07. Journal of Islamic Financial Studies
Aims and Scope
The Journal of Islamic Financial Studies (JIFS) is a double-blind peer-reviewed international academic journal which adopts a continuous publication model, embraces several key aims and a defined scope to navigate the dynamic landscape of Islamic as well as traditional business research.
The core objectives:
The Scope:
(including but not limited to):
Open Access Policy
The Editorial Office fully supports the global movement for free and open access to academic research results publication. We are convinced that free of charge online accessibility of research results promotes the development of university education and sciences worldwide. Thus, the Board takes an obligation to post in a timely manner every new issue of the journal for free download and further reading and to maintain the permanent archive of all published issues on the site of the journal. We are welcoming everybody who joins the community of our readers. However, we also expect that all works published online would not be subject to plagiarism and would be referenced properly in all further sources. Business Model / Publishing Fees
The journal is fully funded by the following organization:
Therefore, the Editorial Board has currently the capacities not to ask for publishing fees from the authors' side. In case if financial situation changes in the future – the Board will post this information online and notify via the email all concerned parties about such changes.
Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Abdulla Al Jalahma
Managing Editor
Dr. Gokhan Bora Aktan
Editorial Boardr
Advisory Board
Instructions for Authors
All contributions emailed to the editorial office for consideration are initially treated as authors' original research and are subject to double-blind peer-review according to the standard academic practice in the field.
General Information
Only papers in English are considered. Each article is reviewed by two experts, appointed by the Editorial Board, from the list of in-house reviewers approved by the Board who will examine the manuscript in terms of its relevance, originality of contribution and applicability. An electronic copy for anonymous consideration should be prepared in MS Word, Times New Roman following the technical requirements presented below. Contributions in pdf cannot be considered for technical reasons.
Structure of the Article
An article should preferable include the following structural units: title, authors' names and affiliations; abstract and keywords, introduction (with the object and goal of the research, the methods applied, the review of literature and its analysis, etc.), the main text, conclusions or recommendations, references at the end of the article. The authors may wish to provide personal data in a separate Word file. In any case, each submission would be anonymized and decoded before it is offered for blind review. Depending on the style and methodology of a particular research, some of the units may be omitted and added. However, the text should still maintain the internal logic of research material presentation which would be easy to follow by a reviewer, editor and further readers from the wider public.
Format of the Article
The text of the article should be with single intervals on 240x170 mm format pages with the print area of 130×183 mm each. The length of the article cannot exceed 25 pages. The title of the article should be printed in 13 pt bold type, centered. There should be a single line space between the title and the author's name. The name and surname of the authors should be 9 pt bold type, also centred. Below the author's surname, the name of the institution (represented by the author or coauthors) must be printed in 8 pt italic; its address and the author's contact e-mail, centred.
Abstract and Keywords should be single spaced, 9 pt, in one column and after the institution address and space of three lines below the institution address should be left. Abstract and Keywords must be printed in bold.
The size of the abstract – about 400-600 typographic characters overall. There should be a space of one line between the abstract and keywords.
5-8 keywords should be provided which represent the core contents and central ideas of the paper.
Introduction, main text and conclusions should be printed in 9 pt type single interval in one column at the distance of 1 line from keywords.
Figures or tables should be of high printing quality. Graphics material of no less than 300 dpi, standard page size.
If figures, tables, diagrams etc. are borrowed, not constructed/calculated by the author – this should be properly indicated with an exact reference.
The titles of chapters and sub-chapters - 9 pt bold-regular, aligned left. Introduction, titles of chapters and conclusions must be numbered.
The name of the author of the source, year of publication and pages should be presented in the text in brackets. The full list of references must be given after the conclusions. The word References is spelled in 9 pt bold-regular type, left ranged and the list of references goes in 9 pt. The references are to be presented in alphabetical order, in the original language of publication, while translation into English, whenever needed, is given in square brackets after.
All references should be arranged according to Harvard style. For example, please, visit, for example:
http://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/friendly.php?s=harvard
http://libguides.nus.edu.sg/c.php?g=145626&p=955164
http://libguides.nus.edu.sg/c.php?g=145626&p=955164
The authors are also encouraged to use the following template.
JIFS Template Copyright 2023.docx
Journal of Islamic Financial Studies (JIFS) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. Authors who submit papers to JIFS attest that their work is original and unpublished, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. In addition, authors are supposed to confirm that their paper is their own; that it has not been copied or plagiarized, in whole or in part, from other works; and that they do not have any actual or potential conflicts of interest related to the presented work or commercial benefits associated with it.
