Submissions

Author Guidelines

This section provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to NEXUS.

Process

Articles should be submitted online via our online OJS platform. OJS provides an online submission and peer review tracking system where authors can submit manuscripts and track their progress. Whether you are an author, editor, or reviewer, you can access OJS from anywhere at any time as long as you have access to a computer with an internet connection.

The call for submissions for the first volume will be launched in December 2019.

NEXUS welcomes submissions in the following categories:

Featured articles

• Length: max. 7,000 words (including references).
• Aim: make a connection between the practitioners’ daily concerns and the research carried out in the relevant disciplines.
• Content: research in the targeted field, experience gained by teachers, new teaching methods and tools, various frameworks and programs, assessment methods, initial and in-service teacher training approaches, or any other areas of professional interest.

We are interested in submissions that report on well-planned and carefully carried out experiments, research or projects. The contributors are requested to consider the following points when writing their articles:

• The submitted articles should be clear, consistent and accessible to the journal’s readership.
• The submitted articles should tackle both teaching practices and research. The theoretical concepts should be clarified in relation to their practical applications; the description of practices should be clearly linked to the underlying theoretical principles; the research methodology should be explicitly described.
• The submitted articles that focus on a particular teaching or learning context should aim to include/discuss the implications for other contexts.
• The submitted articles should refer to recent research work carried out into the reported field.
• The presentation and discussion of the results should not assume more than a basic knowledge of statistics to allow for an easy understanding of the results (even though the analysis calls upon sophisticated techniques).

Classroom explorations

• Length: max. 3,000 words (including references).
• Aim: give a voice to teachers and learners.
• Content: examples of good practices on teaching and professional actions that have been approved/tested/validated on a larger scale.
• The submitted articles should be framed in the local teaching context (study/school programs), also refer to educational frameworks, methods, and cannot be limited to lesson plans.
• The submitted articles should mention the limitations of the practices and actions and include a critical reflection on the suggested practices.

Materials, book and media reviews

• Length: max. 500 words.
• Those reviews will be managed by the editorial board (which will either contact authors for potential reviews or examine the reviews submitted).

News

• Length: max. 100 words
• Brief notes on upcoming activities (e.g. symposiums or study days). The news section will be managed by the editorial board (which will either share news or examine the news submitted).

Formatting requirements

1. General instructions

Authors must seek permission for all copyrighted material that they wish to include in their work. Authors are responsible for observing copyright laws when quoting or reproducing material.

1.1 Filename and anonymization

Please submit your files as Word documents.

Please make sure you submit anonymized documents. There are two ways of anonymizing the properties of your electronic documents. For example, in the Microsoft PC suite:

• To anonymize before you start:

In the Word document, go to File  Options (last entry on the list)  General  Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office (second section from top)  Username. Change that username to, for instance, ‘anon’ or ‘xx’.

• To anonymize after you have written your document:

In the Word document, go to File  Info (the first entry on the list)  Inspect Document (usually the box in the middle)  Document Properties and Personal Information (needs to be checked/ticked)  Inspect  Remove all under Document properties and Personal Information (make sure that is what you are removing and not the comments, headings, the formatting, etc.)  Close  Save.

Please also make sure that the content of the submission is anonymized. Authors are expected to remove author and institutional identities from the cover page, the acknowledgements section, and the meta-data. Institution information should also be removed from the body of the text. For instance, use “…participants were recruited from a university campus” instead of “…participants were recruited from <Institution Name>.” Additionally, we recommend removing marks that identify institutional affiliation from images and supplementary videos (e.g., institutional logos) as much as possible.

Please also anonymize citations to authors in the text and in the references. Use, for instance, Author (2018, p.24) in in-text references and simply leave Author (2018) in the list of references, without giving the rest of the information. The anonymized sections will be completed by the authors once the submission is accepted.

1.2 Sections and headings

Please use the following type of formatting (the names of sections are only provided as illustrations). Do not use all capitals for headings and sub-headings, avoid using more than 3 levels of subheadings, and please check that your in-text references to sections correspond to this numbering system. All headings should be in boldface, and numbered the following way:

      1. Main section heading (Heading 1 level)

      1.1 Sub-section (Heading 2 level)

      1.1.1 Further sub-section (Heading 3 level)

Please see an example of typical section types below (these can of course be adapted ; the list is provided as an illustration).

      1. Introduction

      2. Review of current state of research

      3. Methodology

      3.1 Data

      3.2 Participants

      3.3 Analytical procedures

      3.2.1 Analysis 1

      3.2.2 Analysis 2

      4. Results

      5. Discussion

      6. Acknowledgements

      7. Endnotes

      8. References

      9. Appendix

Please use APA 7^th edition for references both in-text and in the References section (see Section 3).

1.3 Format, length, tables and figures

1.3.1 Font

Times New Roman, size 12, should be used throughout the manuscript with 1.-inch margin all around. All text should be double spaced except tables which should be single spaced. The body of the text should be aligned to the left (not justified) including all headings. A paragraph indent of 0.5 inches is applied for all paragraphs except for the first one under a heading or subheading. There should be no extra line between indented paragraphs. Save your file as .doc, .docx, or .rtf but not as .pdf please.

