Registered reports | Aims and scope | Manuscript types considered | Design and methodology requirements | Preparation of manuscripts | Data availability statement | Badges to acknowledge Open Practices | 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

Registered reports

Specific guidance on Registered Reports can be found on the Registered Reports page.

Aims and scope

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition is an international peer-reviewed journal focusing on bilingualism from a linguistic, psycholinguistic, and neuroscientific perspective. The aims of the journal are to promote research on the bilingual and multilingual person and to encourage debate in the field. Areas covered include: bilingual language competence, bilingual language processing, bilingual language acquisition in children and adults, bimodal bilingualism, neurolinguistics of bilingualism in normal and brain-damaged individuals, computational modelling of bilingual language competence and performance, and the study of cognitive functions in bilinguals. The journal maintains an inclusive attitude to research involving all languages, and we specifically encourage the study of less well researched languages (including especially minority and minoritized languages) to increase our understanding of how language and cognition interact in the bilingual individual. BLC carries articles and research notes on all aspects of the bilingual person, including articles presenting research methods and research tools pertinent to the field of bilingualism, such as Li et al.’s Language history questionnaire (BLC 17 (3), 2014, 673–680) and other bilingualism tests.

Manuscript types considered

Submissions should consist of original work that has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. 

Papers should reflect fundamental research and use the research methodologies and the theoretical and modelling approaches of the disciplines within which the research was conducted: theoretical or descriptive linguistics, experimental, computational or developmental psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, etc. The overriding criterion for consideration and subsequent acceptance, after peer review, is that papers make a truly theoretical or empirical contribution to one of the domains listed under Aims and scope.

BLC also expects all empirical data presented to be supported by appropriate statistical analyses. Data sets analysed only by reporting percentages, proportions, or other descriptive measures will not be accepted. 

Consideration will be given to papers of the following types:

Keynote and Review Articles

Keynote and Review Articles will be commissioned by the Editors. 

• They should present a new theory or model, review recent developments in a subfield of bilingualism, present a critical review of the literature on a research problem, deal with a controversial issue, etc. 
• Keynote articles may be accompanied by Commentaries, which the Editors will select.
• Accepted Commentaries will be sent to the authors of Keynote Articles so that they may prepare their response (also subject to review). 
• Word limit: Keynote and Review Articles should not exceed 12,000 words in length (including footnotes, but not including abstract, references, tables and figures).
  Abstract: Keynote and Review Articles should include an abstract of no more than 150 words.

Research Articles

Research Articles should report fundamental research of interest in one of the domains listed under Aims and scope and must have clear theoretical implications.

• Word limit: Research articles should not exceed 9,000 words (including footnotes, but not including abstract, references, tables and figures).
• Abstract: Research Articles should include an abstract of no more than 150 words.

Registered Reports

BLC welcomes inquiries from authors interested in Registered Reports, an important new article type in the journal. Please familiarise yourself with the special information on Registered Reports at BLC: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bilingualism-language-and-cognition/information/registered-reports-guidelines

Research Notes

Research Notes provide a fast-track opportunity to publish particularly excellent studies that present outstanding new empirical findings, major theoretical advances or innovations in bilingualism research that deserve fast communication to the research community. 

• As such, Research Notes are by no means meant to be just shorter versions of regular Research Articles. 
• Word limit: Research Notes should not be longer than 3,000 words (including footnotes, but not including abstract, references, tables and figures).
• Abstract: Research Notes must be preceded by an abstract of no more than 100 words. 
• Fast-track publication: To ensure rapid publication, Research Notes will be given priority at all stages: Shorter reviewing (normally one round of reviews) and decision times as well as faster production times. Articles that exceed the relevant word lengths will be returned to authors without review.

Cover letter and highlights

In addition to the manuscript (and any supplementary material), the submission must include the following:

• Covering letter. Articles for submission should be accompanied by a covering letter which should include a short paragraph to explain what is the main, novel contribution of the paper given current knowledge and why the paper is of particular interest for the BLC readership. This information will guide the in-house evaluation process.
• Highlights. Highlights consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).
• Data availability statement. See guidance in the 'Data availability statements' section below.
• Disclosure of use of AI tools. Authors should include a statement disclosing any AI tools used during the preparation of their manuscript. See the Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools section below for further guidance.

Study design and methodology requirements

Novelty

Articles should report novel, unpublished results (i.e., the overlap with already published data sets should be kept minimal and be appropriately acknowledged) that contribute to our understanding of the nature of bilingualism in an individual’s mind/brain.