Overall, in all its practices, policies and procedures the Editorial Board is doing its best to follow the common International standards.
DUTIES OF EDITORS
Decision on Publication of Articles
The Editor in Chief of JIFS is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The Editor in Chief is also guided by the policies of the Scientific Publishing Center of the University of Bahrain and subjected to such legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Review of Manuscripts
Decision-making Editor in Chief must ensure that each manuscript is initially evaluated by the editor/co-editor, making use of appropriate software to examine the originality of the contents.
The choice of a particular software for plagiarism check is subject to chief editor/host editor preferences and general availability/access. In contradictory cases two or more ways can be applied to make sure higher efficiency of plagiarism testing is reached. The text is forwarded to blind review only AFTER the positive result (that is, no borrowings detected) is known.
Each of two anonymous reviewers is supposed to provide a recommendation on whether to publish (or not) the manuscript in its present form or to modify it for further publishing. In case of contradiction and/or bias presented in the reviews, the final decision remains to be the responsibility of the editor in chief. However, if the latter decides against the decision of a reviewer – the chief editor is expected to provide feedback to the reviewer explaining the reasons behind such a decision. In case two reviews of the same text provide the opposite, contradicting results – the final decision remains to be the responsibility of the chief editor.
We expect our reviewers provide their feedback in a timely and polite manner, with the max accurate wording and well-grounded explanation of their views and decisions. The review timing, depending on the load and reviewers' availability, may be from 3 weeks up to 3 months (in extraordinary cases).
Confidentiality
The Editors in Chief/editors and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher.
The Editorial Board does not communicate on publishing decisions with third parties, other than authors directly, even in those cases when third party represents the same institution to which an author is affiliated.
DUTIES OF REVIEWERS
Promptness
In case, a reviewer feels that it is not possible for him/her to complete the review within the indicated time framework - this must be communicated to the chief editor, so that the manuscript could be reassigned to another reviewer.
Confidentiality
All information regarding manuscripts and provided on the pages of the manuscripts under review should be kept confidential and treated as privileged information.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Regardless the results of plagiarism check, the reviewers are responsible, inter alia, for analyzing the reference list used and literature review within the text so that to assess proper citing and relevance of the sources chosen to the topic and the problem posed. All borrowed fragments must be accompanied by relevant citations data. All quotes must be arranged according to internationally acknowledged standards of referencing.
DUTIES OF AUTHORS
Data Access and Retention
Authors may be asked at any stage of paper consideration to provide the related raw data and calculations for additional review and double check. Such data should be also kept in store after the actual publication of the paper for at least 2 calendar years after the article was published.
Originality and Plagiarism
All texts submitted are treated by default as authors' original contribution at which all borrowed data are referenced properly. Any violations related to copyright and authorship as well as repeated attempts to present plagiarized work as own may become the reasons for author's ban, temporary or permanent, from all further cooperation with the journal.
Multiple Publications
It is among the top priority policies for the journal to prevent and avoid by all means what is known as research salami and/or texts cloning. Thus, we ask all our authors to restrain from multiple publishing and/or duplication of the materials for publishing in several journals in parallel. We treat such behavior as unacceptable; therefore, cases of obvious research results repetition would be considered as self-plagiarism and banned accordingly.
Authorship of the Paper
Authorship of an article should be limited specifically to those who indeed contributed to the initial concept, design, methodology, carrying out the research and follow-up analysis of the results. All those with significant contributions to the empirical part of the research study should be listed as coauthors. Other contributors who participated indirectly and/or insignificantly could be mentioned in the acknowledgement lines.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
If the authors anticipate a potential conflict of interests related to copyright or commercial interest – they are encouraged to inform the editorial office explaining the situation and the potential risks, however, the conflict itself should be resolved independently.
All sources of financial support/ grant sources/sponsorship/product placement fees related to publication should be mentioned in the acknowledgement lines with the exact and accurate indication of all necessary data (e.g., project # and name, sponsoring institution etc.).
Fundamental Errors in Published Works
If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own already published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the editorial office with the retraction request providing all necessary details. In all retraction procedures the Editorial Board intends to follow the standard COPE rules and recommendations.
This journal is indexed by these worldwide databases: