Conflict of Interest

The Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics is committed to transparent, impartial, and independent scholarly publishing. Authors, reviewers, editors, and others involved in the publication process must disclose interests or relationships that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their professional judgment.

The existence of a competing interest does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing or prevent publication. Disclosure enables the journal to assess the circumstances and take appropriate measures to protect the integrity of the research and editorial process.

Authors’ Responsibilities

All authors must disclose relevant competing interests at submission and update their declarations if circumstances change during review or publication. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the relevant information from all co-authors and ensuring that the manuscript includes an accurate Conflict of Interest statement.

Authors must also identify all sources of research funding and describe any involvement of funders or sponsors in research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the work. Funding should be acknowledged even when the authors consider that it creates no competing interest.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Reviewers must disclose potential competing interests before accepting an invitation to review. Relevant circumstances include close personal relationships, current or recent collaboration, shared institutional affiliation, supervisory relationships, direct academic competition, or a financial interest in the work.

Reviewers should decline an invitation when these circumstances could compromise their impartiality. If a potential conflict becomes apparent after a review has begun, the reviewer must promptly notify the handling editor and suspend the review until further guidance is provided.

Information obtained through peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal, professional, or commercial advantage.

Editors’ Responsibilities

Editors must disclose relevant competing interests and withdraw from handling manuscripts when their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Such submissions will be assigned to an editor without a relevant conflict.

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or journal staff will undergo independent editorial handling and the journal’s regular peer-review procedures. Individuals who are authors of a submission must not select its reviewers, access confidential review deliberations, or participate in the publication decision.

If the Editor-in-Chief has a competing interest, responsibility will be delegated to an appropriate independent editor. Relevant editorial relationships and arrangements for independent handling will be disclosed in the published article where appropriate.

Editorial Independence

Publication decisions must be based on scholarly merit, methodological quality, relevance, and compliance with the journal’s policies. Financial support, institutional relationships, sponsorship, or any applicable publication fees must not determine acceptance or interfere with editorial judgment.

The publisher and editorial team must disclose and appropriately manage organisational or commercial interests that could affect the journal’s editorial independence.

Assessment and Management

The journal will assess disclosed interests according to their nature, relevance, and potential effect on the research or its evaluation. Appropriate measures may include obtaining further information, replacing a reviewer, assigning an independent editor, seeking additional expert assessment, or publishing a disclosure statement.

Declarations will be handled with appropriate confidentiality during editorial assessment, while information necessary for readers to evaluate the published work will be made publicly available.

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

Anyone who becomes aware of a potentially undisclosed conflict may contact the Editor-in-Chief through the contact details provided on the journal’s website. Reports should identify the relevant manuscript or article and provide supporting information.

The journal will assess the concern and give the individuals involved an opportunity to respond. If a relevant interest was omitted from a published article, a correction may be issued. Where evidence indicates that an undisclosed conflict seriously compromised the reliability or integrity of the work, further action may be taken under the journal’s Correction and Retraction policy.

An omitted declaration does not automatically warrant retraction. Editorial action will depend on the evidence and its implications for the scholarly record.