An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics

Electronic submission is preferred. Please submit an electronic copy of the manuscript in MS Word format to the Editor, Norman F. Davies at: norman.davies@liu.se. Should you be unable to provide an electronic version, please contact the Editor prior to submission. The Publisher and Editor regret that they are not able to consider submissions that do not follow these procedures.

Submission of articles

General
Articles must be written in good English.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).

Book Reviews
System publishes reviews of books which are relevant to the interests of our readers. These reviews should go beyond a mere listing of the contents of a book, and should normally include a critical evaluation of the main ideas being discussed. Book reviews should not normally exceed 1500 words, but the editor will accept longer reviews where seminal books are concerned. Except for the title and end of review, they should be in the same form as articles. The title should adopt the following form: Welsh - The Language of Heaven?, W. Jones. Speculative Books Inc., Cardiff (2000). xiii + 242pp. At the end of the review, the reviewer's full name and postal/e-mail address should be included.

Book reviews should be submitted as e-mail attachments in Word format, with no abstract or keywords to Paul Meara: PM.Meara@swansea.ac.uk.

Authors' rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/authorsrights.

Submission to the journal prior to acceptance

Authors should send an electronic version of their article by e-mail to the address given above. This electronic version will be used for the reviewing process. Authors, Reviewers and Editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail and no paper correspondence is necessary.

Note: electronic articles submitted for the review process may need to be edited after acceptance to follow journal standards. For this an "editable" file format is necessary. See the section on "Electronic format requirements for accepted articles" and the further general instructions on how to prepare your article below.

Electronic format requirements for accepted articles

General points
We accept most wordprocessing formats, but MS Word is preferred. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of the program used.

Wordprocessor documents
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts, etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/howtosubmitpaper). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on the preparation of electronic illustrations.

To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spellchecker" function of your wordprocessor.

Preparation of text

Presentation of manuscript

General
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Italics are not to be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).

Please prepare the manuscript using double spacing and wide margins on one side. Use a font size of 10 or 12. Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables and figure captions on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. Number all pages consecutively. Material cited at length in the text should be indented. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar with layout and conventions.

Word Count
Manuscripts should not normally exceed 5000 words (not including references, appendices, etc.).

Review Arrangements
As this journal has adopted a double-blind review system, please ensure that all identifying information is included on a separate page, or is presented in the email sent with the manuscript. The anonymous manuscript will be used in the peer review process and will be sent to reviewers who will, themselves, remain anonymous.

Language Polishing
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/languagepolishing or contact: authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/termsconditions.cws_home/termsconditions.

Provide the following data on the title page (in the order given).

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.

Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract. A concise and factual abstract is required (of between 150-200 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should therefore be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Keywords. Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 10 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). These keywords will be used for indexing purposes and should conform to those used in Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts, as far as possible (for more information, please see: http://www.csa.com/factsheets/llba-set-c.php).

Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence in the article: in the abstract but also in the main text after it. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

N.B. Acknowledgements. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise.

Arrangement of the article

Subdivision of the article. It is recommended you divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to "the text." Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

It is recommended that you include the following sections in your article (especially the literature review and methodology):

- Introduction.

- Literature Review.

- Research Questions.

- Methodology. Materials, participants, procedure.

- Results.

- Discussion.

- Conclusions.

- Appendices. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: (Eq. A.1), (Eq. A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, (Eq. B.1) and so forth.

- Acknowledgements. Place acknowledgements, including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote on the title page.

- References. See separate section, below.

- Figure captions, tables, figures, schemes. Present these, in this order, at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from the main text file (see the section below on the preparation of illustrations).

Specific remarks

Footnotes. Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves on a separate sheet at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Table footnotes. Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

Tables. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Preparation of supplementary data. Elsevier accepts supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

References

Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.

Citations in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication" Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Text: All citations in the text should refer to: 1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication; 2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication; 3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication. Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communication 163, 51-59.

Reference to a book:

Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.

The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly `Articles in press because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.

The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071

When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Preparation of illustrations

Preparation of electronic illustrations

General points
- Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
- Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
- Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
- Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
- Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
- Provide all illustrations as separate files.
- Provide captions to illustrations separately.
- Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

You are urged to visit this site.

Please do not:
- Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
- Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
- Supply files that are too low in resolution;
- Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Line drawings
The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible or unclear after possible reduction; in general, the figures should be designed for a reduction factor of two to three. The degree of reduction will be determined by the Publisher. Illustrations will not be enlarged. Consider the page format of the journal when designing the illustrations.

Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.

Photographs (halftones)
Remove non-essential areas of a photograph. Do not mount photographs unless they form part of a composite figure. Where necessary, insert a scale bar in the illustration (not below it), as opposed to giving a magnification factor in the caption.

Colour illustrations
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure that these figures will appear in colour on the Web for free (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to grey scale (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.

Proofs

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.

If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post.

Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Proofs should be returned within 48 hours of receipt. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.



Offprints (e-offprints)
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.

Author Discount
Authors are entitled to a 30% discount on Elsevier books (excluding major reference works).

Author Enquiries
Authors can also keep a track on the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the "Track a Paper" feature at: http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html.