Author Guidelines

RSEL publishes original, unpublished work in general linguistics and related disciplines. Submissions should be of interest beyond the limits of a single subfield.

Contribution types and assessment
RSEL publishes research articles, book reviews and special thematic sections

  • Research articles are subject to double-blind peer review (see “Peer Review Process” below).
  • Book reviews are subject to editorial assessment. There is no standardised external peer-review procedure for these sections. However, the editorial team may seek additional expert advice when deemed necessary.

How to submit a manuscript
Please log in or register to make a submission: http://revista.sel.edu.es/index.php/revista/user/register
RSEL accepts submissions year-round.

Length

  • Research articles: up to 11,000 words (approx.)
  • Reviews: up to 2,500 words (approx.)

Languages
Spanish, English, Catalan, Basque, and Galician.

Originality, simultaneous submission, and preprints
RSEL accepts only original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by another journal.
Manuscripts that have been previously disseminated as preprints (on preprint servers or equivalent platforms), or substantially overlapping versions that are publicly available online, will not be considered.

Formatting
Manuscripts must follow the journal’s Style Sheet. A template is available here.

Required metadata (OJS submission form)
Authors must complete the requested metadata accurately (title, abstract, keywords, authorship, affiliation, ORCID, etc.).

Funding, conflicts of interest, and author contributions (CRediT)

  • Funding: any funding support must be disclosed (grants, projects, contracts, etc.), including the funder and, where available, the project identifier.
  • Conflicts of interest: authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest (financial, professional, personal, or institutional) that could influence the research or its interpretation; if none exist, authors should explicitly state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”
  • Author contributions (CRediT): for multi-author manuscripts, authors are encouraged to provide an author-contribution statement using the CRediT taxonomy (e.g., Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, etc.).

Important for double-blind review (research articles)
To preserve double-blind review, funding information, acknowledgements, CRediT statements, and any potentially identifying details must appear only in the full version and not in the anonymized PDF used for review.

Book Reviews (editorial assessment)
Aims and scope
The Book Reviews section publishes critical reviews of recent books relevant to linguistics and related disciplines. Reviews should situate the book in context, summarise its main contributions, and provide a well-argued and balanced evaluation.

Length
The indicative maximum length is 2,500 words.

Editorial assessment
Book reviews are subject to editorial assessment (there is no standardised external peer-review procedure for this section). The editorial team evaluates topical fit, argumentative quality, tone, and compliance with editorial guidelines.

Conflicts of interest
Reviewers should disclose any potential conflicts of interest (e.g., personal/professional relationship with the author(s) or publisher, contribution to the volume, etc.).

Thematic special sections (guest editors)
Special Sections are thematic clusters of articles published within a regular issue, devoted to a well-defined topic that falls within the journal’s scope. They typically comprise 4–7 articles, preceded by an introduction (approx. 3,000 words).

Guest Editors. A Special Section is coordinated by one or two Guest Editors. All Guest Editors must be current members of SEL. Their role is to coordinate the process with the editorial office (deadlines, review follow-up, version control). They must also submit an introduction (typically 1,500–3,000 words) that presents the theme, key questions, and the collection's contribution.

Proposal. Proposals must include:
• A title and thematic rationale (aims, relevance, originality; approx. 500–800 words).
• A provisional table of contents, including:
o Titles, authors, and affiliations.
o Abstracts for each contribution (350 words).
• A proposed timeline (submission, review, revisions, final delivery).

Editorial evaluation. All contributions undergo the journal’s standard double-blind peer review process. Guest Editors may suggest reviewers, but the journal reserves the right to appoint reviewers to ensure independence and to avoid conflicts of interest. The final acceptance decision rests with the Editorial Board.

Ethics and conflicts of interest. A conflict-of-interest statement is mandatory. If a Guest Editor submits an article to the Special Section, that manuscript will be handled exclusively by the Editor(s) and reviewed independently under double-blind conditions.

Submission and formatting. Manuscripts must comply with the journal’s author guidelines (style, anonymization, and, where applicable, data and ethics statements).

Files required (two versions) (research articles)
1) Complete version (editable file .doc or .docx)
This version must include:

  • The title in the manuscript language and its English translation.
  • Abstract and keywords in Spanish and English.
    • If the manuscript is not in Spanish, title/abstract/keywords must be provided in the manuscript language, English, and Spanish.
  • Full name(s) of all authors, institutional affiliation, ORCID, and email address.
  • Tables and figures placed where appropriate in the text.

2) Anonymous version for evaluation (PDF)
The PDF must contain the full text (including tables and figures) without any identifying information, both in the content and in the file metadata. Please remove any elements that may identify the author(s) directly or indirectly (names, affiliations, acknowledgements, CRediT roles, self-identifying self-citations, personal notes, etc.).
Please also check and clean the PDF file properties/metadata.

Notes and book reviews: an anonymized PDF is not required unless specifically requested by the editorial team.

Figures and tables

  • Minimum resolution: 300 dpi.
  • Photographs: .jpg, .png, .tiff.
  • Drawings/illustrations/syntactic trees: .svg (vector) recommended (e.g., TreeForm, RSyntaxTree).
  • Figures should be labeled “Figure” (Figure 1, Figure 2…).
  • Tables/charts/graphs must also be provided in editable formats (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .xls, .ai, .eps, etc.) and labeled “Table”.
  • Graphics must be accompanied by the underlying data tables.
  • Authors must cite the source of any non-original material; the journal assumes no responsibility for rights infringements.

Ethical considerations, data, and permissions (where applicable)
Authors must ensure compliance with applicable research ethics standards. In particular:

  • Research involving human participants (e.g., interviews, questionnaires, experiments, recordings): must have been conducted with informed consent, respecting participants’ privacy and anonymity. Where relevant, authors should state ethics approval or explain why it does not apply.
  • Data and materials: where analyses rely on datasets, corpora, questionnaires, experimental materials, or code, authors are encouraged to describe their provenance and access conditions clearly. Any legal or ethical restrictions should be stated.
  • Permissions and rights: authors must obtain the necessary permissions to reproduce copyrighted material (figures, tables, images, instruments, etc.) and must cite sources appropriately.

Submission Preparation ChecklistAs part of the submission process, authors are required to confirm compliance with the following items. Submissions may be returned if they do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The manuscript has not been previously published and is not under consideration by another journal.
  • The text follows the formatting and bibliographic requirements in the journal’s Style Sheet.
  • DOIs and/or URLs have been provided for references whenever available.
  • The submission includes two versions: (i) a complete editable file and (ii) an anonymized PDF for review. (research articles)

Peer Review Process (research articles)
RSEL uses double-blind peer review for research articles. After an initial editorial screening, research articles are evaluated by at least two external reviewers. Editorial decisions are based on the reviewers’ reports and the journal’s criteria for originality, relevance, and scholarly quality.
Full details (stages, indicative timelines, and appeals) are available in Peer Review Process.

Proofreading
During the editing process, authors of accepted manuscripts will receive proofs for proofreading. Authors have a maximum of 15 days to return corrections. Corrections should be limited to typographical errors and minor grammatical changes; substantial changes may be declined and/or incur costs.

Copyright and licensing
Articles are published under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Authors retain copyright and grant SEL the non-exclusive right to publish and distribute the work. Any reuse must acknowledge the original publication in RSEL.

Privacy Statement
Names and email addresses entered on this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be made available to any other party.