Design and methodology

The presentation of empirical data and the claims made should be accompanied by appropriate statistical analyses and – if necessary – by appropriate control groups. If, for example, claims are made about cross-linguistic influence from a particular language X, evidence from monolingual and/or bilingual language-control groups (i.e., bilinguals with a language that does not allow for said influence) may be required to make such claims. Further methodological considerations are the following:

• ANOVAs should be reported both by participants (F1) and by items (F2) and linear mixed effects models (LMEs) should contain intercepts by both.
• Data consisting of proportions or counts (e.g., accuracy rates) generally violate the assumptions of conventional analysis techniques. They should be analysed with statistical models that are appropriate for categorical data, such as generalized linear models.
• Statistical analyses should be made explicit (e.g., factor levels for IVs, contrast types in LMEs).

Publishing ethics:

Research involving animals and/or human participants 

Where research involves human and/or animal experimentation, the following statements should be included in the manuscript (as applicable): 

• "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008."; and/or
• "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional guides on the care and use of laboratory animals.” 

Preparation of manuscripts

General points. Manuscripts should be submitted in files (typically MS Word and equivalent PDF). The text should be double-spaced throughout, except for the first page (see below). Text should be left justified rather than fully justified. Individual sentences should be separated by one space character rather than two. Automatic numbering of examples, tables, figures and section headings is to be avoided but automatic numbering of footnotes is encouraged. Page numbers should be positioned in the top right corner of each page. There should be no running headers embedded in any of the files. Paragraphs must be marked by indents at the first lines and not by blank lines. Appendices can be submitted within the main-text file or separately. Each appendix should have a short heading/title and the main text should include at least one cross-reference to the appendix. Authors should consider lengthy details of methods or data in an appendix that will appear only as Supplementary Materials Online, if these details are not essential for interpreting the major findings or hypotheses of the paper.

Manuscript length. Papers should adhere to indicated length restrictions for different article types (e.g., 9,000 words for Research Articles) and should not have more than 5 tables and figures each. Additional tables and figures may be provided as Supplementary Materials. 

Web-based data collection. If data are collected via web-based tools such as IBEX Farm, BLC requires a detailed report of measures taken to ensure the validity of the data. For offline questionnaires and judgment tasks that are intended to pre-test and provide additional information about experimental materials, web-based data collection is a useful tool. Otherwise (e.g., for online experiments), the study should present either very large samples, to reduce potential noise and artefacts, or the authors should cross-validate web-based experiment(s) with a corresponding (but smaller) lab-based study.

Language. The language of the journal is English. Authors, particularly those who are not expert users of English, should have their English-language manuscripts checked by a proof-reader for grammatical/stylistic content before submission. This is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the editor and any reviewers. Cambridge offers a language editing service for manuscripts and abstracts in partnership with a trusted provider of author services: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/authors/language-services

Please note that the use 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.

Spelling. Either British or American spelling may be used, consistently throughout the paper.

First two pages. The first page should give (in the order listed here): a short title of the article which will appear in print as the running header, the full title of the article, the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), an acknowledgements paragraph, and the postal and email addresses of the corresponding author (headed ‘Address for correspondence’). Acknowledgments appear as a footnote in print and should be keyed to the article’s title by an asterisk (*). Unlike the rest of the text, the information on the first page should be single-spaced. The second page should contain the abstract followed by a list of keywords or key phrases. Like the rest of the text, this information should be set at the left margin (i.e., not centred), in normal font type and font size – Times New Roman font, 12 pt throughout – with the right margin not right-justified.

Please refer to printed BLC papers for illustration of various features of style detailed above and in the following sections.

Section headings should be set on a separate line and may be numbered but only up to two levels. A third level should be distinguished typographically only. Automatic section numbering and formatting should be avoided. Authors who do not wish to number section headings should distinguish the three levels typographically in a very clear manner (Level 1: normal font + bold, Level 2: bold + italics, Level 3: italics only; all in Times New Roman font, font size 12 pt). In headings and subheadings, only the initial word (rather than all lexical words) should be capitalised.

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

Referencing style.  Please note that BLC has recently changed its referencing style. All in-text references (i.e., references included within the text, footnotes and figure and table captions) should follow the APA 7th Edition style.

