Guide for authors

Nordand – Nordic Journal of Second Language Research publishes peer-reviewed articles of high academic quality that are relevant to learning, using or teaching one of the Nordic languages as a second or foreign language, as well as issues concerning multilingualism in the Nordic context.

The journal addresses researchers, but also others interested in new knowledge about language learning and multilingualism. The articles can be empirical, theoretical or provide an overview of research and research projects. They can shed light on linguistic, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, cognitive, sociocultural, language pedagogical, language political or subject didactic issues, and they can illuminate second language proficiency or use as part of multilingual development. "Second language" also includes research on the Nordic languages as foreign languages, as they are taught at the many universities around the world offering studies in Nordic languages.

The journal accepts articles in Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. If the author(s) do not master Danish, Norwegian or Swedish, we can to a limited extent also accept articles in English.

Submitting a manuscript

Before you submit your manuscript, please read the guidelines carefully, and make sure that:

the information about the author is correct (name, institutional affiliation, contact information, and ORCID ID if applicable) provided in a separate document
the article does not exceed the maximum limit (50,000 characters)
notes and references are in accordance with the guidelines
an English abstract (max 250 words) is included (and in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish if the article is written in any of these languages)
title and 3-5 keywords in English (and in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish if the article is written in any of these languages)
a short abstract in English (and in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish if the article is written in any of these languages)
the manuscript is anonymized (as a general rule, the name(s) of the author(s) should not appear in the manuscript)
relevant research ethics considerations have been accounted for

All manuscripts must be submitted by email to Susan Sayehli, [email protected].

Requirements for manuscripts

Manuscripts submitted to Nordand must not be published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. Only articles that follow the specified format (see below) will be considered by the editors.

Articles must not exceed 50,000 characters (including spaces) including references. Abstract and keywords are not included in the 50,000 characters (this also applies to title, abstract and keywords).

Submitted manuscripts must contain the following:

Title
Abstract (maximum 250 words)
3-5 keywords
The manuscript text itself
Numbered notes, organized as endnotes. Numbering should follow APA 7th.
References, alphabetically ordered
When the article is written in a Scandinavian language, an English abstract (max 250 words), English title and 3-5 English keywords should also be provided. If the article is written in English, the abstract, title and keywords only need to be in English.

In separate documents:

Numbered figures and tables (one per page, exception is tables made in Word).
Alternative texts for figures
A title page with the author's name, institutional affiliation, ORCID ID if applicable and email address as well as the article title.

Paragraphs are marked with an open line between each text section. The text can have a maximum of two heading levels, and there should be a clear distinction between heading levels in the text (Nordand does not use numbered headings).

Illustrations/graphs/diagrams

If the manuscript contains illustrations, figures or similar, these should be attached as separate files when submitted. In the text, mark your suggested placement of the illustration with square brackets on a separate line, preferably between two paragraphs, e.g. [table N approximately here]. The actual illustration, figure etc. should thus not be included in the text file when submitting. The exception is tables created in Word. These should be inserted at the desired location in the manuscript.

Figures should not be pasted into Word, but submitted as separate files in image format.

All figures and tables used in the manuscript must be permitted to publish online. If the figure was not created by the author, the name of the illustrator or photographer should be provided in the figure text. The author obtains permission for use of previously published illustrations.

Alternative texts for figures

If your article contains images or figures, you must write alternative texts (alt-text) for them. Alt-text is a descriptive text that conveys the visual information in a figure displayed digitally. Alt text is an important element for your article to be accessible.

Alternative text is provided in a separate document along with your article with the file name “alt-text”.
Use the figure number to refer to the correct figure.

Example:

Figure 1: [alt-text]

Reference System

The journal uses the APA 7th reference style. APA uses author and year in references.
When referencing or summarizing a source, the author's surname and year are placed in parentheses in the text like this: (Andersen, 2011; Andreassen, 2004; Askheim, 2009).
For references with two authors, use the & symbol: (Deegan & Anderson, 2006), while 'and' is used between author names when paraphrasing: "Lightbown and Spada (2013) claim...".
Page numbers are marked with p. in the reference: (Ellis, 2002, p. 178).
For references to articles with three or more authors, use the first author and et al. in the text (Russell et al., 2020), while all authors (up to 20) should be listed in the reference list.
Note that reporting of statistics, as well as formatting of tables, should also follow APA 7th standards.

These websites can be consulted for an introduction to referencing:

The reference list is alphabetical by the first author's surname and written at the end after the main text. Each reference has a hanging indent on the second and subsequent lines.

Example reference list in APA 7 style:

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Köpke, B. & Schmid, M. (2004). Language attrition: The next phase. I M. Schmid, B. Köpke, M.

Keijzer & L. Weilemar (Red.), First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues (p. 1–43). John Benjamins.

Long, M. (1990). Maturational constraints on language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12, 251–285.

DOI References

References should always include a DOI (digital object identifier) for sources that have one. The DOI should be a clickable URL placed at the end of the reference. If unsure of a reference's DOI or if one exists, a quick search by title, author name etc. can be done at http://search.crossref.org/. According to APA 7th, the DOI is included in the reference list as a URL:

Ellis, N. (2002). Frequency effects in language processing. Studies in second language acquisition, 24(2), 143–188. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263102002024

Quotes in the Text

Quotes are marked with double quotation marks ("and") in the text. Quotes over three lines / 40 words are set as a block quote and separated from the body text appropriately without quotation marks. Single quotation marks for quote within a quote. Shortening of a quote is marked like this: [...].

Publishing and Research Ethics

What is published in the journals must be of high academic quality and follow international ethical standards for scientific publishing. The journal follows the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE).

It must therefore be clearly stated in the manuscript that the research follows applicable international, national and/or institutional guidelines for research ethics. If the study involves humans, the ethical considerations underlying the research must be explained.

After Submission

Articles submitted to the journal are evaluated by the editors and at least two independent anonymous peer reviewers.

The journal has double-blind peer review. The manuscript must be anonymized. This means that author information must be in a separate document, and all explicit self-references must be anonymized.

The author(s) will first receive feedback from the editors by email on whether the manuscript is sent for peer review. Feedback after the manuscript has undergone peer review is also communicated by the editors via email.

If the manuscript is approved for publication, the article will be copyedited and then approved by the author(s). The author(s) will receive a first proof as a PDF file attached to an email before publication. Only typographical errors should be corrected, and no changes should be made to the text compared to the approved manuscript (re-editing, new text, etc.).

The author(s) will receive the final PDF file of the article after it is published.

Nordand