Literary Studies

Instructions for Authors

Submissions

To submit a manuscript, please log in or create a new account. Submissions are accepted only through the journal’s online system.

Submission Checklist

Authors should ensure that all items below are met during the submission process. Submissions that do not comply may be returned at the initial screening stage.

Originality and Simultaneous Submission Statement:
I confirm that this work has not been published in any form and is not currently under review by another journal.
File Upload Commitment:
I agree to upload the manuscript text, cover letter, similarity report, and—if applicable—figures, tables, and ethics committee approval documents separately to the relevant sections.
Cover Letter:
I confirm that all mandatory author statements are included as an attachment to the cover letter in both Turkish and English.
Statement on the Use of Artificial Intelligence:
I confirm that I have accurately provided the required statement regarding the use of artificial intelligence and/or AI-assisted tools as an attachment to the cover letter.
Reference Style Confirmation:
I confirm that all references and citations in the manuscript have been prepared in accordance with APA 7 (American Psychological Association, 7th edition).
Anonymization Commitment:
I declare that I have removed all information and expressions that could clearly reveal my identity from the manuscript and that the file has been anonymized in accordance with the double-blind peer-review principle.
Ethical Responsibility Statement:
I declare that the work is entirely original; that it contains no ethical violations such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or falsification; and that all relevant ethical principles have been fully observed in the research process.
Author Guidelines Acknowledgement:
I confirm that I have carefully read the author guidelines, that I will comply with these rules during submission, and that I accept the submission may be rejected with justification if non-compliance is detected.

Author Guidelines

Literary Studies is a double-blind peer-reviewed and open-access academic platform published twice a year (March and September). The journal accepts literature-focused works written in Turkish or English, including research articles, review/overview articles, short communications, special issue contributions, and book reviews.

These guidelines set out the fundamental principles and rules regarding the submission process, content, formatting, evaluation, and publication procedures for authors who wish to submit to Literary Studies. The purpose of the guidelines is to clarify all technical and academic questions authors may encounter in advance, thereby ensuring that the publication process is transparent, consistent, and functional.

Submission Process

Manuscripts are accepted only through the online submission system (OJS) available on the journal’s website. The process consists of two stages:

Account Creation and Login

Create a new user account by clicking “New Registration” in the upper-right corner of the homepage.
After registration, select “Edit My Profile” and complete missing information in the sections of identity, contact, roles, general, password, notifications, and API key.
Entering an ORCID iD is mandatory. If you do not yet have an ORCID account, create one at https://orcid.org.
After this step, click “Back to Submissions” and start the process via “New Submission.”
For later logins, click “Login” in the upper-right corner and sign in with your existing username and password. Start the submission process via “Submit New Manuscript.”
If you forget your password, click “Forgot your password?” and enter your registered email address. The system will send you a password reset link.

Submission Steps

Start

Enter the manuscript titles in both languages.
Enter author information.
Enter the Turkish and English abstracts.
Specify the manuscript’s main field, type, and language.
Add notes to the editor (if any).
Confirm the corresponding author contact.
Approve the copyright statement.
Approve the policy statement.
Click “Save and Continue” to proceed to the next step.

Upload Submission

Upload all files required for evaluation:

Cover letter: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
Manuscript: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
Figures and tables (if any): high-resolution TIFF (.tif or .tiff) or JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg)
Similarity report: PDF (.pdf)

Click “Save and Continue” to proceed to the next step.

Enter Metadata

Enter the title, abstract, and contributors (in Turkish and English).
Enter keywords (in Turkish and English). After typing each term, press “Enter.”
Enter references. They must comply with APA 7.
Click “Save and Continue” to proceed to the next step.

Confirmation

Review all entered information and uploaded files.
Complete the process by selecting “Finish Submission.”

