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About

Aims and scope

Language Testing in Asia (LTA) was founded in 2011 as a high quality peer-reviewed online academic journal. The purpose of LTA is to acknowledge and showcase scholarly findings in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region in the field of language assessment. A broad definition of Asia is used, which includes any countries east of the Suez Canal and south of the Caspian and Black seas, to Japan in the east and Indonesia in the south. More recently, it has been decided to further expand the area of study to Oceania.

Language assessment is of particular importance in the Asia-Pacific region, which has a large number of second or foreign language learners with very diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, assessments of large scales and high stakes, and an urgent need for research to improve the quality of assessment services. 

The journal compares validity, consistency and efficacy of testing approaches and methods, and by analysing a wide variety of contextual elements such as cultural aspects, attitudes, students’ perceptions and motivation, it aims at exploring the applicability of language assessment methods in local contexts, examining new proposals and ideas, and actively contributing to the discussion about transparent and effective frameworks for language education in Asia.

Offering evidence and reports in a scholarly and rigorous format, Language Testing in Asia will appeal not only to linguists, academics and researchers in the field of language assessment, but also to policy-makers, policy planners and administrators, school-leaders and trainers.

We welcome essay submissions from anywhere in Asia that fit within these aims: as language assessment becomes more extensive and important worldwide, it is desirable that many voices from many cultures be heard.

Areas of particular interest include research articles on any aspects of international proficiency tests such as IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC, PTE-Academic and high stakes national tests of English or other languages as a second or foreign language. Classroom, school and university evaluation methods are also most welcome as are reviews or research on software and internet applications for assessing language skills.

The journal encourages the submission of high-quality contributions aimed at:
-         sharing comprehensive accounts on language assessment in the Asian context

-         improving the quality, consistency and applicability of language assessment methods in different local contexts in Asia

-         reviewing practices in the curricular requirements of language skills at different educational stages

-         keeping up with current changes in the education systems.

-         informing users and policy makers of language assessment practices and measures of quality control

-         raising the awareness of the ethics involved in the profession of language assessment.

Topics addressed through contributions within the journal might include, but will not be restricted to:

-         validity arguments for language assessments

-         discussion of assessment practices

-         analysis of assessing language skills in different contexts

-         second language assessment and learning motivation

-         test-taker perceptions of assessment practices

-         second language assessment and teaching and learning styles

-         effects of national education policies on language test performance

-         application of information and communication technology for language assessment

-         challenges facing high-stakes language assessments

-         assessment literacy for language teachers.

The journal has an international multidisciplinary editorial board with leading international academics in the fields of linguistics and applied linguistics, such as language assessment, language education, educational measurement, psycholinguistics, and language policy.

Benefits of publishing with SpringerOpen

High visibility

Language Testing in Asia's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience. 

Speed of publication

Language Testing in Asia offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF; the article will then be available through Language Testing in Asia and SpringerOpen.

Flexibility

Online publication in Language Testing in Asia gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Language Testing in Asia are included in article alerts and regular email updates. 
In addition, articles published in Language Testing in Asia may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Language Testing in Asia

Copyright

Authors of articles published in Language Testing in Asia retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work (for further details, see the copyright and license agreement).

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from SpringerOpen, please click here.

Open access

All articles published by the Language Testing in Asia are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

As authors of articles published in the Language Testing in Asia you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article, according to the SpringerOpen copyright and license agreement.

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, SpringerOpen can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Article processing charges (APC)

Authors who publish open access in Language Testing in Asia are required to pay an article processing charge (APC). The APC price will be determined from the date on which the article is accepted for publication.

The current APC, subject to VAT or local taxes where applicable, is: £1040.00/$1690.00/€1340.00

Visit our open access support portal and our Journal Pricing FAQs for further information.

Open access funding

Visit Springer Nature’s open access funding & support services for information about research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs.

