Editorial Workflow

Al-Ihkam: Jurnal Hukum dan Pranata Sosial applied Open Journal Systems 3.2.1.4, which is an open-source journal management and publishing software developed by the Public Knowledge Project. The entire editorial workflow is handled using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform.

The editorial workflow grants Editors the authority to immediately reject any manuscript after early screening if it does not align with the journal’s focus and scope, lacks a basis in field research, fails similarity checks, or does not conform to the Al-Ihkam template. However, if authors submit a manuscript with a particularly thought-provoking topic and it does not pass early screening, they may be invited to resubmit after receiving editorial feedback from the Editors.
 
The editor assigns peer reviewers anonymously, selecting them based on their expertise to ensure a blind, high-quality, fair, and unbiased peer-review process. For a manuscript to be accepted for publication in the journal, it must receive recommendations from at least two external reviewers, in addition to the approval of the editor responsible for the manuscript.

To be published in Al-Ihkam: Jurnal Hukum dan Pranata Sosial, a manuscript must meet the following minimum criteria for each section. For clarity and ease of reference, the criteria are numbered under each heading:

INTRODUCTION
  1. Clear explanation of the social or academic issue being investigated.
  2. Must be field-based research (Any theoretical or literature-based research will be declined).
  3. Relevant theoretical framework supporting the study.
  4. Demonstrating novelty by presenting the position of the current research among previous relevant research(es) in the literature review (state of the art) as the basis of the brand-new research questions.
  5. Alignment between research questions and subheadings in the Results and Discussion section.
METHOD
  1. Research procedures should be clearly and comprehensively explained.
  2. The selected methods should be relevant to the research questions.
  3. The explanation of the method should be practical rather than excessively theoretical or conceptual.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
  1. Results are clearly presented before the discussion.
  2. Each subheading should correspond to one research question.
  3. Discussion demonstrates analytical and critical engagement.
  4. Interpretation is supported by relevant, preferably more recent, theories and literature.
CONCLUSION
  1. Conclusions are consistent with the research findings.
  2. Contributions and implications are clearly stated.
  3. Limitations are acknowledged appropriately.
  4. Suggestions for future research are relevant.
In conclusion, a manuscript will be considered acceptable for publication in Al-Ihkam: Jurnal Hukum dan Pranata Sosial if it presents a clear research problem, is based on field research, demonstrates novelty and academic significance, applies rigorous analysis, and offers a thought-provoking topic with a meaningful contribution to ongoing scholarly discussions, all in line with the journal’s scope and standards.

The following is the Editorial Workflow that every submitted manuscript undergoes during the peer-review process.

  1. Al-Ihkam: Jurnal Hukum dan Pranata Sosial upholds a double blind peer review to ensure the quality and validity of the manuscripts to be published. This statement is based on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
  2. The submitted manuscript must include the plagiarism screening results, including a similarity percentage and AI detection, generated by plagiarism-checking tools such as Turnitin, with values below 20%.
  3. The submitted manuscript will be assigned to one editor by the editor-in-chief. Al-Ihkam has three areas of expertise for editors: Islamic Family Law (Al-Aḥwāl Asy-Syakhṣiyyah), Sharia Economic Law (Mu‘āmalah), and Sharia Constitutional Law (As-siyāsah Asy-Syar‘iyyah). The assigned editor will be responsible for the manuscript from submission until the final decisions are made, either published or declined.
  4. The editors read all submitted manuscripts in an average of 7-14 working days before making the first decision. However, it may take more time if the queues are long.
  5. The editor will first check whether the manuscripts meet the journal’s focus and scope. Manuscripts that do not align with the journal's focus and scope will be declined immediately.
  6. The manuscripts that meet the journal’s focus and scope will be checked for suitability with the journal’s template. In this case, all technical writing formats are evaluated, including paragraph structure, font, font size, layout, and reference style. Please be noted that Al-Ihkam uses the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition (full-note) Style in referencing, and it must be cited using Mendeley Reference Manager.
  7. The manuscripts will be returned to the authors for minor revision, or the editors may reject them if they do not follow the journal’s template.
  8. The manuscripts that have passed steps 5 and 6 will be considered as potential manuscripts for Al-Ihkam: Jurnal Hukum dan Pranata Sosial. Next, the editor will send them to peer reviewers.
  9. The Al-Ihkam uses a double-blind peer-review system, which means both reviewers and authors’ identities remain anonymous. The paper will be peer-reviewed by two experts who are aligned with the manuscript's topics.
  10. The review process may take 2-4 months. The reviewers will then submit their reports on the manuscripts along with their recommendations.
  11. The review reports are collected from the reviewers, and the editor will send them to the authors, including all terms and conditions of publication.
  12. If the manuscript is accepted as subject to revision, the editor will send the review reports to the author/corresponding author, including a formal request to revise the manuscript within two weeks as per the suggestions of the reviewers. The editor will send the reviewers' comments to the authors, along with a conditional Letter of Acceptance and the part of the Article Publication Charge payment.
  13. The authors should revise the manuscript and upload it before the due date, completed with the conditional APC payment proof. Authors who do not complete the APC will be considered to have ended the editorial process, and the manuscript will not proceed to the next steps.
  14. The editors will return the revised manuscript to the reviewers with the same (or not too quite different) assessment or review result; the manuscript is said to be finally rejected. The journal will not proceed with the said manuscript. However, if there are very minor changes or significant changes during the revision, the editorial board may consider the paper for further revision.
  15. Along with this decision, the editors will give an Unconditional Letter of Acceptance along with an APC fee payment completion letter. This step clearly shows that the manuscript is ACCEPTED.
  16. The authors must upload the APC fee payment completion through the Al-Ihkam open journal system or by the official email of Al-Ihkam at alihkam@uinmadura.ac.id. 
  17. The accepted paper is processed for publication (soft copy) upon the successful completion of the journal’s terms and conditions.
  18. Proofreading: The editor will send the processed manuscript (MS Word) for publication to the proofreader for proofreading. It ensures there are no typos, redundancy, grammatical errors, and overlapping ideas within the manuscript. The proofreading itself can be done by either journal editors or a trusted or certified professional.
  19. Copy Editing: The editor will send the proofread manuscript to copyediting for the author's final check. During this stage, the author collaborated with editors to ensure everything is in place, ensure compliance with the journal's bibliography and textual style, and produce edited copies to be sent to the Production Editor. These steps can be performed in multiple cycles if necessary.
  20. The Production Editors will update article metadata, including title, abstract, authors' names and affiliations, keywords, DOI numbers, and references. They will also perform layout to convert it into a "galley" file in PDF format, which will appear in the journal's publication format.
  21. The paper is published online. The editor will notify the author/corresponding author about online publication with the necessary download link. The author/corresponding author may request any correction in the published paper (in case of extremely important changes) within one week of online publication.
For supplementary information, please read our focus and scope, peer review process, author guidelines, and plagiarism screening policy for this journal.