Manuscript Submission and Blind Peer-Review Processes

The authors who would like to submit their papers to the Literacy Trek are advised to check that their manuscript fits well within the journal’s aims and scope. Additionally, the papers’ compliance to ethical issues are of primary concern based on the Literacy Trek publishing policies. Thus, before making submissions, the authors are advised to check their papers’ similarity indices using any available plagiarism detecting software. For all details, please see the details below.

The Literacy Trek (LT) has a fully web-enabled review system with straightforward log-in and submission procedures.

The journal offers authors the option of tracking in real time the review process of their manuscript. The following file formats are automatically converted into a single PDF for use in the peer-review process: Word, RTF, TXT, LaTeX2e, AMSTex, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPS, Postscript, PICT, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint. EM supports the upload of multiple files in a single ZIP file.

Manuscripts can only be submitted online. If you encounter any difficulties while submitting your manuscript online, please get in touch with the Editorial Assistant.

The Literacy Trek follows a double blind peer-review policy. Authors must omit their name and affiliation from the manuscript. Self-identifying citations and references in the article text should also be avoided or left blank when manuscripts are first submitted. In order to maintain anonymity during the peer review process, please avoid stating your name when making a reference to your own work, either in the text or References, and use ‘Author’ instead. After the initial revision by the editorial team, at least two independent/external blind reviewers are appointed to each submission by the responsible editor. The independent reviewers are not affiliated with the same institution(s) as the authors of the submission. If the appointed reviewers do not reach a consensus regarding the submission as a result of the reviewing process, a third independent/external reviewer is appointed as a judge. In order for a submission to be accepted for publication, at least two reviewers should accept the submission. This review process normally takes about 12-16 weeks.

Submission Types: 

Research studies: Scientific means of examining the characteristics of variables to further our understanding of a particular subject or topic making use of primary data. The subject or topic of a research study can include such things as a theory, ideology, or principle, practices, process or educational intervention. 

Review studies: They are conducted by making use of the published research, secondary data or sources to synthesize or analyse research already conducted in primary sources. They generally summarize the current state of research on a given topic.

Literary studies/essays: They aim to study, explore, interpret, and evaluate literary works in a language involving novels, historical traces of arts and theatre works and authorial stances in the literal world. The Literacy Trek particularly welcomes studies that combine pedagogy and literature. As of April, 2021, the Literacy Trek temporarily stopped accepting literary studies/essays. 

Language of the Manuscript

Author teams whose first language is not English are strongly encouraged to choose to have their manuscripts professionally edited before submission to improve the quality and clarity of English.

Publication Fee 

The Literacy Trek does not charge authors for any phase during the publication process.

LT requires all submitted manuscripts to follow the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA; http://www.apastyle.org/index.aspx), except the line spacing in references, tables, figures, and appendices (see below) and the position of tables and figures. Manuscripts received that do not follow this style will be promptly returned to the authors for correction before being considered and submitted for peer review. Manuscripts should not exceed 8000 words. This includes primary manuscript text, references, tables and figures, and appendices. All text should be set to 12-point Times New Roman or equivalent serif typeface on ISO standard A4, leaving 2.54 cm/1 inch margins on all sides. The numbering of all pages in the submitted manuscript is to be consecutive starting with the first page of text. Text paragraphs should be aligned left (i.e., not justified).

All submissions should include at least two documents:

1. Title Page

Please add a 'Title Page' with your submissions as a separate document. Title page is to contain:

• title

• author(s)

• affiliation(s)

• full address for correspondence, telephone numbers, and e-mail address

• acknowledgement(s) of people, grants, funding,

• authors' ORCID number,

• short bio(s): 50 words per author,

• conflict of interest (if any)

2. Main Manuscript Text

The main manuscript should be blinded – The author's (authors’) name(s) and affiliation should be removed from all pages of the submitted manuscript and any associated files under review. When citing their own work, authors are to use the word "Authors" in the text to maintain anonymity. In references, please also use the word “Authors” and reveal only the information of publication year and source. For example, Authors (2009). International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education.

Title – The title of the article is repeated.

Abstract – A short abstract of 100 to 250 words, which should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references, is to be presented on the first page of the main manuscript.

Keywords – List 4 to 5 keywords or short phrases in alphabetical order that help defines the research and support electronic searches.

Page number – Place consecutive page numbers at the upper right-hand corner of the page, at least 1 in. from the right edge of the page, between the top of the page and the first line of text.

Section headings – First-, second-, third-, and fourth-order headings should be clearly distinguishable. APA five-level heading structure should be used. For more information regarding the section headings, you can check this website.

Figures – All graphs, charts, maps, drawings, and photographs should be incorporated into the body of text in appropriate locations rather than added at the end of the manuscript. They should comply with APA (7th) guidelines, be numbered consecutively (1, 2, etc.), have a caption, and contain a detailed legend (without abbreviations). Multi-part figures are to be labeled with lowercase letters (a, b, etc.).

