Publication Rules and Instructions

Second Edition - 20\7\ 2024 

The Modern Journal of Legal Studies (MJLS), issued by the Modern University College, relies on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) policies as a fundamental reference in the field of research ethics. MJLS undergoes a rigorous review process by specialized reviewers, applying strict ethical standards to ensure the quality and authenticity of published articles.

Disclaiming research ethics, such as plagiarism, data fabrication, and copyright infringement are strongly prohibited and handled in accordance with the 'zero tolerance' policy by the editorial team. Additionally, tools like Turnitin are used to verify the authenticity of content submitted to MJLS, comparing it with previously published articles, to ensure no ethical violations or impersonations occur.

The editorial board emphasizes the necessity of adhering to the following instructions and guidelines, which are obligatory for authors when submitting their research for publication in MJLS. Authors are required to comply with these instructions to ensure the acceptance and publication of their research in MJLS. Adhering to these guidelines contributes to ensuring the publication of high-quality and authentic research in MJLS, thus enhancing its scientific and academic reputation.

First: Scientific Research Ethics

Maintaining a high academic and professional standard throughout all stages of research is essential to ensure the quality and reliability of the research. This commitment includes:

1. Commitment to Scientific Methodology:

Authors must adhere to proper and appropriate scientific methodology at all stages of research, from proposing the research to publishing the results, ensuring no manipulation or distortion of data or results.

2. Acknowledgment of Contributors:

Authors must include all individuals who contributed to the research in any way—whether they were colleagues or students—in the list of authors, as well as fully acknowledge their efforts and contributions.

3. Use of Information Sources:

Authors must attribute any information used in the research to its original sources and refrain from verbatim copying of any texts without referencing the source from which they were quoted.

4. Respect for Research Ethics:

Authors must not conduct any research that may harm humans or the environment without obtaining necessary approvals from relevant authorities, with respect to privacy and confidentiality when using individual data.

5. Research Participant Consent:

Authors must obtain written consent from any individual used as a research subject, informing them of all potential implications of their participation, and refrain from publishing research results in a way that could identify individuals based on their identity.

6. Plagiarism:

This includes copying texts, ideas, images, or data from other sources, including the author's own publications, without citing the source or reference. Therefore, quoted content must be placed between quotation marks with a reference to the original source. If the design, structure, or language of the study is based on previous works, they must be explicitly referenced. To verify the absence of plagiarism, all research submitted for publication in the Modern Journal of Legal Studies (MJLS) is examined using Turnitin software. If plagiarism is detected during reviewers revising process, the article may be rejected. If plagiarism is discovered after publication, investigations will be conducted, and appropriate actions will be taken according to the journal's policy.

7. Error Correction:

The Modern Journal of Legal Studies (MJLS) corrects and publishes any actual errors pointed out by readers, authors, or editors, appearing in published research. The electronic version of the research will be corrected, accompanied by a statement indicating the correction date and a link to the previous version, as soon as possible. If the error leads to invalidating the entire research paper or a significant portion of it, the paper will be retracted, accompanied by a comprehensive explanation of the reasons for retraction.

8. Originality:

Authors must ensure that their research works fully reflect their original ideas.

9. Conflict of Interest:

- All authors must disclose in their research papers any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that could affect the results of their research. They must also clearly disclose all sources of financial support for the project, including received grants.

- The 'Conflict of Interest Statement' clause is included at the end of the research, before the references, and expresses the acknowledgment of all authors that they have no conflicts of interest.

10. Use of Artificial Intelligence:

- Adherence to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) standards for the use of artificial intelligence tools, which can be accessed through the official website (click here to access the website).

● The use of artificial intelligence tools does not align with the authors' requirements due to these tools' inability to fully bear responsibility for the submitted works.

● Researchers must transparently disclose the use of artificial intelligence tools at different stages of their research, whether in data collection and analysis, creating images and graphics, or assisting in text formulation. This disclosure should be made within the Methods and Procedures section or a similar section to ensure the transparency and integrity of the research work.

● Authors are required to take full responsibility for their research, including parts produced using artificial intelligence tools. This is aimed at ensuring the continued trust of the scientific community in the research process and maintaining the highest ethical standards in publication.

