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Author Instructions

1. Timeframe for Review and Publication
2. Fees for Manuscript Preparation
3. Kinds of Articles That LESLI Publishes
4. How To Format the Manuscript
5. How To Submit the Manuscript to LESLI 

1. TIMEFRAME FOR REVIEW AND PUBLICATION

LESLI publishes on a rolling basis. Your submission is immediately reviewed and, if accepted, published immediately in the current annual volume. Typically, publication of accepted manuscripts can be completed within 6-8 weeks. Reviewers will respond to the author within 4 weeks.

2. FEES FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION FOR PUBLISHING

Authors are charged a formatting fee of $3 per page. Authors who are without institutional support, such as independent scholars or students, can request a fee waiver by emailing the Editor at cchaski@LinguisticEvidence.org and explaining why a fee waiver is justified.

Please make your article as concise, informative, and succinct as possible.

For the ILLA Workshop Papers, no formatting fees are charged.

3. KINDS OF ARTICLES THAT LESLI PUBLISHES

LESLI publishes Research Articles, Policy Discussions, Requests for Research, and Reviews of Software and Books.

3.1. Research Articles

LESLI utilizes double-blind peer review by two reviewers with expertise in both theoretical and practical aspects of linguistic evidence. Reviewers evaluate research articles for fundamental aspects of science (description of data, strong and ethical data collection practices, analytical techniques grounded in linguistics, replicability of analytical procedure, appropriate quantitative analysis, etc.).

Since LESLI is read by linguists and non-linguists, it is essential that articles define terminology and methods clearly and point readers to references for such information.

Reviewers reject articles based in literary criticism or other non-scientific analyses of language. Articles merely recounting a case will also be rejected by reviewers.

3.2. Policy Discussions

LESLI utilizes double-blind peer review by two reviewers with expertise in both theoretical and practical aspects of linguistic evidence. Reviewers evaluate policy discussions for fundamental contributions to the field of forensic linguistics that meet normal standards of scholarship and scholarly communication. While it is expected that policy discussions will focus on controversial issues and perhaps take unpopular stances, ad hominem attacks, defamatory implications, and misrepresentation of scholarship will immediately cause a submission to be rejected.

Since LESLI is read by linguists and non-linguists, it is essential that articles define terminology and methods clearly, and point readers to references for the terminology and methods. Especially in policy discussions, the author must make controversial issues very clear.

3.3. Requests for Research

LESLI utilizes double-blind peer review by two reviewers with expertise in both theoretical and practical aspects of linguistic evidence. Reviewers evaluate requests for research articles for fundamental understanding of the field of forensic linguistics and innovative ideas, as well as the scholarly and scientific concepts within the article.

Since requests are often written by non-linguists, it is essential that the request articles define the goal of the research, justification of the requested research, and applicability of the requested research.

Reviewers reject request articles that are unaware of current literature or methods which address the issue.

3.4. Reviews of Software and Books

LESLI utilizes double-blind peer review by two reviewers with expertise in both theoretical and practical aspects of linguistic evidence. Reviewers evaluate reviews for normal standards of scholarship and scholarly communication. While it is expected that reviews might include controversial issues, ad hominen attacks, defamatory implications, and misrepresentation of scholarship will immediately cause a submission to be rejected.

Since LESLI is read by linguists and non-linguists, it is essential that articles define terminology and methods clearly and point readers to references for the terminology and methods. Especially in reviews, the author must make controversial issues very clear.

4. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

Prepare the manuscript in this way:

4.1. Title Page:

  • Type of Submission: Research Article, Policy Discussion, Request for Research, Review
  • Title of the article
  • Names and Affiliations of Author(s)
  • Lead Author Contact Information (email, telephone)

4.2. Abstract (for Research Article and Policy Discussion):

  • In 300-500 words, state the main points of your article.

4.3. Keywords (for Research Article and Policy Discussion):

  • List five (5) keywords/key phrases describing the content of your article.

