About the Journal
Aims and Scope
Crossings: A Journal of English Studies is an annual double-blind peer-reviewed open access journal designed to reflect the increasing interest in English and Cultural Studies, Applied Linguistics, and English Language Teaching and Acquisition, and to interact with the numerous disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Crossings has an inclusive approach towards analyses of literary texts and their relevance to lived and textual cultures, the mass media, language and representation, to studies in Applied Linguistics, and to the conception and implementation of newer modes, methods and strategies of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), English Language Teaching (ELT) and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), or Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
Crossings is of interest to Literatures in English from a wide variety of eras and genres, such as Shakespeare studies, Jacobean and Caroline period, Restoration drama, Romantic and Victorian literature, early Modern and Postmodern strains in literature and their interactions with cultural, media, and film studies, as well as diaspora and subaltern studies, and postcolonial criticism. The journal is also of interest to theory or data-based research on SLA, ELT, TESOL/TESL, and Applied Linguistics Contributions are invited from these fields.
Crossings transcends international borders in examining theoretical and empirical perspectives in the production, dissemination, and critical acclamation of advanced theoretical lenses and novel application of existing analytical frameworks in the fields of linguistics and literature vis-à-vis cross-disciplinary approaches. As such the journal is a forum for authors around the world.
Crossings seeks to provide an innovative and informative platform to identify, discuss, and debate the emergence and resonance of new forms of literary texts, language teaching tools, social, economic, cultural and political representations, discursive strategies of resistance and survival including those in film, newspapers, print and electronic advertisements, television, non-fiction, visual and cyber cultures, and sexuality. Crossings, in fact, challenges its contributors to situate literary texts and language teaching and learning techniques within a wider context of culture that foregrounds transnational focus and open attitude towards hybridity, difference, diversity, and tolerance, maintaining a healthy balance between the global and the local.
Crossings is committed to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as quality education, gender equality, reduced inequality, environmental conservation, peace, justice, and transparency and strong institutions. The journal welcomes contributions that will highlight these issues from scholars and researchers associated with higher education. Crossings offers original insights into the latest published literary works and current debates through book reviews.
Copyright Statement
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, in a journal or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after the journal is published.
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Crossings: A Journal of English Studies is an annual double-blind peer-reviewed journal of scholarly articles and book reviews. It adheres to the publication ethics elaborated below.
Duties of authors
(These guidelines are based on existing Elsevier policies)
Reporting standards
Original research work should be submitted.
Reviews and academic articles should be accurate and objective.
Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Data access and retention
Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
Originality and plagiarism
Authors should ensure that all work submitted is original, and all instances of works and/or words of other authors used are duly and appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism takes many forms, from passing off another paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Crossings uses Turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.
Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper. Papers presented at conference are acceptable as long as the original source is included.
Acknowledgement of sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.
Authorship of the paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Human subjects
If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.
Duties of the Editorial Board
These guidelines are based on existing Elsevier policies and COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Publication decisions
The editor of the peer-reviewed journal Crossings is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
Fair play
An editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
Confidentiality
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.
Involvement and cooperation in investigations
An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher (or society). Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies, and if the complaint is upheld, the publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.
Duties of reviewers
(These guidelines are based on existing Elsevier policies and COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors).
Contribution to editorial decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication, and we believe that all scholars who wish to contribute to publications have an obligation to do a fair share of reviewing.
Promptness
Selected referees/reviewers who feel unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process.
Confidentiality
Any manuscript received for review must be treated as a confidential document. It must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Standards of objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and conflict of interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Article Processing Charge (APC)
There is no Article Processing Charge (APC) required for publication in Crossings.
Peer Review Policy
All research articles in this journal undergo editorial screening and double-blind peer reviews.
All submitted articles are vetted by the Editorial Board after the article submission deadline. Each selected article is assigned to a subject matter expert peer reviewer who may take four to eight weeks to complete the review. However, the entire review process of all articles may take four to six months to complete after the final submission deadline of articles.
Reviewed articles that are recommended for publication with minor or major changes are sent back to the authors for revisions. Reviewers may indicate an interest in seeing the revised paper, in which case the article will be sent back to the reviewer for verification of the changes. In such cases, reviewers reserve the right to retract their earlier recommendation if the revision does not meet expectations.
When revised papers are accepted, the editing process will begin. However, papers requiring extensive editing after acceptance by reviewers will be rejected by the Editorial Board. Acceptance letters will be provided on request only after the Editorial Board’s final approval.
Contributions should not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Citation Policy
Crossings citation policy adheres to the policies documented by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).
Role and Organization of the Publisher
The organization, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, is based on the principle of liberal arts and its goal is to become a knowledge hub for the community. The journal is published by its ULAB Press.
The publisher supports the creation of an interdisciplinary platform for the dissemination of knowledge in the academic community through the publication of the journal.
The contents of the journal are backed up and archived on the university's central server.
Crossings is supported by the ULAB Press and university's budget. The journal does not charge any APC nor accept any advertisements.
