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About JoSTrans

Aims and scope

In today's academic and professional environment, the growth of specialised translation has resulted in the development of a significant area in Translation Studies. JoSTrans aims to create a forum for translators and researchers in specialised translation, to disseminate information, exchange ideas and to provide a dedicated publication outlet for research in specialised, non-literary translation.

This international journal is indexed with the main abstract and citation databases of peer-reviewed literature, including the MLA International Bibliography (listed in the Directory of Periodicals), Translation Studies Bibliography, SCOPUS, and ERIH PLUS. Since 2016, it has also been indexed and abstracted by Clarivate (formerly Thomson & Reuters) in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents/Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences Citation Index, Journal Citation Reports/ Social Sciences Edition, Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences. JoSTrans is double-blind peer-reviewed. It is web-based to allow maximum flexibility and access. We accept contributions in a range of languages, including minority languages, to provide a publishing opportunity for researchers of all nationalities. English abstracts are provided for all articles.

The journal offers a mixture of thematic and open issues, covering the following areas:

  • Features of specialised language
  • General and practical issues in translation and interpreting
  • Subject field translation issues, i.e. medical, legal, financial, multi-media, localisation, etc
  • Theoretical issues in specialised translation
  • Aspects of training and teaching specialised translation
  • Revision and post-editing.

We are particularly interested in providing a space where cultural aspects of specialised translation can be discussed and we encourage a comparative approach across languages, subject fields and methodologies. We also welcome contributions from related disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy and cultural studies which touch on issues of specialised translation.

We favour diversity in theoretical frameworks and are interested in innovative approaches in an emerging discipline where immediacy is a key feature. We welcome comments and are interested in dialogue between contributors, editors and readers.

Publication ethics and malpractice statement

The journal’s policies are based on the guidelines published by COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics.

The journal is published with the assistance of the Editor’s University and partially funded through grants from various European Research Centres.

Copyrights

By submitting manuscripts for publication, authors acknowledge that their article is not published anywhere else and assign their copyrights to © JoSTrans, The Journal of Specialised Translation. Authors are also responsible for obtaining permission to use copyright material from other sources, where necessary.

The content of the JoSTrans website can be accessed, downloaded and/or printed for personal non-commercial use. Authors may use their text elsewhere after publication provided that JoSTrans is acknowledged as the original source of publication.

JoSTrans’s outputs are therefore licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license which allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the original source is appropriately credited.

Plagiarism and data accuracy

The JoSTrans editorial team checks articles against plagiarism using plagiarism detection software. Where an article is found to have copied previous work, plagiarised other work or fails to acknowledge existing material the article is barred from publication. The editorial team also cross-checks data for accuracy and authenticity.

Editors’ responsibilities

The editorial board considers and reviews the journals policies, standards and publication mechanisms as well as editorial decisions for each journal issue. Members of the board discuss ethical issues and contentious publication matters, such as cases of plagiarism or potential retraction of articles, for future and published issues. The editorial board comprises the general editor, deputy editors, language editors, a managing editor, a review editor and a peer-review manager. They work in collaboration with the web publishing and technical team and with a promotion manager who disseminates information regarding new issues. All editors and the peer-review manager are committed to treating authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty and transparency. They are bound to protect authors’ confidentiality and commit to declare any conflict of interest. They also aim to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies as required.

The general editor has the ultimate responsibility for the editorial process and the provision of clear guidelines regarding manuscript submission and authorship criteria. The general editor has final authority regarding editorial decisions, including accepting or rejecting an article.

The managing editor is the author’s first point of contact, informs the author of the decision-making process regarding their submission and initiates the peer-review system.

The peer-review manager ensures that an effective system is in place for sending articles for evaluation and communicating with authors on the evaluation schedule. The peer-review manager protects authors’ confidentiality, the anonymity of reviewers, keeps track of all submissions and peer-review reports, collaborates with editors in order to select appropriate referees, and ensures that reports are received and sent to authors with reasonable speed.

Deputy editors take it in turn to take responsibility for an issue from receipt of peer-reviewed revised articles to their publication. They communicate with authors regarding the correction of errors and clarifications required before publication and, if required, after publication. They collaborate with language editors who style-edit articles.

Peer-review process and peer-reviewers’ responsibilities

JoSTrans uses a double-blind peer-review system. Each submission is first screened by the Editorial Board for eligibility at the desk review stage and passed on to the peer-review team, which selects two peer-reviewers from among the Advisory Board members or external scholars with expertise in the field. Peer-reviewers are asked to evaluate submissions in line with criteria set out in the JoSTrans peer-review form, providing feedback and a recommendation for the Editorial Board according to the scale: Publish (with minor changes), Essential amendments (Revise and publish subject to peer reviewer’s approval) or Reject. In the case of doubts, the Board may request a third peer-review. The final publication decision is taken by the Editorial Board, taking into account peer-reviewers’ recommendations.

Reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest with respect to the research which they are evaluating and agree to provide an objective, neutral, constructive and informed assessment in a timely manner, using the evaluation criteria provided by the peer-review manager. Reviewers are committed to confirm the academic integrity of the paper which they are reviewing to the best of their ability. Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of peer reviews and do not use information obtained through peer review to their own advantage. Reviewers agree to conform to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
(https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9).

Authors’ responsibilities

Authors pledge to submit authentic research and agree to take part in a peer-review process and to revise articles as required. They agree to comply to standard requirements of academic publishing such as including secondary references in support of their own theories, displayed a bibliography at the end of their article. Should they discover errors in their work, they should notify the editor for corrections. They agree to comply with the journal’s stylesheet regarding formatting, references, and acknowledgement of financial support if relevant. They are aware that plagiarism, the inclusion of fraudulent data, and previous publication of their research in another book or journals, including in another language, would lead to the retraction of their article.

Guidelines for retracting articles

The general editor will contact the author in case of the potential retraction of an article. An article will be considered for retraction in the interest of academic integrity in the following cases:

  • the article content provides substantial false or unreliable information which cannot be corrected either through fraud or genuine error
  • the article was previously published elsewhere
  • the article plagiarises previously published information.

Retracted articles will be removed from the journal’s site and a notice of retraction posted on the issue’s table of contents.