4.4. General Document Formatting:

Use a word processor, such as Word, to create a document that is

  • single-spaced
  • with 1″ margins and
  • 12-point font in Times New Roman or Cambria;
  • the article must employ italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and
  • all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points.

4.5. Numbered Sections and Paragraphs:

Use both section and paragraph numbering. Sections and paragraphs are sequentially numbered. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. The indented text below shows how to use section and paragraph numbering.

1. Example Section Heading is Bold and Numbered with an Informative Title

1. Example Paragraph one. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

2. Example Paragraph two. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

3. Example Paragraph three. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

2. Example Section Heading is Bold and Numbered with an Informative Title

4. Example Paragraph four. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

5. Example Paragraph five. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

6. Example Paragraph six. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

7. Example Paragraph seven. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

3. Example Section Heading is Bold and Numbered with an Informative Title

8. Example Paragraph eight. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

9. Example Paragraph nine. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Use an empty line between paragraphs.

4.6. APA Style for In-Text Citation and References

Use the APA stylesheet for bibliography and footnotes, following examples below. You can find many resources for the APA stylesheet such as here for an online guide from Purdue University, or here for a downloadable pdf from Kent University  and also from http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/apa/ .

Use in-text citation with bibliographic information according to the APA stylesheet, as in examples below:

  • Linguists have questioned the status of forensic stylistics as linguistics (Crystal 1996) and evaluated it as “not grounded in linguistics” (Chaski 1997, p. 43).
  • Crystal (1996) has questioned the status of forensic stylistics as linguistics, and Chaski (1997, p. 43) has evaluated it as “not grounded in linguistics.” 

Punctuation must be inside the ending quote mark with author and publication information in parentheses. Include sentence-ending punctuation outside the parentheses.

If the quoted text is 40 words or longer, place in an indented block of text, free-standing, without quotation marks.

Example:

Smith (year) says:

This is an example of a block quote. It is longer than 40 words and requires a free-standing indented block of text without quotation marks; it is intended to draw the reader’s eye without using quotation marks, but it still requires page number information at the end (p. 199).

Reference List (Bibliography):

At the end of article supply references under the title “References”.  List the items in alphabetic order. Do not number the references. Use the APA format for bibliographic references.

Bibliographical entries must include author name – beginning with last name and ending with first/middle initials, year of publication, title of work, publication information. Below are examples of Book, Book Chapter, Website and Journal Article formats.

Book Example: Smith, J. D. (Year Published). Title of Book. Georgetown, DE: Publisher Name.

Edited Book Chapter Example:  Last, F. M. (Year Published). Title of chapter. In F. M. Last Editor (Ed.), Title of book/anthology (pp. Pages). Publisher City, State: Publisher.

Website Example: Smith, J. D. (Year Published). APA Example Resource. Georgetown, DE: Publisher Name. Retrieved from http://www.exampleurl.net

Journal Article Example: Smith, J. D. & Brooks, J. D. (Year Published). Title of Article. Title of Periodical/Journal, volume number (issue number), pages. DOI Address.

 

4.7 ENSURING A BLIND PEER REVIEW

To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other in some inadvertent way.  Authors and editors should check to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:

  1. For Microsoft Office documents, remove the author name from file properties under the File menu.
  2. For PDF files,  the authors’ names should also be removed from Document Properties found under File on Adobe Acrobat’s main menu.

5. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

5.1. Checklist

Be sure that you have completed all items in this list:

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it being considered at another journal at the same time as LESLI is reviewing or formatting it.
  • The manuscript is in both .pdf format and in a word processing format such as Microsoft Word (preferred) or LATEX.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font of Times New Roman or Cambria; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined above, using APA style.
  • The instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

5.2. Sending the Manuscript to LESLI

There are two ways to submit a manuscript:

  1. Email the Managing Editor at LESLI@LinguisticEvidence.org with Subject Line: LESLI Submission, with both versions of the manuscript (MS Word/LATEX and PDF)  attached to the email.
  2. Visit the LESLI journal website and follow the instructions to upload your manuscript. Remember that you must first be registered as an author and then you can upload a submission.