Policies

Open Access Policy

 Journal of Narrative and Language Studies (NALANS) is committed to the principles of open access. All articles published in the journal are freely available online immediately upon publication. The journal supports the principle that making research freely accessible contributes to a wider global exchange of knowledge.

NALANS adheres to the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which defines open access as the free availability of scholarly work on the public internet, permitting users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, crawl, index, or otherwise use the full texts of articles for lawful purposes, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

Articles published in NALANS are distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This license allows free access and sharing while protecting authors’ rights and preventing unauthorised commercial use or modification.

Publication Frequency Policy

NALANS publishes regular issues twice a year, in June and December. For further information, please see the journal’s Peer Review Process.

The journal may also publish special issues on emerging topics in narrative, language, literature, linguistics, cultural studies, and related fields. The Editor-in-Chief and/or the Editorial Board may invite experts, scholars, or project-based research groups, including international academic networks, to serve as Guest Editors or Issue Editors for special issues. For further details, please see the journal’s Special Issue Policies.

Pricing Policy

NALANS does not charge authors any submission fees or article processing charges.

Policy of Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed academic journal contributes to the development and circulation of scholarly knowledge. NALANS is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and takes all reasonable measures to prevent publication malpractice.

These guidelines are based on established publication ethics principles, including COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and related international standards. All parties involved in the publication process, authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to observe the principles of ethical scholarly communication.

The Editorial Board takes its responsibilities seriously at every stage of the publication process and recognises its duty to ensure academic integrity, transparency, confidentiality, fairness, and accountability. 

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the research involves chemicals, procedures, equipment, or materials that may present unusual hazards, authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

If the research involves human participants or animal subjects, authors should ensure that all procedures comply with relevant laws, institutional regulations, and ethical guidelines. The manuscript should state that the appropriate institutional ethics committee or review board has approved the research, where applicable.

For research involving human participants, authors should include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained. The privacy, dignity, and rights of human participants must always be respected.

Authorship Policy and Reporting Standards

Authors should present an accurate account of the research performed and provide an objective discussion of its significance. Data, evidence, arguments, and interpretations should be represented accurately and responsibly.

Manuscripts should contain sufficient detail, documentation, and references to enable readers and researchers to understand, evaluate, and, where applicable, replicate or verify the work. Fraudulent, misleading, or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Review articles and professional publications should also be accurate, balanced, and objective. Editorial or opinion-based contributions should be clearly identified as such.  

Authors should not submit a manuscript that has already been published elsewhere or is under consideration by another journal. Proper acknowledgement of the work of others must always be provided.

Authors should cite publications that have significantly influenced the nature, design, argument, or interpretation of the submitted work. Information obtained privately, including through conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit written permission from the source.

Information obtained through confidential services, such as reviewing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author or owner of the work concerned.

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Individuals who have contributed to certain substantive aspects of the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible co-authors are included, that no inappropriate co-authors are listed, and that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

Data Access and Retention Policy

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data or supporting materials related to a submitted manuscript for editorial review. Where practicable and ethically appropriate, authors should be prepared to provide access to such data, in accordance with relevant research, institutional, legal, and ethical requirements.

Authors are also expected to retain relevant data and supporting materials for a reasonable period after publication.

Policy of Originality and Plagiarism 

Authors must ensure that their submissions are entirely original. If they use the work, ideas, data, or words of others, these must be appropriately cited, quoted, and acknowledged.

Plagiarism may take several forms, including presenting another person’s work as one’s own, copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another work without proper attribution, or claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Manuscripts submitted to NALANS are screened using the iThenticate plagiarism detection tool before being considered for publication.  

Originality and Academic Integrity

Authors are responsible for ensuring that AI-assisted content:

• does not contain fabricated information;
• does not contain inaccurate citations or references;
• does not infringe copyright or intellectual property rights;
• does not constitute plagiarism or undisclosed paraphrasing.

The use of AI tools does not exempt authors from the journal’s ethical standards, authorship criteria, originality requirements, or publication policies.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest that could be perceived to influence the results, interpretation, or presentation of the manuscript.

All sources of financial support for the research should be clearly acknowledged. Potential conflicts of interest may include, but are not limited to, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications or registrations, grants, and other forms of funding.

Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, they are obliged to notify the journal editor promptly and cooperate with the editor in correcting or retracting the article, where necessary.

If the editor or publisher learns from a third party that a published article contains a significant error, the author is expected to cooperate with the journal, provide evidence concerning the accuracy of the work, and, where appropriate, correct or retract the article.

