Journal of Christianity and Foreign Languages

Guidelines for Contributors

Published once yearly, Journal of Christianity and Foreign Languages was founded to provide a forum for educators who wish to publish research undertaken from a Christian perspective. It welcomes high-quality articles and reviews dealing with scholarly and pedagogical issues in modern foreign languages, literatures and cultures. While it is preferable that manuscripts be written in English so as to reach the broadest readership, some manuscripts in other languages may be accepted.

Manuscripts

1. Only manuscripts which have not been published elsewhere, except as part of NACFLA Proceedings of earlier years, should be submitted. JCFL discourages simultaneous submission of a manuscript to other publications. 

2. So that "blind" submissions may be sent to referees, the original and two copies of manuscripts that are to be considered for publication should be sent to the editor; the author’s name should NOT appear on any of these. An abstract and cover letter which includes the title of the article, as well as the author’s name, address and e-mail address, should accompany the manuscript. In the event that the article is not accepted, one copy of the manuscript will be returned ONLY if a self-addressed, stamped envelope is sent with the manuscript.

3. In addition to submission of hard copy, the author is requested to submit electronic copy either on diskette or by e-mail. When an article has been accepted for publication, the author will be notified and asked to submit by e-mail or diskette a final copy of the submission  formatted in Microsoft Word.  The diskette should contain the article as submitted and accepted in its final, publication form. The final version must be sent within 2 weeks of the date the author is notified that the article has been accepted for publication. If it is not possible to submit the manuscript on diskette formatted in Word, the author will incur a $20 formatting charge. 

4. New manuscripts will initially be screened by the editor. If a manuscript is obviously unpublishable, it will be returned to the author promptly (if a s.a.s.e. was provided). If worthy of further consideration, it will be acknowledged and given to referees. The final decision about publication is made by the editor, who will inform the author. This will normally take two to four months.

5. In some cases when space is available, the editor may request permission to print an article which was given in a previous year’s conference. In that case, it may not be possible to "blind" referee its inclusion, but at least two readers besides the editor will make the decision as to the appropriateness of its inclusion.

6. All rights remain with the author.

7. Every effort will be made to allow as broad a variety of article and authors as possible. Preference will be given to authors previously unpublished in NACFLA Journal.

8. Authors will be responsible for the accuracy of and for proofreading their own material.

9. Effort will be made the include a variety of submissions in each issue, but quality of the presentation will be the overriding criterion.

Criteria

1. Length: typically 10 to 15 pages (2000 to 4000 words) of double-spaced text for articles; 3 to 5 page reviews of textbooks or scholarly works. A format using a 12 point Courier font with standard 1" margins on all sides will average 250 words per page.

2. Fit: the article should be written to fit the purpose statement of JCFL (above). Unrevised lectures, chapel talks or other oral presentations are not acceptable.

3. Scholarly level: Graduate, but not undergraduate, papers may be accepted.

4. Language: since JCFL’s intends to be interesting and informative to scholars in the modern languages, authors are asked to make a particular effort to communicate across linguistic lines. A study based on original material in another language may include quotations in that language followed by a translation in the text of the paper.

5. All submissions should address challenges and problems in the field from a Christian perspective. However, articles not clearly reflecting a Christian perspective, but of general interest to the Christian community or of such a character as to promote communication between Christians and non-Christians may be included as well.

Style

The MLA Style Manual or the Chicago Manual of Style should be followed in preparing the manuscript. If a manuscript, otherwise acceptable, needs considerable correction to make it conform to the style manual (e.g., in footnotes), the editor will return it to the author for correction.

Forum and Reviews

1. In addition to research article, the editors invite submission of shorter pieces of writing for the Forum section of the Journal and of book reviews.

2. Forum contributions may be less formal, but should still retain an academic focus and be clearly relevant to the concerns of the journal. The Forum is intended to promote dialogue by providing space for shorter pieces including opinions and suggestions, brief responses to papers, reports of research in progress, meditations, and descriptions of pedagogical strategies. Length should be typically 1,000 to 1,500 words.

3. Book reviews of scholarly works or textbooks should be clearly relevant to the interests of the journal, and should be 750 to 1,000 words in length.

Calendar:

Deadline for submission of articles                                                                           September 1

Deadline for referees to return articles to executive editor with comments         November 15.

Deadline for revised article on diskette to be returned to executive editor         December 5.

Publication:                                                                                                                    first week in April

Final Note

Since JCFL is a new publication, it is possible that certain guidelines will need to be changed. Please check with NACFLA’s website, where the current guidelines will be posted, before submitting a manuscript.

Manuscripts, inquiries, etc. may be sent to:

Dr. David Smith
Department of Germanic Languages
Calvin College
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids
MI 49546
USA
 
Phone: 616 957-8609
e-mail: dsmith@calvin.edu