INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEOLOGICAL AND ISLAMIC STUDIES - JIST
AUTHOR GUIDELINES AND REWIEW PROCESS
• International Journal of Theological and Islamic Studies - JIST (Marmara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi) is a double-blind peer-reviewed, international and open access academic journal published twice a year (June and December) in the fields of theological and Islamic Studies.
• JIST publishes academic contributions under the following categories: research articles, research notes, book reviews, reviews of conferences and meetings, interviews, and obituary notes.
• JIST accepts contributions in Turkish, English, Arabic, Persian, German, and French.
• Manuscripts are expected to be related to at least one of the subfields of theological and Islamic studies.
• As a rule, JIST does not publish more than one research article of the same author in a single issue. It is, however, possible to publish more than one piece by the same author in different categories depending on the Editorial Board's decision.
• JIST is published twice a year (June 15, December 15). Research articles must be submitted at least three months before (March 15 for the June issue and August 15 for the December issue) and contributions in the other categories should be sent at least two months before the publication date (April 15 and September 15 respectively) to be considered for inclusion in the nearest issue. However, timely submission does not necessarily guarantee that the manuscripts will have undergone all the necessary steps to be published in that period of time. Articles whose reviewal and editorial processes have not been completed are published in the next issue.
• JIST expects manuscripts to be 35 pages or fewer, excluding bibliography, tables and figures, but still considers longer manuscripts.
• JIST follows the Chicago Manual of Style for citations and bibliography in English articles and modifies it in articles in Turkish and other languages (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html).
• All articles should include a bibliography of the works cited. Arabic and Persian articles should also be appended with a bibliography in Roman script.
• JIST requires that all authors submit all manuscripts online through the Dergipark system. Authors who cannot submit online should contact (ilahiyat.dergi@marmara.edu.tr) to get help from the editorial team. The Journal does not require a submission fee.
• Authors are expected to read the JIST’s Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement beforehand.
• Prior to the submission of the manuscripts to the journal, authors are expected to peruse the JIST Publication Guide. Manuscripts should be written in Microsoft Office Word with the Times New Roman font in 11-point size and 1.5-spaced (.doc) or (.docx) extension, left-aligned, and all text, including headings, should be defined as normal text.
• Prior to submission, the footnotes, summary, bibliography, tables, etc. should be complete.
• Articles should include the authors’ titles and institutional affiliations with ORCID numbers and e-mail addresses in a footnote with the symbol (*).
• All articles should include an abstract both in English and in Turkish of 700-750 words and 5-8 keywords. Turkish abstracts for the non-Turkish writings might be provided by the journal’s editorial team.
• JIST applies the full transliteration system for Arabic, Persian, and the Ottoman Turkish. For this reason, it expects manuscripts to be transliterated according to the rules laid out in the JIST Transliteration Guide.
• The publication rights of the articles to be published belong to the JIST. For this reason, in the initial submission of the manuscripts, regardless of the category of the manuscript, the Copyright Release Agreement must be filled out duly and uploaded to the system together with the manuscript. Unfortunately, the JIST cannot make any payments to the authors if the articles are published.
• All or parts of the submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously or should not be under consideration elsewhere.
• Manuscripts are checked against a plagiarism software during the initial evaluation process.
• All manuscripts undergo a two-tiered review: first, initial evaluation by the editorial staff for overall quality and interest (e.g., the originality of the articles, the harmony of their content to the scope of the JIST and the suitibility of their style and structure), and second, peer-review process. The initial evaluation process normally takes approximately 15 days while the reviewing process takes approximately 30 days but occasionally longer.
• The initial evaluation does not involve referee review but rather is intended to decide whether the article is suitable to move forward for peer-reviewing. If the article does not pass through the initial evaluation process, the article is returned to the owner.
• Articles that fit the JIST’s scope and standards are sent to two anonymous reviewers, distinguished on the subject, for evaluation. The identities of the authors and the reviewers are never disclosed. The publication of an article depends upon the approval of these reviewers, and authors must provide the necessary corrections demanded by them. In case the two of the reviewers accept an article as publishable, the article is published; if both of them reject the article, it is rejected and not published. In case the two ref disagree regarding publication, the article is sent to a third reviewer; if this third reviewer accepts the article, it is published and if not the article is rejected.
• The peer-reviews are shared with the author. When the author resubmits a revised draft based on these reviews, the Editorial Board examines this new draft along with peer-reviews and, if it exists, the author’s responses to the reviewers’ comments. The Editorial Board decides whether to publish, request further revisions or return the article to the author; the Editorial Board may also send the article back to the reviewers who can assess if their concerns and suggestions have been addressed satisfactorily.
• The authors should avoid any self-reference that may reveal their identity to the reviewers. They can make the necessary changes and add the necessary references to the final version of the article.
• Once an article is approved, the author must sign the Copyright Release Agreement of the JIST.
• Articles accepted for publication are rigorously edited and their sources and references are meticulously checked by the members of the Editorial Board. This may take a few weeks and may possibly delay the publication of the article.
• The Editorial Board decides the journal issue in which the article will be published.
• Research notes are not forwarded to reviwers, but they are examined by one of the Editorial Board members after the editors’ initial evaluation. Once approved, the ensuing process for research notes is the same as for articles.
• Book reviews are examined by the book review editor of the JIST. After corrections and revisions, the Editorial Board decides whether to publish the review; the process then follows the aforementioned processes for publication.