The Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics (RALs) is committed to ensuring academic integrity and promoting innovative, evidence-based research in order to maintain the quality and impact of its publications. In line with the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), RALs adheres to a rigorous double-blind peer review process. In this system, both reviewers and authors remain anonymous to each other, thereby ensuring objectivity throughout the review.
Upon submission, each manuscript undergoes an initial evaluation by the Editor to determine whether it meets the journal’s main criteria for further consideration. Submissions that fall outside the journal’s scope or fail to meet publication priorities are rejected without external review. The estimated time for this stage is approximately one week.
Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are examined for potential research misconduct or questionable research practices. If concerns arise, the Editor-in-Chief may return the manuscript for correction or reject it outright on the grounds of unacceptable practices.
If no ethical concerns are identified, the manuscript proceeds to double-blind peer review. Each submission is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers: typically, one with broad expertise in the field and another with specialized knowledge of the topic or methodology. Reviewers are carefully selected for their expertise and must declare the absence of conflicts of interest related to the manuscript. Reviews focus on methodological rigor, statistical analysis, and clarity of data presentation. The estimated time from submission to the first peer-review decision is approximately nine weeks.
If revisions are required, authors are invited to address reviewers’ comments and resubmit their manuscript within three weeks. Additional rounds of revision may be requested until the manuscript meets the journal’s standards.
Submissions to special issues undergo the same rigorous double-blind peer review process as regular manuscripts.
Once accepted, the manuscript is processed by the Editor-in-Chief to ensure full compliance with editorial requirements. A copy-edited PDF is then sent to the corresponding author for final proofreading. At this stage, only minor linguistic or typographical corrections are permitted; no substantive changes to content are allowed. In some cases, authors may be asked to clarify specific sections. Because no further alterations are possible after final proofreading, authors are strongly advised to review the edited version carefully. The corrected proofs must be returned within three days.
Following receipt of the corrected proofs, the article is published online as the official version of record, assigned with a DOI, and made citable immediately. The timing of print publication depends on the number of accepted articles. All published articles are freely available in both PDF and XML formats on the journal’s website.
