Aims and scope | General Instructions | Manuscript and reporting requirements | Policy on prior publication | English language editing services | Competing interests | Authorship and contributorship | Author affiliations | ORCiD | Supplementary materials | Author hub | Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
Aims and scope
ReCALL is the journal of the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL). It seeks to fulfil the stated aims of EUROCALL as a whole, i.e., to encourage the use of technology for the learning and teaching of languages and cultures, and especially the promotion and dissemination of innovative research and practice in areas relating to CALL including, but not limited to: Applied Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Digital Pedagogy, Digital Literacies, Computer-Mediated Communication, Learning Analytics, Second Language Acquisition, and Educational Science.
The journal publishes research articles that report on empirical studies (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods); provide rigorous meta-analyses or other syntheses or surveys; or contribute to theoretical, epistemological or methodological debates.
Typical subjects for submissions include foreign or second language learning and development in technology-enhanced learning environments; theoretical debate and practical applications at developmental stage; evaluative studies of the potential of technological advances in the delivery of language learning materials and enactment of language learning activities; and discussions of policy and strategy at institutional and discipline levels.
General instructions
Language
The language of ReCALL is English.
Manuscript types
ReCALL no longer accepts reviews of websites, software, apps, books or other material.
However, proposals can be submitted to The EUROCALL Review; please see https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/eurocall.
Criteria for original academic research in CALL
Papers submitted to ReCALL should meet the following criteria for original academic research in the field of CALL:
- There should be a clearly-stated topic of investigation, under a suitably academic title, supported by a rationale which relates the investigation to specific areas of research and/or development and/or practice in computer-assisted language learning.
- The topic should be located with regard to other work in CALL and related fields, by means of a literature or state-of-the-art review, which makes it clear what has been learned from the work of others, and what is original about the current investigation. This should be reflected in the reference list to include recent and relevant research from some of the major CALL journals (ReCALL, LLT, CALL, Calico Journal, etc.).
- There should be a coherent and appropriate method of investigation to address clear research questions, in which the nature of actual or potential findings, outcomes or products is clearly indicated. Methods may include theoretical discussion, experimental or ethnographic studies, design or evaluation methodologies, action research, or any other systematic way of generating an outcome to the investigation.
- Where appropriate, there should be evidence, or consideration, of relevant data analysis and its role in indicating, supporting or confirming findings or conclusions. This should specify whether data is actual or potential, whether analysis is quantitative and/or qualitative, and whether the investigation is repeatable or replicable.
- Actual or potential conclusions or products should have a relevance to research, development, or practice in CALL beyond the context of the investigation itself.
Criteria for acceptance in ReCALL
Before being sent to reviewers in a double-anonymous format, each submission is first checked by the editors for its suitability for ReCALL, including for:
- Relevance (i.e. the relationship between technology and language teaching/learning is clearly explicated in the article).
- Originality/substance (i.e. the paper brings something new to the field).
- Indication, where appropriate, of rigorous data collection and analysis.
- Bibliography (i.e. up-to-date and relevant to CALL).
- Language (all authors are strongly encouraged to have their manuscripts thoroughly checked for language and style by an expert prior to submission).
- Form (i.e. compliance with manuscript requirements, structure and style appropriate to an academic international publication).
- Similarity (all submitted manuscripts will be checked for similarity and possible AI input).
If any of the above is deemed unsatisfactory, the editors will notify the authors that their paper is not suitable for ReCALL at this time.
Manuscript requirements
- Word length. Papers should not exceed 8,000 words (including abstract and references). Authors are also asked to limit the number and size of figures (see Template); other appended information can more reasonably feature in supplementary materials online (see below).
- Abstract. Papers should be preceded by an abstract of 250 words maximum, followed by up to six keywords of your choice.
- Reporting requirements. See below.
- Reference list. For syntheses and meta-analyses, all and only papers cited in the text should be in the reference list, regardless of whether or not they are in the corpus. Unless it’s a very small corpus, the complete list of papers should feature in the supplementary materials (including repetitions of those cited in the text) to avoid unnecessarily cluttering the reference list in the paper.
- Supplementary materials. ReCALL strongly encourages authors to provide supplementary materials which are non-essential to a straight-forward reading of the paper, but which can benefit the community, e.g. for data collection instruments (typically in MS Word) or full data sets (preferably in MS Excel), or pdf format if preferred. These can be on the ReCALL homepage hosted by CUP, though authors might alternatively like to consider uploading their data collection materials to the IRIS database (see the author template for further information). Read more below.
- Anonymisation. Initial submissions should be appropriately anonymised. Please ensure that all references to the authors’ publications have been replaced by Author (Year) in the body of the text and that the complete entry is removed from the references section. Any other features that could identify the authors (e.g. name of institution) should also be removed. If the paper is accepted, authors will be asked to submit the non-anonymised version.
- Submission files. All relevant files, carefully labelled, should be submitted via ScholarOne. All Figures and Tables should be included in the text, as well as Appendices, “About the author” notes, and all other material with the sole exception of “supplementary materials”.
