Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Submission and Review

Authors submit through the journal’s online system. Every submission passes an initial editorial screening, then similarity screening, then double-blind review by external international reviewers who are experts in the field. The review procedure, the number of reviewers, the decision timeline, and the appeal route appear on the Peer-Review Process page.

Originality

Submissions are original works, unpublished elsewhere, and not under consideration by any other publication. Prior conference presentation, or derivation from a thesis, requires disclosure in the submission notes.

Authorship

The maximum number of authors per article is five. Authorship follows the conditions in the Publication Ethics page, and any change in authorship after submission follows the procedure stated there. Every author provides an ORCID iD at submission.

Bilingual Requirements

The journal is bilingual (Arabic and English). Titles, author names, affiliations, abstracts, and keywords appear in both languages. For Arabic submissions, the main text is Arabic, and a Romanized reference list follows the Arabic list. For English submissions, Arabic and other non-English terms are transliterated and italicized.

Word Counts

Original research: a maximum of 10,000 words. Book reviews: 1,500 to 3,000 words including references. Abstract: 150 to 250 words. Keywords: three to five, avoiding repetition of title words.

Abstract Content

The abstract states the research problem, the method, the principal findings, and the contribution. It reads as a standalone text, without footnotes or undefined abbreviations, in both languages.

File Format and Fonts

Submissions arrive as Microsoft Word files, single-spaced, with 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins.

  • Arabic: Traditional Arabic, 16 points for the main text and 12 points for footnotes.
  • English: Times New Roman, 12 points for the main text and 10 points for footnotes.

Qur’anic Verses

Qur’anic verses appear in the Ottoman script with ornamental brackets, based on the Madinah Mushaf program.

Footnotes

Footnotes sit at the bottom of each page with automatic numbering.

Structure

Research articles typically contain: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings and discussion, conclusion and recommendations, and references. Text-based (naqli) studies in tafsir, Hadith, fiqh, and related fields may follow an alternative structure suited to the discipline, with a clear introduction, a defined research problem, a coherent division of sections, and a conclusion.

Headings

  • Main section title: 16 points (Arabic) / 14 points (English), centered, bold, in title case.
  • First-level heading: 14 (Arabic) / 12 (English), numbered, bold, right-aligned in Arabic and left-aligned in English.
  • Second-level heading: 14 (Arabic) / 12 (English), numbered, regular.
  • Third-level heading: 14 (Arabic) / 12 (English), numbered, italic.

Citation Style - Chicago (Notes and Bibliography)

The journal applies the Chicago Manual of Style, Notes and Bibliography system. Book titles appear in italics and article titles in quotation marks. The footnote form and the bibliography form differ, as the examples show.

Books - footnote: Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book, ed. Editor Name (Place: Publisher, Year), volume: page.

Example: Muḥammad bin Aḥmad Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ‘A’lām Al-Nubalā’, ed. Shu’aib Al-’Arna’ūṭ (Beirut: Mu’assasatur-Risālah, 2001), 12: 148.

Books - bibliography: Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Edited by Editor Name. Edition. Place: Publisher, Year.

Example: Al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad bin Aḥmad. Siyar ‘A’lām Al-Nubalā’. Edited by Shu’aib Al-’Arna’ūṭ. 11th ed. Beirut: Mu’assasatur-Risālah, 2001.

Journal articles - footnote: Author First Name Last Name, “Title of Article,” Journal Name Volume, no. Issue (Year): page.

Example: Abdulaziz Al-Dhamir, “Titles of Tafsir Books: A Foundational Study,” Tibyan Journal for Qur’anic Studies 28 (2017): 470.

Journal articles - bibliography: Author Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Journal Name Volume, no. Issue (Year): full page range.

Example: Al-Dhamir, Abdulaziz. “Titles of Tafsir Books: A Foundational Study.” Tibyan Journal for Qur’anic Studies 28 (2017): 431–477.

Repeated sources: short form - Author surname, Short Title, page. Example: Al-Dhahabī, Siyar ’A’lām, 10: 236.

Several sources in one footnote: the sources are separated by a semicolon. Example: Al-Nawawī, Al-Minhāj, 311; Al-Mardāwī, Al-Inṣāf, 7: 234.

Online sources: cite the source as usual, then add the access date and the URL, in the form (accessed 15/5/2025), followed by the link.

DOIs: where a cited source carries a DOI, the DOI appears at the end of the entry in the form https://doi.org/…

Romanized References

For Arabic submissions, a Romanized list follows the Arabic list. It contains the original English sources and the Arabic sources converted to Roman script under the journal’s transliteration table.

Example (book): Al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad bin Aḥmad. Siyar ‘A’lām Al-Nubalā’. Edited by Shu’aib Al-’Arna’ūṭ. 11th ed. Beirut: Mu’assasatur-Risālah, 2001.

Example (article): Al-Dwamir, Abdul-Aziz. “’Anāwīn Kutub Al-Tafsīr Dirasah Ta’sīliyyah” [Titles of Tafsir Books: A Foundational Study]. Tibyan Journal for Qur’anic Studies 28 (2017): 431–477.

