Where to publish — a map of open-access ELT journals in Colombia

Choosing a journal badly is the most common reason a good manuscript never gets published. It gets desk-rejected for scope, or it sits in review for months before someone says "this is not what we publish".

This is a map of the Colombian landscape in English language teaching and applied linguistics, and a method for choosing.

First, the good news about cost

Most Colombian journals in this field are open access with no charge to authors. They are financed by the university or association that runs them — the model sometimes called "diamond" open access. Enletawa states it explicitly; several others operate the same way.

This matters for two reasons. Your work is readable by teachers who cannot pay for access, which is most teachers. And you should be immediately suspicious of any journal that emails you an invitation and mentions a fee. Predatory journals target early-career authors, promise fast publication and charge for it. A real journal in this field will not chase you.

The journals

HOW Journal — published by ASOCOPI. Biannual, by and for teachers of English. Research on English language education, theoretical reviews, pedagogical experiences and reflections. Indexed in ERIC, Latindex, Redalyc, SciELO Colombia and Publindex-Minciencias, and registered with DOAJ, EBSCO, Dialnet, the Emerging Sources Citation Index and the MLA International Bibliography. Permanent open call; cohorts close April 1st and October 1st.

Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura — Universidad de Antioquia. Quarterly, refereed, open access, in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Broader scope: language, linguistics, literature, translation and language teaching-learning. Permanent open call.

Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development — focused on classroom research projects, reflections and innovations by teachers of English, teacher educators and novice teacher-researchers. If your work comes from your own classroom, this is squarely in scope.

Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal (CALJ) — Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. For a global audience of education professionals interested in research and teaching in applied linguistics for the teaching of English. Permanent call for papers.

Enletawa Journal — UPTC. Research articles, review articles and short articles in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese on foreign language teaching, applied linguistics and language studies. Double-blind review, two issues a year, diamond open access.

GiST — Education and Learning Research Journal — biannual, on language teaching with emphasis on bilingual education and innovations for learning. Cohorts close April 30th and October 30th.

Folios — Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Faculty of Humanities. Broader humanities and their pedagogies. Research reports, systematic reviews and scientific reflective essays. Editions close in February and August.

Lenguaje — Universidad del Valle. Language sciences: theoretical and descriptive linguistics, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. Continuous publication, permanent open call. Good fit for work that leans linguistic rather than pedagogical.

Zona Próxima — Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla. Language, culture and education. Research results, experiences, reflections and reviews in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Biannual.

Avances en Educación y Humanidades — Universidad de Córdoba. Education and human sciences, digital, twice a year. Permanent open call.

How to choose, in four steps

1. Read three recent articles from the journal

Not the scope statement — the actual articles. Are they like yours in length, method and tone? A journal publishing 8,000-word quantitative studies will not know what to do with your 4,000-word classroom account, whatever the scope says.

2. Check whether they have published on your topic

If they have, good: there is a conversation to join, and you can cite it. If nobody in that journal has ever written about your topic, ask whether that is a gap or a signal.

3. Match the article type

Most of these journals publish several types — research article, reflective article, review, pedagogical experience. Name yours before submitting and follow that type's guidelines. This alone prevents a large share of desk rejections.

4. Work backwards from the cohort deadline

Cohort closings are the real constraint. Pick your date, subtract six weeks for writing and two for a colleague to read it, and put that in your calendar.

About indexing and Publindex

Colombian authors often ask which journal "counts" more. Indexing matters if your institution or MinCiencias classification depends on it — ERIC, SciELO, Redalyc, DOAJ and Clarivate's ESCI all have different criteria, and journals move between categories over time.

But this is the wrong first question. A well-matched article in a journal that will actually publish it beats a mismatched submission to a higher-ranked one that will reject it in three weeks. Choose on fit first, indexing second.

If you are not sure

Write to the editor. A short email — three sentences describing the manuscript and asking whether it fits the scope — is normal, welcome, and saves everybody months. Editors would much rather answer that email than desk-reject you later.

Keep going

• See the full Colombian Language Journals Network directory with scopes and calls.
• Read about HOW Journal, its indexing and its submission windows.
• New to this? Start with publishing your first article.