1.3.2 Length

Please check that the word length is in line with the type of article you want to submit (the word length includes references, figures, tables and any other textual or graphic material).

1.3.3 Tables and figures

You may incorporate tables and figures in the text. However, more complicated figures should be saved in separate files as a .jpeg or .tiff file. The filename for these separate files should have the same reference as the one used in the body of the text, for example, Figure 3. Reference these figures in the text as:

 <FIGURE 3 HERE>

Format tables as true tables (using Microsoft Word’s ‘Insert Table’ function) rather than using another method. Please do not use tabs to create pseudo-columns; create rows using returns or line breaks rather than inserting a new row in the table; supply a table as an image; include tables with so many columns that it cannot fit on a page; use vertical rules (lines) to delimit columns.

As a reminder, the line spacing for tables is single space.

The titles of the tables are placed above them, while the titles of the figures are placed below them.

2. Style and some section details

2.1 Quotes and citations

Single quote marks (‘   ’) are used to introduce (technical) terms the first time they are used. Double quote marks (“    ”) are used for quotations, categories, meanings/senses, translations, and “so-to-speak” uses. For short (fewer or 40 words), run-in quoted material, use double quote marks.

Longer (more than 40 words) quoted material should be displayed as an indented block quote. Quote marks are unnecessary for block quotes. Spelling and punctuation of the original should be copied exactly and [sic] used in the case of errors/typos in the original. Page numbers should always be included for all direct citations, both short and long.

2.2 Examples

Examples in the text (individual words or short sentences) should always be in italics, e.g. house or the house on the tree. Longer examples should be indented and numbered. These examples always need to be referred to in the text as, for instance, Example (1), Example (2), etc.:

      (1) You must have some of this

      (2) You should have some of this

Indented examples, like Examples (1) to (2) above, do not need italics. However, italics can be used for emphasis, as shown with the words must and should. Please translate examples in languages other than in English, following the format of Example (3).

      (3) Kannst du mir bitte das Buch geben?

            (“Can you please pass me the book?”)

2.3 Lists and punctuation

To create a numbered or lettered list, use the numbered or lettered list function of your word-processing program. This will automatically indent the list as well. Select the option for an Arabic numeral or Roman alphabet followed by a period.

Punctuation comes outside quotation marks (“it is a fresh start”.).

2.4 Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements, if any, come immediately after the main text (and before Endnotes). Font style, size, and spacing are the same as in the other sections of the manuscript. Acknowledgements should not appear in the first submission.

2.5 Endnotes

Please do not use footnotes. Instead, use Endnotes. They should be kept to a minimum. They should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper. The Endnotes section comes after the main text (or after the Acknowledgements if such a section is included).

2.6 Appendices

The Appendix section (or Appendices, if more than one) goes after the References section. Appendices should be referred to in the body of text, e.g., Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendices 3 and 4, etc. Appendices use Times New Roman, size 12, double spaced.

3. References

3.1 In-text references

Use the (Author, Year) reference style for in-text references, e.g., (Biber, 1988) or Biber (1988), if the name of the author appears in the text itself. When quoting work by two authors, use the ampersand in parentheses, e.g., (Biber & Conrad, 2009) but not outside parentheses Biber and Conrad (2009). If more than two authors, use the first author followed by et al., even at first mention, and if this does not create ambiguity between different sources. An example for in text is (Biber et al., 2004) or Biber et al. (2004) if more text follows the citation. All authors’ names must appear in the respective entry in the References section.

Order the citations of two or more works by different authors within the same parentheses alphabetically in the same order in which they appear in the reference list (including citations that would otherwise shorten to et al.). Separate the citations with semicolons as in (Ballance, 2017; Chambers, 2019; Pérez‐Paredes et al., 2018; Wilson 2013).

Arrange two or more works by the same authors by year of publication, each work separated by a comma, e.g. (Biber, 1988, 1995, 2006). Lists of two or more works cited within the same parenthesis are separated by semicolons, e.g., (Biber, 1988, 1995; Biber & Conrad, 2009; Biber et al., 2004). Please avoid long sequences of references, especially when they are not discussed but simply listed. When page numbers are specified, use the pattern as in (Biber, 2019, p. 50), Biber (2019, p. 62), or (Biber et al., 2004, pp. 380-85).

3.2 The references section

The References section should follow the Endnotes section and precede any Appendices. Make sure that all references cited in the text are included in the list of references, and that the list does not include any entries that have not been cited in the text. References should be listed (a) alphabetically and (b) chronologically, in the case of more than one publication by the same author(s). For the same author(s), same year, add a and b next to the year as in Chen and Flowerdew (2018a) and (Chen & Flowerdew, 2018b). Times New Roman, size 12, double space, is used with references, with hanging indent.

