Reference Handling Policy

The Journal of Linguistic Issues attaches particular importance to the accuracy of handling references as a core element in ensuring scientific integrity and enhancing the reliability of research. References are not mere formal additions; they provide the intellectual context of research, connect it with prior work, and enable it to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Accordingly, this policy aims to establish a clear normative framework to guide authors, reviewers, and the editorial board toward precise and fair practices in selecting and documenting references, in line with international publishing standards.

This document is based on international best practices, including:

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on citation manipulation, definitions of unacceptable behaviours, and corrective actions.
Crossref recommendations for best practices in references and linking (requirement/priority of DOI, and deposition of data and software citations).
FORCE11 principles for data citation (treating data as a citable entity with persistent identifiers and machine-actionable metadata).
I4OC initiative for making citation data openly available to enhance transparency and discoverability.

1. Purpose and Scope

This policy establishes the normative rules for selecting, documenting, and reviewing references in all materials published in the Journal of Linguistic Issues. It applies to authors, reviewers, the editorial board, and the publisher.

2. General Principles

Integrity and Accuracy: Only references actually consulted should be listed, presented precisely and verifiably.
Relevance and Necessity: Cite works directly related to the research topic and methodology; exclude excessive or merely formal citations.
Balance and Fair Representation: Represent main research trends, core sources, and recent developments without bias toward any person, institution, or journal.
Linking and Machine-Readability: Provide persistent identifiers, especially DOIs where possible, to support linking and indexing.
Open Citations: The journal encourages making bibliographic data and citations openly available to serve the research community.

3. Responsibilities

Authors: Responsible for the accuracy of each bibliographic entry, inclusion of DOI/ISBN/URL, stylistic consistency, and ensuring that all works cited in the text appear in the reference list.
Reviewers: Ensure recency, relevance, and balance of references; identify gaps, citation bias, or exaggeration.
Editorial Board: Conduct systematic checks to detect citation manipulation, reformat references when needed, and require authors to correct them before acceptance.

4. Criteria for Selecting References

Recency: In dynamic fields (computational linguistics, natural language processing…), preference for sources from the last five years, without neglecting foundational works.
Priority to Primary Sources: Original works take precedence over secondary sources when available.
Diversity of Sources: Peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, research data, research software, documented theses.
Accessibility: Preference for open-access sources or those providing metadata and permanent links.

5. Unacceptable Practices

Citation Manipulation: Imposing or suggesting irrelevant references to increase citation counts, or clustering citations to favour a party. Editorial measures will be taken when suspected.
Unjustified Self-Citation: Excessive self-citation. As a guideline, self-citations should not exceed 20% of total references in a research article, unless dictated by the narrowness of the field or a serial project.
Citing Unreliable Sources: Non-scholarly works may not be cited to support scientific claims, except descriptively (e.g., to illustrate material or specific sociolinguistic/linguistic context) with clarification.

6. Referencing Style

The journal adopts the author–year system (APA) with minor adaptations for Arabic.
In-text: (Surname, Year, page). Example: (Ibn Jinni, 1999, p. 45); (Chomsky, 2000, pp. 12–13).
Reference List: Alphabetical by surname in Latin; Arabic names are given in Arabic with transliteration (if needed) in brackets.
DOI: Written in the form https://doi.org/xxxxx where available.

7. Sample References (Brief)

Book in Arabic:
Ibn Jinni. (1999). Al-Khasa’is. Edited… Beirut: ….
Book in English:
Chomsky, N. (2000). New horizons in the study of language and mind. Cambridge: CUP. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx
Journal Article:
Labov, W. (2010). Principles of linguistic change… Language, 86(4), 713–758. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx
Book Chapter:
Benmamoun, E. (2014). Agreement in Arabic… In J. Eid (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics (pp. 25–49). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Conference Paper:
Habash, N., & Rambow, O. (2005). MAGEAD… Proceedings of ACL (pp. 17–24).
Thesis:
Al-Owaisi, S. (2021). Tense in Arabic (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of ….
Website:
Jordan Academy of Arabic. (2023). Terminology database… Retrieved May 12, 2024, from https://…
Software:
Bird, S., Loper, E., & Klein, E. (2009). Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) [Software]. https://www.nltk.org
Dataset:
Boujelbane, M. (2022). Arabic Morphology Corpus [Data set]. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/zenodo.xxxxx

Note: Use (n.d.) when date is missing; (n.p.) when publisher is missing.

8. Language and Transliteration

Arabic references should be written in Arabic first, with optional Latin transliteration (ALA-LC or DIN 31635).
Titles of Arabic works may be translated into English (informative translation) for international indexing.

9. Documentation of Data and Software

Data and software must be cited as scholarly outputs when they underpin results.
Must include: author/institution, year/version, title, type [Data set/Software], repository/platform, persistent identifier (DOI/Handle), and version number.

10. Persistent Identifiers

DOI is mandatory where available, as are ISBN/ISSN and ORCID identifiers when mentioned.
For web sources, include access date and preferably an archived link.

11. Consistency between In-text Citations and Reference List

Every work cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and vice versa. Manuscripts with inconsistencies will be rejected unless corrected.

12. Technical Verification of References

Tools for DOI detection and reference matching should be used (Crossref/Datacite/Google Scholar/Zotero).
The editorial board standardizes punctuation, capitalization, and formatting.

13. Self-Citation Ratios and Internal References

The editorial board reviews self-citation ratios and adjusts when necessary.
Reviewers must not suggest citing their own work or the journal’s work except with scientific justification.

14. Journal-specific Practices

Authors are encouraged to provide BibTeX or RIS files of references.
Upon acceptance, the journal ensures reference linking via indexing platforms and open citation availability.

15. Measures in Case of Violation

Before publication: Reformatting, replacing irrelevant references, completing persistent identifiers.
After publication: Publishing corrections, addenda, or retraction in case of systematic manipulation.