Springer Nature offers agreements that enable institutions to cover open access publishing costs. Learn more about our open access agreements to check your eligibility and discover whether this journal is included.

Springer Nature offers APC waivers and discounts for articles published in our fully open access journals whose corresponding authors are based in the world’s lowest income countries (see our APC waivers and discounts policy for further information). Requests for APC waivers and discounts from other authors will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and may be granted in cases of financial need (see our open access policies for journals for more information). All applications for discretionary APC waivers and discounts should be made at the point of manuscript submission; requests made during the review process or after acceptance are unable to be considered.

Indexing services

All articles published in ​Language Testing in Asia are included in:

  • SCOPUS
  • Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
  • Google Scholar
  • CNKI
  • DOAJ
  • EBSCO Discovery Service
  • EBSCO Education Source
  • EBSCO TOC Premier
  • EBSCO System Database
  • ERIC System Database
  • Linguistics Abstracts
  • MLA International Bibliography
  • OCLC
  • ProQuest Central
  • ProQuest Education Database
  • ProQuest Professional Education
  • ProQuest Social Science Collection
  • Summon by ProQuest

The full text of all articles is deposited in digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. You can also access all articles published by SpringerOpen on SpringerLink.
We are working closely with relevant indexing services including PubMed Central and Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) to ensure that articles published in Language Testing in Asia will be available in their databases when appropriate.

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.

Language Testing in Asia operates a double-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers do not know the names or affiliations of the authors and the reviewer reports provided to the authors are anonymous.

The benefit of double-blind peer review is that it allows reviewers to judge the manuscript based on content alone, and they are not unconsciously biased by knowledge of who the authors are.
Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two or more experts who will be asked to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to Language Testing in Asia should adhere to SpringerOpen's editorial policies.

Once your article is accepted, it will be processed by production and published shortly afterwards. In some cases, articles may be held for a short period of time prior to publication. If you have any concerns or particular requirements please contact the Journal.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Citing articles in Language Testing in Asia

Articles in Language Testing in Asia  should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Article citations follow this format:

Authors: Title. Lang Test Asia [year], [volume number]:[article number].

e.g. Roberts LD, Hassall DG, Winegar DA, Haselden JN, Nicholls AW, Griffin JL: Increased hepatic oxidative metabolism distinguishes the action of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor delta from Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma in the Ob/Ob mouse. Lang Test Asia 2009, 1:115.

refers to article 115 from Volume 1 of the journal.

Appeals and complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint should follow the procedure outlined in the BMC Editorial Policies.

Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Citation Impact
    2.8 - 2-year Impact Factor
    1.858 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    0.600 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2023 Speed
    11 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    61 days submission to accept (Median)

    2023 Usage
    530,067 downloads
    116 Altmetric mentions

This journal is indexed by

    • SCOPUS
    • Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
    • Google Scholar
    • CNKI
    • DOAJ
    • EBSCO Discovery Service
    • EBSCO Education Source
    • ERIC 
    • MLA International Bibliography
    • OCLC WorldCat Discovery Service
    • ProQuest Central
    • ProQuest Education Database
    • ProQuest Professional Education
    • ProQuest Social Science Collection
    • ProQuest-ExLibris Summon
    • ProQuest-ExLibris Primo
    • ProQuest-ExLibris Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts (LLBA)
    • UGC-CARE List (India)
    • TD Net Discovery Service
    • SCImago
    • Navar
    • MLA International Bibliography
    • Gale
    • Dimensions

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Make your research stand out

New Content Item

For editors and reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in your manuscript, it is important to ensure the English language is of sufficient quality. If you need help with writing in English, learn more about additional support tools.

Waivers

Authors without funds to cover the Article Processing Charge (APC) are eligible for a discretionary waiver of the APC, and should request a waiver during submission.
Language Testing in Asia also has waivers available at the Editor's discretion. Authors can contact the Editors in Chief for more information. Read here for more information on APCs.