Submission Requirements

Language

Manuscripts may be submitted in Turkish or English.
For Turkish manuscripts, the Turkish Language Association (TDK) guidelines should be followed.
For English manuscripts, Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary is used as a basic reference for spelling.
If the manuscript is in Turkish, all non-Turkish words (Latin, English, Arabic, etc.) in the text—except proper nouns—should be italicized. For Arabic/Ottoman Turkish/Persian-origin words appearing in Turkish texts, if there is a widely accepted modern Turkish spelling, that form should be preferred.
If the manuscript is in English, all non-English words (Turkish, Arabic, French, etc.)—except proper nouns—should be italicized.
Unless the theoretical framework or conceptual level requires it, transliteration alphabets should not be used for words in languages written in Arabic script.
In mandatory cases, only the following marks should be used:
Ayn: (‘)
Hamza: (’)
Circumflex: (^)

Types of Manuscripts

Literary Studies accepts submissions in the form of research articles and book reviews.
Other academic genres (e.g., translated articles, critical editions/document publications) are included only in line with the editorial board’s planning and decision.

Originality

Each submission to Literary Studies must be original, previously unpublished, and not simultaneously under review elsewhere.

Format

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the template in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format.
Main text should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing, justified, with 6 nk spacing between paragraphs.
Footnotes should be in Times New Roman, 10 pt, single-spaced, and justified.
Each new paragraph should begin with a first-line indent of one tab (approximately 1.25 cm).
Page margins should be Word’s default settings (2.5 cm on all sides).
Page numbers should not be added.

Submission File Arrangement

During submission, authors must upload the following files separately in the system:

Cover letter: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
Manuscript: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
Figures and tables (if any): high-resolution TIFF (.tif/.tiff) or JPEG (.jpg/.jpeg)
Similarity report: PDF (.pdf)

Cover Letter

The cover letter must include the following information in full and in the order specified. It must be prepared as a separate Microsoft Word file (.doc or .docx). No author-identifying information should appear in the manuscript file.

Mandatory content:

Manuscript title
Author(s)’ full name, academic title, institutional affiliation (university and department), email address, institutional mailing address (city and country), and ORCID iD
Clear identification of the corresponding author and their institutional address
A brief summary of the manuscript’s topic and significance (the abstract text should not be copied here)
A statement confirming originality and that the manuscript is not under review elsewhere
A sentence indicating that all mandatory author statements are provided in the appendix (see the template for sample wording)

Appendix (Mandatory and Optional Author Statements)

At the end of the cover letter, authors must provide the statements listed below in Turkish and English under the heading “Appendix: Mandatory and Optional Statements”:

Conflict of interest statement
Funding/support statement
Statement on the use of artificial intelligence and AI-assisted tools
Ethics committee approval (if required)
Acknowledgements (optional)

Manuscript Arrangement

The manuscript should be structured in the following order:

Turkish title
English title
Abstract (TR) (150–200 words)
Keywords (TR) (5 keywords)
Abstract (EN) (150–200 words)
Keywords (EN) (5 keywords)
Extended Abstract (600–900 words)
Main text (introduction, development structured with subheadings, conclusion)
References
Tables, figures, and images (if any; each with an appropriate caption and source information)

Title

Both Turkish and English titles must be included.
The main title should be Times New Roman, 12 pt, bold, centered, with the first letter of each word capitalized.
The Introduction and Conclusion must be indicated with separate headings, and the main text must be structured with subheadings (and sub-subheadings if necessary).
All headings other than the main title must be formatted in Times New Roman, 12 pt.
Heading levels should be distinguished as follows:
Title: Bold, centered, first letter of each word capitalized
Subheading: Bold, italic, left-aligned, first letter of each word capitalized
Sub-subheading: Italic, left-aligned, first letter of each word capitalized

Abstract

The manuscript must include a Turkish abstract and an English abstract.
Each abstract must be 150–200 words.
Formatting: Times New Roman, 10 pt, single-spaced.

Keywords

The manuscript must include Turkish and English keywords.
Keywords must consist of 5 terms.
The first keyword should start with a capital letter; others should start with lowercase unless they are proper nouns. Keywords should be separated by commas and should not end with a period.

