Manuscript Submission and Blind Peer-Review Processes

The authors who would like to submit their papers to the Literacy Trek are advised to check that their manuscript fits well within the journal’s aims and scope. Additionally, the papers’ compliance to ethical issues are of primary concern based on the Literacy Trek publishing policies. Thus, before making submissions, the authors are advised to check their papers’ similarity indices using any available plagiarism detecting software. For all details, please see the details below.

The Literacy Trek (LT) has a fully web-enabled review system with straightforward log-in and submission procedures.

The journal offers authors the option of tracking in real time the review process of their manuscript. The following file formats are automatically converted into a single PDF for use in the peer-review process: Word, RTF, TXT, LaTeX2e, AMSTex, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPS, Postscript, PICT, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint. EM supports the upload of multiple files in a single ZIP file.

Manuscripts can only be submitted online. If you encounter any difficulties while submitting your manuscript online, please get in touch with the Editorial Assistant.

The Literacy Trek follows a double blind peer-review policy. Authors must omit their name and affiliation from the manuscript. Self-identifying citations and references in the article text should also be avoided or left blank when manuscripts are first submitted. In order to maintain anonymity during the peer review process, please avoid stating your name when making a reference to your own work, either in the text or References, and use ‘Author’ instead. After the initial revision by the editorial team, at least two independent/external blind reviewers are appointed to each submission by the responsible editor. The independent reviewers are not affiliated with the same institution(s) as the authors of the submission. If the appointed reviewers do not reach a consensus regarding the submission as a result of the reviewing process, a third independent/external reviewer is appointed as a judge. In order for a submission to be accepted for publication, at least two reviewers should accept the submission. This review process normally takes about 12-16 weeks.

Submission Types: 

Research studies: Scientific means of examining the characteristics of variables to further our understanding of a particular subject or topic making use of primary data. The subject or topic of a research study can include such things as a theory, ideology, or principle, practices, process or educational intervention. 

Review studies: They are conducted by making use of the published research, secondary data or sources to synthesize or analyse research already conducted in primary sources. They generally summarize the current state of research on a given topic.

Literary studies/essays: They aim to study, explore, interpret, and evaluate literary works in a language involving novels, historical traces of arts and theatre works and authorial stances in the literal world. The Literacy Trek particularly welcomes studies that combine pedagogy and literature. As of April, 2021, the Literacy Trek temporarily stopped accepting literary studies/essays. 

Language of the Manuscript

Author teams whose first language is not English are strongly encouraged to choose to have their manuscripts professionally edited before submission to improve the quality and clarity of English.

Publication Fee 

The Literacy Trek does not charge authors for any phase during the publication process.

LT requires all submitted manuscripts to follow the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA; http://www.apastyle.org/index.aspx), except the line spacing in references, tables, figures, and appendices (see below) and the position of tables and figures. Manuscripts received that do not follow this style will be promptly returned to the authors for correction before being considered and submitted for peer review. Manuscripts should not exceed 8000 words. This includes primary manuscript text, references, tables and figures, and appendices. All text should be set to 12-point Times New Roman or equivalent serif typeface on ISO standard A4, leaving 2.54 cm/1 inch margins on all sides. The numbering of all pages in the submitted manuscript is to be consecutive starting with the first page of text. Text paragraphs should be aligned left (i.e., not justified).

All submissions should include at least two documents:

1. Title Page

Please add a 'Title Page' with your submissions as a separate document. Title page is to contain:

• title

• author(s)

• affiliation(s)

• full address for correspondence, telephone numbers, and e-mail address

• acknowledgement(s) of people, grants, funding,

• authors' ORCID number,

• short bio(s): 50 words per author,

• conflict of interest (if any)

2. Main Manuscript Text

The main manuscript should be blinded – The author's (authors’) name(s) and affiliation should be removed from all pages of the submitted manuscript and any associated files under review. When citing their own work, authors are to use the word "Authors" in the text to maintain anonymity. In references, please also use the word “Authors” and reveal only the information of publication year and source. For example, Authors (2009). International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education.

Title – The title of the article is repeated.

