Submissions

Author Guidelines

RULES FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

1. General information

ALFA – Revista de Linguística – the linguistics journal of the São Paulo State University (UNESP), sponsored by the Research Provost, publishes papers authored by professors, researchers, and PhD students in co-authorship with professors and researchers from national and international institutions of learning, teaching and research

The maximum number of authors must not be greater than three. The journal publishes articles, book reviews and interviews within all lines of research in linguistic studies. The contribution of articles must be original and unpublished and cannot be simultaneously evaluated for publication by another journal. Book reviews must refer only to recently published works: in Brazil, in the last two years, and abroad, in the last four years; interviews must be carried out with researchers of acknowledged academic prestige both in Brazil and abroad. Papers can be submitted in Portuguese, French, English, Spanish or Italian.

All articles are published in a bilingual format; English is the mandatory language of the second version. Authors who submit an article originally in English must, if accepted, provide its version in Portuguese, following the same guidelines indicated for the English version. Only articles with accepted versions in Portuguese (or another chosen language) and in English are published. The nonacceptance of one of the versions by the reviewers implies the non-publication of the article

On the evaluation dynamics, two members of the Editorial Board review the anonymized article. In case one review is favorable and the other is contrary, the article is sent to a third reviewer, who also does not have access to the name of the author(s). After the analysis, copies of the reviews are sent to the author(s)  with instructions for modifications, when applicable.

Works that do not meet the journal's guidelines are returned to the authors, or adaptations are requested, indicated in a personal message.

Data and concepts emitted in the articles, as well as the accuracy of the bibliographic references, are the sole responsibility of the authors.

1.1 Research Ethics

Alfa defends the principles of the declaration of ethics and good practices in publication, based on the Code of Conduct and Standards of Good Practice for Committee Editors of the Committee on Ethics in Publication - COPE, (available at http://publicationethics.org/).

Authorship

Submitted papers must be original and not have been published or submitted to any other journal or book. At the time of submission, the author(s) must express agreement with the statement above.

Authorship rights are limited to those who contributed significantly to the development of the research, data interpretation and the development of the article. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in a note of acknowledgement.

Conflict of Interest

Authors and reviewers must explicitly and individually declare any potential conflict of interest of financial, political, academic or commercial origin.

In the case of identification of a conflict of interest, either by the authors or by the reviewers, the Executive Editor will forward the manuscript to a reviewer with whom there is no conflict.

Plagiarism

Alfa uses softwares available online to check the similarity of content / plagiarism policy, with prior technical evaluation by the editorial team. Self-citations must not exceed 30% of the total references used to prevent self-referral from being considered self-plagiarism.

In addition, the journal counts on the collaboration of reviewers, who, at the time of the double blind evaluation, notify the editorial team of any substantial similarity between the manuscript in question and articles already published or simultaneously submitted to other journals, as well as other information considered relevant.

Articles resulting from theses and dissertations must make this information explicit, in order to avoid self-plagiarism. Texts cannot be coincident, totally or partially.

Human research

The Brazilian study manuscript involving research or an experience report with human beings must present attached, as a supplementary document, a copy of the document attesting approval by a Research Ethics Committee, and the process number for this approval must be informed in the text.

For research articles developed in other countries, their authors must attach, as a supplementary document, a copy of a document attesting their approval, according to the rules of research ethics in the country of origin.

2. Submission of articles

Submission: The first author, necessarily a researcher with a PhD, must register (Username/Password) on the journal page, using the “Register” option and filling out the profile completely.

After these steps, the first author must click on their username and choose "Control Panel", in the Submissions list click on "New Submission" to start the submission process, in which they will perform the five basic steps:

1 - Start: Start the submission process, selecting the submission language, the section (Original Article, Book Review, Interview) and confirming that it is in accordance with the conditions established by the journal (by checking the conditions and the checkboxes and the copyright statement and image right);

2 - Manuscript transfer: Transfer the file without identified authorship to the system, choosing the type as Article Text. In this same step, it is necessary to forward the transfer of the mandatory complementary documentation file Metadata-Authors, with the following data of each author: Full Name, Institution, Title, Link to Lattes, Link to ORCID and Contribution (according to the CRediT taxonomy). In this same step, it is possible to transfer supplementary documents, which work as an appendix to the main text or as an annex to it, such as: document evidencing approval by the Research Ethics Committee, research instruments, data sets and tables, that follow ethical standards of evaluation, sources of information not normally available to readers, or figures and/or tables that cannot be integrated into the text itself;

Note:

To ensure the confidentiality of the authors' identity, the work file must not contain the name(s) of the author(s), institution of affiliation or any other information that may identify them. Personal information must also be removed from the Properties of the submitted file (Basic steps for Microsoft Word: File > Information > Inspect Document > Inspect > Remove Personal Data > Save).

The author(s) information must be filled only in the specific fields of the journal system (Step 3. Insert metadata), which access is exclusive to the editors.

3 - Insert metadata: Insert the Title, Subtitle, Abstract and Keywords of the submission, and the data of each co-author - name, surname, e-mail, country, institution, abstract of the biography with the complete title of the author, ORCID identification . All authors' metadata must be included;

4 - Confirmation: In this step, just click on “Finish Submission” to send it.

5 - Next Steps: Information on tracking your submission.

After completing the five steps described, the author must wait for the editor's e-mail and, in the meantime, can follow the entire flow of their work, from submission, acceptance, evaluation, re-editing of the original to publication. Articles, after submission, are assigned to the evaluators defined by the journal's board or editors. The article evaluation policy is defined by the members of the  the Editorial Board and the magazine's Editors, including the executive Editor, available in the section “About the Journal”, “Peer Review Process”.

3. Formatting of originals

3.1. Presentation

Texts must comply with the rules of the new Orthographic Agreement for the Portuguese Language (mandatory from January 2016).

The preparation of the ARTICLE text must comply with the following parameters:

• Word for Windows
• Font: Times New Roman font, size 12
• Spacing 1.5 throughout, no spacing (0pt) before and after
• 25cm paragraph indentation
• A4 size paper (21cm X 29.7cm)
• Left and top margins 3.0 cm, right and bottom 2.0 cm.
• Minimum length of 15 and maximum of 30 pages, including references and annexes and/or appendixes

Article Template (English)

The preparation of the REVIEW text must comply with the following parameters:

• Word for Windows
• Font: Times New Roman, size 12
• Spacing 1.5 throughout, no spacing (0pt) before and after
• 25 cm paragraph indentation
• A4 size paper (21 cm X 29.7 cm)
• Left and top margins 3.0 cm, right and bottom 2.0 cm.
• Minimum length of 15 and maximum of 30 pages, including references and annexes and/or appendixes
• For book reviews, the title must be different from that of the reviewed work.
• The complete reference of the reviewed work must be in a footnote.
• There is no abstract and keywords.
• Other aspects (title, authors' names, references...) follow the rules defined for the articles.

Review Template (English)

The preparation of the INTERVIEW text follows the same parameters as the article, with the exception of the title:

• The title of the interview must contain, in addition to the general theme, the expression “Interview with [name of interviewee]”, without highlighting, with an asterisk referring to a footnote containing a brief minibiography of the interviewee, clearly demonstrating its scientific relevance.

Article Template (English)

3. ARTICLE STRUCTURE

To prepare the article, the author(s) must obey the following sequence:

Title: the title of the article must appear in CAPITAL LETTERS and in bold, centered at the top of the first page, single spacing and, when applicable, the subtitle must be in lower case;

Name(s) of the author(s): the name(s) of the author(s) is positioned on the right of the page, in the third line below the title, with an asterisk referring to a footnote with the metadata of the author(s). These metadata correspond to the following information, in the following order and format: full name of the institution to which the author(s) is/are linked and acronym (in parentheses), unit, faculty or institute, campus , city, state, country. Departmental affiliation. E-mail ORCID.