Secondly: Publication Terms

Research Language: Research written in both Arabic and English is accepted, and it should be free from grammatical, spelling, and formulation errors.

Submission: Research publication requests should be submitted only through the journal's website.

● The author creates a personal account on the journal's website and ensures that all fields are filled out completely.

● The research is aligned with the standards and conditions of formatting and technical coordination before submission for publication. Click here to access the formatting standards.

● The author attaches a cover page of the research in (Word) and (PDF) format, including the author's or authors' information according to the research format template. Click here to access the research template.

● Agreement to the commitment clause within the publication request, indicating that the research has not been submitted for publication in other journals, and will not be submitted as long as the research is under review in the journal, and that it is not a chapter or part of a published book.

● The author's agreement to the aforementioned commitment clause constitutes a legally binding official commitment.

● The journal reserves the right to request the author to rephrase the research or any part thereof according to its publication policy, and the journal may also make formatting changes to the research to fit the journal's procedures.

● The author indicates that their research is derived from a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation by including the phrase 'Research derived from a master's thesis/doctoral dissertation' on the cover page and including the supervisor's name.

● The journal is not obligated to return submitted manuscripts even if they are rejected.

● The journal reserves the right to reject submitted manuscripts that do not adhere to the rules and ethics of scientific publishing.

● The processing of the author's publication request, whether for acceptance or rejection, takes place within a period of no less than two months and a maximum of six months.

● The submitter of the research publication request is considered the Corresponding Author with the journal's editorial board and is responsible for communication and compliance throughout the processing of the request. This does not exempt the contributing authors from legal and ethical responsibilities. The request submitter must adhere to the specified deadlines, respond promptly to messages and inquiries from the journal's editors, and bear the consequences of any delays in processing due to their negligence or non-response.

● Upon successful submission of the publication request, the author receives an email notification confirming the successful receipt of the publication request.

● All publishing procedures and communication between the author and the journal are conducted solely through the journal's website. The author receives notifications from the journal via their email.

Plagiarism check

● Research submitted for publication in the journal is subject to plagiarism and citation checking percentage using Turnitin program to ensure compliance with accepted standards.

● The author bears full responsibility for the research content, including verifying the absence of any undetected plagiarism using the mentioned program.

Publication Fees:

● The journal does not charge any financial fees for research accepted for publication.

● The author pays the reviewing fees if they decide to withdraw their research from publication during the reviewing process and before the decision of the reviewers is issued, and its value is $200.

Third: Copyrights

The Modern Journal of Legal Studies (MJLS) is committed to all copyrights and intellectual property rights, and authors are also required to comply with them.

● The author is committed to integrity in copyright, whereby they must include all individuals who have made a valuable intellectual or scientific contribution to the research process and its results in the list of authors. 

The researcher is attributed the intellectual or scientific contribution of value when they complete all the following tasks.

1. Participation in the design or planning of the research project, extraction or acquisition of research data, or analysis or interpretation of research data.

2. Participation in drafting important parts of the scientific paper prepared for publication, or critically reviewing it.

3. Final approval of the version to be published.

4. Agreement to be responsible for the integrity and accuracy of all aspects of the research work and its outputs.

The researcher is not attributable to intellectual or scientific contribution in the following cases:

- Absence of intellectual or scientific contribution of value: If the contribution does not involve any new idea, analysis, or innovation, it may not be appropriate to assign authorship rights to someone.

- Contribution limited to providing financial resources or data: In this case, the individual or entity providing funding or raw materials is not eligible for authorship, as they did not make a substantive contribution to the creation of the research work.

- Dedication of authorship for symbolic value: In this case, when authorship is dedicated to someone for reasons related to their social or symbolic status, rather than their actual contribution to the work, it may also be considered unjustified.

- The copyright and publishing rights of the research transfer to the Modern Journal of Legal Studies (MJLS) upon the author being informed of the acceptance of their research for publication.

- If the author wishes to republish the research or translate it into other languages, written permission must be obtained from the Modern Journal of Legal Studies (MJLS).

- The author retains the right to be credited for the research, with their name mentioned on all copies produced for the public in any form, and in every version or edition of the work.

- The author retains the right for their works to be attributed to them by their personal name.