All submissions to Journal of Chinese Linguistics (JCL) should be made through the Manuscript Central system at https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/jclin as of January 2021. For inquiries regarding submission, please contact the editorial office of JCL directly through the system or at jcl2019@blcu.edu.cn and jcl_macao@um.edu.mo.

We would like to inform prospective authors that from 2024 onwards Journal of Chinese Linguistics will publish three issues in a year; as JCL is an international journal indexed in SSCI, A&HCI and Scorpus databases, each issue will be published with five articles written in English and two written in Chinese. This new arrangement will, undoubtedly, result in a longer period of time for processing articles written in Chinese.

1.0 The JCL publishing offices are guided by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for its publishing operation to guard quality scholarship publications. JCL is committed to meeting high standards of ethical behaviour at all stages of the publication process and continues improving its operation according to COPE Core Practices.

1.1 Manuscripts submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere are NOT considered. Author(s) must inform the editorial office at time of submission of similar/related versions of manuscript that have appeared or are being considered elsewhere. A notice must be sent via email to JCL if authors decide to withdraw their submission.

1.2 The affiliation institute of an author ought to be where the major part of the research in the manuscript has been conducted and supported upon submission/resubmission.

1.3 For multi-authorship submissions, the order of authors should be based on their relative contribution:

    • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
    • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
    • Final approval of the version to be published;
    • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the works are appropriately investigated and resolved.

First and last authors: There is only one first author and one last author in multi-authored submissions. The first author is the one who has made the greatest contribution to the research. In cases where authors have made equal contributions, authors may be listed alphabetically, with a note to explain. Even in these cases, there is only one first author. The last author is often given to a senior team member who has contributed expertise and guidance and was involved in different aspects of the study such as study design, interpretation of the data and review of the publication.

Corresponding author: the person who receives the reviewers’ comments, the proofs, etc., and whose contact details are printed on the article.

Order of authors: When submitting co-authored or multi-authored papers to JCL, authors should explain the order in which authors are listed and each author should write to JCL directly to confirm the order of authorship.

1.4 For a multi-authorship submission, email communications by the corresponding author to JCL should be copied to all other authors.

1.5 Authors will be asked to resubmit their manuscripts if unacceptable practices are found during the proofreading, such as missing citations, unsupported statements, inappropriate quotation/ paraphrases/ tables/ figures and other unethical practices.

1.6 Data sharing is very important for verification of findings and experimental reuse. Authors MAY be required to submit original data sets for the purpose of review. They are also encouraged to archive their data and make their research data/materials available to qualified readers.

All manuscripts should be submitted with a cover letter addressing JCL Editors, Prof. Shengli Feng and Prof. Jie Xu. The letter includes:

(1) full title of the paper,

(2) the author(s)’ intention of submission, (if it is intended to be submitted as an Insight article, please indicate so),

(3) Significance and contribution of the paper to existing research literature of the same topic(s),

(4) the author(s)’ academic qualification, affiliation, and contact information. The affiliation of an author ought to be where the major part of the research is conducted or the institute that has contributed most to the research.

(5) at least 2 potential reviewers with related expertise at the international level, including their name, affiliation, email address, and research areas

(6) a statement that the manuscript, in full or in part, has not been published elsewhere and it is not under consideration by other journals/publishers online or in print,

(7) declaration of any conflicts of interest according to the research ethic and in compliance with guidelines of the research institutions to which the authors are affiliated,

(8) confirmation of the transfer of copyright to JCL once the manuscript is accepted by JCL for publication.

For multiple-authored submissions, the authors should also provide (1) a brief description of each contributor by the order of authors, and (2) research contributions of each author to this paper.

1.4 For a multi-authorship submission, email communications by the corresponding author to JCL should be copied to all other authors.

1.5 Authors will be asked to resubmit their manuscripts if unacceptable practices are found during the proofreading, such as missing citations, unsupported statements, inappropriate quotation/ paraphrases/ tables/ figures and other unethical practices.

1.6 Data sharing is very important for verification of findings and experimental reuse. Authors MAY be required to submit original data sets for the purpose of review. They are also encouraged to archive their data and make their research data/materials available to qualified readers.

When not otherwise specified, JCL follows the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (CMS 17). https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

Regular research articles: JCL welcomes both English-language and Chinese-language submissions. But authors are encouraged to present their research in English to reach a wider and global readership. English-language submission normally should not exceed 10,000 words, and Chinese-language submission normally should not exceed 15,000 characters. These lengths do not include Abstracts.

Insight articles: Insight articles will be published in English so as to maximally reach interested readers worldwide. A submitted manuscript should have no more than 10 pages of double-spaced text and footnotes plus no more than one page of references, all in the 12 point Times New Roman font with the default page margins of Microsoft Word. No changes to these default settings will be accepted.

[1] Title page

Each manuscript should have a separate title page giving i) the title, ii) author names, iii) affiliations, iv) address for correspondence, and v) any acknowledgments and funding/project information. Both English and Chinese are required for i), ii) and iii). If the address for correspondence is in Chinese, please provide its English translation as well.

At the top of the page, there should be a running head of not more than 30 Chinese characters or 10 English words. The authors’ names should not appear in any pages of the main text. On the title page, the authors’ surnames/family names in English should be written in block capitals. 

