Editorial Policy

The MEXTESOL Journal (www.mextesol.net), a professional publication since 1976, is dedicated to English as a Foreign Language teachers not only in Mexico, but throughout the world. It is an open-access, indexed (Scopus, Latindex, DOAJ, ERIC), online journal, published four times a year using a continuous publication mode (See ABOUT tab for more information). There are no publication charges. Previously unpublished articles and book reviews related to English as a Foreign Langauge (EFL) are accepted for review in either English or Spanish. Articles can be either practical or theoretical in nature. 

REFEREED ARTICLES:
A researched-based or theoretical article should report original research or discuss research-related issues. Reviews of the literature including original interpretation are also acceptable. This type of article is usually submitted as refereed to be reviewed and mentored by two peer-reviewers in double-blind arbitration. A note regarding the refereed status is added to the published article.

NON-REFEREED ARTICLES:
Non-refereed articles usually include book reviews, descriptions of classroom practices or national realities or curricula that do not involve rigorous research, interviews, simple literature reviews, personal reflections on a topic supported by references, or and any other previously unpublished articles relevant to EFL practice. Non-refereed articles are reviewed and mentored by one peer-reviewer in double-blind arbitration.
 

Is the MEXTESOL Journal (MJ) the journal for you?

Not everyone should publish in MJ. One of our purposes is to act as a teaching journal to guide inexperienced (and experienced) authors through the publishing process. For this reason, we are all mentors. All articles are mentored from submission. Even articles which are not accepted for review get a complete list of the reasons for their rejection and suggestions for improvement.
The mentoring process takes time. On submission the article is examined to see if it meets the requirements for publication that are stated below in this webpage, it is checked for plagiarism, and it is read by our Editorial Review Board who decide if an article can enter review and if not, specific reasons why not are given. All refereed articles in review are subject to a double-blind mentoring process which means they are mentored by two or three different reviewers asynchronously (The first reviewer concentrating on content and organization and the second on language. Non-refereed articles are mentored by one blind mentor). During the time with each mentor, the article can be required to be revised many times, some needing more than twenty revisions before approval. After the approval of the mentor(s), the article is sent to Style Editing where it again goes through a plagiarism check and is edited by three different editors and more revision is often necessary.
This process takes time, especially since everyone at MJ is a volunteer with other important responsibilities. So, if you are in a hurry to meet a publication deadline, MJ is NOT the journal for you. Here is a tentative timeline (all dates depend on how much revision the article needs at each stage):

Pre-Review: From 3 months to 6 months or more.
Review: From 4 months to over a year. (A Letter of Approval is available at the completion of the review process.
Style Editing: Queue to enter: From 9 months to a year or more. Style Editing: Since each article is different, it is impossible to predict how long this process will take. 
Production: From 2 weeks to a month. (The article is published immediately and a Letter of Acceptance is sent out.)

MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES
The following conditions must be met on submission:
 Authors are only allowed to submit one article to MJ at a time as first author. Once an article has been approved by the reviewer(s), the author may submit another article as first author. 

1. Send your manuscript (in Microsoft Word-font: Times New Roman; orientation: portrait; all text within set margins) accompanying your email stating a list of all authors (complete names, institutional affiliations with cities and countries mentioned), as well as whether you would like your article to be refereed or non-refereed.

2. Citations and References:
    a. DO NOT use automatic referencing apps (citations and references).
    b. The list entitled "References" of all and only the references cited in the article must appear at the end of the text. The information must be complete and accurate. 
    c. Both the citations AND references must be written in Latinate alphabet. References or citations CANNOT be in other alphabets like: Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, etc. If the title is not in English, a translation to English must follow it: Mi casa [My house].
    c. The doi link must be included in each reference if it is available. If there is no doi, a link to a pdf from the original site or ERIC is acceptable
    d. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of their references. The reference MUST come from the original journal website and NOT from a website like researchgate or any other.
    e. We use APA (7th Edition) for citations and references only. We do not use it for any other aspects of the formatting of the article. 
    f. Your article MUST use APA (7th Edition) and be consistent in formatting and punctuation.
    g. Be sure to use up-to-date references. For example, texts about technology from ten years ago are useless unless you are writing about history.

3. Use footnotes, not endnotes. 

4. Do NOT blind (make anonymous) any part the article. We will do that.

5. Tables and Figures:
    a. All Tables and Figures must be in their correct place in the article. Do NOT submit separately.
    b. Do NOT construct Figures in the article itself. Do it in a separate document and insert them in the article as .png or .jpg images. 
    c. Tables, however, must be created in the text with the Word function "TABLES". Do NOT change them into images or photos. Be sure to put each text or number in its own cell.
    d. FIGURES: Feel free to use colors, photos, etc. which make your article more accessible and professional.
    d. Use the Verdana font in Figures, please.

