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Russian Language Journal

Article Submission Guidelines

Contents

Philosophy of Russian Language Journal

For more information, please see Russian Language Journal Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Russian Language Journal provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

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General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Russian Language Journal, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Russian Language Journal. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Russian Language Journal, please contact the editors.

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Formatting Requirements

Starting with volume 72 (2022), Russian Language Journal follows the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition) , with additional specifications, including differences in heading styles. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Authors should ensure that all manuscripts follow these guidelines. Although bepress can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or RTF file that can be converted to a PDF file.

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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AI-Generated Text and Media

To maintain academic integrity, please avoid including any AI (artificial intelligence)-generated text and references in your manuscript. Authors who use AI tools in the writing of their manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used, and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics. If you do use AI-generated media or short texts (e.g., as examples), please ensure they are appropriately cited as guided by the APA policy on the use of AI in scholarly materials.

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Anonymity

All manuscripts are sent to expert reviewers for anonymous double-blind peer review. To preserve anonymity, authors should not include their names or other identifying information in ways that would reveal their identity. For example, references to academic affiliations, URLs for personal websites, names of institutions, or names of programs, departments, or colleagues should not appear within the manuscript or title page, abstract, page headings, list of references, footnotes, or appended materials. Exclude acknowledgments and funding sources in the initial submission.

An author's previous publications can be cited as such (e.g., Johnson, 2024), as long as it is not clear that the publication belonged to the author. When a citation would reveal the identity of the author, it should be masked with "XXX" in the original submission: Example: In the pilot study, which was conducted at Institution X, we found that…. (Authors, XXX)

Remove any names and identifying information from file names and the metadata in the properties of the submission file.

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Guidelines on Reporting Quantitative Data

If your article includes a research study utilizing quantitative methods, please review the following checklist before submission:

Statistical Analyses

  • Have the assumptions for each statistical test been thoroughly checked? If so, please specify which assumptions were tested and to what extent they were met. Report this information for each statistical test used.
  • Have effect sizes (i.e., practical significance) been reported for all statistical tests? Have the magnitudes of the effect sizes been interpreted?
  • Beyond numerical values and benchmarks, have the results been discussed in terms of their practical and/or theoretical significance?

Research Instruments, Materials, and Transparency

  • To what extent are the instruments used in the study valid and reliable? If the instruments have been used in similar research contexts, please provide a reference to previous validation studies.
  • Have the instruments and materials used in the study been included in full, wherever possible (e.g., when no proprietary restrictions exist)? If space constraints prevent inclusion in an appendix, consider uploading these materials to a Google doc and providing an URL within your manuscript.

Note on Sample Sizes

Small sample sizes are common in quantitative L2 research, particularly for less commonly taught languages, such as Russian. However, simply acknowledging this limitation and recommending that future research recruit larger samples is insufficient. To enhance methodological rigor while maintaining ecological validity, we encourage researchers to follow these recommendations:

  1. Determine an adequate sample size in advance during the study design process (e.g., through power analysis).
  2. Carefully select an appropriate study design and statistical tests (e.g., consider a within-subject design over a between-subject design, use simpler statistical tests, or collect more data from individual participants when working with small samples).
  3. Avoid overgeneralizations and discuss the limitations imposed by a small sample size (e.g., analyzing means, standard deviations, and confidence intervals can help address these constraints).
  4. Interpret findings with greater caution, especially if the study is exploratory in nature.

See detailed instructions in this document.

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Guidelines on Reporting Qualitative Data

Authors of qualitatively oriented studies, which include interview data, survey responses, ethnographic notes, classroom observations, etc. should offer a systematic analysis of the qualitative data and present their findings in a narrative format that allows for the exploration of themes, relationships, and meanings within the data, rather than simply list individual responses obtained from study participants.

Authors are strongly encouraged to provide details about the approach to coding qualitative data and examples of codes and coding categories in the Methods Section of their manuscript and include selected direct quotations from participants to illustrate key points or themes. These quotations should be carefully chosen to represent diverse perspectives and experiences within the data. Quotations should be unpacked and interpreted for the reader within the manuscript. Discussion of the findings should be situated within relevant theoretical frameworks, existing literature, or socio-cultural contexts. Authors are strongly encouraged to include a discussion of how the findings contribute to or challenge existing theories, concepts, or understandings within the field of Russian language teaching and learning.

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Content Requirements for Teaching Reports

Authors submitting articles on teaching practices and pedagogical innovation should focus on significant and timely issues in Slavic language or culture teaching. Manuscripts should offer innovative insights, teaching approaches, or technological applications that advance conventional pedagogy. Strong submissions demonstrate originality, provide new perspectives, and contribute to advancing knowledge in the field.

Grounding the article in relevant, up-to-date theoretical frameworks is essential. Manuscripts should critically engage with current pedagogy scholarship, linking proposed methods to established learning theories and practices. This ensures the manuscript contributes meaningfully to academic discourse and supports its arguments with a solid foundation.

Descriptions of teaching approaches or activities should be detailed enough to enable replication by other educators. Teaching objectives, learning outcomes, and targeted proficiency levels must be clearly articulated. Authors are strongly encouraged to include evidence of effectiveness, such as student evaluations, empirical data, case studies, or classroom outcomes. Additionally, proposed methods should be adaptable to various teaching contexts, showcasing their broader applicability.

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Article Review Process

All articles submitted to RLJ undergo a rigorous two-step review process.

Internal Desk Review:The editors first review each manuscript to see if it meets the basic requirements (i.e., that it reports on original research or presents an original framework linking previous research, theory and teaching practices), and that it is of sufficient quality to merit external review. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements and are principally descriptions of classroom practices are not sent out for further review.

External Review:Submissions which meet the journal’s requirements are then sent out for double blind peer review by a minimum of 3 experts in the field. The external review takes approximately two-three months. Following the external review, the authors are sent copies of the external reviewers’ comments and are notified as to the decision (accept, accept with minor revisions (minor revisions required), resubmit for review (major revisions required and a new external review will be conducted), reject).

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Reprint Policy

RLJ/ScholarsArchive retains all rights to articles published in Russian Language Journal for the full term of copyright, including any renewals and extensions. Reproduction of the full article or portions thereof, posting, transmission, or any other distribution or use of the article or its content, in any medium, is permitted only under a personal-use exemption (see RLJ website for details) or through a written agreement with RLJ/ScholarsArchive. In such cases, credit must be given to RLJ/BYU ScholarsArchive as the copyright holder (e.g., Russian Language Journal/BYU ScholarsArchive © 2024).

To request special permission to reprint an article published in RLJ, please submit a written request to the RLJ Editor at rljeditor@gmail.com. The RLJ editorial team will review each request and determine whether reprinting is permissible, with the final decision communicated in writing.

Before special permission is granted, the author(s) of the article must be informed of any reprint requests from other publishers. Additionally, the requesting publisher must acknowledge RLJ and ScholarsArchive as the original publishers, including a citation or link to the original article in the reprint.

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Rights for Authors and BYU ScholarsArchive

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to BYU ScholarsArchive all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal--use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of BYU ScholarsArchive, requires credit to BYU ScholarsArchive as copyright holder (e.g., BYU ScholarsArchive © 2024).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from BYU ScholarsArchive provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g., a Phrenology professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Phrenology online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the BYU ScholarsArchive website and/or software agree not to misuse the BYU ScholarsArchive service or software in any way.

The failure of BYU ScholarsArchive to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between BYU ScholarsArchive and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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