Tables – All tables should be incorporated into the body of the text in appropriate locations rather than added at the end of the manuscript. They should comply with APA (7th) guidelines, be numbered consecutively, and have a title (without abbreviations). Horizontal lines can be used to separate information and make it clearer. Do 3 not use vertical lines in an APA format table. Footnotes are preferable for long explanatory material in either the headings or body of the table. Such explanatory footnotes, identified by superscript letters, should be placed immediately below the table. An example is as follows. Table 1 Statistics for the Pretest and Posttest Pretest-Posttest n t p ES M SD M SD Factual knowledge 65 4.77 4.48 8.69 6.14 16.48 < 0.01 2.05 Conceptual knowledge 65 2.24 1.65 4.91 3.34 6.68 < 0.01 1.02 Spatial knowledge 65 4.05 2.69 9.85 3.42 15.00 < 0.01 1.88 Note. ES = effect size. 

Notes – Use endnotes rather than footnotes. Notes should be indicated by consecutive superscript numbers in the text and listed at the end of the article before the References. A source reference note should be indicated by means of an asterisk after the title. This note should be placed at the bottom of the first page.

Quotations – All quotations of more than 40 words should be set off clearly, either by indenting the left margin or by using a smaller typeface. Use double quotation marks for direct quotations and single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.

References – All text citations and reference listings should comply with APA 7th edition style. Personal communications should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text.

Please give full bibliographical details of references and list them in alphabetical order of author. The appropriate example list of references can be found on this website.

Appendices – All appendices should comply with APA guidelines and be included in the manuscript submission. These appendices will be fully reviewed and, subject to space limitations. 

Copyright - Once the article is accepted and sent for typesetting, an automatic email message will be sent requesting, amongst others, to sign a copyright transfer form. The Literacy Trek follows CC-BY-NC licensing plate in accordance with Creative Common guidelines. For more information, please review the link. The content of the journal may not be used for commercial purposes and can be used, shared, and copied provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and The Literacy Trek. 

Permission - It is the responsibility of the author to obtain written permission for a quotation from unpublished material, for all quotations in excess of 250 words in one extract or 500 words in total from any work still in copyright, and for the reprinting of figures, tables, or poems from unpublished or copyrighted material.

Word Limits

The word limits for research types vary as indicated;
Research studies: A text length of maximum 10.000 words including tables, figures, references and appendices.
Review studies: A text length of maximum 8.000 words including tables, figures, references and appendices.

The editorial processing of the manuscripts;
When the authors submit their manuscripts to the Literacy Trek, the editorial office conducts the initial check and the manuscript is sent back the authors for re-submission in case;
-The manuscript is not within the aims & scope of the Literacy Trek
- The manuscript lacks APA 7th edition citation and referencing
- The manuscript has more than the indicated word limit
- The manuscript has more than 15 % similarity indices in the plagiarism report
- The manuscript does not follow the flow of a research article or review article formats and sections.

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NOTE: The articles need to have "ETHICAL COMMITTEE APPROVAL" or "Institutional Review Board Approval (IRB)" before submission to The Literacy Trek. Additionally, authors are required to upload a similarity index report as a supplementary document along with the main manuscript text

NOTE: The articles need to have "ETHICAL COMMITTEE APPROVAL" or "Institutional Review Board Approval (IRB)" before submission to The Literacy Trek. Additionally, authors are required to upload a similarity index report as a supplementary document along with the main manuscript text (see author guidelines).

Ethics Committee Approval" is required for all qualitative or quantitative research requiring data collection from participants via questionnaire, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment, or interview.


The articles should specify whether a permit from an ethical committee or legal/special permission is taken. If these approvals are required, they should be presented clearly with the institution, date, and decision or number within the manuscript.

- No ethics approval is required for articles produced from used master's or doctoral studies prior to 2020 (but should be stated in the article).

- Researchers who are not university members should also apply to the regional Ethics Committees.

Research ethics guideline for authors
The Literacy Trek expects the contributors to adhere to ethical standards while working with human participants and standards of academic integrity.

Ethical standards may vary among institutions and countries; therefore, we expect the authors to commit themselves to international standards and guidelines published by organizations such as (1) Ethics Guidelines of American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) (2) Protection of Research Participants Standards by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ICMJE, and (3) Committee in Publication Ethics (CODE) Code of Conduct. Accordingly, The Literacy Trek editorship commits to Helsinki Declaration of 2013 in terms of ethical principles for research involving human subjects/participants. If you have any doubts about whether your study meets these standards, please contact our editors.

All parties (publishers, editors, authors, and blind-reviewers) need to be aware of the copyright and licensing information of every study published in the Literacy Trek. Copyright identifiers are present in all pages of our website as well as the first page of every study. As an open-access, non-profit academic journal, The Literacy Trek does not require any submission fee in any phase of the publication process. 

Before publishing in The Literacy Trek, authors and contributors who have included human participants in their study must prove that they have met the following requirements.

