Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

IJICL welcomes original, unpublished scholarship concerning Islamic civilization and history; Qur'anic, hadith, Prophetic, jurisprudential, philosophical, and ethical studies; governance and political thought; leadership and management; education; and social finance; peace and dialogue; law and policy; community development; culture and heritage; science, technology, and the environment; and comparative or regional studies of Muslim societies.

Aims and Scope

IJICL publishes empirical, theoretical, historical, textual, interpretive, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, comparative, and applied scholarship. Contributions must demonstrate a clear method or evidential basis and advance knowledge, ethical leadership, policy, education, institutional practice, or civilizational understanding.

• Islamic Civilization and History: the formation, development, institutions, knowledge traditions, social organization, and global interactions of Muslim societies across historical periods

• Qur'anic, Hadith, and Prophetic Studies: academically rigorous research on scripture, hadith, sirah, Prophetic leadership, and their civilizational, ethical, educational, or institutional significance

• Islamic Thought, Philosophy, and Ethics: theology, philosophy, intellectual history, moral thought, maqasid al-shariah, contemporary ethics, and the renewal of Islamic thought

• Governance and Political Thought: Islamic perspectives on authority, consultation, justice, accountability, citizenship, public institutions, constitutionalism, diplomacy, and international relations

• Leadership and Management: ethical leadership, organizational behavior, strategic leadership, human-resource development, entrepreneurship, institutional performance, and leadership in public, private, educational, and nonprofit settings

• Islamic Education and Knowledge: curriculum, pedagogy, higher education, scholarly traditions, educational leadership, literacy, knowledge integration, and the development of learning institutions

• Islamic Economics and Social Finance: economic thought, Islamic finance, waqf, zakat, philanthropy, social enterprise, poverty reduction, and sustainable development

• Law, Society, and Public Policy: Islamic jurisprudence and legal history, public policy, legal pluralism, access to justice, contemporary governance, and the relationship between law, ethics, and society

• Peace, Dialogue, and Human Security: conflict transformation, reconciliation, mediation, humanitarian action, interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue, pluralism, human rights, and peacebuilding

• Community, Family, and Social Development: family and youth studies, gender and society, community leadership, migration and diaspora, social welfare, civil society, and changing Muslim communities

• Culture, Heritage, and the Arts: literature, language, manuscripts, architecture, archaeology, material culture, calligraphy, heritage preservation, media, and cultural expression in Muslim societies

• Science, Technology, and the Environment: Islamic perspectives on science, bioethics, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, environmental stewardship, climate responsibility, and sustainable futures

• Regional and Comparative Studies: The Horn of Africa, Africa, and other Muslim societies, including comparative and interdisciplinary studies of civilization, institutions, and leadership

Faith-informed and normative scholarship is welcome when its premises, sources, interpretive method, and research contribution are explicit. The journal does not publish unsupported preaching, sectarian polemic, discriminatory content, political propaganda, or work without a scholarly evidence base.

Peer Review Process

IJICL uses single-blind peer review. After editorial screening for scope, originality, ethics, source accuracy, respectful scholarly presentation, and basic quality, suitable manuscripts are normally reviewed by at least two independent specialists. Decisions are Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject. The journal targets a first decision within 6-8 weeks, and the Editor-in-Chief makes the final acceptance decision.

Plagiarism and Text Similarity Policy

Manuscripts are screened with a recognized text-similarity tool before review. Editors interpret results in context, considering correctly quoted material, references, Qur'anic verses, hadith texts, and unavoidable standard formulations:

• 0%-25%: acceptable for editorial consideration.

• 26%-40%: revision is normally required before review.

• Above 40%: normally rejected, with resubmission considered only after substantial rewriting and proper attribution.

Plagiarism, unattributed translation, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabrication, falsification, and citation manipulation are investigated under COPE principles.

Generative AI Policy

AI tools may support limited language improvement, transcription checking, translation support, coding, or formatting, but may not replace author judgment, conduct undisclosed interpretation of sacred or classical texts, fabricate sources or quotations, or generate undisclosed arguments, evidence, or conclusions. Any use must be declared before the reference list. AI cannot be an author. Authors remain fully accountable for the manuscript and for verifying every source and translation.

Authorship Criteria

Authors must have contributed substantially to the conception, design, source collection, fieldwork, analysis, interpretation, or writing; approved the final manuscript; and accepted accountability for the work. Funding, conflicts of interest, and permissions must be disclosed. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be acknowledged.

