NEJLT publishes excellent research in the field of language technology, i.e. Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, and related topics. Research on any natural language is invited.
NEJLT invites both journal articles and academic letters.
The review philosophy of the journal is to provide constructive, helpful, timely feedback during the review process while seeking to minimise the impact of bias.
NEJLT is a global journal with global focus.
NEJLT accepts submissions continuously, with no specific time-limited calls.
Currently, most computational linguistics publications come through conferences, which experience extreme and acute load with limited room for scholarly dialogue or for correcting mistakes. Conversely, many journals in the field are either highly exclusive or have a high latency. In the meantime, those striving to publish and to manage publication venues still suffer all the problems outlined in Ken Church’s “Reviewing the Reviewers” published in CL back in 2005. At NEJLT we agree that a shift is needed in how NLP/CL research is published. It makes sense to create a journal that is rapid, that is well-tuned to modern publishing in NLP/CL, and is capable of reviewing a diverse range of papers well.
Having more accessible journal publication means reducing load on the community; it serves to give opportunities to the good papers that may otherwise be recycled between conference venues. Offering review and publication out of the annual conference cycles also benefits authors, allowing them to publish their work without having to wait - especially important for PhD students - while the extra time available in a journal-style publication cycle means work can be really finished, instead of rushed - important for reviewers and readers.
Finally, providing new NLP/CL venues as journals instead of conferences reduces travel, with all the benefits that that brings (cost, time, family, environmental).
NEJLT is, through a board position, managed by the Northern European Association of Language Technology.
NEJLT is published by Linköping University Electronic Press (LiU e-Press) under an Open Access policy through a mutual agreement.
From 2020, NEJLT papers will be co-published in the ACL Anthology free.
• How long is the reviewing turnaround?
The quickest time to a first decision is about seven weeks. We expect to give a first decision on 90% of papers within twelve weeks. Subsequent review rounds after correction will be quicker, as editors and reviewers are already allocated. We appreciate a rapid publication turnaround for good work.
• How long does publication take?
There’s no post-acceptance typesetting, so once the camera ready version is submitted after acceptance, final publication is quick. NEJLT is an online-first journal.
• Are there any publishing costs?
No, none. There are no submission or review costs either.
• Where is NEJLT indexed?
Google Scholar indexes the journal and its articles. All articles receive a global DOI. NEJLT is currently indexed in the ACL Anthology. NEJLT is also indexed in ResearchGate, DIVA, UFM, and NSD. We are specifically targetting applications to Scopus and Elsevier/SJR, as soon as the requirements are fulfilled. Applications are in preparation to Web of Science/Clarivate JCR, DBLP, and DOAJ. The majority of criteria are already fulfilled for all of these.
• Why is “Northern Europe” in the title ?
NEJLT is a global journal with no specific regional focus. It’s maintained by the Northern European Association for Language Technology It is hosted by a publisher who donate their technical effort and expertise to keeping the journal running, so we can focus on the research. This publisher, Linköping e-Press, is based in Sweden which lies in north Europe, and the region was incorporated in the name when the journal was started. Thus, for historical reasons, the journal name is prefixed with Northern Europe, even though we have a global focus.
• Where do the journal issue cover images come from?
Cover images related scenes of relevance to Northern Europe. If you have a suggestion for a cover for a future issue, mail it to us - editors@nejlt.org!
NEJLT was founded in 2008 around the time that the Northern European Association for Language Technology was chartered, and run for some years as a journal with the same focus as the NODALIDA conference, with many editors-in-chief over that time.
With the growth of the field of language technology, this scope has since been broadened, making NEJLT an indexed journal, run by an established organisation, that is edited by globally-recognised researchers in natural language processing, computational linguistics, and language technology.
NEJLT was re-constructed in over the 2019-2020 editor shift, on the agreement of both outgoing and incoming editors, to attempt to address some of these needs.