6. Articles must be organized into logical sections and subsections which must NOT be numbered.

7. Do NOT submit the article to other journals if you have submitted it here. If you do so, your article will be immediately rejected for ethical reasons.

8. If the article included research using human subjects, be sure to include, in the METHODS section, a description of how informed consent was obtained from the participants (for more information: https://researchsupport.admin.ox.ac.uk/governance/ethics/resources/consent)

9. Check your use of the language carefully. We expect our articles to be written in global/ international English with relatively simple syntax and lexicon. Avoid using synonyms and use basic vocabulary. The purpose of an article is for it to be read and understood. Local variants of English often include changes in lexicon that impede the communication to other variants. We are an international journal and must make our article comprehensible to all variants of language and take into account the varying linguistic sophistication of readers.

10. Be sure to read our Ethics Statement carefully before submitting an article.

11. All books for book review MUST have been published within three years of the date of submission of the article. Older books are not accepted for review,

Abstracts: An approximately 250-word abstract in both English and Spanish must be submitted at the beginning of the article, except for book reviews. In non-refereed articles, the abstract should summarize the content of the article. In refereed articles it should briefly indicate the objectives, methodology, and main findings of the study. Up to five keywords should be included in both English and Spanish. We will supply the Spanish translations of abstracts and key words, if necessary for articles from non-Spanish speaking countries.

The Journal has no deadlines and articles are admitted to the reviewing process year-round. Issues are published continuously as soon as they are formatted and accepted (continous publication). MJ publishes four issues a year. Issues are opened on the first day of the month (January 1, April 1, July 1, and September 1) and close on the last day of the month (March 31, June 30, August 31, and December 31).

Send all submissions as an attachment in Microsoft Word to: mextesoljournal@gmail.com

PUBLISHING PROCEDURES

From the reception of an article to publication

1) The Editor-in-Chief receives the article and acknowledges receipt. It is checked for correct format and possible plagiarism and if there is none, it is analyzed by the Editorial Board to determine if the article can be publishable in the Journal after review and possible mentoring. If the article shows promise, it is accepted into the review process either as a refereed (two reviewers) or non-refereed (one reviewer) article. The author is requested to complete a format giving the names and affiliations of all authors in the correct order and to sign a form accepting Ethics Statement and swearing to compliance. 

2) The Editor-in-Chief sends the article to the appropriate Associate Editor (for Refereed, Non-refereed Articles) who sends it on to two  or three reviewers for refereed articles and one or two for non-refereed articles. All reviewers consider themselves to be more mentors than judges. They read the article without knowing who the author is (double-blind review). The reviewers are from different institutions (and probably countries) and are believed to not know the author. The Associate Editor establishes direct contact with the author and informs him/her of advances.

3) In refereed articles the reviewers are called Reviewer A and Reviewer B. Reviewer A first reads the article for content and cohesion. It is possible that various rewrites will be necessary before the article is sent to Reviewer B, who besides reading for content and cohesion, concentrates on language and style. Non-refereed articles are reviewed in the same fashion, but by only one Reviewer. The process can take from various weeks to over a year depending on the amount of rewriting necessary and on the speed with which the article is revised. The Editorial Review Board can decide that a third reviewer is needed based on their analysis.

4) In both refereed and non-refereed articles the author is almost always asked to make revisions according to the comments received. The Associate Editor relays information and the manuscript back and forth between the author and the reviewers as often as necessary until the article has the complete approval of all involved.

5) Once the article has been approved by the reviewer(s), the Associate Editor returns it to the Editor-in-Chief who sends it to the Style Editor for further review. It must pass a plagiarsim check since new material is often added during review and due to the fact that plagiarism checkers constantly add new sources to their database. Excessive plagiarism can result in rejection at the stage. The article is sent to from two to four Style Editors.  If additional changes are necessary, there will be further correspondence between the Editor-in-Chief and the Style Editors and the author, or between the Editor-in-Chief and the author directly. 

6) The final version of the article is then sent to Production for formatting (with participation from the author). The final pdf version is sent to all the author(s) for approval. Once all errors created during production have been corrected, all of the authors are requested to each sign a letter of approval. At this time the Letter of Acceptance is sent out, the production details is completed, and the article is then published in the on-going volume and issue on our website (www.mextesol.net).

7) The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject an article at any stage of pre-review, review, or post-review.

8) After the article is published, the author can visit the website and download a pdf version of the article or read it online.