collections_bookmark Focus and Scope

Focus:

Al-Ahkam emphasizes the study of Islamic Law and Islamic Legal Studies in muslim societies. Both are studied in the format of contemporary issues in the framework of the reconstruction of thoughts and reform of Islamic law and positive law.

Scopes:

This journal specializes in studying the theory and practice of Islamic law and Islamic Legal Studies in Islamic societies and intends to reveal original research and current issues. This journal warmly welcomes the contributions of scholars from related fields who consider the following general topics;

1. Islamic Family Law
2. Islamic Criminal Law
3. Islamic Economic Law
4. Islamic Jurisprudence
5. Philosophy of Islamic Law
6. Islamic Constitutional Law
7. Islamic Law and Gender Issue
8. Islamic Law and Children Issue
9. Islamic Law and Dispute Resolution
10. Islamic Law and Philology (Turāth)

create_new_folder Section Policies

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

device_hub Peer Review Process

Al-Ahkam is a journal that follows the peer review process. When an article is submitted to the journal, it will be reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers (associate editors) in a closed (double-blind) review process. The editor (editorial board) will consider the feedback from the reviewers to decide whether to accept, reject or ask the author to revise and resubmit the article. If the article needs revision, the author should make the necessary improvements based on the feedback provided by the reviewer and resubmit the article. All articles submitted to Al-Ahkam will be checked for plagiarism using anti-plagiarism software. The Editor in Chief will make the final decision on the manuscript

event_note Publication Frequency

Al-Ahkam is published twice in April and October a year.

copyright Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global knowledge exchange.

unarchive Archiving

Al-Ahkam utilizes the Public Knowledge Project Private LOCKSS Network (PKP-PLN) to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries, which are permitted to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. See the LOCKSS Publisher Manifest.

bookmark_border Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

AL-AHKAM is a peer-reviewed journal, available in print and online, and published twice a year. This statement clarifies the ethical behavior of all parties involved in the act of publishing an article in this journal, including the author, the chief editor, the Editorial Board, the peer-reviewer­­­­­ and the publisher (Faculty of Sharia and Law, Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo, Semarang in collaboration with the Indonesian Consortium of Shariah Scholars (KSSI)). This statement is based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Ethical Guideline for Journal Publication

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed AL-AHKAM is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society.

Faculty of Sharia and Law, Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo, Semarang as the publisher of AL-AHKAM takes its duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing seriously and we recognize our ethical and other responsibilities. We are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, the Expert of Shariah and Law of the Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo, Semarang, and Editorial Board will assist in communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful and necessary.

Duties of Editors

1. Publication Decisions

The AL-AHKAM editor is responsible for deciding which articles to publish. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editors may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

2. Fair play

An editor at any time evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

3. Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

4. Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

 

Duties of Reviewers

1. Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

2. Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

3. Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

4. Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

5. Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

6. Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors

1. Reporting standards

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

2. Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

3. Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

4. Acknowledgment of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

5. Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

6. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

7. Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

bookmark_border Screening for Plagiarism

Articles submitted to Al-Ahkam will be filtered using Turnitin software, with a maximum of 15% similarities permitted.

Articles that have more than 15% similarity, the editor's actions are as follows:

1. If the article is very likely to be published (suitability of aim and scope, novelty, scientific contribution), then the editor will ask the author to make revisions.
2. If the article does not meet the standards (suitability of aim and scope, novelty, scientific contribution) then the article will be rejected immediately.

Plagiarism includes:

1. Word-for-word plagiarism – borrowing another author’s language word-for-word but not putting it in quotation marks or citing it correctly.
2. Source plagiarism – using the ideas of others without giving recognition or citing the source explicitly.
3. Plagiarism of authorship – presenting another author's work as one’s own.
4. Self-plagiarism - authors publishing an article in more than one journal by recycling papers. The important issue related to self-plagiarism is that when citing one's own work, significant changes must have been made to the new article. The previous article should only contain a small percentage of any new article produced. So readers will receive new information, which may be inspired by but different from the previous articles.

bookmark_border Revenue Sources, Advertising, and Direct Marketing Policy

Revenue Sources

Some operations of Al-Ahkam are funded by the State (the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia), through Daftar Isian Pelaksanaan Anggaran (DIPA) of Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang, Indonesia.