Research Publication and Religious Source Ethics

• Human-participant research requires ethics approval or a justified exemption, informed consent, and privacy safeguards.

• Research with vulnerable populations, religious minorities, conflict-affected communities, or culturally sensitive knowledge must explain additional protections.

• Qur'anic, hadith, jurisprudential, historical, and classical sources must be identified accurately, translated responsibly, and analyzed through an explicit scholarly method.

• Claims about authenticity, legal rulings, historical events, and attributed statements must state their evidential basis and represent disagreement fairly.

• Scholarly criticism must remain respectful; discriminatory, inflammatory, or sectarian language is not acceptable.

• Permissions are required for copyrighted manuscripts, images, translations, recordings, archival materials, and other third-party content.

• All financial, institutional, ideological, and personal conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

Correction Retraction and Withdrawal

Minor post-publication errors are corrected through a corrigendum. Errors that materially undermine the work or confirmed serious misconduct may result in retraction under COPE guidance. Before publication, withdrawal requests must be made in writing and approved by all authors. Withdrawal after acceptance is limited to exceptional circumstances; published articles are handled through correction or retraction.

Copyright and Open Access

IJICL is fully open access. Submission fees and article processing charges are waived for manuscripts submitted through December 2027. Authors retain copyright and grant IJICL and Hormuud University a non-exclusive publishing license under CC BY 4.0. Authors remain responsible for permissions and third-party material.

Article Types Accepted

• Original Research Article: approximately 5,000-8,000 words

• Review Article: approximately 6,000-10,000 words

• Civilizational or Historical Study: approximately 5,000-9,000 words

• Islamic Textual or Conceptual Study: approximately 4,000-8,000 words

• Leadership Case Study: approximately 4,000-7,000 words

• Policy or Practice Analysis: approximately 4,000-7,000 words

• Short Communication: approximately 2,000-3,500 words

• Book or Source Review: approximately 1,500-2,500 words

Manuscript Structure

Manuscripts must be prepared for single-blind review. Every manuscript requires a title page, abstract, keywords, coherent main text, conclusion, declarations, and references. The internal structure should reflect the article type and disciplinary tradition:

• Abstract: approximately 200-300 words describing the purpose, approach, principal argument or findings, contribution, and conclusion.

• Keywords: 5-8 specific terms immediately below the abstract.

• Empirical studies: introduction, literature or conceptual framework, methodology, results or findings, discussion, and conclusion.

• Historical studies: research problem, historiography, source base and criticism, historical context, analysis, and conclusion.

• Islamic textual or conceptual studies: question or thesis, interpretive framework, primary-source corpus, evidence-selection method, engagement with relevant traditions and scholarship, analysis, and conclusion.

• Leadership case studies and policy analyses: context, problem, evidence, analytical framework, findings, implications, limitations, and transferable lessons.

• Review articles: review question, search or selection method, synthesis, findings, limitations, and conclusion.

• Declarations after the conclusion: acknowledgements, funding, conflicts, ethics and consent, data or source availability, author contributions, and generative AI use where applicable.

Formatting Language and Transliteration

• Times New Roman throughout; 12 pt body text.

• 1.5 line spacing; justified alignment.

• A4 pages with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins and consecutive page numbers.

• Clear academic English; original-language material must be accompanied by an accurate translation when needed.

• Use one recognized transliteration system consistently; IJMES is recommended for Arabic.

• Identify Hijri and Gregorian dates consistently when both are relevant.

• Tables, figures, and manuscript images must be labelled, captioned, credited, cited, and supported by permission where required.

Reference Style

IJICL uses APA 7th edition for contemporary sources. Cite the Qur'an by surah and verse, for example (Qur'an 4:58), and list any quoted published translation in the references. Cite hadith by collection and hadith number and list the consulted edition or translation. References to classical works must identify the edition actually used, including editor or translator and volume information where applicable. Arabic and other non-English titles may be transliterated with an English translation in square brackets. References are arranged alphabetically with a hanging indent, and DOI links are included when available.

Publication Frequency and Fees

IJICL publishes twice each year: Issue 1 in September and Issue 2 in March. Submission fees and article processing charges are waived for manuscripts submitted through December 2027.

Submission

Manuscripts are submitted through Hormuud University's Open Journal Systems portal. Authors should upload the anonymized manuscript, separate title page, cover letter, declarations, and supplementary materials. Submission and editorial enquiries may be sent to ijicl@journals.hu.edu.so.