- Inform the participants that the authors aim to write about them in an international academic journal
- Ensure that each participant is fully aware of the purpose of the research.
- Collect properly-written and informed consent forms (please consult to the guidelines specified above) from all participants. If any participant is not legally responsible, the authors still need to obtain a signed consent document from their parents or guardians.
- Tell the participants that their participation is voluntary, and there is no penalty if they refuse to participate.
- Take necessary precautions that the participants' confidentiality is protected, and explain these precautions to the participants.
- Explain to the participants any foreseeable risks that may occur if they participate.
- Apply for Institutional Review Boards (or Ethical Review Boards) affiliated to higher education institutions, and obtain necessary Review Board approvals for each study that include human participants or sample that is composed of animals. This approval should be mentioned in the manuscript and be documented. In the manuscript's methodology section, the documentation should be clarified.
- Provide information on any financial support or conflict of interest in the initial version of their submissions.
- For studies authored by more than one author, all authors must significantly contribute to the submitted manuscript.
- The authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes in case of detection after the publication of their submissions. 

Please keep in mind that your research may still be unethical even though you meet all the criteria listed above. To be sure, please consult the aforementioned international standards.
If the editorial board becomes aware of any ethical misconduct, studies will not be eligible for publication. In case of any misconduct of academic integrity, the submission will be refused.

In the case of plagiarism, unethical research, non-notified earlier publication, or use of fraudulent data, article retractions are published. Article correction is requested by editors if ghost authors and mistakes or errors in the manuscript are detected.

As for plagiarism and academic integrity, every manuscript submitted is checked for plagiarism by computer software. For plagiarism screening, we utilize iThenticate software. If detected, the authors are informed of inappropriate cases and are asked to resubmit the text.

Research ethics guideline for editors

The Literacy Trek editorship believes that the publication process of an article in a peer-reviewed is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. Accordingly, it pledges itself to the ethical guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Accordingly, editors' main responsibility includes
- to take necessary precautions to keep the peer-review process confidential and anonymous regardless of the identity of the author(s).
- to ensure the quality of the publications.
- to make effort to process submissions in a timely manner.
- to maintain the integrity of academic research
- to meet the needs of readers and authors.
- to improve the journal.
- To ensure that authors publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, or apologies when any mistake is detected after that publication.

Research ethics guidelines for blind-reviewers

In accordance with COPE guidelines, scholarly-rigorous peer-review is of critical importance in ensuring the integrity of the scholarly record. It depends to a large extent on trust, and this process requires that everyone involved behaves responsibly and ethically. All peer-reviewers are to revise the COPE guidelines to ensure the academic integrity standards followed by the editorship. In this vein, all reviewers must give unbiased consideration to every submission. Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of the reviewing process and provide their peer-review reports in a timely manner. It is their responsibility to inform the editors in case of any potential conflict of interest and also if they detect any misconduct regarding the academic integrity of the submission. The reviewers should be objective.

Encouraging academic integrity and protecting individual data

Editors, authors, and reviewers must adhere to encouraging academic integrity in accordance with CODE standards.
Crucially, authors must engage in research practices that have been approved by an appropriate body of research ethics/committee/institutional review board, etc. However, all parties should also keep in mind that such approval is not enough to make research practice ethical. Editors should take necessary precautions to protect the confidentiality of individual information and to ensure that all data from human participants have been collected after written and informed consent is obtained. Thus, authors are asked to declare their adherence to academic integrity for every submission that includes human participants. This declaration is asked before finalizing the submission but editors can require additional proof should they suspect misconduct.

Please refer to the following article: COPE Council. (2017). Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9 

REVIEW & PUBLICATION POLICY

The Literacy Trek uses a double-blind peer-review process for evaluating the manuscripts after the favorable initial editorial decision. Both reviewers and authors' anonymity is ensured by the editorial team. All manuscripts submitted to The Literacy Trek is reviewed by at least two experts in terms of the content. To add, the editorial desk assesses the manuscript according to the style as explained in author guidelines.

The identities of both the reviewers and authors are concealed during our journal's double-blind review process. Referee names are therefore not published. Authors and reviewers should make efforts to maintain their anonymity. For this reason, authors and reviewers who send files to the system should pay attention to deleting all instances of names and institutions in the text.

While evaluating the submissions, editors and reviewers consider the following main criteria:

• The submission appeals to the interests of the journal's readership.
• The submission meets the ethical standards and guidelines the editorship of The Literacy Trek adheres to.
• The submission is written with academic rigor, and it offers a new, original insight or interpretation and not just a restatement of others’ ideas and views.
• The submission makes a significant contribution to the field.
• The submission reflects proper scholarship and research design with appropriate, correctly interpreted references to other authors and works.
• The manuscript is well written and organized and conforms to the specifications of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, APA 7 style. For citation and reference examples, you can visit Purdue University OWL webpage. 

The reviewers' duties include the following while evaluating the submissions.

• Any manuscript that is attached to any submission should be regarded as intellectual property of the authors and be treated as confidential documents.
• Reviewing process should be conducted objectively; instead of criticism, the referees should intend to support the authors with valid arguments to develop the manuscript.
• Reviewers should declare any potential conflict of interest. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Overall, The Literacy Trek invites reviewers to recognize standards of the review process available in Guidelines for Publishing in Applied Linguistics published by AAAL in 2016.

The reviewers should also revise the ethical guidelines and protocols to which The Literacy Trek commits. See Research Ethics page for further details of the journal's academic integrity policy.

All articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Copyright rests with the author; The Literacy Trek must be referred properly.