Advertising

Al-Ahkam does not accept advertising from any parties.

Direct Marketing

In promoting the journal and publications to the public, Al-Ahkam attempts to avoid actions detrimental to other parties (e.g., spreading spam) and to avoid misleading information between prospective authors and publishers.

bookmark_border Reference Manager Usage

The manuscript that is registered must use the manager's reference application: Mendeley or Zotero.

 

bookmark_border Retraction & Correction

Retraction & Correction (R & C) Policy

We understand that the authors have worked carefully preparing manuscripts, and we have carried out peer-review processes. However, sometimes there is the potential for published articles to be withdrawn or deleted for scientific reasons. It should not be done lightly and can only occur under extraordinary circumstances. Therefore, corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed will be carried out with strict standards to maintain confidence in the authority of its electronic archives. Our commitment and policy are to maintain the integrity and completeness of important scientific records for researchers and librarians' archives.

 Article Retraction

AL-AHKAM is committed to playing its part in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record; therefore, on occasion, it is necessary to retract articles. Articles may be retracted if:

1. There is a major scientific error that would invalidate the article's conclusions, for example, where there is clear evidence that findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g., data fabrication) or honest error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error).
2. The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission, or justification (i.e., cases of redundant publication).
3. There are ethical issues such as plagiarism (appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those obtained through confidential review of others' manuscripts) or inappropriate authorship.

To ensure that retractions are handled according to publication best practice and following COPE retraction guidelines, AL-AHKAM adopts the following retraction process:

1. An article requiring potential retraction is brought to the journal editor's attention.
2. The journal editor should follow the step-by-step guidelines according to the COPE flowcharts (including evaluating a response from the author of the article in question).
3. Before any action is taken, the editor's findings should be sent to the Ethics Advisory Board. The purpose of this step is to ensure a consistent approach in accordance with industry best practices.
4. The final decision as to whether to retract is then communicated to the author and, if necessary, any other relevant bodies, such as the author's institution on occasion.
5. The retraction statement is then posted online and published in the next available issue of the journal (see below for more details of this step).

Note that if authors retain the copyright for an article, this does not mean they automatically have the right to retract it after publication. The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance, and COPE’s Retraction Guidelines still apply in such cases.

Article Correction

AL-AHKAM should consider issuing a correction if:

1. A small part of an otherwise reliable publication reports flawed data or proves to be misleading, especially if this is the result of honest error.
2. The Author or Contributor list is incorrect (e.g., a deserving author has been omitted or someone who does not meet authorship criteria has been included).

Corrections to peer-reviewed content fall into one of three categories:

1. Publisher correction (erratum): to notify readers of a critical error made by publishing/journal staff (usually a production error) that has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
2. Author correction (corrigendum): to notify readers of an important error made by the Authors, which negatively impacts the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article or the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
3. Addendum: an addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main work.

The decision of whether a correction should be issued is made by the Editor(s) of a journal, sometimes with advice from Reviewers or Editorial Board members. Handling Editors will contact the Authors of the paper concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and which type rests with the Editors.

Article Removal

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove a published article from our online platform. This will only happen if an article is clearly defamatory, or infringes others’ legal rights, or where the article is, or we have good reason to expect that it will be, the subject of a court order, or where the article if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk. In such circumstances, while the article's metadata (i.e., title and author information) will be retained, the text will be replaced with a screen indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article Replacement

In cases where an article, if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk, the Authors of the original paper may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. Under such circumstances, the above procedures for retraction will be followed with the difference that the article retraction notice will contain a link to the corrected re-published article together with a history of the document.