Submissions

Author Guidelines

Pre-Submission Guidelines

The following provides several suggestions, and an author check-list, for authors as part of the pre-submission process.

• IOL appreciates the complexities and time involved in language translation. Therefore:
• Authors should note that although their work will be reviewed by IOL Editorial Board members, the role of the reviewers is to make comments on translation quality. Reviewers do not have the liberty to spend substantial amounts of time making translation suggestions. It is therefore expected that translated manuscripts be of a high quality at the time of submission.
• To aid that high quality, authors are encouraged to talanoa with peers and elders concerning translation technicalities and concepts. Authors should also be mindful that the final work should be reader-friendly to those at home in the Pacific Island community.
• It is accepted that in some cases there will not be a specific English to Pacific word equivalent requiring authors to hybridise or create a new psudo-Pacific word (eg.: kavalactone [English] to kavaleketoni [Fijian] [see Aporosa, 2008, p.26). Authors are encouraged to discuss such neologisms with peers and elders in order to gain consensus on any new words. Short footnotes explaining such word creations are welcome.
• Authors are encouraged to seek peer and elder feedback to assist in keeping translated word lengths to a minimum without forfeiting key details of the research or losing comprehension. This is particularly important as Pacific expressions are often contextualised, frequently leading to the use of increased numbers of words (when compared with English).

Authorship definition

First-named author (on IOL manuscript): The first-named author on any IOL manuscript must be a named author on the origial peer reviewed and published paper. If the first-named author on the IOL manuscript is not the first-name author on the origial peer reviewed and published paper, permission must be sought from that first-named author to translate and publish the original work. The addition of authors (from the original paper) to the author list on the translated manuscript is at the descression of the IOL first-named author.   

Addition of authors (not listed on the origial peer reviewed and published paper): For the purposes of IOL, the term ‘author’ is applied to those who:

• Make a substantial contribution to the manuscript’s translation and interpretation of concepts, study design, results, analysis and conclusions (from the original published paper),
• Made a substantial contribution to the drafting and/or revising of the translated manuscript (from the original published paper),
• Approved the final version of the translated manuscript (from the original published paper),
• Have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work related to translation accuracy.

Therefore, in compliance with IOL authorship definition, authors are requested to consider carefully the inclusion of any new authors (who comply with IOL authorship definition) in their translated manuscript author list. Additionally, authors are requested to consider carefully the exclusion of any authors in the translated manuscript author list, who were involved in the original peer reviewed and publication.

Ethical guidelines for authors

All authors submitting to IOL need to adhere to the following ethical guidelines.

• The lead author of the translated manuscript must be a named author on the original peer reviewed and published article and if not the first named author, must obtain written permission from any first name author. That written permission must be uploaded as part of the submission process. You will be asked to confirm this when submitting.
• All authors named on the translated manuscript are equally held accountable for the content of a submitted manuscript or other text.
• The corresponding author must ensure all named co-authors consent to publication and to being named as co-authors. All persons who have made significant contribution to the work reported should be named as co-authors (as explained in ‘Authorship definition’ above).
• Authors must ensure that copyright has not been breached by submitting their article for publication. Therefore, the lead author of the translated manuscript must obtain permission from the publisher of the original peer reviewed and published article. A letter template seeking that translation publication permission can be downloaded from HERE and must be uploaded as part of the submission process. You will be asked to confirm this when submitting.
• Authors must not submit a manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously.
• Authors must appropriately cite all relevant publications using APA referencing style. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, should not be used or reported in the author's work unless fully cited, and with the permission of that third party.
• It is accepted by IOL that those involved in the research that led to the original peer reviewed and published article completed all formal and documented ethical approval procedures and processes of an appropriate research ethics committee, including the gaining of informed consent from the individuals and groups studied where appropriate. Therefore, those ethical processes and procedures apply to the translated manuscript.
• Additionally, it is accepted by IOL that all research reported in the manuscript was conducted in an ethical and responsible manner, in full compliance with all relevant codes.
• Authors must avoid making defamatory statements in submitted articles, which could be construed as impugning any person's reputation.
• Authors must describe any professional or financial conflicts of interest in a section entitled ‘Conflict of Interest’ following the Conclusion section (and before any ‘Acknowledgement’ should this be included).
• Examples of professional conflicts of interest include (although are not limited to) influencing factors related to how the research was conducted or presented together with the disclosure of close relationships who might benefited, or alternatively may have been hurt by the publication, any academic interests and rivalries, and any personal, religious or political convictions relevant to the topic at hand. Where authors are unsure as to whether their situation or position meets professional conflicts of interest criteria, they are encouraged to contact the Editor in Chief or Journal Manager. In cases where authors do not have a professional conflict of interest, states such as ‘The author(s) declare(s) that there is no professional conflict of interest’ are recommended.
• Examples of financial conflicts of interest include (although are not limited to) grants and research funding, consultancies, speaking fees, writing fees, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patents granted and pending applications (irrespective of whether these generate royalties or not), or any income derived from or related to the research, reporting or its publication. Where authors are unsure as to whether their situation or position meets financial conflicts of interest criteria, they are encouraged to contact the Editor in Chief or Journal Manager. In cases where authors do not have a professional conflict of interest, states such as ‘The author(s) declare(s) that there is no professional conflict of interest’ are recommended.