Nexus follows the APA 7^th edition manual (www.apastyle.org/) as reference style for the reference list. Please make sure that your reference list follows APA 7^th guidelines as closely as possible (for example, APA 7^th no longer includes the venue of publication for books, only the publisher’s name). Include DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for all publications that you reference (including books) if available. APA 7^th does not require that you write out DOI every time, or to say “Retrieved from” before the DOI reference. Instead, it requires a website address (see two examples below).

3.2.1 Journal article

Barlow, M. (2013). Individual differences and usage-based grammar. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(4), 443–478.

Collins, P., & Yao, X. (2013). Colloquial features in World Englishes. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(4), 479–505.

Chen, M., & Flowerdew, J. (2018a). A critical review of research and practice in data-driven learning (DDL) in the academic writing classroom. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 23(3), 335–369. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.16130.che

Chen, M., & Flowerdew, J. (2018b). Introducing data-driven learning to PhD students for research writing purposes: A territory-wide project in Hong Kong. English for Specific Purposes, 50, 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.11.004

3.2.2 Book

Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. John Benjamins.

Bubenhofer, N. (2009). Sprachgebrauchsmuster: Korpuslinguistik als methode der diskurs- und kulturanalyse [Patterns of Language Usage: Corpus Linguistics as a Method of Analyzing Discourse and Culture]. De Gruyter.

Leech, G., Rayson, P., & Wilson, A. (2001). Word frequencies in written and spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. Longman.

Aijmer, K., & Altenberg, B. (Eds.). (1991). English corpus linguistics. Longman.

3.2.3 Chapter in edited book

Barnbrook, G., & Sinclair, J. (2001). Specialised corpus, local and functional grammars. In M. Ghadessy, A. Henry, & R. L. Roseberry (Eds.), Small corpus studies and ELT: Theory and practice (pp. 237–276). John Benjamins.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1991). Corpus studies and probabilistic grammar. In K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (Eds.), English corpus linguistics (pp. 8–29). Longman.

Leech, G. (1991). The state of the art in corpus linguistics. In K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (Eds.), English corpus linguistics (pp. 8–29). Longman.

3.2.4 Unpublished thesis or dissertation (print copy available from the university)

Moon, R. (1994). Fixed expressions and text: A study of the distribution and textual behaviour of fixed expressions in English [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Birmingham.

3.2.5 Published thesis or dissertation (available online, provide database information and URL)

Kyle, K. (2016). Measuring syntactic development in L2 writing: Fine grained indices of syntactic complexity and usage-based indices of syntactic sophistication [Doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University]. ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/alesl_diss/35/

Miller, D. (2012). The challenge of constructing a reliable word list: An exploratory corpus-based analysis of introductory psychology textbooks (Publication No. 3524373) [Doctoral dissertation, Northern Arizona University]. ProQuest Dissertations.

3.2.6 Newspaper article

Bromwich, J. E. (2020, February 14). Lots of rich men tweet like the President now. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/style/billionaire-tweet-ecosystem.html

3.2.7 Corpora and datasets

BNC Consortium. (2007). British National Corpus (version 3, BNC XML ed.). http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk

Davies, M. (2013–) Corpus of News on the Web (NOW): 3+ billion words from 20 countries, updated every day. Retrieved April 5, 2020, from https://www.english-corpora.org/now/

3.2.8 Computer software

Anthony, L. (2019). AntConc (Version 3.5.8) [Computer Software]. Waseda University. https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software

Scott, M. (2020). WordSmith Tools (Version 8.0) [Computer software]. Lexical Analysis Software. https://lexically.net/wordsmith/downloads/ 

3.2.9 Unpublished conference paper

Römer, U., & O’Donnell, M. B. (2010, May 26–30). Positional variation of n-grams and phrase-frames in a new corpus of proficient student writing [Paper presentation]. ICAME 31 Conference, Giessen, Germany.

3.2.10 Poster presentation

Le Foll, E. (2017, July 24–28). Textbook English: A corpus-based analysis of language use in German and French EFL textbooks [Poster presentation]. Corpus Linguistics Conference 2017, Birmingham, UK.

3.2.11 Published conference paper (conference proceedings)

Erjavec, T. (2013). Slovene corpora for corpus linguistics and language technologies. In K. Gajdišová & A. Žáková (Eds.), Natural Language Processing, Corpus Linguistics, e-Learning: Proceedings (pp. 51–61). RAM.

Kutuzov, A., Øvrelid, L., Szymanski, T., & Velldal, E. (2018). Diachronic word embeddings and semantic shifts: A survey. In E. M. Bender, L. Derczynski, & P. Isabelle (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (pp. 1384–1397). Association for Computational Linguistics. https://aclweb.org/anthology/papers/C/C18/C18-1117/

Peer review process

When NEXUS receives a submission, the author will be notified by email that the submission has been received. The Editor will review the submission to determine if the manuscript fits the aim and scope of NEXUS.

If the manuscript is appropriate for NEXUS, it will be sent out for peer review by at least two experts and/or practitioners in the field.