Where an Arabic article carries an original English title, the English title appears as published: Al-Amir, Ziyaad Hamad. “Impact of Qur’anic Readings on Faith.” Journal of Islamic Studies 27, no. 1 (2015): 109–137.

Book Reviews

A review runs 1,500 to 3,000 words including references, treats a book with a significant contribution to current scholarship, and provides: full title, author’s full name, year of publication, publisher, total pages, and ISBN. The review offers critical analysis of the book’s principal premises, not a descriptive summary alone.

Transliteration

The journal applies its adopted transliteration table, published on this page.

Anonymization for Double-Blind Review

The title, author names, affiliations, postal addresses, emails, and ORCID iDs appear on a separate title page only. The manuscript file contains no author names, no self-identifying phrases, and no identifying document metadata. Authors cite their own prior work in the third person.

Required Declarations

The manuscript ends with the following statements before the reference list:

  1. Funding: sources of financial support and the funder’s role, or a statement of no funding.
  2. Conflicts of interest: disclosure of all competing interests, or a statement of none.
  3. Generative AI: the disclosure statement required by the Artificial Intelligence Policy, where substantive use occurred.
  4. Ethics approval and informed consent: for studies involving human participants, the approving committee and reference number.

Copyright, License, and Fees

Publication terms follow the Copyright and Licensing page (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) and the author agreement. The journal charges no fees at any stage: no submission fee, no article processing charge, no review fee, and no publication fee.

Submission Checklist

  1. Anonymized manuscript file in Word format, per the font and layout rules above.
  2. Separate title page with bilingual titles, author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, and the corresponding author’s email.
  3. Bilingual abstracts (150–250 words) and keywords (3–5).
  4. Arabic reference list followed by the Romanized list (for Arabic submissions).
  5. The four declarations listed above.
  6. Confirmation of originality and exclusive submission.

 

Transliteration Table: The journal adopts the standard transliteration table for Arabic characters (see table below).

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

  • The submission has not been previously published and is not before another journal for consideration. Any prior conference presentation or thesis derivation is explained in the Comments to the Editor.
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word format.
  • The text is single-spaced, in Traditional Arabic 16-point font for Arabic submissions and Times New Roman 12-point font for English submissions. Emphasis uses italics rather than underlining (except for URLs). All illustrations, figures, and tables sit within the text at the appropriate points, not at the end of the file.
  • The text follows the Chicago style and the formatting rules in the Author Guidelines. For Arabic submissions, a Romanized reference list follows the Arabic list.
  • Where a cited source is electronic, the citation includes the URL and the access date. Where a source carries a DOI, the citation includes it.
  • The manuscript file is anonymized for double-blind review: author names, affiliations, and identifying phrases and file metadata are removed. Author details appear in a separate title page file.
  • Titles, abstracts (150-250 words), and keywords (3-5) are provided in both Arabic and English, and an ORCID iD is entered for every author.
  • The manuscript ends with the required declarations before the reference list: funding, conflicts of interest, generative AI disclosure where applicable, and ethics approval for studies involving human participants.

Copyright Notice

Consent to Publish

The Author(s) agree to the publication of the article by Al Qasimia University in the print and electronic editions of Al Qasimia University Journal of Sharia Sciences and Islamic Studies.

Declaration

The Author(s) declare that the article is original, that it has not been published before in any form, that it is not concurrently submitted to any other publication, and that it does not infringe the copyright or any other right of any party. The Author(s) bear full legal responsibility for any claim concerning the intellectual or material rights of third parties in the article.

Copyright and License to Publish

The Author(s) grant Al Qasimia University Journal of Sharia Sciences and Islamic Studies the right of first publication of the article. The Author(s) transfer the copyright of the article to Al Qasimia University, and the article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The rights of the university and the rights of readers under this public license operate together: the university holds the copyright, and every reader holds a permanent, non-exclusive right to read, download, copy, and share the article for non-commercial purposes with full attribution.

The Author(s) retain the right to deposit the published version in institutional and subject repositories without embargo, to use the article in teaching and conference presentations with attribution, and to reuse their own work in later scholarship with citation.

For an article with more than one author, the corresponding author confirms authorization by all co-authors to grant this consent and transfer.

Open Access and Fees

The journal provides immediate, permanent, free access to all published articles. Everyone may read, download, copy, and share the published articles under the terms of the license above.

The journal charges no fees at any stage: no submission fee, no article processing charge, no review fee, and no publication fee. No payment of any kind influences editorial decisions.

The journal fulfills the DOAJ definition of open access. All articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Privacy Statement

The names, email addresses, and other personal details entered in this journal’s website are used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal: managing submissions, conducting peer review, communicating with authors and reviewers, and publishing accepted articles.

The journal does not sell personal data and does not share it with any third party for marketing or any purpose outside the publishing process.

One exception follows from the nature of scholarly publishing: the metadata of published articles, including author names, affiliations, and ORCID iDs, forms part of the public scholarly record and is distributed to indexing and archiving services such as Crossref and the databases listed on the Indexing and Abstracting page.

Reviewer identities remain confidential under the double-blind review policy. Unpublished submission data remains confidential under the Publication Ethics page.

Individuals may request the correction of their stored personal details by writing to the editorial address on the Contact page.