Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

CONSTRUCTIONS offers a forum for linguistic research concerned with the structure, use, function, and development of 'constructions' in language and linguistics. The journal aims at a balanced integration of both notional, informal approaches to constructions in general and more formal treatments, as for example, within the framework of construction grammar. One of the long-term goals is to establish contact between researchers from various perspectives. The term 'construction' as understood in this journal is deliberately chosen to have a broad extension and not be limited to any specific definition or linguistic orientation. Constructions is not restricted to any particular language or language family, and aims at combining theoretical, empirical, and applied issues.

CONSTRUCTIONS is published as an open access, peer-reviewed electronic journal. As such, it departs from traditional print journals in at least three important ways:

  1. Online availability: Constructions will only be available online, through a freely accessible online content system. Articles may be printed by subscribers for private use only. Copyright generally remains with the author(s).
  2. Speedy publication: To ensure a timely publication of current research, Constructions aims at publishing submitted manuscripts within a period of no more than six months. It will not be published in volume and issue form, but throughout the year, as articles become ready for publication. Constructions was launched as part of a large scale project initiated by the Ministry of Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to establish digital peer publishing as an alternative to print journals (http://www.dipp.nrw.de). Full publishing services, including citability, archival storage, and copyright management is provided by the Hochschulbibliothekszentrum NRW ‘Centre of University Libraries’ in Cologne (http://www.hbz-nrw.de).
  3. Innovative formats: The online platform will also allow for new and innovative publication formats, as for example the publication of research materials and comprehensive data sets in digital format, including audio-visual material, online presentations, and electronic data bases.

Constructions works with a high-class specialized editorial board. All submitted articles will be subjected to the usual double-blind peer reviewing process.

 

Section Policies

Articles

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Reviews

Unchecked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed
 

Peer Review Process

Please use the following criteria when assessing a paper in your review.

 

Structure & presentation

 

·         How clearly is the research question stated, and how clearly is the argument developed?

·         Is the length of the contribution reasonable in relation to its content, merit, potential impact?

·         Is the paper well accessible also to non-experts in the field?

·         Does the English need improvement/correction (the aim is a clear and grammatical variety of ‘Global (academic) English’ rather than a perfect specimen of British or American English)?

 

Content

 

·         How does the paper contribute to a better understanding of ‘constructions’?

·         How ‘original’ and innovative is the contribution?

·         How does the paper

o        relate to theoretical questions?

o        include empirical data? (And if so, how do you judge the methodology chosen?)

o        relate to applied issues?

·         Would you regard this paper as a potential lead article for discussion/peer commentaries?

 

Final judgement:

 

(a) publish

 

(b) publish with minor revisions

 

(c) publish with major revisions

 

(d) revise and resubmit

 

(e) reject

 

If you are, for any reason, unable to review a particular article, please let us know as soon as possible. In this case, it would be very helpful if you could suggest another suitable reviewer.

 

Reviews are due within 6 weeks. This is a very strict deadline in order to safeguard timely publication. In other words, if we haven’t heard from you by then, the article will automatically go to another reviewer.

 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

 

Call for papers

CONSTRUCTIONS invites original, hitherto unpublished high-quality papers of any length that explicitly deal with the structure, use, and function of constructions (however defined) in language and linguistics. While there is in principle no length restriction on papers, authors should bear in mind that length should positively correlate with relevant content and quality. Given the explicit goal of Constructions to bring together research from all linguistic perspectives, submissions should be accessible for a general audience.

While there is in principle no length restriction on papers, authors should bear in mind that length should positively correlate with relevant content and quality. Authors are also encouraged to consult the "Guidelines for reviewers", available here.

Manuscripts should be submitted as an .rtf or .doc file to constructions@elanguage.net. The multiple blind peer reviewing process requires anonymous manuscripts. Avoid any information in the article which could reveal your identity. Authors should provide their name, address, title of the paper, and a short abstract (no more than 500 words) in their cover email. Authors are expected to follow the good academic practice of not submitting an article to several journals at a time. Publication languages are English and German.

Please keep the formatting of your submission as simple as possible; a detailed style file will be made available shortly. Please see the guidelines for authors for stylistic details. We recommend use of the free SIL fonts Doulos, Charis or of MS Arial Unicode. Please attach any figures as separate .jpeg or similar files and indicate their approximate position in the text. We will acknowledge receipt of your submission as soon as it reaches us. If you don’t receive any acknowledgment within a week, please re-send your submission. Referees are expected to review papers within 6 weeks, and we aim at notifying you about our final decision within 8 weeks. Special issues: CONSTRUCTIONS also invites special issues on selected topics. Potential guest-editors are welcome to contact us informally on constructions@elanguage.net.

 

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the following outside referees for their assistance:

Barddal, Johanna
Bergen, Benjamin
Brinton, Laurel
Broccias, Cristiano
Davidse, Kristin
Delbecque, Nicole
Detges, Ulrich
Gries, Stefan
Heine, Lena
Huumo, Thomas
Karimi, Simin
Kaufmann, Ingrid
Kittilä, Seppo
König, Ekkehard
Kortmann, Bernd
Leino, Jaakko
Maldonado, Ricardo
Marandin, Jean-Marie
van Gelderen, Elly



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