Abstract – A short abstract of 100 to 250 words, which should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references, is to be presented on the first page of the main manuscript.

Keywords – List 4 to 5 keywords or short phrases in alphabetical order that help defines the research and support electronic searches.

Page number – Place consecutive page numbers at the upper right-hand corner of the page, at least 1 in. from the right edge of the page, between the top of the page and the first line of text.

Section headings – First-, second-, third-, and fourth-order headings should be clearly distinguishable. APA five-level heading structure should be used. For more information regarding the section headings, you can check this website.

Figures – All graphs, charts, maps, drawings, and photographs should be incorporated into the body of text in appropriate locations rather than added at the end of the manuscript. They should comply with APA (7th) guidelines, be numbered consecutively (1, 2, etc.), have a caption, and contain a detailed legend (without abbreviations). Multi-part figures are to be labeled with lowercase letters (a, b, etc.).

Tables – All tables should be incorporated into the body of the text in appropriate locations rather than added at the end of the manuscript. They should comply with APA (7th) guidelines, be numbered consecutively, and have a title (without abbreviations). Horizontal lines can be used to separate information and make it clearer. Do 3 not use vertical lines in an APA format table. Footnotes are preferable for long explanatory material in either the headings or body of the table. Such explanatory footnotes, identified by superscript letters, should be placed immediately below the table. An example is as follows. Table 1 Statistics for the Pretest and Posttest Pretest-Posttest n t p ES M SD M SD Factual knowledge 65 4.77 4.48 8.69 6.14 16.48 < 0.01 2.05 Conceptual knowledge 65 2.24 1.65 4.91 3.34 6.68 < 0.01 1.02 Spatial knowledge 65 4.05 2.69 9.85 3.42 15.00 < 0.01 1.88 Note. ES = effect size. 

Notes – Use endnotes rather than footnotes. Notes should be indicated by consecutive superscript numbers in the text and listed at the end of the article before the References. A source reference note should be indicated by means of an asterisk after the title. This note should be placed at the bottom of the first page.

Quotations – All quotations of more than 40 words should be set off clearly, either by indenting the left margin or by using a smaller typeface. Use double quotation marks for direct quotations and single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.

References – All text citations and reference listings should comply with APA 7th edition style. Personal communications should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text.

Please give full bibliographical details of references and list them in alphabetical order of author. The appropriate example list of references can be found on this website.

Appendices – All appendices should comply with APA guidelines and be included in the manuscript submission. These appendices will be fully reviewed and, subject to space limitations. 

Copyright - Once the article is accepted and sent for typesetting, an automatic email message will be sent requesting, amongst others, to sign a copyright transfer form. The Literacy Trek follows CC-BY-NC licensing plate in accordance with Creative Common guidelines. For more information, please review the link. The content of the journal may not be used for commercial purposes and can be used, shared, and copied provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and The Literacy Trek. 

Permission - It is the responsibility of the author to obtain written permission for a quotation from unpublished material, for all quotations in excess of 250 words in one extract or 500 words in total from any work still in copyright, and for the reprinting of figures, tables, or poems from unpublished or copyrighted material.

Word Limits

The word limits for research types vary as indicated;
Research studies: A text length of maximum 10.000 words including tables, figures, references and appendices.
Review studies: A text length of maximum 8.000 words including tables, figures, references and appendices.

The editorial processing of the manuscripts;
When the authors submit their manuscripts to the Literacy Trek, the editorial office conducts the initial check and the manuscript is sent back the authors for re-submission in case;
-The manuscript is not within the aims & scope of the Literacy Trek
- The manuscript lacks APA 7th edition citation and referencing
- The manuscript has more than the indicated word limit
- The manuscript has more than 15 % similarity indices in the plagiarism report
- The manuscript does not follow the flow of a research article or review article formats and sections.

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NOTE: The articles need to have "ETHICAL COMMITTEE APPROVAL" or "Institutional Review Board Approval (IRB)" before submission to The Literacy Trek. Additionally, authors are required to upload a similarity index report as a supplementary document along with the main manuscript text