Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Pre-Submission Checklist

Please review the following points:

Overview of Manuscript Submission

Publication Types

All experimental details must be provided to ensure the reproducibility of the results. Literary Studies requires authors to publish all experimental control groups and to make comprehensive data sets available whenever possible.

Manuscripts submitted to Literary Studies should not have been previously published elsewhere, nor should they be under consideration for publication in another journal. The main article types are listed below, and a comprehensive list of article types can be found at [link to article types]. Please note that not all article types are available for all disciplines.

Research Article: These are articles that contain original research findings. The study should report scientifically sound experiments and provide a substantial amount of new information. The article should include the most up-to-date and relevant references in the field. The structure of the article should include Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions (optional) sections.

Review: Reviews offer a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature within a specific field of study, identifying current gaps or problems. They should be written with a critical and constructive approach and provide recommendations for future research. New, unpublished data should not be presented. The structure of a review may include Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Relevant Sections, Discussion, Conclusions, and Future Research Directions sections.

Scoping Review: Articles in the form of a Scoping Review can be submitted as a Review. The structure is similar to that of a review article. Scoping reviews must strictly follow the PRISMA checklist for scoping reviews (https://www.prisma-statement.org/scoping) and submit this checklist as unpublished material during the submission process. Flowchart templates can be downloaded from the PRISMA website, and the diagram should be included in the main text. Authors are strongly encouraged to register their detailed protocols in a publicly accessible registry system, such as the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/) or Inplasy (https://inplasy.com/), before starting the data extraction process. Authors should include a statement in the Methods section about compliance with PRISMA guidelines and registration information (if available).

Submission Process

Manuscripts for Literary Studies should be submitted online at https://litstud.com/index.jsp. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors are included in the author list and that each author has read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. After completing your registration, click on https://litstud.com/dergi.jsp?modul=yeni_makale to go to the Literary Studies submission form. All co-authors can view the manuscript details in the submission system if they register and log in using the email address provided during the manuscript submission.

Accepted File Formats

Authors are encouraged to use the Microsoft Word template to prepare their manuscripts. Using the template file will significantly expedite the copyediting and publication processes of accepted manuscripts. The total data size for all files must not exceed 120 MB. If this presents a problem, please contact the Editorial Office at literarystudiesinfo@gmail.com. The accepted file formats are as follows:

  • Microsoft Word: Manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word should be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word, we recommend using the Literary Studies Microsoft Word template file. Please insert your graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into the main text after the paragraph where they are first cited. All text and metadata identifying the authors should be removed before submission.

  • Supplementary files: These can be in any format, but it is recommended to use common, non-proprietary formats whenever possible.

Disclaimer: The use of these templates is solely intended for submission to the journal for peer review and is strictly limited to this purpose; they cannot be used for online posting on preprint servers or other websites.

Free Format Submission

Literary Studies also accepts free format submissions:

  • We do not have strict formatting requirements. However, all manuscripts must contain the following mandatory sections: Author Information, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions, Figures and Tables with Captions, Funding Information, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, and other Ethics Statements. For further details, please review the Instructions for Authors.

  • Your references can be in any style, as long as you maintain a consistent format throughout the text. It is essential to include the author(s)' name(s), journal or book title, article or chapter title (where required), year of publication, volume and issue (where applicable), and page numbers. DOI numbers (Digital Object Identifier) are not mandatory, but highly encouraged. The use of bibliographic management software such as EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, Reference Manager is recommended.

  • When your manuscript reaches the revision stage, you will be asked to format your manuscript according to the journal's guidelines.

Author Information

Authors are encouraged to add a biography (300-1500 characters) to their submission. This should be a single paragraph and include the following information:

  • Authors' full names and current positions;

  • Educational background, including institution information and year of graduation (type and level of degree received);

  • Work experience;

  • Current and past research interests;

  • Memberships in professional organizations and awards received.

If a manuscript is accepted for publication, an icon linking to your online ORCID profile will be added to the final version of the published article.

Author Affiliation

All authors should list their current affiliation and the institution where the majority of the research for the manuscript was conducted. We recommend adding the institution where the majority of the research was conducted or supported as the primary affiliation. However, please consult with your institution regarding any contractual obligations.

It is crucial that author names and affiliation details are accurate. Incorrect information can lead to incomplete or incorrect citations and may even cause problems related to promotion or funding. After the publication of an article, updates or corrections to the author's address or affiliation may not be permitted.

Independent Researcher

If one or more of the authors are not currently affiliated with any university, institution, or company, or were not affiliated during the development of the manuscript, they should list themselves as "Independent Researcher".

Manuscript Preparation

General Considerations

Research articles should consist of the following sections:

  • Front Matter: Title, Author List, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords.

  • Research Article Sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions (optional).

  • Back Matter: Supplementary Materials, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References.

Review articles should consist of the following sections:

  • Front Matter: Title, Author List, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords.

  • Review Sections: A literature review logically organized under specific headings and subheadings (optional).

  • Back Matter: Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References.

The template file can also be used to prepare the front and back matter of your review manuscript. It is not mandatory to follow the remaining structure.

Structured reviews and meta-analyses should use the same structure as research articles and must adhere to the PRISMA guidelines.

Graphical Abstract:

A graphical abstract (GA) is an image that appears alongside the text abstract in the Table of Contents. In addition to summarizing the content, it should represent the topic of the article in an attention-grabbing way. Also, it should not be identical to a figure in the article or simply a superposition of several subfigures. The GA must be original and unpublished artwork. Postage stamps, currency from any country, or trademarked items should not be included in the image.

The GA should be a high-quality illustration or diagram in any of the following formats: PNG, JPEG, or TIFF. Text in a GA should be clear and easy to read, using one of the following fonts: Times, Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Ubuntu, or Calibri.

The minimum size for the GA is 560 × 1100 pixels (height × width). The size should be of high quality for proper reproduction.

Abbreviations/Acronyms/Initialisms should be defined when they first appear in each of the three sections: abstract; main text; first figure or table. When defined for the first time, the abbreviation/acronym/initialism should be placed in parentheses after the full expression.
International System of Units (SI) units should be used. Whenever possible, imperial, US customary, and other units should be converted to SI units.
Equations: If you are using Word, please use the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should be editable by the editorial office and not in image format.
Research Data and Supplementary Materials: Note that the publication of your manuscript implies an obligation to make all materials, data, and protocols related to the publication available to readers. Disclose any restrictions on the availability of materials or information during the submission stage.
Pre-registration: When authors have pre-registered their studies or analysis plans, links to the pre-registration should be provided in the manuscript.

Front Matter

These sections should appear in all manuscript types.

Title: The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific, and relevant to the topic. It should indicate whether the study reports trial data (human or animal) or is a systematic review, meta-analysis, or replication study. Please do not include abbreviated or short forms of the title in the title itself. These will be removed by our Editorial Office.
Author List and Affiliations: The full names of the authors must be provided. Initials of middle names (if any) can be added. The PubMed/MEDLINE standard format is used for affiliations: full address information, including city, postal code, state/province, and country. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author. The email addresses of all authors will be displayed in the published articles. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to obtain consent from all authors for the display of email addresses. If an author (other than the corresponding author) does not wish to have their email address displayed in this manner, the corresponding author should indicate this during the proofreading stage. After acceptance, updates to author names or affiliations may not be permitted. Equal Contributions: Authors with equal contributions should be marked with a superscript symbol (+). This symbol should be placed below the affiliation information, and the following statement should be included: "These authors contributed equally to this work." The equal roles of the authors should also be adequately explained in the author contributions statement. Please carefully review the criteria for authorship.
Abstract: The abstract should be a maximum of 200 words. The abstract should consist of a single paragraph and follow the structured abstract format, but without headings: 1) Background: Place the addressed issue within a broad context and highlight the aim of the study; 2) Methods: Briefly describe the main methods or treatments used. Include relevant pre-registration numbers and the species and strains of any animals used; 3) Results: Summarize the main findings of the article; and 4) Conclusion: State the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article: it should not contain results that are not presented and substantiated in the main text, nor should it exaggerate the main conclusions.
Keywords: Five to ten relevant keywords should be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords be specific to the article but reasonably common within the subject area.

Research Article Sections

Introduction: The introduction should place the study within a broad context and highlight its importance. It should define the aim and significance of the study, including the specific hypotheses being tested. The current state of the research field should be carefully reviewed, and important publications should be cited. Please highlight controversial and differing hypotheses when necessary. Finally, briefly mention the main objective of the study and highlight the main conclusions. Keep the introduction understandable to scientists working outside the specific topic of the article.
Materials and Methods: This section should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate the published results and build upon them. New methods and protocols should be described in detail, while established methods can be briefly explained and appropriately cited. State the name and version of any software used and clearly indicate whether the computer code used is available. Include pre-registration codes.
Results: Provide a concise and accurate description of the experimental results, their interpretations, and the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.
Discussion: Authors should discuss the findings and how they can be interpreted in light of previous studies and the working hypotheses. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest possible context, and the limitations of the study should be highlighted. Future research directions may also be mentioned. This section can be combined with the Results section.
Conclusions: This section is not mandatory, but it can be added to the article if the discussion section is unusually long or complex.
Patents: This section is not mandatory but may be added if there are patents resulting from the work reported in this manuscript.