Extended Abstract

Research articles written in Turkish must also include an Extended Abstract in English of 600–900 words.
Formatting: Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing.
The extended abstract must clearly and coherently include the study’s aim, theoretical framework, method, contribution to the literature, and principal findings.

Main Text

Word count: 5,000–15,000 (excluding the abstract, extended abstract, and references; including footnotes, tables, figures, and appendices).
Due to double-blind peer review, the manuscript must not contain any statements revealing author identity or institutional affiliations.

References (APA 7)

All in-text citations and the reference list must be prepared in accordance with APA 7.
The author–date in-text citation system is used. Footnotes should be reserved only for essential explanatory notes.
Authors are expected to provide a DOI or a persistent URL where available, especially for online sources.
For sources published in non-Latin alphabets, bibliographic information should be provided via transliteration into the Latin alphabet and, where necessary, translation.

Figures and Tables

Figures must be submitted separately from the text file, with figure numbers indicated. Preferably, figures should be in TIFF (.tif/.tiff) format with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Compressed formats such as JPEG (.jpg/.jpeg) are accepted only in exceptional cases.
Figures embedded in the Microsoft Word file are not considered for evaluation. All figures should be uploaded via a cloud service (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneNote, WeTransfer, etc.) and shared together with a list of figures.
Figures containing text must be submitted in an editable format that can be modified during the editorial process. Such figures should be provided in their original editing format (e.g., Adobe Illustrator (.ai) or editable .EPS). The text on figures should also be provided as a separate plain-text file.
Figures must be cited in the text as “(Figure 1)”, “(Figure 2)”, etc., numbered consecutively starting from 1. Figure numbers and order must match these citations exactly.
When listing figure captions, place a colon (:) after the number and add a space. Only the first word should be capitalized; the rest should be in lowercase (publication titles retain their original capitalization).
Tables are also treated as visual material. However, all tables must additionally be submitted as an unformatted separate Microsoft Word file.
Unless strictly necessary, scanned images from books, journals, or other printed sources should not be submitted, as they may cause print-quality issues.
All visual materials constitute documentary evidence in terms of source attribution. For archival materials, include archive name and location; for images taken from other publications, provide full source information at the end of the caption. All such materials must also appear in the References.
Literary Studies reserves the right not to publish images that do not meet the above conditions, that have incomplete references, that do not comply with technical requirements, or that conflict with the journal’s design principles, provided that the author is informed.

In-Text Formatting and Style Details

Quotations

Use “double quotation marks” for quotations; use ‘single quotation marks’ for quotations within quotations.
Avoid “straight” quotes and inappropriate apostrophe characters; use typographically correct quotation marks (“ ”, ‘ ’).
Periods and commas at the end of quoted material should be placed inside quotation marks; colons and semicolons should be placed outside. A question mark should be inside quotation marks only if it belongs to the quoted sentence; otherwise, it should be placed outside.
Quotations of three lines or longer should not be placed in quotation marks; they should be formatted as indented block quotations in 10 pt, single-spaced, as a separate paragraph.
Leave one blank line before and after block quotations and align the block with a 1 cm indent from both left and right margins.
Any additions by the author must be placed in square brackets. Omissions must be indicated with an ellipsis [...]. (No need to use ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation.)
To indicate an interruption or parenthetical aside within a sentence, use an em dash (—, U+2014) without spaces.

Capitalization

For English titles and work titles, headline-style capitalization should generally be used.
For Turkish titles, TDK title capitalization rules should be applied.
For titles in other languages, follow the established rules of that language; in case of uncertainty, sentence-style capitalization (capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns) may be preferred.
Proper names such as institutions, offices, and states should be capitalized.
Titles (honorifics) are capitalized only when used with a person’s name.
Names of historical periods are not capitalized unless they contain a proper noun; established usage should be followed for literary and cultural movements.
Arabic prefixes (al-/el-) need not be capitalized at the beginning of a title; however, they should be capitalized if they occur at the beginning of a sentence, footnote, or bibliographic entry.