• Authors are encouraged to acknowledge (in a section entitled ‘Acknowledgement’ following the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section and before the references) peoples and organisations who were important to the completion and publication of the research and manuscript. Examples of what should be acknowledged include:

  • Direct technical help such as the supply of equipment, methods, statistics/data manipulation and samples.
  • Indirect assistance such as topical and intellectual discussions about the research which can lead to generation of new ideas.
  • Key hosts and support persons/communities.
  • Affiliated institutions.
  • Any associated fellowships.

Author Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance against all of the following items.

• Word limits for translated articles are difficult to set due to the structure of Pacific languages. Therefore, authors are asked to keep translation word counts to a minimum. while retaining translation integrity.
• The submitted translated manuscript is a direct translation of a previously peer reviewed and published article to which the lead author of the translated manuscript is a named author on the original publication.
• The translated manuscript is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
• The text must be formatted as follows
  • uses single lined spacing
  • uses Times New Roman, 12-point font
  • reflects the heading and subheading styles (bold, italics and underline) similar to the original published paper (this assists IOL publication team when preparing the final publication layout) and
  • all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• The text adheres to the requirements outlined in the ‘Pre-Submission Guidelines’ explained above.
• The title of the translated manuscript is a direct translation of the title of the original peer reviewed and published article. The original title is presented in brackets following the translated title (see ‘Manuscript cover page’).
• The manuscript includes both the abstract as presented in the original peer reviewed and published article and the direct translation (see ‘Manuscript cover page’).
• Both inline and full references are presented in the language of the original peer reviewed and published article, and not translated to the Pacific language of the manuscript. References in the reference list include DOI's where available.
• All references have been thoroughly checked and adhere to the guidelines published in the Publication Guidelines of the latest version of the American Psychological Association (APA).
• All references have been checked for DOI numbers and these have been recorded at the end of appropriate references. You can search the name of articles here http://www.crossref.org/
• Unless the Journal Manager has been notified prior to publication, you agree for the lead author's contact email address to be included on the front page of the article. Email [email protected] if this is not acceptable.
• Authors must declare any professional or financial conflicts of interest related to the original peer reviewed and published research, review, poem, short story and essay or the subsequent translated manuscript. This is described in greater detail in ‘Ethical guidelines for authors’ under.
• Authors have considered carefully IOL’s definition of an ‘author’ (see ‘Authorship definition’ under ‘About the Journal’ tab) and included and excluded authors as deemed appropriate.
• Authors must keep a master manuscript copy.
• Submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines.

Submitting your manuscript

• In order to submit a manuscript to In our Language: Journal of Pacific Research (IOL) you need to register first. 
• IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have previously registered, please login.
• If you need any assistance with this process please email [email protected]
• Authors are to familiarise themselves with IOL’s focus and scope, peer review process, ethical guidelines and policy, complaints procedure, open access policy, pre-submission suggestions and guidelines, submission preparation checklist and author definitions as submitters will be required (checkbox) to respond to specific questions prior to final submission.

Manuscript Cover Page

Please provide a manuscript cover page with titles (translated and original), keywords, abstracts (translated and original), and author(s) contact details, and affiliation. See example below:

Manuscript translated title

(Title of original peer reviewed and published article)

Full reference of original peer reviewed and published article including DOI where available in APA style.

First author name (example)

Dr S. Apo Aporosa
Vasu i Macuata, Fiji
Research Fellow
Te Huataki Waiora School of Health
The University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton 3240
New Zealand
T: +64 21 838478
E: [email protected]
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4490-9545

Second author name

…etc…

Abstract directly translated from original peer reviewed and published article.

Abstract as published in the original peer reviewed and published article.

Up to six key words (as presented in the original peer reviewed and published article).

Other content

• Authors must submit (as separate files) both a copy of the original published work and the translation manuscript.