Review Guidelines

Manuscripts received by Visible Language are double-blind peer-reviewed by a minimum of two top international scholars with expertise relevant to the manuscript content.  

Reviews take a minimum of two to three weeks. When an Author’s Original (AO) manuscript is received it is first reviewed by the Editorial Board to judge its suitability for the journal. Manuscripts that pass Editorial Board review become a Submitted Manuscript Under Review (SMUR) and are sent to a minimum of two external reviewers with expertise that matches the content of the manuscript. The extensive and detailed external reviews are summarized by the Editorial Board and the external reviewers’ comments in total along with the Editorial Board’s Summary are transmitted to the author with conclusions and a decision for rejection, revision, or publication. Nearly all the manuscripts we publish experience revision, sometimes two or more rounds. While Visible Language’s initial acceptance rate is below 10%, the acceptance rate for manuscripts that have gone through two or more rounds of revisions is above 20%.  

Once a manuscript is accepted, the Accepted Manuscript (AM) will enter production for the next issue of Visible Language. After author(s) review and approve a Proof (P), the manuscript is printed and distributed to subscribers. Concurrently with print distribution, an electronic version, with color images substituted for grayscale where suitable, is made available online. The print and corresponding online versions of the manuscript become the Version of Record (VoR). The completed article VoR is presented as accurate, complete, citable knowledge. (see NISO, 2008 for definitions of manuscript versions) 

Visible Language offers peer-reviewer training through workshops developed at the University of Cincinnati. If you are interested in being trained as a peer-reviewer contact Editor Mike Zender: mike.zender@uc.edu.