About the Journal

1. ABOUT THE JOURNAL
The English Teacher (e-ISSN 2716-6406), established in 1971, is Malaysia’s longest-running ELT journal and a pioneering platform for scholarly discourse in English language education. This journal is owned and managed by the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA).  For over five decades, the journal has championed rigorous inquiry into effective pedagogy, language acquisition, and innovative classroom practices, serving as an essential resource for ELT professionals across diverse educational contexts.

2. SCOPE AND SUBMISSIONS
The English Teacher publishes peer-reviewed research papers, pedagogical reflections, and critical reviews of books and software relevant to ELT practitioners. The journal welcomes contributions that advance theoretical understanding, share evidence-based classroom strategies, or critically evaluate resources for teaching English to learners of all ages.

3. ARCHIVING AND LEGACY 
All issues from 1971 to the present are archived and perpetually accessible through trusted digital repositories, preserving the journal’s intellectual legacy for future generations of ELT professionals.

The articles and book reviews are freely available online, for potential authors to view as samples.

4. INDEXING
The journal is indexed by the Malaysian Citation Centre (MyCite).

5. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 1972-2025 by the authors. This work is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction, and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source, a link to the Creative Commons license is included, and any changes made are clearly indicated.

Authors retain full copyright to their work and grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. There are no publication fees, and all content is freely available to read, download, copy, and share immediately upon publication.

For reuse beyond the terms of the CC BY license or exceptions under applicable law, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holder(s).

6. REVENUE SOURCES AND BUSINESS MODEL
The English Teacher operates as a diamond open-access journal, ensuring all content remains free for readers and authors. Our operations are sustained through institutional support from Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA). No article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, or publication fees are levied at any stage. Editorial decisions are made independently of financial considerations, and revenue sources do not influence the peer-review process or content selection.

7. ADVERTISING POLICY
The English Teacher maintains a strict separation between editorial content and commercial interests. The journal does not currently host advertisements.  

8. DIRECT MARKETING PRACTICES
The journal engages in ethical, targeted outreach to promote scholarly exchange within the ELT community. Activities may include:

Disseminating calls for papers via academic networks and professional associations.

Sharing updates on our Facebook account. All communications are designed to be informative, non-intrusive, and free of misleading claims. Solicitations for submissions are based solely on academic relevance, and personal data are handled in compliance with Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act 2010.

9. ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR EDITORS, AUTHORS AND REVIEWERS

a. Editorial Responsbilities
The English Teacher is committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and fairness. Editors shall:

  • Evaluate all submissions impartially, without bias related to gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, or the ethnic or geographical origin of authors.

  • Ensure that special issues or sponsored content undergo the same rigorous peer-review process as regular submissions, with acceptance based solely on scholarly merit.

  • Address ethical complaints or conflicts of interest promptly and transparently, following established procedures. Authors will be given due opportunity to respond to any concerns, and all cases—regardless of publication date—will be thoroughly investigated with documentation retained.

b. Authors’ Ethical Obligations

Authors submitting to The English Teacher must adhere to the following principles:

  • Data Integrity: Maintain accurate records of research data and, upon reasonable request, provide access to supporting materials. Where permissible, deposit data in recognised repositories to facilitate transparency and further research.

  • Originality and Attribution: Confirm that the submitted work is original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere. Properly acknowledge and cite overlapping content from other sources, securing permissions for reproduced material.

  • Human Subjects Research: Ensure studies involving human participants comply with institutional, national, and international ethical guidelines, including obtaining informed consent and respecting privacy.

  • Conflict of Interest: Disclose any financial, institutional, or personal conflicts that could influence the research or its interpretation.

  • Error Correction: Notify the editorial team immediately if errors are identified post-publication and cooperate in issuing corrections, retractions, or addenda as warranted.

c. Reviewers’ Ethical Duties

Peer reviewers play a critical role in maintaining the journal’s scholarly rigour. Reviewers are expected to:

  • Provide objective, constructive feedback within a reasonable timeframe to uphold the quality of published work.