Back Matter

Supplementary Materials: Describe any supplementary materials (figures, tables, videos, spreadsheets, etc.) published online alongside the article. Please indicate the name and title of each item as follows: Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.
Author Contributions: Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it; AND has approved the submitted version (and version substantially edited by journal staff that involves the author’s contribution to the study); AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.
For research articles with multiple authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided. The following statements should be used: "Conceptualization, X.X. and Y.Y.; Methodology, X.X.; Software, X.X.; Validation, X.X., Y.Y. and Z.Z.; Formal Analysis, X.X.; Investigation, X.X.; Resources, X.X.; Data Curation, X.X.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, X.X.; Writing – Review & Editing, X.X.; Visualization, X.X.; Supervision, X.X.; Project Administration, X.X.; Funding Acquisition, Y.Y.". Authorship must include and be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work. Please carefully read the section concerning the criteria to qualify for authorship.
Funding: All funding sources for the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate any grants you have received to support your research and whether you have received funds to cover publication costs. Note that some funders will not refund article processing charges (APC) if the funder and grant number are not clearly and correctly identified in the article. Funding information can be entered separately into the submission system by the authors during the submission of their manuscript.
Please add the following to this section: “This research received no external funding” or “This research was funded by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]” and “The APC was funded by [XXX]”. Carefully check that the details provided are accurate and use the standard spelling of funding agency names at https://search.crossref.org/funding. Any errors may affect your future funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: In this section, please add the Institutional Review Board Statement and approval number for studies involving humans or animals. Please note that the Editorial Office may request further information from you. Please add “The study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of NAME OF INSTITUTE (protocol code XXX and date of approval).” OR “Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to REASON (please provide a detailed justification).” OR “Not applicable” for studies not involving humans or animals. You may also choose to exclude this statement if the study did not involve humans or animals.
Informed Consent Statement: Any research article describing a study involving humans should contain this statement. Please add “Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.” OR “Patient consent was waived due to REASON (please provide a detailed justification).” OR “Not applicable” for studies not involving humans. You may also choose to exclude this statement if the study did not involve humans.
Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). If applicable, please state “Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper”.
Data Availability Statement: In this section, please provide details regarding where data supporting reported results can be found, including links to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study. You may choose to exclude this statement if the study did not report any data.
Acknowledgments: In this section, you can acknowledge any support received that is not covered by the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).
Conflicts of Interest: Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as influencing the presentation or interpretation of the reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Any role of the funding sponsors in the design of the study; in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. If there is no role, please state “The funding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results”.
References: A reference list is always arranged alphabetically. All sources are listed by the last names of the authors and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, ReferenceManager, or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references. We encourage citations to data, computer code, and other citable research material. If available online, you may use reference style 8. below.
Citations and References in Supplementary files are permitted provided that they also appear in the main text and in the reference list.
All references mentioned in the text should be cited in the “Author-Date” format, for example (Woodward 1987), (Schuman and Scott 1987). An author-date citation in running text or at the end of a block quotation consists of the last (family) name of the author, followed by the year of publication of the work in question. In this context, the author may refer not only to one or more authors or an institution but also to one or more editors, translators, or compilers. No punctuation appears between the author and date. Abbreviations such as ed. or trans. are omitted.
The Reference list should include the full title as recommended by the APA style guide. See: APA style

Preparing Figures, Schemes, and Tables

Literary Studies can publish multimedia files in articles or as supplementary materials. Please contact the Editorial Office for further information.

Our guidelines regarding various aspects of figures, schemes, and tables are described below.

Resolution, Color, and Format:

  • Files for Figures and Schemes must be provided during submission in a single zip archive and at a sufficiently high resolution (preferably no less than 600 dpi) in PNG, JPEG, or TIFF formats.

  • Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color (8-bit RGB per channel). There is no additional cost for publishing full-color graphics.

  • Images should be combined to avoid any issues during formatting changes. There should be no editable parts in the images.

  • All table columns should have an explanatory heading. To facilitate the copyediting of larger tables, smaller fonts (no smaller than 8 pt.) may be used. Authors should use the “Table” option in Microsoft Word to create tables.

Order:

  • All figures, schemes, and tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and numbered according to their order of appearance (e.g., Figure 1, Scheme 1, Figure 2, Scheme 2, Table 1, etc.).

Content:

  • Generally, figures should contain only English text and the correct mathematical symbols, e.g., - instead of — and decimal points instead of commas.

  • Figure content should be complete, and characters should not be masked. Unnecessary marks such as red wavy lines and hard (soft) returns are not allowed.

