Feedback Research in Second Language Submission Guidelines
Submission Guidelines
Updated Submission Guidelines (Enforced as of September 2025)
Feedback Research in Second Language aims to be an exclusive venue for research into oral and written corrective feedback in language learning education. We publish research conducted in different language contexts. For us, ‘second language’ does not necessarily mean English. We welcome studies examining an aspect of feedback in various languages. The journal does not publish merely experimental research. We wish to publish different types of papers to be educational for a wide range of practitioners, including language teachers, testers, learners, and researchers. The editors make a concerted attempt to publish different kinds of papers to be useful for early-career teachers and researchers as well. The journal is open access.
Article Types:
The journal publishes:
- Empirical research (quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method)
- Review (systematic literature reviews, umbrella reviews, scoping reviews, literature reviews or narrative reviews)
- Meta-analysis
- Book Reviews (solicited and unsolicited)
- Recent scholarship in oral and written corrective feedback (solicited by the editor)
- Interview (solicited by the editor)
- Technology Review (Website, Applications, Software)
- A Country in Focus
- Editor’s recommended readings
- Research Issues
- Special Issues
Peer Review Policy
Feedback Research in Second Language has a well-defined and implemented two-stage reviewing procedure. All articles are first reviewed by the editor-in-chief and handling associate-editors to determine their suitability for external review. Articles accepted for external review are submitted to a double-blind peer review by at least two reviewers.
We do not have fast-tracking review and publication option. All papers should pass the defined review procedure. Final editorial decision on acceptance, acceptance with major or minor revisions, or rejection is generally reached within 8-10 weeks after submission. The editor's decision is final and is not negotiable.
Plagiarism
Feedback Research in Second Language takes issues of plagiarism and copyright infringement seriously. All submissions are checked with software for two purposes:
Similarity Index
The major plagiarised submissions (+ 60% similarity index) are desk rejected and the author is not allowed to submit any manuscript for three years. Minor and major revised submissions are checked by software at different stages of review, editing, and publication (the acceptable rate for similarity index is -15%).
AI Detection:
The submissions are checked for any potential AI usage. The acceptable rate for AI use is -20%.
Generative AI Disclosure
Based on the journal’s updated policies, generative AI use should be declared precisely by authors based on APA journals policy on generative AI (November 2023), in particular, the updated policy published on August 2025:
APA Journals policy on generative AI
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/resources/publishing-tips/policy-generative-ai
Authors need to disclose completely any generative AI use in their manuscript when they submit their research to FRSL based on the below framework, in addition to the general exploratory statement on their cover letter based on the journal’s updated template for publication:
Generative AI disclosure framework on what to disclose and where in submissions
|
Generative AI Use |
How to Disclose |
Similar Principle |
|
Generate a resource list on a topic to inform your literature review, metasynthesis, meta-analysis, or similar |
In the introduction section, including your prompts, keywords, and AI used. (Preserve the output in case of inquiry) |
Listing databases queried with what keywords and filters were used when describing literature search strategy for a literature review, metasynthesis, or meta-analysis |
|
Translate text included in the manuscript or implement extensive copyediting (more than you’d traditionally find in Microsoft Word and similar tools) |
In a general note in the author note, including the tool used |
Similar to the Writing – Review and Editing CRediT role, only generative AI may not be listed as an author |
|
Create or refine code |
In the Method section, including the tool used and number of iterations (preserve the output in case of inquiry) |
Describing the statistical package used in analysis, such as R or SPSS |
|
Analyze, refine, format, or visualize data |
In the Method section, including the tool used and number of iterations (preserve the output in case of inquiry) |
Describing the statistical package and visualization tools used in analysis, such as R or SPSS |
|
Write or draft manuscript content, including literature summaries and outlines |
In the introduction section, including your prompts and tool used |
|
|
Create or edit figures, tables, and/or images |
In the section where the figures, tables, and/or images appear (e.g., Results section), including your prompts and tool used (preserve the output in case of inquiry) |
|
|
Create or edit research design elements, data, or results |
In the Method section (preserve the output in case of inquiry) |
|
Source: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/resources/publishing-tips/policy-generative-ai
Consequences of Misuse
If authors do not follow these guidelines, their submission will be rejected and no resubmission is allowed for this infringement.
EUROKD, as publisher of FRSL, enjoys the right to retract any paper even after publication when a serious issue is found in this regard. Notably, publisher may take steps to contact the authors’ affiliated universities and institution in line with the international and national policies and regulations regarding infringement of code of ethics and research malpractice.