Dates

Use the European date format (day month year): “14 February 2025.”
Centuries should be written out in words (e.g., “the sixteenth century”).
Approximate dates may be given as “ca. 1800.”
BCE and CE abbreviations are preferred.
Birth and death dates may be given as “b. 1882 / d. 1776.”

Numbers

Numbers expressible in one or two words should be written out.
Use numerals for dates, percentages, units of measure, and specific document parts.
Use an en dash (–) for number ranges.
Use a period as the thousands separator and a comma as the decimal separator: 15.701.602; 15,7.
Avoid starting a sentence with numerals where possible.
Use the multiplication sign “×” for dimensions: 20 × 15 cm.

Plagiarism Screening, Ethical Principles, and the Use of Artificial Intelligence

Commitment to ethical principles in academic publishing is directly related to both the content and the production process of a manuscript. Literary Studies expects authors to act in line with academic integrity and transparency. The fundamental rules regarding plagiarism, ethical approvals, and AI use are presented below under separate headings.

Plagiarism Screening

All authors must upload a similarity report obtained from the final version of the manuscript in PDF (.pdf) format.
The preferred plagiarism screening tool is iThenticate.
Submissions with a similarity rate below 15% proceed to editorial pre-evaluation.
Submissions with a similarity rate between 15% and 25% may be returned to the author for major revision by editorial decision; authors are expected to resubmit with a new similarity report.
Submissions with a similarity rate above 25% are returned without entering editorial evaluation.
The report must show matched sources in detail and must be generated from the final version of the manuscript.
Before acceptance, the responsible editor may conduct a further plagiarism check based on the final revised version.

Ethical Responsibilities and Permissions for Reuse

Authors are responsible for all content presented in the manuscript.
Obtaining permissions for the reuse of previously published text, tables, figures, etc. is the author’s responsibility.
Quotations must be properly cited. Partial self-citation must also comply with ethical standards.

Use of AI Tools

Literary Studies accepts the use of AI tools only in a limited manner as part of the research and writing process, where relevant to the methodology.
Texts, analyses, or content generated using tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini cannot be credited as authors.
If authors used any AI-assisted process, the purpose, scope, and tool(s) used must be declared under Acknowledgements at the end of the manuscript. If no AI tool was used, this should also be clearly stated.
Authors bear full responsibility for AI-generated content. The editorial board may request further clarification where necessary.

Peer-Review Process, Revision Submission, and Scheduling

Research articles submitted to Literary Studies are evaluated according to the double-blind peer-review principle. This process is carried out in consideration of the manuscript’s academic quality, originality, methodological adequacy, contribution to the field, and suitability for the journal’s scope. Revisions may be requested based on reviewer reports. The revision stage is an integral part of the final acceptance process and is expected to be completed on time and with care. Manuscripts that successfully complete the review process and are deemed suitable for publication are scheduled for an issue in line with the journal’s publication planning. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on editor and reviewer reports and coordinates publication planning.

Evaluation Process

Initial Check: Submitted research articles are first reviewed by the responsible editors for formal compliance.
Scope and Quality Assessment: Manuscripts that pass the formal check are pre-evaluated by the section editor in terms of content quality and scope. Submissions are also reviewed by the editorial board in line with the journal’s publishing perspective and international visibility goals. For manuscripts that only partially align with the target readership, authors may be asked to revise the manuscript’s language or theoretical orientation; where necessary, the manuscript may be rejected at the pre-evaluation stage on this basis.
First Revision Request: The responsible editor may request formal revisions; the section editor may request content and scope-related revisions with justification. In such cases, authors should submit the revised manuscript within 7 days by replying in the “Pre-Evaluation Discussions” area and uploading the revised file via “Add File.” Revisions not submitted within this period may be processed as “withdrawn” and excluded from the publication process.
Desk Rejection Authority: The responsible editor may reject a manuscript before peer review due to formal reasons; the section editor may reject due to content quality or scope, with justification. Manuscripts rejected at pre-evaluation or after peer review may be reconsidered only if major structural revisions are made and approved by the editorial board; otherwise, resubmission may be permitted no earlier than six months later.
Peer Review: Manuscripts deemed suitable in form, content, and scope are sent to at least two expert reviewers under the double-blind peer-review principle. The manuscript is shared without the author’s name and with a manuscript tracking number.
Timeline: The peer-review process takes approximately 60 days. This period may be extended if revisions are requested.