Abstract: text with, at least, 150 words and a maximum of 200, containing a summary of the article, indicating its objectives, theoretical-methodological framework used, justification, results obtained and conclusion, preceded by the word ABSTRACT, in capital letters, on the third line below the author's name, without paragraph indentation and single spaced, size 11, justified;

Keywords: insert a maximum of five (5) keywords, separated by semicolons, preceded by the term KEYWORDS, in capital letters, keeping single spacing, in the second line below the abstract. For greater ease in locating the work in bibliographic queries, the keywords must correspond to more general concepts in the research field of the article and must not repeat words in the title;

Text: the body of the text starts on the third line below the keywords, 1.5 spacing; the Introduction, Conclusion and References sections should not be numbered. The other sections must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals,  without paragraph indentation, with justified alignment and a period with a spacing for the beginning of the title. Section titles must be in bold. Each section of the manuscript must start after 1.5 spacing of the previous one and no spacing for the subsequent text.

Sub-sections: the subtitles corresponding to each part of the work, referenced at the author(s) discretion, must be justified, in bold, numbered from the section to which they belong (1.1; 2.1;....) , with a 1.5 space after the text that precedes them and no spacing before the text that follows them;

Acknowledgements: when applicable, acknowledgements follow the same layout as the subtitles, preceded by the word “Acknowledgements” highlighted in bold;

Title of the article in English: for articles written in Portuguese, French, Spanish or Italian, the title in English is inserted two lines below the end of the text, in single space, only the first word is capitalized, except for proper nouns and other words which are generally capitalized by a more specific rule, and in bold;

Abstract: version of the abstract, in English (for articles written in Portuguese, French, Spanish or Italian), in italics, preceded by the word ABSTRACT, in capital letters and in italics, text in single spacing, size 11, justified, in the third line after the title of the article in English;

Keywords: version of the keywords, in English (for articles written in Portuguese, French, Spanish or Italian), separated by semi-colon, in italics, preceded by the expression KEYWORDS, in capital letters and in italics, in single spacing, size 11, justified, in the third line after the abstract;

NOTE: With regard to the last three instructions, articles written in English (in French, Spanish or Italian) must include the Portuguese version of the title, abstract and keywords.

References: under the subtitle REFERENCES, in capital letters, aligned to the left, in bold and without indentation, the references must be mentioned in alphabetical and chronological order, indicating the works of authors cited in the body of the text, separated by single space, in the third line below the keywords in English (cf. 3.3.1 below);

Other consulted bibliography : in the third line below the references, if considered essential, under the subtitle  OTHER CONSULTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, in capital letters, aligned to the left, in bold and without indentation, in the third line below the References, they can be indicated, also in alphabetical order and chronological, consulted or recommended works, not referenced in the text.

3.3. Other instructions

3.3.1. Standards for references

References must be arranged in alphabetical order by the first author's last name and follow the corrected version 2 of ABNT NBR 6023:2018, which incorporates Errata 2, of 09/24/2020: single space and one space between each work. If the work is translated, it is necessary to inform the translator's name.

Examples:

Book

AUTHIER-REVUZ, J. Uncertain words: the non-coincidences of saying. Translation by Cláudia Pfeiffer et al. Campinas: Ed. da UNICAMP, 1998.

CORACINI, M. J.; BERTOLDO, E. S. (org.). The desire for theory and the contingency of practice. Campinas: Mercado das Letras, 2003.

LUCHESI, D. System, change and language: a journey in the history of modern linguistics. São Paulo: Parábola, 2004.

Book chapters

PÊCHEUX, M. To read the archive today. In: ORLANDI, E. P. (Org.). Gestos de leitura: da história no discurso. Translation by Maria das Graças Lopes Morin do Amaral. Campinas: Ed. da UNICAMP, 1994. p. 15-50.

Dissertations and thesis

BITENCOURT, C. M. F. Homeland , civilization and work: teaching in São Paulo schools (1917-1939). Dissertation (M.A. in Social History)  – Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo. 1998.

Articles in journals

SCLIAR-CABRAL, L.; RODRIGUES, B. B. Discrepancies between punctuation and breaks. Cadernos de Estudos Linguísticos, Campinas, n. 26, p. 63-77, 1994.

Articles in online journals

SOUZA, FC Training librarians for a free society. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Florianópolis, n. 11, p. 1-13, jun. 2001. Available in: Accessed on: June 30 2001.

Newspaper articles

BURKE, P. Mixing languages. Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 20 abr. 2003. Mais!, p. 3.