Authorship
Please note that No Change is made in contributing authors’ order or name after original submission. Email address, ORCID, and affiliation of all authors should be included in the original submission.
CRediT Author Statement
Feedback Research in Second Language strives to enhance transparency and integrity in authors’ roles, contributions, and responsibilities in their research projects submitted to FRSL. Hence, all author(s) need to specify their role in their research based on the CRediT framework (https://www.niso.org/publications/z39104-2022-credit). CRediT statements should be provided on the first page of submission file, which is cover letter:
CRediT Taxonomy:
Contributor Roles
§ Conceptualization
§ Data curation
§ Formal analysis
§ Funding acquisition
§ Investigation
§ Methodology
§ Project administration
§ Resources
§ Software
§ Supervision
§ Validation
§ Visualization
§ Writing – original draft
§ Writing – review & editing
Conceptualization – Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
Data curation – Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use.
Formal analysis – Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
Funding acquisition - Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
Investigation – Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
Methodology – Development or design of methodology; creation of models. Project administration – Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
Resources – Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
Software – Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
Supervision – Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
Validation – Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
Visualization – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.
Writing – original draft – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
Writing – review & editing – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.
Source: https://www.niso.org/publications/z39104-2022-credit
Brand, A., Allen, L., Altman, M., Hlava, M., & Scott, J. (2015). Beyond authorship: Attribution, contribution, collaboration, and credit. Learned Publishing, 28(2), 151–155. https://doi.org/10.1087/20150211
World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants
Authors need to state adherence to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki, the ethical principles to conduct any medical research involving human participants.
Authors are required to explain any procedure in which they recruited human participants in their research. They should report the details in the Study, Method, and Participants sections. For instance, the written free and informed consent of all participants should be obtained before the research starts based on the requirements of WMA. This information ought to be provided in the paper completely. In addition, adherence to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki should be stated in the cover letter of the submission. This statement will be published in the accepted paper too.
The full information about World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants is provided at the journal website (Click here for guidelines).
How to submit your manuscript
Feedback Research in Second Language adheres strictly to APA 7th Edition. The manuscript should not normally exceed 9000 words (except special issue and invited papers and an editor's permission based on the design, nature, and depth of a study) including references. Submissions' acceptable format is Word DOC. All manuscripts can be submitted online by signing up on publisher's submission system. Also, you may submit to feedbackjournalsubmissions@gmail.com.
You need to submit one office word file including:
- First Page: Cover Letter:
Please submit a cover letter confirming and mentioning:
- Manuscript's title name, affiliation, country, ORCID, and mailing address of all authors
- The manuscript is not under review by another journal.
- Length of manuscript (including references)
- The manuscript has been formatted according to the APA 7th Edition.
- Acknowledgements
- Funding
- Generative AI Disclosure Statement
- CRediT Author Statement
- World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants
- Competing Interests
- Data Availability
- The author(s) have studied and agreed with the APC of the journal.
- Second Page: Title page:
a separate title page with author name(s), affiliations, country, and ORCID.
- Third Page: The Full Paper
From the third page, authors should put title, abstract (150-200 words), 3-5 keywords, the main text, and references.
Submission Format
- Submissions need to be formatted based on APA 7th Edition:
Acknowledgements
Any acknowledgements should appear at the end of your article, followed by declaration of conflicting interests and funding (if applicable) prior to references.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Authors need to declare any conflicting interests at the end of manuscript prior to references.
Funding Acknowledgement
All Authors need to acknowledge the funding with sufficient details at the end of manuscript prior to references. If there is no funding, you need to add a note at the end of manuscript prior to references: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
If authors have any question with respect to the submission, they can contact the journal secretariat office:
Yasin Demirci
feedbackjournalsubmissions@gmail.com
After Acceptance
Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement (Copyright and Author's Metadat Form)
After acceptance, the corresponding author will receive the copyright and author's metadata form to be filled in and signed before the production starts. Before publication, Feedback Research in Second Language requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. The Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants the journal the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright.
Proofs
When an article is accepted and the corresponding author completes and signs the copyright and metadata form, the production team starts the copyeditting, typesetting, and formatting stages. The corresponding author receives the galley proof file before publication. After completing this stage, no editing is possible as the journal does not publish erratum.
Publication
After receiving the final galley proof confirmed by the corresponding author, the paper is published online.
Open-access Policy:
Like all articles published in EUROKD journals, papers published in Feedback Research in Second Language are fully open access.
If authors have any question with respect to the production, they can contact the production team:
Zeynep Gunen