Share Your Research

Publish with ELTCRJ

The ELT Classroom Research Journal aims to publish research from teachers, for teachers.
Classroom Research in its various forms, including Exploratory Action Research, is at the heart of the journal.

We accept papers from 2,800 – 7,000 words in length (excluding Biosketch and References), although longer articles will be considered.

We are a mentoring journal

Many of our authors are writing for publication for the first time. There is no benefit to anyone when authors receive a cryptic note of rejection. Our aim is to assist authors in a path to publication.

For simplicity, we ask that initial submissions come in through email to the editor’s mailbox: [email protected]

A double-blind review process (referees do not know who wrote, writer do not know who are the referees) begins once the editor has approved the paper for formal submission into the reviews process. (See Peer-Review Process, below.)

General information for submissions

The scholarly community has adopted the “non-duplicate submissions” practice: sending the same article to more than one journal while under consideration at a journal is considered unethical behavior. We promise to work quickly to confirm receipt, to inform promptly if the paper is not to be sent to reviewers (referees), and to return their assessments quickly. We also use a mentoring process to reduce desk-rejections: authors that don’t care to refine their work will be released from further considerations.

All submissions are blind reviewed by two experts, usually one internal (board member) and one external.

We welcome articles that report on your classroom experiences with new methods, techniques, materials, syllabuses, means of assessment, approaches to teacher training, and other areas of professional interest. Those focusing on aspects of the English language (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse features, etc.) are also welcome insofar as they discuss classroom approaches to teaching and learning. Our focus there would be on the practical applications of language description or analysis. We accept for review papers from 2,800 – 7,000 words in length, (excluding Bio and Index) though longer articles will be considered. We strongly encourage submissions of less than 5,000 words.

We are interested in receiving articles that describe carefully planned and executed investigations in the classroom (i.e., classroom research), provided that the research is designed to throw light on a topic which is of interest to our readers. Action Research – a teacher’s planned intervention in the classroom — is an important and under-reported component of classroom research, and while these papers may be somewhat shorter and “less scholarly” than traditional scientific reports, they are to be based on a solid understanding of existing ELT principles.

The following guides are part of our initial screening in determining which papers will move forward in the reviews process:

• Articles should be clearly, concisely, and coherently written so that the contents are internally consistent and accessible to the readership.
• Descriptions of practice should be tied to underlying theoretical principles: no extensive literature review is needed, but evidence of a principled basis for the classroom study is essential.
• First-person active voice is preferred: “I did this” is better than “X was performed by the researcher.”
• Articles that deal with a particular teaching or learning context should indicate (in conclusions?) how this information may be relevant to those working in a variety of different situations.
• The presentation/discussion of data must be accessible by those with only a basic knowledge of statistics or specialized terminology.
• Make your article reader-friendly — this journal is not a place to prove your ability to write “academese”. Use short headings and subheadings to make the structure of your article clear. If appropriate, illustrate your article with examples, diagrams, tables, etc.
• Action Research articles should report a research design based on identifying a classroom problem, planning an action, executing the action, and analyzing the effects of the action – but the written presentation need not be organized this way. Exploratory Action Research needs to include the Action Research part as well, not just the initial exploration (rare exceptions may occur).
• Do not over-reference articles. Key sources only. As a rough guide, articles probably should contain no more than 15 references. Of these, no more than three should be self-citations. We strongly encourage referencing open-access articles that classroom teachers with limited libraries can view. Which are the key underlying assumptions that support the theory or practice your study is based upon? Who has done similar work? What is the basis of your methodologies?
• Give your article a brief, clear, and informative title. Titles should preferably be no more than 50 characters long, with an absolute maximum of 70, including spaces. Avoid the colon style “This is the Topic: More Detail” title format. (It’s not a School Thesis!)
• Do not use footnotes, endnotes should be avoided.
• Include your illustrations (figures) and tables in the body of the article in the rough location you expect it would be published.
• Follow APA7th style — use in-text citations with a References list.

Submissions that do not follow these guides will ultimately require re-working, though we will not necessarily reject them immediately.

Suggestions for Author’s Submission

1. Organization of your paper (suggestions, not requirements)

• Abstract (so that human and computers can quickly identify the key elements of your paper, use bits from Introduction, Research Question, Methods, Results, and Conclusions (probably not Literature Review and Discussion).
• Introduction (state the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a summary of the results).
• Literature Review (be succinct, what have you examined that is relevant to this study? – one short paragraph may suffice in Action Research papers).
  Tell us who “said” (probably “wrote”) key elements that guided your study.
• Research Question(s) (be very succinct, bullet points could do).
• Methods (population, materials, techniques — provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicated, methods already published should be indicated by a reference, only relevant modifications should be described).
• Results (be clear and concise, results from analysis might be presented best in tables and figures).
• Discussion (explore the significance of the results of the work — do not simply repeat them — a combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate: avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature in this section).
• Conclusions (the main conclusions of the study — do not simply repeat earlier sections). How will this impact other teachers and scholars? How does it impact your own future teaching?

2. Use of Tables & Figures

• “A picture (or table) is worth 1,000 words” – don’t repeat in narrative what can be said in a clear table or figure.
• “Less is more” — conciseness adds to clarity – don’t include data that is irrelevant, in text, figures, or tables. If you aren’t using this information, don’t present it here.
• Legibility is key – don’t use tiny type for notations in tables and figures that cannot be read. Save your initial images before you start cropping or cleaning them, we may need to go back to the original and start over.
• Make sure you have permission to use any commercial (or web) images, get permission from participants if their personal image or information is presented.
• Use appendices to show survey instruments or other methodological details not critical to initial reading.

3. Length

• 2,700 – 7,000 words. Shorter is better, but don’t omit key details needed to understand the study. Don’t add words just to “demonstrate scholarship.”
• Context is important. As a global journal, readers may not know your circumstances – your learners, their home language(s), your physical classroom, language input resources, etc.

4. Listing contributors

• This is very difficult during a time where teachers and scholars are pushed to add scholarly publications to their CV.
• Only include those who have actually contributed to the development of the study (no “courtesy” (ghost) authors) – an “English text editor” is not a co-author.
• List authorship in order of level of contribution to this article.
• ELTCRJ does not identify “corresponding author”.

5. Peer-Review Process (Referees)

• The peer-review process can be confusing (and irritating) to authors.
• Scholarly peer-review is intended to help present the best possible study in the most presentable form.
• Reviewers (“referees”) are informed about the readership – we aren’t Science or Nature scholarly journals, we are a ‘teacherly’ journal that pushes authors beyond mere magazine reports and poster-displays, encouraging readers in their Continuing Professional Development.
• We won’t send your paper to referees until it’s ready to be fairly reviewed – but we aren’t fond of “desk-rejections”, so we work with the author before forwarding (mentoring).

The Submission Process at ELT Classroom Research Journal

Questions?

contact us – [email protected]