  • A comma should be added to numbers of five or more digits in all figures, schemes, and tables. Scientific notation should be correct.

  • All figures, schemes, and tables should have a short explanatory title and caption. Any special characters or icons in an image, e.g., *, **, and #, need to have a corresponding explanation in the caption.

Copyright:

  • Reprinted/adapted figures or tables may have copyright issues. Whether copyright permission is required and should be obtained will need to be determined. If necessary, please add the corresponding copyright-related content in the caption (please refer to Intellectual Property, i.e., Copyright, Patent, and Licensing).

Literary Studies’ Commitments to Authors and Readers:

  • To publish rigorously peer-reviewed manuscripts of high scholarly impact

  • To ensure rapid publication—manuscripts are published within 5-7 weeks of submission (provided no major revisions are required)

  • To publish fully open-access journals—readers can access all content published on this platform for free

  • To publish citation-tracked journals—Literary Studies continuously works towards the rapid coverage and citation tracking of all its journals in the top databases and various other databases.

Benefits of Open Access for Authors and Readers:

Read the full open access information here.

  • Free availability of the literature without any subscription or price barriers

  • Immediate access once an article is published (no embargo period)

  • Authors retain all copyrights—authors will not be forced to sign any copyright transfer agreements

  • Permission to reuse the published material if proper accreditation is given (Creative Commons Attribution License).

Extensive English Editing

It is the authors’ responsibility to submit their work in grammatically correct English. If extensive editing is required, your article may be returned to you during the English editing stage of the publication process. This may delay the publication of your work.

General Peer Review and Editorial Procedure

All manuscripts submitted for publication in our journals undergo a rigorous and comprehensive peer-review process conducted by experts (this includes research and review articles, spontaneous submissions, and invited papers). The Managing Editor of the journal will perform a technical pre-check of the manuscript's suitability. The academic editor will be informed of the submission and invited to perform an editorial pre-check. The Editorial Office will then organize the peer-review process, which is carried out by independent experts, and will collect at least two review reports per manuscript. To maintain transparency and keep authors informed about the progress of the peer review, a preliminary version of the review reports collected during the peer-review process is made accessible to the authors. Authors can see the content and the number of review reports collected in real-time. Since these review reports have not been checked by an academic editor, it is recommended that authors refrain from making any revisions until the full editorial evaluation has been completed and an official notification has been received from the Editorial Office. We request that authors make sufficient revisions (with a second round of peer review if necessary) before a final decision is made. The final decision is made by the academic editor (usually the Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Board Member of a journal or the Guest Editor of a Special Issue). Accepted articles are copyedited and undergo English language editing.

Editorial Decision and Revision

All articles, reviews, and correspondence published in Literary Studies undergo a peer-review process and receive at least two review reports. The in-house editor will discuss each step of the process with the external academic editor and communicate decisions to the authors regarding the following:

  • Accept in Present Form: The article is accepted without any further changes.

  • Accept after Minor Revisions: The article is, in principle, accepted after revisions based on the reviewers’ comments. Authors are given five days to make minor revisions.

  • Reconsider after Major Revisions: The acceptance of a resubmitted manuscript depends on the revisions. Authors need to provide a point-by-point response or a rebuttal if some of the reviewers’ comments cannot be revised. Normally, a maximum of two rounds of major revisions is allowed per manuscript. Authors will be asked to resubmit the revised manuscript within ten days, and the revised version will be sent back to the reviewers for further comments. For manuscripts that require more than two months for revisions, we recommend that authors withdraw their manuscript while they prepare the resubmission to avoid unnecessary time pressure on revisions. Revised manuscripts will be assigned a new manuscript ID and linked to the original submission in our submission system. Following resubmission, the editorial process will continue as normal. To ensure an efficient and effective peer-review process, the same reviewers will be invited to review the resubmitted manuscript.

  • Reject and Encourage Resubmission: Articles where additional experiments are needed to support the conclusions will be rejected, and for manuscripts that require extensive revisions, when the manuscript status is “Reject and Encourage Resubmission,” authors may choose to resubmit their manuscript to the same journal at their own time upon completion of comprehensive revisions. Revised manuscripts submitted to the same journal will be assigned a new manuscript ID and linked to the original submission in our submission system. Following resubmission, the editorial process will continue as normal. To ensure an efficient and effective peer-review process, the same reviewers will be invited to review the resubmitted manuscript.

  • Reject: Articles containing serious errors and making no original contribution will be rejected without an offer of resubmission to the journal.

Digital Preservation of Literary Studies Content

To ensure the permanence of our publications, all content published in Literary Studies is permanently archived in the following databases:

For record-keeping purposes, Literary Studies retains copies of submitted manuscripts and supporting files.