1.Introduction and Ethics

Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics (IJAL) is a professional, refereed journal which publishes original research articles on all aspects of Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. IJAL invites manuscripts on fresh themes in curriculum development, teaching methodology and SLA research, testing and evaluation, discourse analysis, and other areas of Applied Linguistics. Although IJAL publishes research articles in different areas of Applied Linguistics, the preference is given to papers related to research on second or foreign language teaching and learning. Articles displaying an interdisciplinary perspective are also welcome. IJAL is published twice a year, in March and September. All articles submitted for publication will be blind reviewed. Submission of a manuscript is taken to mean that it is an original work of the author(s) which has not been published elsewhere, and is not being considered for publication concurrently.

Iranian Journal of Applied Linguistics (IJAL) adheres to the Code of Conduct Guidelines presented by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) available at: http://publicationethics.org

2. Contact details for submission

Contributors are invited to submit their manuscripts electronically to the journal system (http://ijal.khu.ac.ir). We advise contributors to send their manuscripts as e-mail attachments to the email address of the editor (Prof. Mahmood Reza Atai: ataikhu.ac.ir and mahmood.ataigmail.com) as well. The authors are required to carefully read the submission guideline and follow the step-by-step procedures before submitting their papers to the system.

 3. Peer review policy

• IJAL is a double blind peer-reviewed journal. The editor initially reviews all manuscripts and only those that meet the standards of the journal and correspond to its aim and scope are sent for review. The reviewed articles are treated confidentially. That is, the anonymous manuscripts are sent to at least two independent expert reviewers. Reviewers’ judgments are objective and they have no conflict of interest. The submitted papers are usually reviewed within three months of submission.
• The reviewing decisions will be announced as (a) rejected, (b) revised, (c) accepted with minor changes, or (d) accepted for publication. When manuscripts are revised and resubmitted, the editor asks the original reviewers to evaluate the manuscript again and check whether the authors have addressed the specific recommendations or not
• The editorial will reserve the right to accept or reject manuscripts and to make all editorial changes as deemed necessary. The editor is also responsible for making the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of the manuscripts

4. Authors' contribution

• All authors are expected to significantly contribute to the research study and revise and edit their manuscripts according to the reviewers’ and editors’ feedback
• Authors may be invited to participate in peer-review for prospective submissions.

5. Publication ethics

• Submission of a manuscript is taken to mean that it is an original work of the author(s) which has not been published elsewhere, and is not being considered for publication concurrently. Previously published articles are not acceptable for publication in the journal.
• For protecting the reputation of the journal and the authors’ rights against academic misconducts, the editor of the journal and the reviewers take the issues of plagiarism very seriously and prevent the publication of papers in which research misconduct has been observed. In case of encountering such misconducts, the editor reserves the right to take appropriate action including, but not limited to retracting or correcting articles when needed. The editor is always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Editor’s responsibilities

1. The editor-in-chief treats the submitted manuscripts objectively and unbiasedly.
2.  No discrimination is made on non-academic grounds. The submitted manuscripts are systematically and carefully reviewed and considered for publication on the basis of whether they have met the academic standards and whether they have addressed the audiences’ expectations and their contextual needs.
3. The editor will extensively investigate and reply to any complaints about ethical issues or conflict of interests.

Reviewers' responsibilities

1. Reviewers are expected to effectively contribute to the submitted manuscripts’ decision-making processes by systematically, objectively, and comprehensively reviewing the papers and meeting the deadlines the editor has set.
2.  Reviewers are required to confidentially treat the manuscripts and any kind of information about the under review papers. Reviewers are not permitted to retain, copy, or publish the manuscripts.
3. Reviewers are expected to be concise and critical so that in case of finding any overlap in the content of the papers under review and the already accepted or published papers, they could immediately inform the editor.
4. Reviewers need to consider any traces of potential conflicts of interest and keep the editors properly informed of such cases.

Authors' responsibilities

1. Upon request for access to the accurate records of the data collected for the submitted manuscript, the authors are expected to provide the data.
2. The authors must confirm that the submitted manuscript is not under review or is not considered for publication in any other local or international journal.
3. The authors must acknowledge and cite the sources that have overlap with the content of the submitted paper.
4. The authors must confirm that the submitted manuscript is original and cite the content taken from other sources.
5. The authors must state any potential conflicts of interest.

Identification of unethical behavior

• The editor and the publisher of the journal should be informed about any kind of misconduct and unethical behavior.
• Whoever informs the editor or publisher of such misconducts should provide sufficient evidence for further investigations.
• The editor takes any kind of the authors’ allegation seriously and makes a valid decision regarding what is required to be done about the paper and its authors.

Investigation

• The editor takes the first steps of deciding about the cases of misconduct and asks for the advice of the publisher, if needed.
• While gathering the evidence, the editor does not spread the issue beyond those who need to know.

Minor breaches

• In case of any minor misconduct, the authors are given the opportunity to respond to allegations.

Serious breaches

• By examining the available evidence or by consulting with the experts, the editor informs the employer of the accused researchers or the organizations they are affiliated with.

Responses to unethical behaviours

• First, the authors are informed of the misunderstanding or misapplication of the standards and are educated about them.
• Second, the editor sends a warning letter to the authors. The letter includes the misconduct and makes the authors cautious about their future behavior.
• Third, a formal notice specifying the details of the misconduct will be published.
• Fourth, an editorial specifying the details of the misconduct will be published.
• Fifth, a formal letter will be sent to the authors’ departments.
• Sixth, the paper will be withdrawn from the journal and the head of the authors’ departments must be kept informed.
• Seventh, a formal restriction must be imposed on contributions from the authors for a specific period of time.
• Eighth, the decisions made must be referred to the higher authority organizations for further action.

6. Open access

• IJAL is an open access journal which is available online.
• The processing and publishing of manuscripts are free of charge.