SIL International Publications

Journal of Language Survey Reports - General Information and Submission Guidelines

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Contents:

About JLSR

Language survey reports provide basic data about languages and the community of people to whom those languages belong, and thereby contribute to decision making for the intentional planning of language development interventions. Typical objectives of language surveys are to investigate the geographical and dialectal setting of a language, to explore language use patterns and language attitudes, and to determine relevant helpful language-related interventions. Thus, most surveys report on intelligibility between varieties, community bilingualism, language use in selected domains, attitudes toward other languages and dialects—and toward their own language—the vitality of the language, and general cultural and sociolinguistic features of the area surveyed. The data ranges from word lists, to test results and short texts used for testing intelligibility, to interview question responses, to notes regarding observed linguistic behavior.

The Journal of Language Survey Reports (JLSR; formerly SIL Electronic Survey Reports, SILESR) series is a peer-reviewed journal published in electronic format by Global Publishing Services, SIL International (Dallas, Texas, USA).

Papers published in JLSR are given a formal citation with series name by year and issue number. Publication in the Journal of Language Survey Reports series does not preclude revision and later publication in another outlet.

Submission process

Who may submit papers?

Any SIL staff member may submit a paper for publication in the series. Papers may also be submitted by non-SIL scholars whose work contributes to survey of the world’s languages.

How do I submit a paper for the series?

When a paper is submitted to it will be sent to one or more of the Consulting Editors listed on the Masthead for review. The reviewer’s comments are sent back to the author, anonymously in most cases, although there are exceptions if the author and the reviewer request to communicate directly. Alternatively, with the JLSR Editor’s permission, the author may contact one of the Consulting Editors and request to have the paper reviewed prior to submitting it for publication. Then the paper may be submitted along with the reviewer’s statement that the paper meets all the review guidelines which will have been given to the reviewer.

An author should either revise the paper in accordance with the review or give an adequate explanation to the JLSR Editor as to why not.

The final version of the paper needs to be sent to the JLSR Editor in MS Word format and as a PDF. SIL authors must also include a statement by their appropriate local administrator that the paper is approved for electronic publication in the JLSR series.

 

Style and format requirements

Microsoft Word is the preferred file format for manuscripts. LibreOffice and XLingPap documents, exported to Word, are also acceptable.

The SIL Template for Authors contains appropriate paragraph and character styles. Download the SIL Template here. Right click the link, then left click “Save link as”/“Save target as” (to save the template to your computer). The Reference Guide explains the use of the SIL Template and styles. Not using this template will lead to delays and possible rejection.

All fonts should be SIL Unicode compliant. (IPA fonts are included in the Charis SIL font set, the standard font for the template.) Authors of manuscripts containing non-Roman text (such as Devanagari, Arabic, or any other non-Roman script) may need to submit a folder with font files. Both an editable electronic version of the paper and a PDF file must be submitted to the JLSR Editor.

SIL copy editors conform manuscripts to the International Language Services ILS Publications Style Sheet, which generally follows The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition.

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