Reviewer Recommendations and Decisions

If both reviewers recommend Accept, the manuscript is queued for publication.
If both reviewers recommend Reject, the manuscript is rejected.
If both reviewers recommend Accept with Minor Revisions, the manuscript is conditionally accepted after revisions are completed and approved by the editorial board.
If one or both reviewers recommend Major Revisions / Resubmission for Review, the manuscript is returned to the author. After resubmission, the manuscript may be re-evaluated by the same reviewer(s), or the editorial board may make the final decision.
In case of conflicting recommendations, a third reviewer may be appointed, or the editorial board may make the final decision.

Revision Submission

For manuscripts receiving a “Revision Required” decision, authors must submit revisions within the period specified according to the decision type:

Minor revisions: 7 days
Major revisions: 30 days

Revisions not submitted within the specified period may be processed as “withdrawn” and excluded from the publication process.
In justified cases, authors may request an extension via the system or by emailing the editorial office. Extension requests are evaluated by the editorial board and are accepted only in exceptional cases.

Follow these steps to submit revisions:

An email notification containing the editorial decision is sent to your registered email address. The email also includes a link to reviewer comments.
Log in to the submission tracking system using your username and password. On the review page of the manuscript requiring revision, you will see the “Upload File” option.
Upload the following files completely and correctly:

Track Changes version (showing all edits visibly)
Clean version (final revised manuscript)
Response Letter (explaining how each reviewer/editor comment was addressed)
Cover letter and additional documents if required

Use clear and descriptive file names (e.g., Manuscript_TrackChanges.docx, Manuscript_Clean.docx, Response_Letter.pdf).
After uploading all files, click “Continue” to complete the upload.

Scheduling for Publication

Literary Studies publishes a limited number of research articles in each issue.
Manuscripts that successfully complete peer review and are accepted are either published in the planned issue or queued for the next issue depending on capacity.
In such cases, authors are informed via the system and also by email that the manuscript has been accepted but will appear in the next issue.
This does not affect publication quality but may affect the publication date.

Copyright and License

Each submission indicates that the work has not been published elsewhere, is not currently under review elsewhere, and has been approved for publication in Literary Studies by all authors.
Literary Studies is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY -NC 4.0). Under this license:

Anyone with internet access may freely read the articles.
Provided appropriate attribution is given to the original authors, the work may be reproduced, shared, adapted, and redistributed.

No fees are paid to authors for published articles.
Copyright remains with the authors. Under CC BY -NC 4.0, third parties may use the work in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.

Publication Fees

Literary Studies is a fully open-access journal.
No fees are charged for submission, editorial evaluation, peer review, or publication.
No payment is requested from authors for technical processes such as peer review management or DOI assignment.

Contact and Support

For technical problems or system issues
If you experience technical problems such as uploading files, file formats, logging in or out of the system, please email: literarystudiesinfo@gmail.com

Copyright Arrangement (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License)

While authors retain all publication rights to the works they submit for publication in Literary Studies, they agree to share their works under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY -NC 4.0). Under this license, others may share, reproduce, distribute, and reuse the work provided appropriate attribution is given. However, the author’s name, the title of the work, and the name of the journal must be clearly indicated in every use. Literary Studies allows authors to retain their copyrights and holds only the right of first publication.

Privacy Statement

Literary Studies values user privacy. This privacy statement explains the principles regarding the collection, storage, and use of personal information of users registered in the journal system (authors, reviewers, readers, and editors).

The name, surname, email address, and institutional information provided by users are used only for scholarly communication and journal operations.
This information is not shared with third parties under any circumstances, is not used for commercial purposes, and is not transferred to other databases.
Registered users may choose whether to receive system notification emails.
Upon request, users may delete their accounts and have all personal information stored in the system removed.