& Submission
Philosophy & Submission Policies
Living in Languages is committed to open-access publication, responsible editorial practice, and the circulation of original scholarship, translation, criticism, and creative work.
Who Can Submit?
Anyone may submit original work for consideration by Living in Languages, provided that the submitting author owns the copyright to the work or is authorized by the copyright holder to submit it.
Authors are ordinarily the initial owners of copyright in their work, although different arrangements may apply when copyright has been transferred through employment or another contractual agreement.
General Submission Rules
Submissions must not have been previously published. Publication in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication for the purposes of this policy.
By submitting work to Living in Languages, authors confirm that the material is not simultaneously under review by another journal, whether electronic or print, and agree not to submit the same work elsewhere until the journal’s editorial decision process has concluded.
Questions concerning eligibility, prior publication, or submission terms may be directed to the editors through our editorial contact form .
Formatting Requirements
Living in Languages does not impose extensive formatting requirements at the initial submission stage. We ask authors to submit work in a clear, readable form suitable for editorial and peer review.
Length: approximately 3,600–5,000 words for standard scholarly articles.
Style: MLA, 9th edition, is required for final accepted manuscripts.
Originality: submissions must be original and unpublished.
Files: Microsoft Word or another editable text format is preferred during the editorial process.
Accepted work is ultimately prepared for publication on the Living in Languages website and deposited as a PDF in the University at Albany Scholars Archive.
Attribution & Open Access
Living in Languages is committed to open access. Published work is made freely available to read, download, print, link to, and search for lawful scholarly and non-commercial purposes.
The journal does not charge readers for access to published work and does not charge authors publication fees.
Individual works published through Living in Languages are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) . This license permits reproduction and redistribution for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given to the author and publication.
Authors publishing with Living in Languages accept these conditions as part of the terms of publication.
Scholars Archive
Living in Languages publishes work through two linked platforms: the journal’s primary website and the University at Albany Scholars Archive. The journal website provides the main reading and browsing experience, while Scholars Archive serves as the institutional repository for published issues and article PDFs.
Because published work is also deposited in Scholars Archive, authors and users are subject to the applicable policies, submission agreements, and terms governing that repository.
Users of Scholars Archive are expected to use the service responsibly and lawfully. Repository-specific terms remain in force independently of the presentation of the same material on the Living in Languages website.