Purpose of the journal Lingua e Nuova Didattica
Founded in 1971, the Journal responds to the difficulties of teachers with materials, reflections, ideas for innovation, discussion, information, “leaving the treatment of didactics at an abstract level to others”. Over the years, in response to requests from international bodies (the Council of Europe) and from prominent members of LEND, the Journal has welcomed the publication of theoretical and research, with a view to concrete action. In this double role, the Journal provides a solid theoretical basis for school practice, while remaining true to its initial aim as a tool for teachers and by teachers.
The Journal’s horizon has widened to include plurilingualism, interculturalism, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and the linguistic dimension of curricular subjects to the teaching of Italian L2 and sign languages, plus technology-assisted language teaching.
The Journal follows the COPE code of ethics for publications drawn up by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Authors, editorial bodies, and reviewers will know and share the following ethical requirements.
The Board of Lingua e Nuova Didattica comprises the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, the Steering Committee, and the Scientific Committee.
Lingua e Nuova Didattica does not charge for the publication or submission of manuscripts.
The editorial board
The editorial board is composed of the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, the Steering Committee, and the Scientific Committee. They are responsible, each within the scope of their functions and with the support of the reviewers, for the decision to publish manuscripts the Journal.
The choice of the Editor-in-Chief and the members of the editorial board is by the President of LEND - Lingua e Nuova Didattica, of which the Journal is an official organ.
All positions are honorary.
Management of the Journal
The management of the Journal is entrusted to an Editor-in-Chief, a Deputy Editor-in-Chief, and a Steering Committee, which ensures the continuous improvement of the scientific profile of the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief represents the Journal and follows the founding principles and values of LEND - Lingua e Nuova Didattica. He or she is responsible for final decisions on the publication of manuscripts and decides which are not subject to external review.
He or she manages the process of accepting, reviewing and editing of manuscripts with the editorial board. The Editor-in-Chief will call upon the editorial board, according to their expertise for manuscript review. Submissions are peer-reviewed by two referees (at least one of whom is not a member of the editorial board) in a blind process.
The editorial board ensures the correctness and transparency of the systems to evaluate, accept or reject manuscripts, supervises the review process, and maintains an updated list of reviewers published periodically on the Journal’s website.
The Editor-in-Chief shall act promptly in case of errors in manuscripts or in their publication or misconduct (e.g. fraud or plagiarism), in which case appropriate action will be taken based on the recommendations, guidelines, and checklists provided by COPE. These include the publication of an erratum, a corrigendum, and a right of reply.
Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee is composed of scholars of recognised competence in language teaching in Italy and abroad. The Committee carries out tasks that guarantee the prestige of the Journal Lingua e Nuova Didattica.
It meets at least once a year or remotely and whenever the Editor-in-Chief deems it necessary.
The Scientific Committee approves the Code of Ethics and its amendments.
Steering Committee
The role of the Steering Committee is to work with the Editor-in-Chief and the Deputy Editor to ensure the smooth running of the Journal in organisation and production. It provides technical support for the review and revision process, including the maintenance of the review form archive.
Reviewers
The peer-review process helps the Journal decide about manuscript publication. Through editorial communication with the author, the reviewer can help the author to improve his/her text.
Texts sent for review must be considered confidential.
The review is expressed exclusively by means of the evaluation form provided by the Journal. Reviewers encourage clarity, completeness, and accuracy by providing guidance and comments to authors. Reviewers provide justification for their judgments so that authors can understand the content and tenor of the suggested revisions and comments.
Reviewers provide updated bibliographic reference to studies that might have been overlooked by the authors. The reviewer must also point out any similarities or overlaps between the text and other works of which he/she is aware.
Confidential information or advice received during the review must be treated as such. Reviewers should not accept papers for review where there is a conflict of interest. Reviewers who do not feel competent or who know that they will not be able to complete the review within the required timeframe, must inform the editorial office immediately.
Authors
Authors must comply with the editorial guidelines published on the Journal website when submitting a proposal.
Authors must ensure that the manuscript submitted for review is unpublished and not simultaneously submitted to other journals. Authors agree not to submit the same manuscript to other journals for publication during the peer review process.
Authors agree to accept the publication in the Journal section and review process.
Manuscripts must be original and not contain redundant parts compared from other publications.
Authors agree to declare the absence of any possible conflict of interest that could influence the content of the manuscript when submitting it for review.
If the article is accepted, the authors grant the Journal the exclusive right of publication.
Authors are obliged to correctly cite the sources of the reported content and to obtain, under their own responsibility, the necessary permissions to publish images or other content, whether published or unpublished, in accordance with copyright law.
Authors guarantee the accuracy of the data presented in the paper.
Authors must declare at the end of the text funding bodies for the research and/or project from which the article originates.
Authors are also asked to provide their affiliation and ORCID, if available.
Should the author become aware of any serious errors in the publication, he/she must immediately notify the management of the Journal and make the appropriate retraction or correction of errors, and send the errata corrige.
Proposals for publication
Proposals for publication in Lingua e Nuova Didattica should be sent by the author by e-mail to
The proposal must contain:
- the academic or professional qualifications, affiliations, and contact details of the author;
- an abstract (150 words) in Italian, English and at least one other language of the author's choice
- a statement that the paper is the exclusive work of the author and that he/she has not published the paper elsewhere.
The Journal will make an initial editorial assessment of the topic of the paper, with reference to the approach and topics published in the Journal.
Review procedure
Lingua e Nuova Didattica uses a double-blind peer-review procedure before accepting articles for publication in order to maintain the academic quality of the articles.
After the Journal has accepted a proposal for publication, the text will be sent to at least one external reviewer with expertise in the field of the article. A list of the reviewers is published on the Journal's website.
Papers will be sent to the reviewers in anonymized, without the author's name or references, including bibliographical references, that could lead to its identification. The author will not be informed of the reviewer’s name.
The reviewer will be sent a form to express his or her opinion with a deadline by which a response is requested.
The author will receive the reviewer's comments and suggestions for manuscript revision.
The review will state whether the manuscript is acceptable or not for publication.
The review will request manuscript revision for acceptance for publication.
The Steering Committee will immediately forward the requests for revision to the author, who will be requested to comply. The Editor-in-Chief, with the assistance of the Steering Committee, will check that the manuscript complies with the requests for revision.
Contributions exempted from peer review
In certain cases, the Editor-in-Chief may decide not to apply the peer-review procedure, as indicated in a note on the first page of the manuscript, giving the reasons for the decision.
Contributions to the EXPERIENCES section will not be subject to peer review. Also editorials are exempted.
Practices contrary to scientific integrity
Lingua e Nuova Didattica reserves the right to check manuscript submissions with appropriate plagiarism checking software tools. Plagiarism may regard sources and media and also published and unpublished material, including lectures, presentations and grey literature.
Lingua e Nuova Didattica follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on plagiarism.
Authors can report suspected plagiarism or copyright infringement by contacting the Journal at
Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools
Lingua e Nuova Didattica does not allow artificial intelligence (AI) tools or Large Language Models (LLM) to be listed as authors of a publication.
Authors who use artificial intelligence tools to produce text or images/graphics, or to collect/analyse data, must state this, stating which tool was used and how it was used, so that readers can understand the role of these tools in the development of the work. Authors are fully responsible for manuscript content, including parts generated by an AI tool. They are therefore liable for any ethical violations that may result from the use of such content.
Reviewers agree not to use AI tools to evaluate manuscripts, as the critical thinking and original evaluation for this work is beyond the scope of current technology.