References should be listed in alphabetical order and double-spaced at the end of the article. Authors should ensure that every item in the References at the end of the article is cited in text. Articles’ dates and authors’ spellings should be correct and consistent. Journal titles should not be abbreviated (e.g., BLC for Bilingualism: Language and Cognition). Please note that work in preparation, submitted, under review, in revision, etc. should be cited and referenced as unpublished manuscript, and work published online and awaiting print publication in a printed journal (e.g., Plonsky, Marsden, Crowther, Gass & Spinner, below) should be cited as described above and referenced as indicated below (incl. the DOI number). 

Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and should be numbered. They should be typed on a separate page (double-spaced) and included at the end of the manuscript (not at the bottom of each page), immediately after the references. Automatic footnote (i.e., endnote) numbering is encouraged.

Alpha-numeric data and results should be presented in a consistent format throughout the paper. In particular, authors should be consistent in the use of italic (or non-italic, never underline) for the expressions p, r, etc.; in the use of spaces immediately before and after the signs =, > and <, and elsewhere; and in the use of punctuation (commas, colons, semi-colons, and parentheses) marking sets and subsets of alpha-numeric information. Reporting of statistical significance should follow the APA Style (see Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edn.), chapter 4). Avoid zero in front of the decimal if the number cannot be greater than 1.00, e.g., probability and correlation, p-values and r-values should not include pre-decimal zeros.

IPA symbols should be set in a Unicode font, preferably Doulos SIL, which is freely available from http://software.sil.org/doulos/.

Tables should be clearly laid out on separate pages and numbered consecutively, gathered at the end of the manuscript (for the review process). After acceptance for publication, these pages should be provided as one separate file. Tables must be in an editable (Word.docx) format. The table’s number and title should be placed immediately above each table (aligned with the left edge of the table; table’s title should be set in the following format: Table 1. Title. Vertical lines should not be used. Every column should have a clear heading, and units should be identified and aligned as appropriate. Note, however, that it is not necessary to align decimal points, which will be done at the copy-editing stage. The main text of the article should include an explicit mention of each table near to the table’s intended location and also the wording <Insert Table N about here>, set on a separate line, at the left margin, between complete paragraphs. Please set this wording in angled brackets and do not use lines, asterisks, bold, etc. to set it off. For illustration of table layout, text format, table footnotes and other annotations and table title format, and figure captions’ format, please refer to published BLC papers.

Figures should be camera-ready and clearly laid out on separate pages, gathered at the end of the manuscript (for the review process). They should be numbered consecutively and have a caption in the following format: Figure 1. Title. The main text of the article should include an explicit mention of each figure near to the figure’s intended location and also the wording <Insert Figure N about here>, set on a separate line, at the left margin, between complete paragraphs. Please set this wording in angled brackets and do not use lines, asterisks, bold, etc. to set it off. After acceptance for publication, each figure needs to be provided as a separate file (as both doc and PDF file with a resolution of at least 600 dpi) without captions; the files should be named e.g. Smith-Fig1.doc, Smith-Fig1.pdf, Smith-Fig2.doc, Smith-Fig2.pdf, etc. Figure captions should be listed at the end of the main text or in a separate file.

Typographic conventions

Italics (i) Language material within the running text. (ii) Titles of books and journals. (iii) Volume numbers of journals. (iv) Titles of tables.

Bold Emphasis in numbered examples.

SMALL CAPITALS (i) Author’s emphasis within the text. (ii) Technical terms at first mention in the text. (iii) The names of grammatical categories in the glosses of numbered examples.

"Double quotation marks" (i) Meanings of words and sentences, both in running text and in examples. (ii) Short quotations (up to 25 words) set in the running text and "direct speech". (Quotations over 25 words are set out as a separate paragraph and are not included in quotation marks.)

‘Single quotation marks’ (i) Terms used in a semi-technical sense or terms whose validity is questioned. (ii) Quotations within quotations.

Data availability statement

Articles must contain a Data Availability Statement at the end of the manuscript explaining how data and other resources were created, from where they are available, along with information about any restrictions on the accessibility of data and other resources.

Examples:

• Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at http://doi.org/, reference number [reference number].
• Data availability: The data that support the findings will be available in [repository name] at [URL / DOI link] following a [6 month] embargo from the date of publication to allow for commercialisation of research findings.
• Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party]. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study.
• Data are available [from the authors / at URL] with the permission of [third party].

Badges to acknowledge Open Practices

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition recognises exemplary scientific practices by awarding Open Science Badges to authors who openly share their data and/or research materials.

To learn more about Open Science Badges at BLC and how to apply, visit the Research Transparency page.

Last updated: 30 July 2024