EDITORIAL BOARD
LRB Guidelines and Style Sheet for Volume 41 (2026-27)
The Language Research Bulletin (LRB) is a publication of International Christian University. The LRB publishes previously unpublished papers that involve research in language, language learning, language teaching, linguistics, and literature. Authors (or first authors in papers with more than one author) must be current full-time or part-time members of the ICU teaching staff. Please note that the LRB is a publication for educator-researchers to submit papers that inform a broader discourse community of educators. For more information about this policy, please inquire before submitting a paper. Finally, papers may be written in the medium of English or Japanese or any other language that is taught at ICU.
The LRB is blind peer-reviewed, compiled, and edited under the management of the LRB Editorial Board, whose members are volunteers or appointed by the Director of the ELA. Those who wish to submit an article to be considered for publication in the next issue of the LRB, Volume 41, must submit two MS WORD files (one with the author's name and the other without) as an email attachment to the LRB contact email address (lrb@icu.ac.jp). The due date is Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. No late submissions will be accepted. Please note that if your submission is accepted, you may be asked to peer review a different manuscript for Vol. 41.
Authors may consult the LRB Editorial Board about any aspect of a paper under preparation. The recommended style sheet for the LRB closely follows that of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020, 7th ed.). The LRB style sheet for Volume 41 is given below. Authors submitting a paper in the medium of Japanese or another language should contact the LRB Editorial Board about the style sheet to be used. Papers that are submitted incomplete or late are not considered for publication.
The Editorial Board conveys decisions regarding the acceptance of papers to the authors in early October. If the Editorial Board recommends changes in a paper, the authors must resubmit those changes by mid-November. The final paper should be submitted at the beginning of December. Authors of papers published in the LRB do not need to request permission if they wish to revise and submit their papers for publication elsewhere. When a paper published in the LRB is subsequently published elsewhere, however, it must include an acknowledgment that the paper or an earlier version of it first appeared in the LRB.
The maximum number of submissions for Vol. 41 is set at two: one single-author paper and one joint-authored paper, or two joint-authored papers. This is a return to the previously set guidelines which was implemented to accommodate papers from a variety of authors and to ensure that the editorial review could be completed as scheduled.
Anyone who has a question about these procedures is welcome to ask the LRB Editorial Board [lrb@icu.ac.jp].
Specific Guidelines and style sheet for LRB Volume 41
For papers submitted in English, the LRB guidelines are a slightly modified version of the style sheet of the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (2020, 7th ed.). For APA 7 updates see apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition. (If you plan on submitting a paper in a language other than English, please let us know before July 1, 2026).
LRB Format
Abstract. Include an indented abstract of 100 to 200 words. All abstracts are requested to be written in English, even if the rest of the paper is in another language.
Length. 3,000 to 5,000 words when written in English or 7,500 to 12,500 characters in Japanese, single-spaced. The total word count does not include the References list or the appendices.
Please keep in mind that while the peer review process includes checking both the in-text citations and References list, the author(s) is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all sources are formatted in APA 7 style have been cross-checked.
Paper size. A 4
Font. Times New Roman. 14 point for title; and 12 point for everything else. (The font in tables and figures may vary from 12-point, but should be no smaller than 8-point.)
Margins. Justified. Left and right: 2.5 cm or 0.98 inch. Top and bottom: 3.0 cm or 1.18 inch. Start each page of text, including the title on the first page, on the very top line.
Headings. Do not have an "Introduction" heading. For other headings, use the following APA 7 heading styles:
This is a First Level Heading
[Text begins indented as a new paragraph]
This is a Second Level Heading
[Text begins indented as a new paragraph]
This Is a Third Level Heading
[Text begins indented as a new paragraph]
This Is a Fourth Level Heading. [Text begins on the same line as the heading]
Indentation. Except for the abstract, indent all paragraphs five spaces (usually the default tab setting). Your first indented paragraph should be lined up with the left margin of your abstract. The abstract is also indented five spaces from the right margin.
First page. In the header space of the first page, insert "Language Research Bulletin, 41, ICU, Tokyo". The title of the paper should appear on the very top line of the first page. Leave two blank lines (all blank lines are in a 12-point font) between (a) the title and the author's name, (b) two blank lines between the author's name and the abstract, and (c) two blank lines between the abstract and the main text.
Lines and spacing. Use single space. If all lines on a page are in a Times New Roman 12 point font there will be about 50 lines on every page except for the title page (with the title in an 14 point font) and perhaps pages containing tables or figures. Do not leave blank lines between paragraphs that fall under the same heading. Leave two blank lines above any separated section heading, and one blank line below that heading. Leave one space (and not two) after periods and colons.
Bold, italics, and underline. Use bold only for the title, section headings, and titles of tables and figures. Use italics according to APA 7 usage. Do not use underline.
Running title. Include a running title of no more than 40 characters centered in the header of every page except the first page. The distance between the running title and the edge of the page should be 1.7 cm. You can set this distance with the "Page Setup" option in MS Word.
Page numbers. Paginate the document in the footer starting with the first page. Use Times New Roman 12 point font and put the page numbers in the center of the footer.
Optional sections. Optional sections that may come after your main text include (a) Notes, (b) Acknowledgments, (c) The Author (about yourself), (d) References, and (e) Appendix. It is unlikely that the end of your paper will have more than two or three of these sections, but if it does, the sections should appear in the order above. Use endnotes (not footnotes) and only sparingly.
Tables and figures. See APA 7 for examples of tables and figures. An easy way to format a table in Word is through the "auto format" option.