01 Types of Publications

IJRLE publishes the following categories of contributions. All categories are subject to double-blind peer review unless otherwise indicated.

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Chinese, or Arabic. Each contribution must include a title, abstract, and keywords in the language of submission; English-language titles, abstracts, and keywords are additionally required for indexing and discoverability.

02 Peer Review Policy

IJRLE operates a rigorous double-blind peer review process: the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another throughout. Every manuscript that passes initial editorial screening receives at least two independent expert reviews.

Review workflow

The process proceeds in four stages. First, initial editorial screening: the handling editor checks the submission for scope, completeness, ethical compliance, language clarity, and similarity (plagiarism) screening. Manuscripts that fall outside scope or fail basic standards may be desk-rejected at this stage. Second, reviewer assignment: the manuscript is assigned to the appropriate language-area manager (Area 1 for English and Arabic; Area 2 for Chinese) and matched with at least two qualified reviewers with no conflicts of interest. Third, peer review: reviewers evaluate originality, significance, methodological soundness, clarity, and ethical integrity, and recommend a decision. Fourth, editorial decision: on the basis of the reviews, the editor reaches one of the decisions below.

Reviewer responsibilities

Reviewers agree to assess manuscripts objectively and confidentially, to declare any conflict of interest, to refrain from using unpublished material for personal advantage, and to alert the editor to any ethical concern, including suspected plagiarism, data fabrication, or redundant publication.

Editorial independence & conflicts of interest

Editorial decisions are based solely on the scholarly quality and relevance of the work. Where an editor is an author of, or has a competing interest in, a submission, that editor is excluded from all handling and decision-making, and an alternative editor manages the manuscript.

Indicative timeline

03 Research Ethics: Human and Animal Participants

Research involving human participants (including students, teachers, and their data) or animals must be conducted ethically, in line with COPE guidance and the Declaration of Helsinki. Such studies require prior ethics-committee approval and informed consent — including guardian consent for minors.

Every such manuscript must include an ethics statement in the Methods declaring that approval was obtained (naming the committee), exempted, or not required (with the reason). Where approval was required but not obtained, retrospective approval cannot substitute for it, so the manuscript will normally not be sent for review and may be rejected; each case is assessed individually per COPE. If a lack of required approval emerges after publication, the journal may correct or retract the article (see the Policy on Retraction of Articles).

04 Manuscript Withdrawal Policy during the Peer Review Process

Authors retain the right to withdraw a manuscript, but are asked to do so responsibly, recognising the time and effort contributed by editors and reviewers.

To withdraw a manuscript, the corresponding author must send a written request to the editorial office, signed on behalf of all co-authors, clearly stating the reason. Withdrawal requested before the assignment of reviewers is granted without question. Requests made after peer review has begun are reviewed by the editor; authors are expected to avoid withdrawing solely to submit an unchanged manuscript elsewhere after receiving favourable reviews. Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is not permitted; if discovered, the manuscript will be withdrawn from consideration.

Because IJRLE levies no charges, no fees are associated with withdrawal. A manuscript is considered formally withdrawn only once the author receives written confirmation from the editorial office.

05 Policy on Retraction of Articles

IJRLE follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines. Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the published record and alerting readers to articles whose findings or conclusions cannot be relied upon.

An article may be retracted where there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable as a result of major error, fabrication, or falsification; where the work constitutes plagiarism or redundant (duplicate) publication; where research or publication ethics have been seriously breached (for example, undisclosed conflicts of interest, lack of required ethical approval, or unethical research); where peer review has been manipulated; or where authorship has been seriously misattributed.

The journal may instead issue a correction (for honest errors that do not affect the reliability of the findings) or an expression of concern (where an investigation is ongoing or inconclusive). Retraction notices are linked to the original article, freely available, clearly identified as retractions, and state who is retracting the article and why. The original article is retained but watermarked or otherwise marked as retracted to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record. All concerns are investigated impartially, and authors are given the opportunity to respond before any decision is finalised.

