistica ONLINE also republishes linguistic papers previously published in printed form elsewhere. If you are interested in this option, follow the instructions above.

You can retain the quoting conventions of the original version, though it is recommended that you follow our style sheet (see above). Please, append to your papers an English or German abstract. In case the original paper had an abstract, you can reuse this. Authors are encouraged to take the opportunity to revise their papers and publish a more up-to-date version in Linguistica ONLINE.

A note on copyright
Since we are interested in republishing papers from printed sources such as periodicals, it is necessary for us to address copyright issues, notwithstanding the obscurity surrounding these. As regards the situation in the Czech Republic (parallel situations will obtain in other countries), it seems that unless an author has provided an exclusive license (which must be in a written form!) to a publisher, he or she is still in possession of the rights to his or her paper and can give a license to a third party, as apparently laid out in paragraphs 46, 47 and 48 of the Czech Copyright Act (see here). Unless you have signed an exclusive license (i.e. you literally signed a piece of paper to this effect), you are free to have your paper republished here. However, all authors will be responsible for checking the copyright of any previously published paper and avoiding so-called “self-plagiarism”.

Submitting a Review

Linguistica ONLINE is also open to publishing reviews of linguistics books. The review articles may again be original or previously published in a printed form. Reviews of recently published books are naturally preferable, though we also welcome reviews of old but significant linguistic books. Full citation details of the work should be provided.

Submitting a List of Errata

As there is probably no book or article which does not contain misprints, we will be happy to publish a list of errata for your works here.

Submitting an Academic Thesis

Linguistica ONLINE also offers a space for storing unpublished academic theses. There is no need to format or re-format them if they are already in electronic form. We will host them here in their existing form. If you are interested in this, contact us.

Guidelines and suggestions for PhD candidates and recent graduates

Linguistica ONLINE welcomes contributions from PhD candidates and recent PhD graduates wishing to disseminate their work and gain experience of peer-reviewed academic publication. Our journal already offers a platform for publishing successful theses. However, many PhD candidates wish to gain experience of publication (or are required to do so), but find opportunities limited. Papers should be clearly focussed and around 15 pages of A4 in length at 1.5 spacing with an abstract and keywords, and meeting the standard conventions of the journal.

We suggest the following publication types, but are open to other suggestions. The editors welcome initial discussions with contributors before submission. That can help to avoid any misunderstandings.

1. For PhD candidates in the early-to-middle stages

a. Research Rationale
Such papers may present an overview of the research being undertaken. Contributors should indicate the overall aims of their research and the rationale for it – i.e. show why the research is needed and how it will contribute to knowledge or debate in a given field of study. The specific objectives of the research and the relevant methods should be stated along with the overall theoretical paradigm of the work, any limitations or uncontrolled variables in the study. Contributors should indicate the main theories and ideas of other researchers as well as the expected outcomes of the research. The main purpose of the paper will be to alert scholars to your investigation and invite constructive comments.

b. Focus on Methods
Where a research topic is clearly defined, contributors may wish to discuss the key relevant methods of an investigation and their pros and cons, as well as any shortcomings in previous studies. In such papers, one would expect a justification of the logic of the methods used linking the research objectives or hypotheses (if any) to the methods. There should be a statement of the variables and how they will be controlled as well as a statement of the limitations of the study. Issues of validity, objectivity, reliability, and transferability/generalisability of the study should be addressed. This kind of paper may appeal to those doing empirical or applied linguistic research in particular.

c. Focussed Literature Discussion
Contributors should identify the key questions in their research as well as the major previous views of other scholars. The article will concentrate on comparing and contrasting in a specific field with a view to identifying the pros and cons of existing positions. The outcome should be a set of questions for research arising from the discussion. Such a paper should not simply list or describe previous contributions. The emphasis should be on the relevance of the discussion to your research topic.

d. Pilot Studies
Contributors could present the results of a pilot or small-scale study aimed at investigating the feasibility of their study and identifying variables and limitations of research tools. There should be a clear statement of the research topic and its objectives as well as a statement of the relevance of the methods used in the pilot study - a justification in terms of validity and objectivity of the methods. The outcomes should include what has been learned from the pilot study and how methods can be modified to achieve greater reliability and transferability or generalisability.

2. Recent Graduates/Candidates very near Completion

Apart from articles focussing on the process of research or the contribution to knowledge or debate (as above), recent graduates may wish to present the results of their study. Most readers will want to know how a study has been conducted (its theoretical paradigm- and why that was chosen) and how it fits into an existing wider debate or field of study- not just the results. There should be a clear statement of the aims of the study and its methods as well as reflection on the variables and limitations of the work along with the specific results. Reflection on the relevance and contribution to knowledge are needed, but there should be a clear justification of the validity and reliability of the results (and their generalisability or transferability). Many theses will contain extensive results, so contributors need to be selective. The full thesis can appear elsewhere. One purpose of such a paper is to alert colleagues to your findings.

How to cite a paper published in Linguistica ONLINE

Although most papers submitted to our journal are published in issues, every article is, as noted above, independent of the issue in which it appears. An issue functions here as a kind of bundle collecting similar papers.

Every paper is provided with a unique URL (web address). This is the essential information to be given when a paper is referred to. The URL, along with the date of publication, is mentioned in every paper. This is an example how a paper published in Linguistica ONLINE can be cited:

Rastall, Paul. 2008. "Linguistic units and -en verbs in English". Linguistica ONLINE, <http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/art/rastall/ras-001.pdf>.

Review Criteria

Your contribution will be reviewed sympathetically by reputable scholars and you will be informed of their recommendations and feedback as soon as possible. The aim of the editors is to facilitate good-quality publication.

Broadly, whatever the topic of the article or review/discussion (and all areas of linguistics are welcome), reviewers will be looking for a clear focus and/or research question with awareness of the relevant range of views and significant previous studies. Authors should explain their contribution to knowledge or understanding in the field of interest. Theoretical presuppositions and methods of analysis should be clearly explained. Reviewers will consider the coherence of results and conclusions. Where quantitative studies are involved, authors should consider how best to present their data sets, for example using appendices. Presentational or typographic changes will be suggested, as necessary. Contributions should meet the stylistic norms of the journal.

Articles based on research theses or dissertations are encouraged, but authors are asked to consider the presentation and focus of an article for a journal audience.

Authors are encouraged to contact the editors in any case of doubt.

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