- Figures. For full instructions on how to prepare your figures, refer to the Cambridge Journals Artwork Guide. Text should be in Microsoft Word, and not in any other word-processing or desktop-publishing formats. Colour figures will appear as such online.
- Use of inclusive language. Use inclusive language and avoid using language that might be perceived as offensive or insensitive.
- Permissions. It is the responsibility of authors to provide written permission for the reproduction of any graphics or screen-shots included with the paper. It is also the responsibility of authors to check the accuracy of URLs cited within articles or in references at the time of submission.
Reporting requirements
All articles submitted to the journal should include the following statements:
- Data availability statement (required).
All articles must include a Data availability statement, explaining where and how readers can access the data underpinning the research published in the article.
To ensure broad dissemination of results, authors are encouraged to submit Supplementary materials, such as a spreadsheet for their data (where copyright and ethical considerations allow), and PDF for materials, instruments, etc. These can be published online alongside the article (see ‘Supplementary materials’ section below), though authors might alternatively like to consider uploading their data collection materials to the IRIS database. IRIS (Instruments for Research into Second Languages) is an online repository for data collection materials used for second language research. - Acknowledgements (optional). Authors should acknowledge, if necessary, external contributions (e.g., colleagues) with a clear contribution statement.
- Authorship contribution statement (required). Authors should outline their individual contributions to the article using CRediT taxonomy for contributors (see CRediT Taxonomy section below).
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: Author 1: Methodology; Author 2: Writing – original draft; Author 3: Formal analysis; etc. - Funding disclosure statement (required). All sources of funding, if any, should be indicated in this section.
If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following statement: “This research did not receive any specific funding.” - Conflict of interest statement (required). All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their article (see ‘Competing interests’ section below).
If no competing interests exist, please include the following statement: “The author(s) declare(s) no competing interests.” - Ethical statement (required). All papers should be accompanied by a short statement (50-80 words) referring to any external validation of the experiment design, volunteer status of participants, anonymity, competing interests, etc., in accordance with practices in their country and expectations in international academic publishing.
If the article does not require ethical approval, please include the following statement: “Ethical approval was not required.” - GenAI use disclosure statement (required). All articles should be accompanied by a full description of any use of a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tool during the research and/or manuscript preparation process. Descriptions of such uses should include, at minimum, the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the dates it was used for the purposes described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article. Please note that the authors are responsible for checking any such use and accept full responsibility for the article as submitted. For more information, see 'Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools' section below.
If no GenAI tools were used, please include the following statement: “The author(s) declare(s) no use of generative AI.”
Reporting of sex and gender in research
Authors are encouraged to follow SAGER guidelines when reporting on sex- and/or gender-based analyses:
| General principles |
|---|
| Authors should use the terms sex and gender carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms. |
| Where subjects can be differentiated by sex, the research should be designed and conducted in a way that can reveal sex-related differences in the results, even if these were not initially expected. |
| Where subjects can also be differentiated by gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances), the research should be conducted similarly at this additional level of distinction. |
| Section of the article | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Title and abstract | If only one sex or gender is included in the study, or if the results of the study are to be applied to only one sex or gender, the title and the abstract should specify the sex and gender of human participants. |
| Introduction | Authors should report, where relevant, whether sex and/or gender differences may be expected. |
| Methods | Authors should report how sex and gender were taken into account in the design of the study, whether they ensured adequate representation of males and females, and justify the reasons for any exclusion of males or females. |
| Results | Where appropriate, data should be routinely presented disaggregated by sex and gender. Sex- and gender-based analyses should be reported regardless of positive or negative outcome. |
| Discussion | The potential implications of sex and gender on the study results and analyses should be discussed. If a sex and gender analysis was not conducted, the rationale should be given. Authors should further discuss the implications of the lack of such analysis on the interpretation. |
Last updated: 17 December 2024
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
English language editing services
Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.
In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services, including language editing. You can find out more on our language services page.
Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.
Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.
Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.
If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Authorship and contributorship
All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.
CRediT taxonomy for contributors
When submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author will be prompted to provide further details concerning contributions to the manuscript using the CRediT taxonomy. CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 designated options, that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to scholarly output. All parties who have contributed to the scholarly work, but do not meet the full criteria for authorship, should be recognised with their contributions described in terms of the CRediT taxonomy.
Our default position is that the corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors, and we expect the corresponding author to confirm this at the beginning of the submission process. When preparing your manuscript you should also ensure that you obtain permission from all contributors to describe their contributions using the CRediT taxonomy.
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
ORCID
We require all corresponding authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:
- Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
- Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
- Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.
See our ORCID FAQs for more information.
If you don’t already have an iD, you will need to create one if you decide to submit a manuscript to this journal. You can register for one directly from your user account on ScholarOne, or alternatively via https://ORCID.org/register.
If you already have an iD, please use this when submitting your manuscript, either by linking it to your ScholarOne account, or by supplying it during submission using the "Associate your existing ORCID iD" button.
ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information.
Supplementary materials
Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary material. Supplementary material will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary material may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.
Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please see our general guidance on supplementary materials for further information.
Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.
Author Hub
You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools
We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.
In particular, any use of an AI tool:
- to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s)
- to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
- to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript
- must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission
Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.