Author Guidelines

General Guidance

USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law publish a number of article formats Original Research Articles. Besides Editorials, there are no formal length or formatting requirements. Authors are welcome to structure articles in the manner they need to best convey their research.

This Guide for Authors contains information on suggested article structures and lengths, but it is in not necessary for Authors to adhere to this guidance.

  • An Original Research Article reports complete studies and new results of interest to a wide audience.
  • Original Research Articles should highlight the significance, originality, and rigor of the research so the potential scientific impact is clear to the broad and scale-spanning readership of the journals.
  • All key experimental procedures necessary for the understanding of the research should be included in the main body of text. Additional experimental and supporting material should be published as supplemental information. Sufficient information to ensure accurate reproducibility must be provided.
  • Original Research Articles have no formal restrictions on page length, total character count, number of figures, or number of references; though a typical Original Research Article will comprise approximately 8000-10000 words of text with 3-5 figures and 40-100 references.

Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.

Declaration of competing interest

Corresponding authors, on behalf of all the authors of a submission, must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. All authors, including those without competing interests to declare, should provide the relevant information to the corresponding author (which, where relevant, may specify they have nothing to declare).

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify compliance, your article may be checked by turnitin and other originality or duplicate checking software.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Sex and gender reporting

For research involving or pertaining to humans and animals, we recommend that authors address sex and gender dimensions in the paper whenever appropriate, and use the terms "sex" and "gender" carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms. While sex refers to a set of biological attributes in humans and animals that are associated with physical and physiological features, gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people which occur in a historical and cultural context, and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Gender is often incorrectly portrayed as a binary (female/ male) factor. In reality, there is a variety of gender identities and expressions that inform how individuals identify themselves and express their gender. Authors may find the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines helpful.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (see more information on this). Permitted third party reuse of open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. Find out more

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.

Open Access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information.

Submission

Authors must first submit the manuscript metadata through the Manuscript Submission system, including the article title, author information, affiliation, abstract, keywords, references, and other required information. The metadata will undergo an initial editorial screening. If the submission is approved for further processing, authors will receive instructions and an account to submit the complete manuscript and required files through the official USRATY OJS. All subsequent editorial correspondence, including editorial decisions and revision requests, will be communicated through the OJS and/or email.

Suggesting reviewers

Please submit the names and institutional e-mail addresses of several potential reviewers. You should not suggest reviewers who are colleagues, or who have co-authored or collaborated with you during the last three years. Editors do not invite reviewers who have potential competing interests with the authors. Further, in order to provide a broad and balanced assessment of the work, and ensure scientific rigor, please suggest diverse candidate reviewers who are located in different countries/regions from the author group. Also consider other diversity attributes e.g. gender, race and ethnicity, career stage, etc. Finally, you should not include existing members of the journal's editorial team, of whom the journal are already aware.

Note: the editor decides whether or not to invite your suggested reviewers.

 

Article Structure

Authors must adhere to the following structure when preparing manuscripts for the USRATY : Journal of Islamic Family Law:
Title: The title should clearly reflect the formal object, material object, and context of the study, and should not exceed 14 words.

Abstract: The abstract should be concise, clear, and informative, with a maximum length of 250 words. It must provide a brief introduction to the problem, the focus and objectives of the paper, followed by a statement on the methodology, summary of the research findings and academic contribution.

Keywords: Provide 5 keywords that reflect the main idea, focus, and substance of the article. Keywords should be specific, relevant to the field of study, and support the indexing and discoverability of the article. Use concise terms and avoid overly general keywords, unnecessary plural forms, and concepts that are too long or combine multiple ideas. Separate each keyword with a comma (,).

INTRODUCTION: The introduction should be structured to include the following four elements:
- First: Explanation of the social facts that highlight the importance of the issue or phenomenon being studied.
- Second: Discussion of the literature gaps or shortcomings in previous studies related to the issue or phenomenon under review.
- Third: Evaluation of prior studies, positioning the focus of the current study.
- Fourth: Articulation of the research question and hypotheses or arguments being tested to address the study's objectives.

METHODS: The methodology section must be explicit and cover the following five elements:
- First: Justification for selecting the issue or phenomenon as the study focus.
- Second: Type of study and data used.
- Third: Data sources and the selection process.
- Fourth: Techniques or methods employed for data collection.
- Fifth: The process and stages of data analysis performed.

RESULT: The results section must be clear and relevant, based on the following three characteristics:
- First: Detailed description of the forms of the issue or phenomenon under investigation.
- Second: Critical explanation of the factors influencing the emergence of the issue or phenomenon.
- Third: Transformative implications of the issue or phenomenon being studied.

DISCUSSION: The discussion should be analytical and include the following five elements:
- First: A summary of the entire dataset presented in the results section.
- Second: Reflection on the causes emerging from the data summarized.
- Third: Interpretation of the effects resulting from the reflected data.
- Fourth: Comparative paragraph highlighting differences between findings of the current study and previous studies.
- Fifth: Conceptual, methodological, or policy recommendations as a solution.

Artwork

Electronic artwork

General points

  • Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
  • Preferred fonts: Arial (or Helvetica), Times New Roman (or Times), Symbol, Courier.
  • Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
  • Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
  • Indicate per figure if it is a single, 1.5 or 2-column fitting image.
  • For Word submissions only, you may still provide figures and their captions, and tables within a single file at the revision stage.
  • Please note that individual figure files larger than 10 MB must be provided in separate source files.

Formats

Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below): EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.

  • TIFF (or JPG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
  • TIFF (or JPG): Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
  • TIFF (or JPG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.

Please do not:

  • Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low.
  • Supply files that are too low in resolution.
  • Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

CONCLUSION: The conclusion should be clear and include the following three elements:
- First: Key findings relevant to the study's focus or research questions.
- Second: Significance or contributions of the study in terms of concepts, methods, or theories relevant to the subject matter.
- Third: Study limitations, which will serve as recommendations for future research.

DECLARATIONS

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION STATEMENT

Specifies the exact contributions of each author in a narrative form.

FUNDING STATEMENT

The funding agency should be written out in full and include the grant number, which can be included in brackets. The funding agency needs to be listing in the “Organization Name.” If there is only one funding agency: This research was supported by the Organization Name [grant number xxxxxx]. If there are multiple agencies or grant numbers, then it should be formatted as such: This research was supported by the Organization Name [grant numbers xxxxxx]; the Organization Name [grant number xxxxxx]; and the Organization Name [grant number xxxxxx]. If there is no funding information, they should state: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. If an organization providing support that was not monetary (maybe they provided facilities, survey samples, etc.), please mention that that organization supported the research.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data availability statements provide a statement about where data supporting the results reported in a published article can be found - including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper. Alternatively, the authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships, which may be considered as potential competing interests.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Additional information in a narrative form.

ORCID
Author Name— ORCID iD
Author Name— ORCID iD
Author Name— ORCID iD

REFERENCES: References must be formatted using the APA 7th edition citation style and managed through Mendeley. The reference list should be in Baltica font, 11pt, and single-spaced.

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The article has not been published or is in the process of being reviewed elsewhere.
  2. The article does not contain plagiarism, fabrication, and duplication
  3. The article complies with the writing guidelines and templates
  4. Document with Word processor file formats of Microsoft Word (doc or docx) and Rich Text Format (rtf) no larger than 1 MB.
  5. All references mentioned in the Bibliography are cited in the text, and vice versa.