Focus and Scope

el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam is a peer-reviewed and open-access journal published by Humas, Dokumentasi & Publikasi of Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang. It aims to promote scientific publication on Islamic culture and local wisdom in Indonesia and Southeast Asia region.

The scope included in el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam covers:

(1) The cultural traditions and practices rooted in Islam,

(2) Islam and dynamics of local wisdom,

(3) The unique characteristics of Indonesian Islam within its cultural diversity,

(4) Dynamic of thoughts in Islamic culture,

(5) Actual values of local wisdom and Islamic culture,

(6) The historical and cultural roles of Islam in shaping societies,

(7) The role of education in promoting Islamic culture,

(8) The integration of Islamic faith of local tradition,

(9) The impact of Islamic culture on business practices, and

(10) Cultural divergence in Islamic civilization.

Starting June 2025, el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam adopts a thematic focus for each issue to enhance the quality of published articles in terms of analytical depth, research novelty, and academic relevance to contemporary issues in Islamic and cultural studies. This policy is part of the journal’s continuous effort to improve its publication standards and to ensure greater qualification for inclusion in reputable international indexing databases. 

Section Policies

ARTICLES

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

Paper submitted to el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam will be reviewed by some expert of Islamic cultural studies from several universities in different countries (double-blind peer-review). It will take for about a month to conduct the review. Every paper submitted will be scanned for plagiarism before it is sent to the reviewer.

Manuscript submitted to this journal should meet the general criteria:

• The paper submitted in the journal must follow Focus and Scope and Author Guidelines of this journal.
• The submitted manuscript must be original, unpublished work, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• It must fulfill scientific merit and novelty or new contribution to knowledge to the focus and scope of this study
• Written in English or Arabic language. Authors whose English/Arabic is not their native language are encouraged to have their paper checked for grammar and clarity before submission.
• All articles submitted are screened for plagiarism using Turnitin. Only articles with an overall similarity index and AI detection rate of 15% or less will be considered for publication.

Manuscripts are scrutinized for structure, organization, correctness, and clarity of language and compliance with the Author Guidelines of el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam. Typographical, grammatical, content clarity and format compliance of manuscripts are the author's responsibility(s). Manuscripts not meeting these conditions will be returned to the authors.

When a manuscript has passed the editorial office review process, it is subjected to a double-blind review system. At least two external reviewers are chosen from the database of this journal, the journal's editorial board, or other sources. These reviewers are subject matter experts in the field. Invitations to review are sent to the reviewers with attached abstracts. A double-blind peer review technique is used by el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam, an anonymous peer review system in which the identity of the manuscript's author(s) is kept hidden from the reviewers. Before a manuscript is given to a reviewer, details that could reveal to a reviewer of author(s)'s identity in the manuscript would be erased. When sending the reviewers' comments to the author(s), the reviewers' identities are likewise hidden from the author(s). Because it limits possible bias from either the selected reviewers or the authors, this journal deems the double-blind peer system a more effective review system.

The reviewers evaluate the manuscript based on the following criteria:

1. Relevance and Significance:

   • Does the paper address a current issue in the field of Islamic culture and local wisdom?
   • Is the topic significant and contributes to advancing knowledge in the relevant domain?

2. Title and Content Alignment:

   • Does the title accurately represent the content of the paper?
   • Is there a clear connection between the title and the main ideas discussed in the manuscript?

3. Organization and Structure:

   • Is the manuscript proportionally organized across different sections (e.g., introduction, methodology, analysis, conclusions)?
   • Are the sections well-balanced and contribute logically to the overall flow of the paper?
   • Is the paper well-written, with clarity and coherence in language?

4. Analysis and Synthesis:

   • Is the analysis and synthesis appropriate for the focus of the paper?
   • Are the arguments well-supported by evidence, and are different perspectives adequately considered?

5. Conclusions and Generalizations:

   • Are the conclusions clearly presented?
   • Are generalizations appropriately made based on the analysis, and are they in line with the findings?
   • Are there practical implications based on the conclusion?

6. Formatting and Template Adherence:

   • Does the manuscript follow the prescribed formatting and template guidelines of the journal or conference?

7. Citation and References:

   • Are all citations within the paper correctly listed in the reference section?
   • Are references formatted according to the required citation style and tool?

Detailed information about the flow for the manuscript submission (author) to the acceptance by the editor is shown in the following figure.

In short, the steps are:

1. Manuscript submission (by author) (route 1)
2. Manuscript check and selection (by manager and editors) (route 2). Editors have a right to directly accept, reject, or review. Prior to further processing steps, plagiarism check using Turnitin is applied for each manuscript. Only articles with an overall similarity index and AI detection rate of 15% or less will be considered for publication.
3. Manuscript reviewing process (by reviewers) (route 3 & 4)
4. Notification of manuscript acceptance, revision, or rejection (by editor to author based on reviewers comments) (route 5)
5. Paper revision (by author)
6. Revision submission based on reviewer suggestion (by author) with the similar flow to point number 1. (route 1)
7. If the reviewer seems to be satisfied with revision, notification for acceptance (by editor). (route 6)
8. Galley proof and publishing process (route 7 & 8)

The steps point number 1 to 5 are considered as 1 round of the peer-reviewing process (see the grey area in the figure). The editor or editorial board considers the feedback provided by the peer reviewers and arrives at a decision. The following are the most common decisions:

• Accept "as it is"
• Requires minor corrections
• Requires major revisions
• Resubmit (conditional rejection) 
• Reject. In this case, the reviewer provides the specific reason(s) why the manuscript is not further processed.

In general, to be acceptable, a paper should represent an advance in understanding likely to influence thinking in the field. There should be a discernible reason why the work deserves the visibility of publication in el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam rather than the best of the specialist journals.

The final decision of manuscript acceptance is solely made by Editor in Chief and/or Associate Editor (together with Editorial Board, if required) according to reviewers' critical comments. Publication of accepted articles including assigning the article to the published issues will be made by Editor in Chief by considering the sequence of accepted date and geographical distribution of authors as well as a thematic issue.

Publication Frequency

el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam is published twice a year, in June and December. Each volume of this journal is published annualy.

Open Access Policy

el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download.  We are continuously working with our author communities to select the best choice of license options, currently being defined for this journal is: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA)

This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. You are free to: (a) Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; (b) Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
• No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Publication Ethics

el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to ensure that the publication process and outcome are ethical, following the best publication practice in all processes of publication. Please review the brief description of core practices at the journal. For more detailed information, please refer to COPE official website https://publicationethics.org/core-practices.

Allegations of Misconduct

When an allegation of misconduct is brought to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief, they will investigate the truth of this allegation. When there is a concern about a lack of ability or a conflict of interest, the Editor-in-Chief will advise the head of the Pusat Publikasi Ilmiah (Academic Publication Center) of LP2M Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim to establish an independent committee to investigate the allegation. If the allegation is proven based on the result of the investigation, the Editor-in-Chief will take further action, including but not limited to article amendment, article retraction, author removal from authorship, and assignment of additional reviewers.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authors submitting manuscripts to el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam must include in the cover letter a clear statement of each author’s contribution—limited to data acquisition, data analysis, data interpretation, article writing, critical review, or final approval—and confirm that no deserving contributors have been omitted. Changes in authorship must be reported with full justification and the consent of all authors, and will generally not be accepted after the final revision stage, which is the version approved for publication.

The number of authors per manuscript may not exceed five. In line with the journal’s scope—covering cultural traditions rooted in Islam, local wisdom, Indonesian Islamic diversity, historical and cultural roles of Islam, education in promoting Islamic culture, integration of Islamic faith and local traditions, and the cultural impact of Islam—authorship must reflect substantial scholarly contributions relevant to these themes.

Complaints and Appeals

The Editor-in-Chief of el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam, together with the handling editor, addresses complaints related to publication decisions, processes, and ethics. Authors may appeal a rejection if they believe it lacks satisfactory justification. Desk rejections after internal screening include a brief explanation and may be reconsidered upon appeal. While rejections after external review are generally final, appeals are accepted if inconsistencies exist between reviewers’ feedback and the editorial decision. All appeals are reviewed, and the results communicated to the authors or complainants.

For process-related complaints, the editors strive to ensure timely reviews, though delays may occur due to reviewers’ academic commitments. If delays are caused by the journal, corrective action will be taken. Ethical complaints are handled by the Editor-in-Chief in accordance with COPE guidelines and recommended procedures.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest occurs when the authors, their supervisors or their sponsors have certain relationships with other persons or organizations which can influence their research. All potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed by the authors when submitting the papers. The authors must also report a conflict of interest which might occur after the paper is submitted if it happens before the paper is officially published. el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam adheres to COPE in handling potential undisclosed conflicts of interest raised during the review process or after the paper is published. For more information about conflict of interest, read this article https://publicationethics.org/news/cope-education-subcommittee-focus-conflicts-interest

Upon receiving a report of a potential undisclosed conflict of interest from editors, reviewers, or readers, the Editor-in-Chief will notify the authors, explain the journal’s policy, and request a signed statement on all relevant conflicts. If necessary, the authors’ organization may be contacted. For post-publication reports, the Editor-in-Chief will assess whether the conflict exists and if it has affected the research or review process. Depending on the findings, the article may be corrected, retracted, or left unchanged with a correction notice, and the reporting party will be informed of the outcome.

Data and Reproducibility

The authors are encouraged to share the data used in their papers to be published as a supplementary document.  The author is responsible for the accuracy of data, and no data fabrication or image manipulation is allowed. This journal follows COPE guidance in handling cases of suspected data fabrication and image manipulation. 

When readers express their suspicion of fabricated data in a published article at el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam, the Editor-in-Chief consults relevant data experts at Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang. If suspicion of misconduct or image manipulation is confirmed, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the authors for clarification, and if necessary, their institutions. Based on the evidence, actions may include requesting a correction, publishing an expression of concern, or retracting the article. The severity of the issue—whether minor or serious—will guide the decision, and the outcome will be communicated to the readers who raised the concern.

Ethical Oversight

Editorial staff observes the ethical compliance of research which has been considered to be reviewed for publication in el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam. As defined by COPE, ethical oversight includes “publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices”, and other issues related to research and publication ethics. All authors must be transparent on how ethics approval and consent are obtained and followed throughout research and publication. 

When readers report suspected violations of ethical oversight, the Editor-in-Chief will investigate and, if the violation is confirmed, take appropriate action—such as requesting a correction or retracting the article—based on the severity of the case, and inform the readers who raised the concern of the decision.

Intellectual Property

All authors are required to obtain the intellectual property right of any materials included in the submitted manuscript, including tables and figures. In addition, the manuscript should not contain or be based on any data or information which breach the national or legal framework of a country. Information obtained from any source needs to be appropriately cited. The similarity index allowed is 15%, but intentional use of texts from other sources without proper citation is not allowed, although the overall similarity index is under 15%. Furthermore, all articles published in el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

For concerns regarding intellectual property—such as plagiarism—raised by editors, reviewers, or readers, the Editor-in-Chief of el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam will conduct a thorough investigation. Minor issues may result in a correction, while major issues require a formal explanation from the authors. Unsatisfactory explanations can lead to rejection (for manuscripts under review) or retraction (for published articles), whereas satisfactory explanations may still result in correction or rejection depending on the case. The decision will be communicated to the party raising the concern, and the authors’ institution may be contacted when necessary.

Journal Management

el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam is not a member of COPE. However, the journal follows COPE Core Practices on authorship, contributorship, peer review processes, and publication process. The journal also follows COPE Core Practice in responding to suspected ethical breaches by authors, reviewers, and editors. In addition, the journal has an open access policy following DOAJ guidelines and adheres to the principle of transparency.

Post-Publication Discussions

When el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam receives a critique from readers regarding the manuscript which has previously been published, the Editor-in-Chief will investigate this critique to determine whether it is defamatory or libellous. The critique is rejected if it is potentially libellous or defamatory. If not, the critique is investigated further, which can result in article correction and publication of the critique along with the author’s response.

Also, whenever notified of potential redundant publication, the Editor-in-Chief of el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam will investigate the case to determine its severity. Minor redundancies require authors to revise the article by adding missing citations or references, while major redundancies prompt a formal explanation from the authors. Unsatisfactory explanations or admission of the error will result in article retraction and notification to the editor of the other journal involved. Depending on the findings, the Editor-in-Chief may also consider correction, and the authors’ institution may be contacted. The decision will be communicated to the reader who raised the concern.

Generative AI Statement

el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam acknowledges the transformative role of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies in the landscape of academic research and publishing. We recognize that GenAI tools can offer valuable assistance in enhancing the efficiency, clarity, and accessibility of scholarly writing. However, their use must be governed by principles of transparency, academic integrity, and ethical responsibility.
Authors submitting manuscripts to el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam are encouraged to disclose any use of GenAI technologies in the preparation of their work, including but not limited to drafting, editing, data analysis, or content generation. Such disclosure enables the journal to maintain rigorous peer review standards and ensures full transparency in the research communication process.
While GenAI can support authors in refining language and structure, el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam emphasizes that the intellectual contributions, interpretations, and conclusions presented in manuscripts remain the sole responsibility of the authors. The journal reserves the right to evaluate the appropriateness of GenAI usage in each submission in accordance with prevailing academic norms and ethical guidelines.
el Harakah Jurnal Budaya Islam is committed to monitoring developments in GenAI technologies and adapting its policies accordingly to uphold the highest standards of scholarly publishing in a rapidly evolving digital era.

Plagiarism Notice & Research Misconduct Allegation

Plagiarism occurs when an author takes ideas, information, or words from another source without proper credit to the source. Even when it occurs unintentionally, plagiarism is still a serious academic violation, and unacceptable in international academic publications. When the author learns specific information (a name, date, place, statistical number, or other detailed information) from a specific source, a citation is required.  

When the author takes an idea from another author, a citation is required—even if the author then develops the idea further. This might be an idea about how to interpret the data, either what methodology to use or what conclusion to draw. It might be an idea about broad developments in a field or general information. Regardless of the idea, authors should cite their sources. In cases where the author develops the idea further, it is still necessary to cite the original source of the idea, and then in a subsequent sentence the author can explain her or his more developed idea.

When the author takes words from another author, a citation and quotation marks are required. Whenever four or more consecutive words are identical to a source that the author has read, the author must use quotation marks to denote the use of another author’s original words; just a citation is no longer enough.

El Harakah as a respected international journal, wants to ensure that all authors are careful and comply with international standards for academic integrity, particularly on the issue of plagiarism

El Harakah takes academic integrity very seriously, and the editors reserve the right to withdraw acceptance from a paper found to violate any of the standards set out above. For further information, potential authors can contact the editorial office at elharakahjurnal@gmail.com

Article Processing Charge

Authors are not required to pay an Article Submission Fee as part of the submission process to contribute to review costs.

Starting from the manuscript submission in January 2024, author(s) (excluding Member of Editors/Editorial Board/Active Reviewer) should pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) of USD 100 per article, once the manuscript was accepted. Authors with non-Indonesian affiliation are not required to pay the APC. The APC will be used for the full-text PDF articles production cost.