  • Maintain strict confidentiality regarding manuscript details and refrain from retaining or disseminating submitted content.

  • Alert editors to any similarities between the reviewed manuscript and published or submitted works.

  • Declare potential conflicts of interest (e.g., financial, collaborative, or institutional ties to the author) and recuse themselves if necessary. 

d. Compliance

Violations of these standards will be addressed in accordance with prevailing academic publishing norms.

For further guidance, consult the Ethical Guidelines of the American Association for Applied Linguistics or comparable disciplinary frameworks.

10. ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN RESEARCH 

The English Teacher recognises the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic research and writing. To uphold integrity and transparency, all authors, reviewers, and editors must adhere to the following principles when engaging with AI tools (e.g., generative AI, machine learning algorithms, or automated analysis systems):

a. Transparency and Disclosure
Declaration of AI Use: Authors must explicitly disclose the use of AI tools in any stage of research or manuscript preparation (e.g., data analysis, text generation, literature synthesis) within the Methods or Acknowledgements section.

Limitations: Describe the scope of AI involvement, including the specific tools/software used, their purpose, and any known limitations or biases inherent to the technology.

Prohibited Use: AI-generated content (e.g., text, images) may not be presented as original human authorship. Plagiarism or misrepresentation of AI output as human-generated work constitutes ethical misconduct.

b. Authorship and Accountability
Human Responsibility: AI tools cannot qualify as authors. Human authors retain full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and ethical integrity of all content, including AI-assisted output.

Verification: Authors must rigorously verify AI-generated data, interpretations, or text for factual accuracy, scholarly validity, and adherence to ethical standards.

c. Data Integrity and Privacy
Training Data: Where AI tools are used to analyse data, authors must ensure compliance with data protection laws (e.g., UK GDPR, Malaysian PDPA) and confirm that training datasets were ethically sourced, anonymised (if applicable), and free from copyright violations.

Bias Mitigation: Acknowledge and address potential biases in AI algorithms (e.g., linguistic, cultural, or demographic biases in language models) that may affect research outcomes or interpretations.

d. Peer Review and Editorial Oversight
Reviewer Conduct: Peer reviewers must not use AI tools to assess manuscripts without prior editorial approval. Any AI-assisted review activities must be declared to the editor.

Editorial Vigilance: Editors reserve the right to reject submissions where AI use is undisclosed, improperly documented, or deemed to compromise scholarly rigour.

e. Human Oversight and Scholarly Value
Critical Engagement: AI should augment, not replace, human intellectual contribution. Manuscripts must reflect original scholarly insight, critical analysis, and contextual interpretation by the authors.

Ethical AI Sourcing: Use only legally and ethically developed AI tools that respect intellectual property rights and avoid proprietary or undocumented datasets.

f. Compliance and Violations
Violations of these standards will be treated as breaches of research integrity, subject to correction, retraction, or other sanctions as outlined in the journal’s Ethical Guidelines.

11. PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
The English Teacher adheres to the highest standards of publication ethics as outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal prohibits all forms of malpractice, including but not limited to:

a. Plagiarism and Redundant Publication
Plagiarism: Submitting work copied from other sources (text, data, or ideas) without proper attribution. All submissions are screened via plagiarism-detection software (e.g., Turnitin).

Self-Plagiarism: Reusing significant portions of the author’s own published work without citation or justification.

Duplicate Submission: Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple journals.

b. Data Fabrication and Falsification
Fabrication: Inventing or falsifying research data, results, or sources.

Image Manipulation: Altering images, graphs, or figures to misrepresent findings.

c. Authorship Misconduct
Ghost Authorship: Excluding individuals who made significant contributions from the author list.

Gift Authorship: Including individuals who did not contribute meaningfully to the research or writing.

Disputes: Unresolved conflicts over authorship order or credit.

d. Conflicts of Interest
Failure to disclose financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence research objectivity or peer review.

e. Ethical Violations in Research
Conducting studies without ethical approval (e.g., human/animal research) or informed consent.

Allegations of plagiarism or data falsification will result in immediate manuscript rejection and may lead to further disciplinary action.