LSA: Publications

Take Note!

The Executive Committee of the LSA will be holding its Spring meeting on 9-10 May, 2008, in Washington, DC. For further information, contact Katha Kissman.
Nominations for the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award are due 1 June, 2008.
Nominations for the LSA's "Linguistics, Language and the Public" Award will be accepted until 1 June, 2008.

Q&As about Subscriptions, Missing/Back issues, and Reprints

Question: How can I subscribe to Language / become a member of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA)?

Answer: Applications for membership should be directed to the LSA office. Contact information is given below.

Subscriptions are not sold without membership. Dues for US personal memberships in the Society are $75/year, of which $42.00 is for Language. U.S. library memberships are $135/year. Student memberships are $30/year with proof of student status. A $10 postage surcharge is added for non-US addresses.

Question: I have not received the latest issue of Language. Could there be a problem with my subscription? Whom should I contact?

Answer: If you have not received your issue of Language and think there may be a problem, contact the LSA office (see contact information below).

Question: How can I purchase a particular (back) issue?

Answer: Back issues of Language are available from the Linguistic Society of America. Contact information is given below. For more information about ways to view back issues, click here.

Question: I am looking for a particular article published in Language, but our library does not carry it. Can the LSA or the Editorial Office send me a copy?

Answer: Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate inquiries of this kind. You will need to try other resources, such as another library, the author, or the online resources that offer back issues of Language (JSTOR and Project Muse). For more information about ways to view or obtain back issues, click here.

Question: I had a piece published in a recent issue of Language. Will I be getting offprints of it? Does it matter if I am a member of the LSA or not? Can the LSA or the Editorial Office send me a single copy of my piece at least?

Answer: Language does not provide free offprints of anything published in the journal (including articles), or free copies of the journal to authors, or even individual copies of the final printed version of a submission. There is simply no way to do this and keep the cost of the journal reasonable. Each author has the opportunity to order offprints at a cost from the printer at the proofing stage. Remember that if you join the LSA (as is required for authors of articles, you will receive a subscription to Language free with your membership (and note that the cost of LSA membership, including the annual subscription to the journal ($75.00/yr regular membership and $30.00/yr for students), is less than the cost of a subscription alone to most journals). Membership information can be found here.

Alternatively, note that electronic access to Language is available through JSTOR and Project Muse (click here for more information about Language Online). By using these electronic resources (usually through a university library), you will be able to get a nice copy of your contribution.

Question: What is the policy on reprinting from LSA publications?

Answer: Requests for permission to reprint from LSA publications should include the author's permission and be addressed to the Secretariat. See contact information below.

About Submitting to Language

Question: I would like to submit a paper to Language. What exactly should I send, and how long should I expect the review process to take?

Answer: Please send TWO anonymous copies of your paper (i.e. with a title page showing authorship separate from the text and without identifying headers or the like) to the Language Editorial Office (see contact information below). Be sure to include a brief (c. 250-word) abstract. An anonymized pdf and/or Word version of the paper should also be sent, either as an email attachment or on a diskette. Make sure that not only the text of the manuscript is anonymous, but also the electronic document itself (i.e. the name of the electronic file, its “properties”, etc.). Such electronic submissions are NOT to be sent in place of hard copies, however. Normally at least one author of any article of review article submitted to Language must be a member of the Society. For more information, see the Notes to Contributors page on our website.

Upon receipt of your paper, the Editorial Staff will contact you via email and confirm receipt. The review process can take up to 6 months, though it could be even longer depending on various circumstances (and every attempt is made to expedite the process at all stages). For a full description of the editorial process, see the Editor's Department columns in Language 78.2, 78.3, 78.4 (2002).

Question: Does Language consider papers for review whose (partial) findings or whose very short version has been published in conference proceedings?

Answer: Our policy is to regard everything except for working papers as prior publication. If some of the results in a submitted paper have been published elsewhere, the paper you submit should build on those results and should develop the ideas and evidence along new lines or in greater depth. In cases where you are not sure if the degree of overlap is too great, please send the previous publication along with your submission; the need for such a step should be rather rare, though, in practice.

About Information on Our Website

Question: Your website offers only abstracts of the articles published in Language. Are you planning to add entire articles in the near future?

Answer: No. The web pages for Language are not supposed to replace the journal. The Table of Contents pages were created as a quick reference to the various articles, book reviews, and notices published in the journal. Forthcoming articles also are now listed on the website, by title and, where available, abstract. Language is available online through JSTOR (Volumes 1-75) and Project Muse, though access may depend on subscription (click here for more information about Language Online).

Question: Are you planning to put the LSA Bulletin on the web?

Answer: The LSA Bulletins are available at the LSA website. The Language Editorial Office is not responsible for the LSA Bulletin, which is published by the LSA Office. Please address questions regarding the Bulletin to the LSA Secretariat (see contact information below).