[2] Abstract and keywords

The abstract should be factual, specific, and articulate, covering the research purposes and methods, with a summary of the results and findings, and the conclusion drawn from the study. The authors should provide examples where relevant in the abstract to facilitate readers’ understanding and evaluation of the argument.

For regular research articles, both English and Chinese abstracts are required. Three to five keywords should be indicated after Abstract in both English and Chinese. English abstracts normally should not exceed 250 words and Chinese abstracts should be 200–350 characters. Insight articles should include a Chinese abstract (max. 500 characters) and up to 5 keywords.

[3] Section headings

The headings and subheadings should not exceed 3 levels. Please number the headings manually instead of automatically.

English examples:

1. DEFINITIONS

1.1 Traditional Definitions

1.1.1 Other definitions

Chinese examples:

1. 定义

1.1 传统定义

         1.1.1 其他定义

[4] Chinese characters

For Chinese manuscripts,  simplified Chinese should be used unless it is necessary to use traditional Chinese. 

[5] Language examples and data

Please number sentence examples manually instead of automatically. When giving examples of a language other than English and Mandarin Chinese, please provide each example with a transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). TONES should be provided along with PINYIN for Mandarin Chinese examples.

Please follow the Leipzig Glossing Rules which has become the standard practice in linguistics today in presenting language examples.  For example:

         孩子们各吃了一个苹果。

        Háizi-men  GE    chī-le     yī-gè      píngguǒ.

        child-pl      each  eat-pfv  one-clf  apple

        ‘The children each ate one apple.’

 [6] Abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms not in common use should be explained at first mention. Abbreviations of the Latin expressions “i.e.” (meaning “that is”) and “e.g.” (meaning “for example”) should be punctuated, with period followed by comma. That is, “i.e.,” and “e.g.,”.

 [7] Punctuations

All punctuations should be Times New Roman in English sentences and parenthetical citations, and Sim Sun in Chinese sentences except “[]” which should be Times New Roman in both English and Chinese papers.

 [8] Tables and figures

Tables and figures may be placed in the body of the text. Tables should have a caption above and notes below, if necessary, to clarify any abbreviations and provide details. Figure captions should be placed below the figure.

 [9] Citations and references

Each reference must be cited in the text. The in-text citations and the corresponding reference entries should match each other accurately.

(Chomsky 2000, 2001; also see Pesetsky and Torrego 2007)

…Cinque’s (1999, 95) model of adverbs…

(Berkman, Bauer, and Nold 2011, 7–10) [first mention of citations from 3 authors]

(Berkman et al. 2011) [subsequent mention of citations from 3 authors]

(Chen et al. 2019) [first and subsequent mention of citations from more than 3 authors]

(R. Jones 2000; B. Jones 2000)

(Fogel 2004a, 218; Fogel 2004b, 45–46)

CHEN, Si. 2019. Phonological representations based on statistical modelling in tonal languages. In Prosodic Studies: Challenges and Prospects, edited by Hongming Zhang and Youyong Qian, 159–197. Oxfordshire: Routledge.

DARWIN, Charles. (1859) 1964. On the Origin of Species. Facsimile of the first edition, with an introduction by Ernest Mayr. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. *

*The parenthesis are rendered as square brackets in the in-text citation: (Darwin [1859] 1964)

DAUM, Meghan, ed. 2015. Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids. New York: Picador.

DREYFUS, Herbert L., and Paul Rabinow. 1992. Chaoyue jiegouzhuyi yu jieshixue 超越结构主义与解释学. Translated by Jianchao Zhang 张建超 and Jing Zhang 张静. Beijing: Guangming ribao chubanshe. [Originally published in 1982 by The Universe of Chicago Press as Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics.]

GRAZER, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

HASHIMOTO, Mantaro. 1971. Bāzeru hōshoshi バァゼル訪書誌 (The Basel mission library). Chūgokugogaku 215: 8–14.

HENDERSON, Eugéne J.A. 1967. Grammar and tone in South-East Asian languages. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Karl-Marx-Uniersitat-Leipzig (Scientific Journal of the Karl Marx University Leipzig), Desellschafts- und Sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe (Social and Linguistic Series), Par 1/2, 171–178.

HUANG, C.-T. James. 1982. Logical Relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. PhD diss., MIT. [Published in 1998 by Garland, New York and London].

JIANG, Yan蒋严. 1998. Yuyong tuili yu dōu de jufa/yuyi tezheng语用推理与“都”的句法/语义特征 (Pragmatic inference and the syntactic and semantic properties of dōu). Xiandai waiyu 现代外语 1: 10–24.

KRONE-SCHMALZ, Gabriele. 1992. In Wahrheit sind wir stärker: Frauenalltag in der Sowjetunion. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.

MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel García. 1988. Love in the Time of Cholera. Translated by Edith Grossman. London: Cape.

SILVERSTEIN, Theodore, trans. 1974. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

TANG, Zhi 唐智. 2011. Tangwang shehuishi zhuanti yanjiu 唐汪社会史专题研究 (Special studies of social history in Tangwang). Master’s thesis, Lanzhou daxue (Lanzhou University), Lanzhou.