PUBLISHER plagiarized translations of classics. Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 4 Nov. 2007. Ilustrada, p. 6.

Electronic document

São Paulo State University Office for Library Coordination. Unesp Document Standardization Working Group Document Standardization for Unesp's scientific production: standards for the presentation of references. São Paulo: CGB, 2003. Available in: Acesso em: 15 jul. 2004.

Conference presentation or similar work (published)

MARIN, A. J. Continuing Education. In: CONGRESSO ESTADUAL PAULISTA SOBRE FORMAÇÃO DE EDUCADORES, 1., 1990, São Paulo. Anais [...]. São Paulo: Unesp, 1990. p. 114-118.

Movies

BLADE Runner. Directed by: Ridley Scott. Production: Michael Deeley. Interpreters: Harrison Ford; Rutger Hauer; Sean Young; Edward James Olmos and others. Screenplay: Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Music: Vangelis. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers, c1991. 1 DVD (117 min), widescreen, color. Based on the novel “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” by Philip K. Dick.

Paintings, photos, prints, drawings

ALMEIDA JUNIOR. Caipira chopping tobacco. 1893 Painting, oil on canvas. Dimensions: 202 X 141cm.

Discs and parts of discs

MOSAICO [Composer and performer]: Toquinho. Rio de Janeiro: Biscoito Fino, 2005. 1 CD (37 min).

JURA secreta. Interpreter: Simone. Composers: S. Costa and A. Silva. In: FACE a face. Interpreter: Simone. [S. l.]: Emi-Odeon Brazil, 1977. 1 CD, track 7.

3.3.2. Citation in text

The author must be cited in parentheses by the surname, in capital letters, separated by a comma from the date of publication (BARBOSA, 1980). If the author's name is mentioned in the text, only the date is indicated in parentheses: “Morais (1955) indicates...”.

When it is necessary to specify page number,  it must follow the date, separated by comma and preceded by “p.”: (MUNFORD, 1949, p. 513), (BAKHTIN , 2010, p. 34-35).

Citations of several works by the same author, published in the same year, must be broken down by lowercase letters after the date, without spacing (PESIDE, 1927a, 1927b). Quando a obra tiver dois ou três autores, todos devem ser indicados, separados por ponto e vírgula (OLIVEIRA; MATEUS; SILVA, 1943), e quando houver mais de 3 autores, indica-se o primeiro seguido de “et al.” (GILLE et al., 1960). Never use id. or ibid.

Direct quotes with more than three lines must be detached with a 4cm indent from the left margin, font size 11, without quotation marks and single spacing. Quotes with up to three lines must follow the running text and in quotation marks. Quotations from foreign texts must be translated to Portuguese. Whenever possible, use existing translations. The original must appear in a footnote.

3.3.3. Use of typographic features: italics, bold, underline and quotation marks

Italics: should be used in three situations: foreign language words, citation of titles of works in the running text, emphasis or highlighting of a word or text excerpt.

Bold: avoid this typographic feature. Use it only in the title of the article, in the sections and subsections, in addition to the titles of the references.

Underline: avoid this typographic feature.

“Quotes”: must be used in the running text to quote excerpts from works; and to identify titles of articles, songs, essays, parts of works or book chapters. Example:

Linguistics is a discipline that “is based on the observation of facts and refrains from proposing any choice between such facts, in the name of certain aesthetic and moral principles”. (MARTINET, 1972, p. 3).

O capítulo “Língua, linguagem e enunciado” é o segundo da segunda parte do Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem (VOLÓCHINOV, 2017).

3.3.4. Footnotes

Footnotes should be reduced as much as possible . Use automatic numbering for footnotes, after any punctuation mark, when applicable. Font size: 10, single spaced, Times New Roman font, justified, no paragraph indentation, neither before nor after (zero).

3.3.5. Illustrations

Illustrations include figures, drawings, graphs, charts, maps, diagrams, formulas, models, photographs, radiographs.

The title must be at the top, centered, with the name of the type of illustration in bold, followed by a hyphen and the title without highlighting, in the same font, single spaced and size 12. Numbering is consecutive, in Arabic numerals.

Example:

Figure 1 -; Figure 2 - [...]

