Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law

Focus and Scope

The Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law covers various fields related to Islamic law and its contemporary applications. Some of the key fields covered by the journal include:

• Islamic Law (Shariah)
• Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence)
• Comparative Law between Civil and Islamic Systems
• Islamic Commercial Jurisprudence (Fiqh Muamalat)
• Islamic Economy and Finance
• Islamic Banking and Finance
• Islamic Family Law and Personal Status
• Islamic Criminal Law and Penal Code
• Islamic Environmental Law and Ethics
• Islamic Human Rights
• Islamic Constitutional Law and Governance
• Islamic Law Philosophy and Epistemology
• Islamic law in History and Civilization
• Islamic Law Culture and Society
• Islamic Ethics and Morality

This is not an exhaustive list, and the journal may also cover other related fields as well.

Section Policies

Original Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Review Article

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Book Review

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

The Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (JCIL) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of scholarly integrity, academic quality, and ethical publishing. All manuscripts submitted to JCIL undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process to ensure originality, methodological soundness, and significant contribution to the field of contemporary Islamic law. Under the double-blind review system, the identities of both authors and reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process. Authors are therefore required to remove all identifying information from the manuscript before submission.

Publication Frequency

The Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (JCIL) is a peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal published biannually (twice per year) in June and December.

• Issue 1: Published in June (Recommended Submission Deadline: March 1)
• Issue 2: Published in December (Recommended Submission Deadline: September 1)

Note for Authors: JCIL accepts manuscript submissions year-round. Submissions received after the target deadline will be evaluated for the subsequent issue.

Open Access Policy

The Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (JCIL) is a fully open-access journal. All articles published by JCIL are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without subscription, registration, or access charges.

Readers may access, read, download, copy, print, search, link to, and share published articles in accordance with the Creative Commons licence applied by the Journal.

JCIL is committed to promoting the widest possible dissemination of scholarly research in contemporary Islamic law and related disciplines. The Journal does not impose an embargo period on published articles.

Authors may deposit the submitted manuscript, accepted manuscript, or published version of record in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, institutional websites, and other non-commercial scholarly platforms.

Where an article is deposited or shared, authors are encouraged to include:

• The full citation of the published article;
• The Digital Object Identifier (DOI); and
• A link to the article on the JCIL website.

JCIL does not charge readers or institutions for access to its published content. Any article processing charge or publication fee imposed on authors does not affect the free availability of published articles.

The Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (JCIL) is a fully open-access journal. All articles published by JCIL are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication, without subscription, registration, or access charges.

Readers may access, read, download, copy, print, search, link to, and share published articles in accordance with the Creative Commons licence applied by the Journal.

JCIL is committed to promoting the widest possible dissemination of scholarly research in contemporary Islamic law and related disciplines. The Journal does not impose an embargo period on published articles.

Authors may deposit the submitted manuscript, accepted manuscript, or published version of record in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites, institutional websites, and other non-commercial scholarly platforms.

Where an article is deposited or shared, authors are encouraged to include:

• The full citation of the published article;
• The Digital Object Identifier (DOI); and
• A link to the article on the JCIL website.

JCIL does not charge readers or institutions for access to its published content. Any article processing charge or publication fee imposed on authors does not affect the free availability of published articles.

Publication of Article Types

The Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law accepts scholarly manuscripts that contribute to the development of knowledge in Islamic law, Shariah, fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence, legal theory, and contemporary legal issues affecting Muslim societies. Authors are required to select the most appropriate article type during submission. The journal currently accepts the following categories of manuscripts:

1. Original Research Articles:
   An original research article presents new and significant scholarly findings related to Islamic law and its contemporary applications. This category includes empirical, doctrinal, conceptual, theoretical, comparative, historical, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research. Manuscripts submitted under this category should clearly state the research problem, research objectives, methodology, findings, discussion, and contribution to the field. The article must demonstrate originality, analytical depth, methodological rigour, and relevance to contemporary Islamic legal discourse. The recommended length for an original research article is between 5,000 and 6,000 words, excluding the abstract and references.
2. Review Articles:
   A review article provides a critical and analytical synthesis of existing literature on a specific topic related to Islamic law, Shariah, fiqh, Islamic legal theory, or contemporary Islamic legal issues. This category includes narrative reviews, systematic literature reviews, scoping reviews, integrative reviews, and thematic reviews. A review article should not merely summarise previous studies. It should critically examine the development of the topic, identify major debates, highlight research gaps, and propose future research directions. For systematic literature reviews and scoping reviews, authors are encouraged to clearly explain the search strategy, databases used, inclusion and exclusion criteria, screening process, and method of analysis. The recommended length for a review article is between 5,000 and 6,000 words, excluding the abstract and references.
3. Book Reviews:
   A book review provides a critical evaluation of a recently published academic book related to Islamic law and its contemporary applications. The review should assess the book’s main arguments, structure, contribution, strengths, limitations, and relevance to the field. A book review should include an introduction to the book, a summary of its main content, critical analysis, and a concluding assessment of its scholarly contribution. The recommended length for a book review is approximately 1,500 words, including references but excluding tables and figures.
   

General Requirements:
All manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by any other journal. Submissions must be relevant to the aims and scope of the journal and must follow the journal’s formatting, citation, and ethical requirements. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts observe proper academic integrity, citation practices, and research ethics. Where applicable, manuscripts should include statements on ethics approval, funding, conflict of interest, author contributions, data availability, and the use of artificial intelligence tools. The editorial office reserves the right to determine or reclassify the article type where necessary.

Publication Ethics

Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (JCIL) – is an open access and a peer-reviewed journal, available online and published twice a year. This statement clarifies the ethical behavior of all parties involved in the act of publishing an article in the journal, viz: the author, the chief editor, the peer-reviewer and the publisher (Department of Shariah, UKM). This statement is based on COPE’S (Committee on Publication Ethics) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Duties of Editors

Publication Decision: The editor of Journal of Contemporary Islamic Law (JCIL) is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

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

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 advisors, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and Conflict of interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in the editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decision:  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.

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.

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 editors.

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

Acknowledgement of Sources Reviewers should identify the 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 manuscripts under consideration and any other published paper which they have personal knowledge.

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

Reporting standards: Authors reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. The 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.

Data Access and Retention: Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper or editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data ( consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hazard and Human or Animal Subjects: If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

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.

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.