Editorial Policy and Decisions

The editor of NALANS is responsible for deciding which submitted manuscripts should be published. Such decisions are based on the manuscript’s scholarly merit, originality, relevance to the journal’s scope, contribution to the field, and the outcome of the peer review process.

The editor may be guided by the policies of the Editorial Board and by applicable legal and ethical requirements concerning libel, copyright infringement, plagiarism, research integrity, and publication ethics. The editor may consult associate editors, members of the Editorial Board, reviewers, or other editorial advisers when making publication decisions.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

NALANS evaluates manuscripts solely on the basis of their intellectual and scholarly content, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, political philosophy, nationality, age, disability, institutional affiliation, career stage, geographical location, or socio-economic background.

The journal is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible scholarly environment. It welcomes contributions from researchers across cultures, languages, disciplines, institutions, and perspectives, and supports the free exchange of ideas in the advancement of knowledge.

Confidentiality

The editor and editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

All manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and related materials must be treated as confidential documents throughout the editorial and peer review process.

Involvement and Cooperation in Investigations

Editors should take appropriate and responsive measures when ethical concerns or complaints are raised regarding a submitted manuscript or published article.

Such measures may include contacting the author, considering the complaint or allegation carefully, consulting reviewers or editorial advisers, communicating with relevant institutions or research bodies, and, where necessary, publishing a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other editorial notice.

Every reported act of unethical publishing behaviour should be investigated, even if it is discovered years after publication.

Reviewer Policy

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and may also help authors improve their manuscripts. NALANS regards peer review as an essential component of scholarly communication.

Reviewers are expected to provide fair, constructive, timely, and objective evaluations that support the quality and integrity of the journal’s publication process.

Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified to evaluate the research reported in a manuscript, or who knows that they will be unable to complete the review within the required timeframe, should promptly notify the editor and decline the invitation.

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared, discussed, circulated, or disclosed to others except with the explicit authorisation of the editor.

Reviews should be conducted objectively and respectfully. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly and support their comments with reasoned arguments.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any claim that an observation, argument, interpretation, or finding has previously been reported should be accompanied by an appropriate citation.

Reviewers should also inform the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published or submitted work of which they have personal knowledge.

Policy of Artificial Intelligence Use 

NALANS recognises that artificial intelligence technologies and generative AI tools are increasingly used in academic research, writing, editing, translation, data analysis, and scholarly communication. This policy aims to ensure transparency, accountability, originality, and research integrity in the use of AI-assisted technologies. Artificial intelligence systems, generative AI tools, chatbots, large language models, and similar technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to NALANS.

Authorship implies responsibility, accountability, intellectual contribution, and the ability to approve the final version of a manuscript. Since AI systems cannot assume such responsibilities, they do not meet the journal’s authorship criteria. Authors may use AI-assisted technologies for limited and appropriate purposes, including:

• language improvement;
• grammar and spelling correction;
• formatting assistance;
• literature organisation;
• coding assistance;
• data analysis support, where appropriate.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, validity, and integrity of all submitted content, including any material generated, modified, or supported by AI tools. Authors must carefully review, verify, and take responsibility for all AI-assisted outputs before submission.

Authors must disclose any significant use of generative AI tools during the preparation of a manuscript.

Examples of AI use requiring disclosure may include:

• generation of substantial portions of text;
• content summarisation;
• translation assistance;
• data analysis support;
• image generation;
• research assistance affecting the intellectual content of the manuscript.

Routine spelling, grammar, and formatting tools generally do not require disclosure.

Where applicable, disclosures should be included in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript or in another appropriate location designated by the journal.

Use of AI by Reviewers

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of all manuscripts under review.

Reviewers should not upload, share, or submit unpublished manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial communications to publicly accessible AI systems or third-party AI platforms where confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.

Reviewers remain solely responsible for the content, accuracy, fairness, and integrity of their evaluations and recommendations.

Ethical and Responsible Use

NALANS reserves the right to request clarification regarding the use of AI tools during manuscript preparation, peer review, or editorial processing.

Failure to disclose significant AI use, submission of misleading AI-generated content, fabrication of data or citations, plagiarism, or other forms of unethical conduct may result in rejection, retraction, correction, expression of concern, or other editorial action in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policies.

Policy Updates

As AI technologies continue to evolve, NALANS may revise this policy to reflect emerging standards, ethical considerations, and best practices in scholarly publishing.

Privacy Policy

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Archiving Policy

NALANS uses the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries. This system permits libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.