Graphic 1 -; Graphic 2 - [...]

Illustration 1 -; Illustration 2 - [...]

Map 1 -; Map 2 - [...]

Photo 1 -; Photo 2 - [...]

The source must be placed below the illustration, centered, size 11 and single spaced. The word Source, in bold, followed by a colon.

Example:

Source: Designed by the author

Source: Adapted from [...]

The Author(s) is(are) entirely responsible for the use of images, including those involving copyright.

3.3.6. Tables and Charts

Tables should be used to present statistically treated information and charts to synthesize and organize textual information. The title must be at the top, centered, starting with the expression Table or Chart, in bold, followed by a hyphen and the title without highlighting, in the same font and size as the running text, with single spacing. Numbering is consecutive, in Arabic numerals.

Example:

Table 1 -; Table 2 - [...]

Chart 1 -; Chart 2 - [...]

Tables must be constructed with open side edges and no column separation lines.

The source must be placed below the table or chart, centered, size 11 and single spaced. The word Source, in bold, followed by a colon.

Example:

Source:  Designed by the author

Source: Adapted from [...]

3.3.7. Attachments and/or Appendixes

Attachments and/or Appendixes must be used only when essential to the understanding of the text, and within the article limit of 30 pages. They should be included at the end of the article, after the bibliographical references or the consulted bibliography (if any). The formatting of the title must be the same as that of the subtitles.

3.3.8. Rules for the English version

The author(s) of an article accepted for publication in Portuguese, French, Spanish or Italian must provide the English version of the text by the stipulated date in the acceptance notification message. The rules for citing authors in the body of the text and for bibliographical references in the English version are the same as in the Portuguese version.

In the case of citations of works that have an edition published in English, this edition must be used, both in the body of the text and in the bibliographical references. In case there is no English edition, the quoted text must receive an English version and the text in the original language of the edition used must be included in a footnote.

When the article contains digitized pictures of advertisements in newspapers and magazines or similar, in Portuguese or in another language, it is necessary to include the English version of the texts in a footnote.

When the text contains examples the understanding of which is essential for the reader to grasp the analysis, a translation must be added right after the example, in square brackets.

Example:

João Romão foi, dos treze aos vinte e cinco anos, empregado de um vendeiro que enriqueceu entre as quatro paredes de uma suja e obscura taverna nos refolhos do bairro do Botafogo.

[Between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five, João Romão worked for the owner of a dingy and squalid but profitable tavern and general store in the back streets of Botafogo. (Translated by David H. Rosenthal)]

When the text contains examples the understanding of which involves the need to clarify morphosyntactic features, it is necessary to include a literal version of them in gloss, followed by the common English translation enclosed in single quotation marks.

Example:

isso    signific-a           um     aument-o      de    vencimento-s (D2-SP-360)
this    mean-IND.PRS.3.SG    a.M    raise-NMLZ    of    salary-PL
‘this means a raise in salary.’

Conventions for glosses: The Leipzig Glossing Rules: conventions for interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme glosses, edited by the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Bernard Comrie, Martin Haspelmath) and by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Leipzig (Balthasar Bickel); available at http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources/glossing-rules.php.

Alfa appoints reviewers to evaluate the English version of the article. The review is restricted to checking the quality of the translation, that is, its adequacy to the standard use of the English language in the scientific article genre. And the article, even though approved in Portuguese, is subject to approval in English as well, since Alfa is a bilingual magazine. The journal does not accept only one version of the text and, when submitting the manuscript, the author(s) agree(s) with the journal's rules.

3.3.9. Copyright Transfer - Authorization for Publication

If the submitted article is approved for publication, IT IS ALREADY AGREED THAT the author(s) AUTHORIZES Unesp to reproduce it and publish it in Alfa: Revista de Linguística, understanding the terms "reproduction " and "publication" as defined respectively in items VI and I of article 5 of Law 9610/98.

The ARTICLE may be accessed through the world wide web (WWW – Internet), being allowed, FREE OF CHARGE, the consultation and reproduction of a copy for personal use. This publication authorization is not limited in time, UNESP BEING responsible for maintaining the identification of THE AUTHOR(S) of the ARTICLE.