As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
The text is wholly original. There is no plagiarism (accidental or intentional) and generative AI has not been used to write or contribute to the paper.
The submission file is in a Microsoft Word document file format.
The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
Author Guidelines
AUTHOR GUIDELINES
Thank you for choosing to submit your manuscript to The Academic Literacy Journal. Before proceeding please read the journal’s aim and scope to ensure/confirm that your paper matches the requirements of the journal. In preparing your submission to ALJ please take time to read and follow the instructions below to ensure that your article can move through the different processes (peer review, production and publication) smoothly.
1. Registration:
To submit a manuscript you have to register as a user. Submitted manuscripts must be the author(s) original work and should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere
2. Word count:
The manuscript should not be more than 7000 words inclusive of tables/figures, references, footnotes/endnotes
3. File type:
Word document (.doc/.docx)
4. Structure:
The article should have the following elements in the following order:
Title page: a clear and concise title that captures the main argument of the paper
Abstract: not more than 250 to 300 words
Key words: a minimum of 3 to 4 key words that will help others find your article quickly and accurately
Main text introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Results / Discussion: these sections may be presented separately
References
Appendices (if needed)
5. Style Guidelines
Font: Times New Roman, size 12, double line spacing
Margins: Normal (2.54 cm all around)
Title: bold with initial letter capitalized for any proper nouns
Abstract: slightly indented and italized
Key words: alphabetical, lower case (unless a proper noun) with each key word separated by a semi-colon
Headings: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Literature Review, etc) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns. Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns. Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns. Fourth-level headings should be underlined, at the beginning of a paragraph. The text follows immediately after a full stop (full point) or other punctuation marks.
Tables and Figures: these should be clearly labelled and inserted into the main document of the text
References: Please use Harvard referencing style. A more detailed referencing guide can be found here
Additional requirements
Completion of the check-list prior to submission
Proof of ethical clearance (if applicable)
Publication charges:
There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for this journal
Use of Generative AI
ALJ does not endorse the use of generative AI for the writing of articles. For a more detailed policy see here
Copyright Notice
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).