Constructions is a platinum open access journal with free online access to all contributions and no author processing fees. All submissions to the journal are subjected to a strict double-blind reviewing process. Constructions aims at a balanced representation of research within all current Construction Grammar models. One of the long-term goals is to establish contact between researchers from various perspectives. The term ‘construction’ as understood in this journal is deliberately chosen to have a broad extension and is not limited to any specific definition or specific constructional framework. Constructions is not restricted to any particular language or language family, and aims at combining theoretical, empirical, and applied issues.
Aims and scope
Constructions publishes high-quality papers on all aspects of language that take a constructionist approach (in the broadest sense), i.e. that are couched in a version of Construction Grammar and/or draw on the concept of linguistic constructions. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome. Empirical papers can be work-in-progress reports, as long as the research question(s) and methods of analysis are made transparent. Needless to say, work-in-progress reports are subject to the same high standards of peer review as all other papers.
Open access policy
All new papers are published under a CC-BY 4.0 license by default. Authors can choose a different license upon request, preferably one of the Creative Commons licenses. As a minimum requirement, the license must ensure that the paper is openly available for everyone, for free, forever. Papers published before the transfer of "Constructions" to HHU Düsseldorf in 2021 are not published under Creative Commons licenses unless the authors explicitly requested it. Regardless of the license they choose, authors retain full copyright over their contributions.
Open data policy
Authors of empirical papers are required to include a data availability statement in their papers. We strongly encourage authors to make their datasets and analysis scripts publicly available, e.g. on repositories like OSF (for peer-review, an anonymized view-only link can be created on OSF).
Publication ethics and malpractice statement
The research reported in manuscripts submitted to Constructions must have been conducted in an ethical and responsible manner and must comply with all relevant legislation. For details and best-practices, see Wager & Kleinert (2011), available here. The members of the editorial board, and the editors-in-chief in particular, will do their best to prevent misconduct by informing the authors of the ethical conduct required by them, and they will try to identify misconduct and deal with potential allegations of misconduct accordingly. In particular, this includes the possibility of retracting papers that have been found to be in violation of pertinent legal or ethical standards. Retraction means that a paper is still publicly accessible (unless there are important reasons for removing it entirely), but with a retraction notice.
Examples of misconduct include, but are not limited to:
- plagiarism,
- misrepresentation of authorship (e.g. uncredited co-authors, "honorary" authorships),
- fabricated data,
- undisclosed conflicts of interest relevant to the published paper.
To submit a complaint or raise a concern of potential misconduct, please contact the editors-in-chief in confidence. Our aim is to acknowledge complaints or appeals within 5 days of receipt. We will do our best to keep complainants updated throughout the process.
Wager E & Kleinert S (2011) Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2 nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010. Chapter 50 in: Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 309-16). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7)
Ownership
Constructions is a scholar-owned journal, owned and edited by its editorial board, headed by the editors-in-chief.
Publisher
Constructions is published by the University and State Library of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Until 2021, the journal was published by the University of Osnabrück.
Publication frequency
Constructions typically publishes one issue per year containing all submissions accepted for publication during that year. In addition, we occasionally publish special issues.
Archiving
The journal contents are currently archived publicly via Zenodo. We are working towards additional automatic archiving options with the team of the University and State Library Düsseldorf, and hope that they can be implemented in the near future.
Copyright and licensing
Authors retain full copyright of their papers published in Constructions. All papers accepted for publication in Constructions since 2022 are published with a CC-BY 4.0 license by default. Please note that the licenses of individual papers can vary, however.
Indexing
The journal is indexed in
- the Directory of Open Access Journals (DAOJ)
- Google Scholar
More to follow!
Statistics
These statistics are provided to comply with the requirements of Plan S.
2023
- Manuscripts received: 22
- Manuscripts accepted: 11
- Manuscripts rejected: 7 (4 still under review at the end of 2023 - acceptance rate: 11/18 = 61.1%)
- Reviews requested (only for published articles): 24
- Reviews received (only for published articles): 22