06 Charge Policy

The journal is committed to diamond (platinum) open access: scholarship is made freely available to readers worldwide, and the costs of publication are not transferred to authors. This model removes financial barriers to both publishing and accessing research, in keeping with the journal's commitment to equitable and inclusive scholarly communication.

07 Archiving & Self-Archiving Policy

Digital preservation

IJRLE is committed to the long-term preservation of its content. The journal maintains secure digital archives of all published material and participates in recognised preservation schemes (such as LOCKSS / CLOCKSS or PKP Preservation Network) to ensure that articles remain accessible even if the journal ceases to operate. Complete back-issue archives are openly available on the journal website.

Author self-archiving

Because all articles are published open access under a Creative Commons licence, authors are encouraged to self-archive. Authors may deposit the submitted version (preprint), the accepted version (postprint), and the final published version (version of record) in personal websites, institutional repositories, and recognised subject repositories, at any time and with no embargo, provided the published version is properly cited and a link to the original article on the journal site is included.

08 Article Identification Policy

Every published article is assigned a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to provide a stable, citable link to the version of record. The journal encourages all authors to register an ORCID iD and to associate it with their submission, ensuring unambiguous attribution of authorship.

Each article is published with complete bibliographic metadata — title, authors and affiliations, abstract, keywords, volume, issue, page or article number, publication date, and licence — in line with indexing and discoverability standards. This metadata is shared with indexing services to maximise the visibility and citability of published research.

09 Copyright Notice

Authors retain the copyright to their work and grant IJRLE the right of first publication.

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Under this licence, others are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, including commercially, provided appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the licence is provided, and any changes are indicated.

By submitting to IJRLE, authors warrant that the work is original, that it has not been published elsewhere, that it is not under consideration by another journal, and that they have obtained any permissions necessary to reproduce third-party material. Authors are free to enter into additional, non-exclusive arrangements for the distribution of the published version of their work (for example, posting it to an institutional repository), with acknowledgement of its initial publication in IJRLE.

10 Open Access Policy

IJRLE provides immediate, full, and unrestricted open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

The journal endorses the definition of open access set out in the Budapest Open Access Initiative: readers may freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts, and use them for any lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers, subject only to proper attribution as set out in the licence. There is no embargo period — articles are openly available from the moment of publication — and no charge is made either to authors for publishing or to readers for access. This combination of free-to-publish and free-to-read defines IJRLE as a diamond open-access journal.

11 Preprints Policy

IJRLE supports the early and open sharing of research. The posting of a manuscript to a recognised preprint server (for example, a non-commercial, scholarly preprint repository) prior to or during submission is permitted and does not constitute prior publication.

Authors who have posted a preprint are asked to disclose this at submission and to provide the preprint's DOI or link. Because review is double-blind, authors should take care that the preprint does not compromise the anonymity required during review. Upon publication, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with the full citation and a link to the final version of record in IJRLE. Citation of preprints within a manuscript is acceptable provided they are clearly identified as preprints that have not undergone peer review.

12 Policy on the Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in Writing

IJRLE recognises that generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted tools are increasingly used in research and writing. This policy sets out the journal's expectations for authors, reviewers, and editors, in line with COPE's position on authorship and AI tools.

For authors

Generative AI tools cannot be listed as an author. Authorship entails accountability and responsibility for the work, which can be attributed only to human beings. Authors who use AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of a manuscript — for example, to improve language and readability, or to assist with literature searching — must disclose this use in the methods or acknowledgements section, naming the tool and describing how it was used. Authors remain fully responsible for the entire content of their manuscript, including any part produced with the help of an AI tool, and must verify the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all text, data, citations, and analyses. AI tools must not be used to fabricate or alter data, results, or images, or to generate citations.

For reviewers

To protect the confidentiality of submissions, reviewers must not upload manuscripts or any part of them to generative AI tools. Peer review is a confidential process and a fundamentally human, scholarly judgement; the critical assessment of a manuscript must be conducted by the reviewer.

For editors

Editors must likewise keep submission details confidential and must not upload manuscripts to AI tools. Editorial decisions are made by the editorial team and are not delegated to AI systems.