Focus and Scope

Constructions offers a forum for linguistic research concerned with the structure, acquisition, use, function, and diachronic development of ‘constructions’ in language and linguistics. One of the long-term goals is to establish contact between researchers from various cognitive-functional camps. The term ‘construction’ as understood in this journal is deliberately chosen to have a broad extension and not be limited to any specific approach within Construction Grammar.

Constructions is published as an open access, peer-reviewed electronic journal. As such, it departs from traditional print journals in at least two important ways:

  • Online availability: Constructions will only be available online, through a freely accessible online content system. Copyright generally remains with the author(s), who have the opportunity to publish their papers under a Creative Commons license.
  • Speedy publication: To ensure a timely publication of current research, Constructions aims at publishing submitted manuscripts within a period of no more than six months. Each paper will be published immediately after its final acceptance. Constructions was originally launched by Thomas Hoffmann and Alexander Bergs as part of a large-scale project initiated by the Ministry of Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to establish digital peer publishing as an alternative to print journals (http://www.dipp.nrw.de).

Constructions is owned and edited by its editorial board, headed by the editors-in-chief. It is currently published by the University and State Library of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

All articles submitted to Constructions are subject to the usual double-blind peer reviewing process. We reserve the right to desk-reject manuscripts that do not fit the journal's scope or are clearly insufficient in terms of quality.