Focus and Scope

Per Linguam is a peer-reviewed and accredited academic journal published by the University of Stellenbosch and managed by the Department of Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education.

The journal focuses on topics related to language learning and applied linguistics, as well as issues related to multilingualism and educational psychology. Per Linguam welcomes previously unpublished articles on topics of interest to teachers, researchers, academics, language practitioners or anyone involved in applied language studies.

Per Linguam accepts articles that are data-driven, using qualitative and quantitative analytical tools. We will also consider conceptual articles if they are based on the analysis of documents (like curricula, policies, etc). Literature surveys or purely argumentative articles will not be considered.

Peer Review Process

All accepted submissions are double blind peer reviewed.

Reviewers perform a valuable service to the academic community. 

We value the contributions made by reviewers in the peer-review process that assist us in achieving our goal of publishing high-quality content in a timeous fashion. 

Research Articles and Review Articles are subject to peer review. Manuscripts first undergo an assessment by the editors for compliance and suitability. If a manuscript is deemed suitable for peer review, potential reviewers are invited by the editor or associate editor. Potential reviewers are first sent an invitation to review which includes the abstract of the manuscript and the Guidelines to Reviewers. Only once an invitation to review is accepted, is access to the manuscript provided, via a link in the confirmation email.

A reviewer’s approach should be collegial, both in purpose and tone. Reviewers should focus their comments, whether positive or negative, on the content of a manuscript and not on the authors.

Reviewers should have expertise in the topic addressed in the manuscript. We ask reviewers to provide the editors with an expert opinion on the quality and suitability of the manuscript and to provide feedback (with track changes in the review version of the article, if possible) to the authors that will help them improve their work, which is the ultimate goal of the peer-review process.

Reviewers should not shy away from identifying weaknesses, but should not be unduly critical. Criticism must be constructive and given with the intent of improving the manuscript for publication.

Reviewers should not restrict comments to negative or weak aspects of the manuscript – strong and positive features should also be indicated.

Open Access Policy

Per Linguam provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Per Linguam is an Open Access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of Open Access.

Digital Preservation

Per Linguam. This journal is in the process of migrating from the Stellenbosch University preservation platform to the PKP PN (Preservation Network) platform.

ORCID iD

This journal programme cannot read the ORCID iD.  Please do not add it when you register or when submitting a paper. However, after registration, you can edit your profile and then insert the ORCID iD, or please send your ORCiD ID, along with the name of the journal to, scholar@sun.ac.za to add to your profile.

Stellenbosch University researchers/authors can create an ORCID iD here.

ORCID iD is a persistent, unique, numeric identifier for individual researchers and creators. It distinguishes you from researchers and creators with the same or similar names.  ORCID iD is similar to ResearcherID, Scopus Author ID, ISNI and other systems for identifying and distinguishing researchers and creators.

Code of Conduct

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

1. Publication and authorship:

• Authors must list all references used in/for the article
• Authors must acknowledge financial support received and from which organization or firm
• Authors acknowledge that the article/s is their own original work and that no other author’s work has been used without referencing or in a manner which constitutes plagiarism.
• Authors acknowledge that their data is real and verifiable and that no fraudulent data is used
• Authors may not submit an article that has been published in another journal; nor may they submit to other journals when published in Per Linguam. Articles must be published exclusively in Per Linguam.

2. Author's responsibilities:

• Authors are obliged to participate in the review process and refusal to do so may result in articles not being published or retracted
• Only people who contributed significantly to the research and/or article can be listed as ‘author’. People who contributed in a lesser role must be acknowledged as ‘contributor’
• Authors must provide retractions or corrections of any mistakes found by the reviewers

3. Peer review / responsibility of reviewers:

• Judgments will be objective
• Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funders of the research
• Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited
• Reviewers will treat reviewed articles as confidential

4. Editorial responsibilities:

• The editor-in-chief has complete authority to reject or accept articles
• Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept
• The editor/s will only accept a paper when reasonably certain that all conditions have been met by the author/s
• The editor will promote the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found in published work
• The editor will preserve the anonymity of the reviewers

5. Publishing ethics issues

• The editorial board will monitor and safeguard the publishing ethics of the journal
• The guidelines for retracting articles are as follows:
• Articles that are seriously flawed and unreliable will be retracted. Redundant articles (published in other journals prior to Per Linguam) will be retracted. Change of authorship or minor errors will not lead to retraction but to the correction of the error(s) online.
• Notices of retraction will clearly state the reason and the retracted article will be clearly marked in all electronic versions of the journal.
• The journal will not compromise intellectual or ethical standards in favour of the business needs of the journal
• The editorial board will maintain the integrity of the academic record of the journal
• The editorial board will always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed. When an error is brought to our attention, it will be corrected and a new version of the article will be uploaded. An announcement about the correction will also be published.
• No plagiarism and no fraudulent data will be tolerated in the journal

Page Fees

Page fees are R250 per page. The average length of articles in printed issues varies between 15 to 20 pages (approximately 7000 words). Please study the style sheet.

This journal do not charge submission fees.