About the Journal

Moderna Språk is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes new, empirically based research and critical reviews within areas that cover English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian languages and literatures. The range of topics accepted for submission is wide, reflecting the structure and organization of language studies within Swedish higher education, where literature, linguistics and culture are tightly intertwined.  The journal has been published every year since 1906, and it is thus one of the oldest journals of its kind. Moderna Språk is a multilingual journal and we accept submissions in all of the above-mentioned languages. We accept new submissions on a continuous basis and publish two issues per year, one in June and one in December. Occasionally, we also publish special issues. We do not publish research on languages besides those mentioned above. Moderna Språk is indexed in SCOPUS, Web of Science,  EBSCO and is ranked in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers (NSD, 1)..

Focus & Scope

The editorial board welcomes novel, empirically based research on French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German and English, within linguistics, literature, and language teaching and learning. Moderna Språk wishes to offer a platform where all these disciplines can meet, promoting a holistic view on language studies. We accept submissions where the main focus is on one of the above-mentioned languages or literatures. The submission must contain a critical discussion and provide a significant contribution to the specific field. Translation studies are occasionally accepted, but only if the content of the submission does not require the knowledge of other languages than the ones listed above, plus Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. Articles with a purely theoretical content without reference to one of the journal’s target languages are not accepted.

The main target groups are language researchers, language teachers and practitioners interested in emergent trends and developments within language studies, with a special focus on Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German and English.

We accept submissions written in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and German. We do not conduct any language review, but submissions with poor grammar, sentence structure or spelling must be revised and resubmitted by the author.

Journal History

A first version of Moderna Språk was published in 1906 under the name Moderna Språk, Svensk Månadsrevy för undervisnigen i de tre huvudspråken. That name would later be changed to Moderna Språk, Tidskrift för språkundervisning, and even later to only Moderna Språk, which means “modern languages” in Swedish.  The journal was dedicated to literary and linguistic studies related to German, English and French, with a strong focus on didactics and second language teacher education. In 1938, Riksföreningen för lärarna i moderna språk, or LMS, (The Modern Language Teachers' Association of Sweden) was created, and the journal became part of, and tightly connected to the coalition. The journal was involved in issues related to the teaching of languages, but also to language policy making. At times, the different editors debated widely and loudly, criticizing the Swedish school system and the Swedish second language teacher education.

Until 2007, Moderna Språk was distributed in print, but from 2008 it has been published only as a web-based journal. Simultaneously with this transition, a peer-review system was implemented in order to raise the scientific quality of the journal. It was also decided to give more space to empirical studies on literature and linguistics and to focus less on discussions and debates related to language teaching and language education. This new approach led to the formal separation of Moderna Språk from The Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Sweden in 2013.

As mentioned, initially the journal only accepted studies on German, English and French languages, but during the last 15 years, literary and linguistic studies on other modern languages have been incorporated in the scope and focus of the journal. We now welcome submissions on, and in, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, which makes Moderna Språk unique among journals of its kind.

The review process

1. The author submits the manuscript to the journal.
2. An in-house review is done, commonly by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC). The EIC checks that the submission is congruent with the focus and scope of the journal, and that the scientific level is adequate. If not, the paper will be rejected.
3. If the EIC finds that the paper fits within the journal, it is assigned to a section editor. A section editor is responsible for a particular research field, e.g. French linguistics or German literature.
4. The section editor checks the paper. If the section editor finds that the quality of the paper is too poor, the paper will be rejected without any further review process. If the section editor finds that the paper is appropriate, it will be sent to two external reviewers.
5. Moderna Språk uses double-blind review, which means that the identities of both the reviewers and the author are concealed.
6. Based on the recommendations from the reviewers, the section editor makes a decision. Possible outcomes are accept, accept with minor revisions, accept with major revisions, revise and resubmit or reject.
7. The author is informed of the decision by the section editor.
8. The author proceeds in accordance with this decision.

After the review process, it is ultimately the EIC who decides whether the submission will be accepted for publication, revised or rejected.

The review process typically lasts between four and eight weeks, but sometimes longer. A manuscript that is considered ready for publication will be published in the next issue.

If the author of a submission is in some way linked to the journal, he or she will not be involved in the review process for that article. The fact that the author is affiliated with the journal will also be stated in the article.

Reasons for rejection

• The submission does not fit within the scope and focus of Moderna Språk. Typically, the article investigates languages and literatures that are not covered by Moderna Språk. Moderna Språk only publishes articles on English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian languages and literatures. Moderna Språk does not accept translation studies that require the knowledge of a language other than those noted above, plus Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.
• The submission has poor scientific quality.
• The submission has poor language use.
• The submission contains plagiarized material.
• The article lacks sufficient novelty, even though it is scientifically sound.
• The submission includes figures, pictures or graphs that are protected by copyright and for which permission for publication is not granted.

It is ultimately the EIC who decides whether the submission will be accepted for publication, revised or rejected.

For special issues, please contact the EIC. We only publish a limited number of special issues.

Readership

The main target group is researchers and scholars within linguistics and literature, language teachers and language educators.

Publication fees

There are no publication fees associated with this journal.

Publication frequency

We publish two issues per year; one in June and one in December.