Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences

Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences is a peer-reviewed, and academic journal that is published electronically twice a year when necessary, special or additional issues can be published. It publishes scientific research articles about Social and Human Sciences/Theology field.

Article acceptance dates of the journal published in June and December are between 1 January and 1 March for the June issue and 1 July and 1 September for the December issue. Applications received after these dates will not be accepted. If the number of articles reaches a sufficient level, the process of accepting articles may be closed before these dates.

The scope of the journal includes studies in the following fields: - Basic Islamic Sciences: Tafsir, Hadith, Kalam, Islamic Law, History of Islamic Sects, Sufism, Arabic Language and Literature and Kiraat; - Philosophy and Religious Sciences: Islamic Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Psychology of Religion, Sociology of Religion, Religious Education, History of Religions, Logic; - Islamic History and Arts: History of Islam, History of Turkish Islamic Arts, Turkish Islamic Literature, Turkish Religious Music; - Education of Religious Culture and Ethics.

The articles submitted to the journal should not be previously published or accepted for publication from elsewhere. Articles produced from post-graduate theses and symposium reports can be uploaded to the journal system along with the ethical statement at the beginning of the article.

Example: This article is extracted from my doctorate dissertation entitled “…”, (PhD Dissertation, ….. University, Afyonkarahisar/Türkiye, 2020).

It should be stated the ethical committee approval on the first page and in the method part of the study for the studies requiring ethical committee approval (as board name, date, and issue no). Ethics committee permission certificate must be uploaded to the system as an additional file. Please see the Ethical Principles and Publication Policy of the journal for the studies requiring ethical committee approval.

Articles are passed through the plagiarism control process through intihal.net software. The similarity rate in the plagiarism detection policy is 20%.

The author or at least one of the authors must have a doctor's degree. In articles produced from the thesis, the student must be the first author and the advisor should be the second author.

For studies with more than one author, the conflict of interest and author contribution rate declaration form must be filled out and uploaded to the system. For Conflict of Interest and Author Contributions Statement click here.

Turkish, Arabic and English articles can be published in the journal. Just one study of an author can be published in an issue.

The length of articles should be at least 3000 words and no more than 10000 words (including Turkish and English abstracts and bibliography).

At the beginning of the article, there should be Turkish and English Abstracts consisting of 250-300 words, at least 5 Turkish and English Keywords, Turkish and English titles and bibliograpy.

In the abstract, the topic and method of the research should be stated, findings related to the topic should be included, and results should be mentioned. In the part of Turkish Abstract/English Abstract, main methodological framework should be stated such as topic, scope, importance, aim, and method of the research, but obtained results and bibliography should not be mentioned. Turkish Abstract/English Abstract should be written in a single paragraph. In the part of Turkish Abstract/English Abstract, for spelling proper names (religion, sect, person, surah, and so on), book name, and terms that are not Turkish, the usage in the Religious Foundation of Türkiye Encyclopaedia of Islam (see https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr) should be followed. For spelling proper names, book names, and terms in the English texts (abstract and keywords), the 3rd edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam should be considered.

Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences suggests using Zotero, Mendeley, or Endnote in terms of international coherence in article writing.

The article can be written using the article template or existing text is imported into the template. Studies that do not use an article template will not be evaluated.

The citation system used in articles should be in accordance with the Isnad Citation Style 2nd version (with footnotes). Click here for the Isnad Citation Style. For Arabic Isnad Citation click here.

The article is reviewed once for compliance with the journal's writing principles, and if the requested changes are not made, it is rejected and will not be processed again in the same publication period.

Template features

Page numbers should not be used.
Margins: top and bottom 2,5 cm, left and right 2,5cm.
Abtract and Öz: special indentation none, spacing before and after 0 pt, line spacing single, font size 10 pt.
Text: special indentation first line 1 cm, spacing before and after 3 pt, line spacing single, font size 10 pt.

Footnote: special indentation hanging 0,5 cm, spacing before and after 0 pt, line spacing single, font size 8pt.
Bibliograpy: special indentation hanging 1 cm, spacing before and after 0 pt, line spacing single, font size 10 pt.
Text fonts should be in Cambria Font for Turkish and English, Tradational Naskh for Arabic

Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Publication Ethics Statement

Publication processes of Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences base on producing, developingand sharing knowledge objectively within scientific methods.

Peer-reviewed articles are studies that ensure the application of scientific method and impartiality. In the realization of scientific production, all components of publication process; publishers, editors, authors, reviewers, and readers should comply with ethical principles. In this context, the publication ethics and open access policy of Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences require that all components of publication process comply with ethical principles in line with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in open access (For example, “Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”; “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”, and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”).

If situations such as manipulating and distorting the data used in the articles and using fabricated data are detected, this situation will be officially reported to the institution where the author of the article works and the article will be rejected. Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences has the right to request the output files related to the analysis results from the authors according to the feedback given by editors and/or reviewers.

When the study prepared for publishing is produced from a book chapter, an unpublished report, and master thesis or doctorate dissertation, it should certainly be stated in Turkish and English on the first page of the study.

Example: This article is extracted from my master thesis/doctorate dissertation entitled “…”, (Master Thesis/PhD Dissertation, ….. University, Afyon/Türkiye, 2020).

This paper is the final version of an earlier announcement called “…”, not previously printed, but orally presented at a symposium called “…”, the content of which has now been developed and partially changed.

In order for the articles produced from reports to be evaluated, the author should send his/her articles together with a contract with a wet signature stating that “My study has not been published previously and will not be published”. The reason is that duplication/ republishing/ scientific deception/multicast is a crime. According to the TUBITAK Committee on Publication Ethics, republishing is to publish or send the results of the same research to more than one journal for publishing. If an article has been evaluated or published previously, the publications apart from this are regarded as republishing.

The Journal acknowledges The Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive. Click here for the Directive.

Click here for TUBITAK Committee on Research and Publication Ethics Regulation.

General Actions Against Scientific Research and Broadcasting Ethics
a) Plagiarism: To show others' original ideas, methods, data or works as their own work, partially or completely, without reference to scientific rules,
b) Forgery: Using data that does not actually exist or has been falsified in scientific research,
c) Distortion: Falsifying the research records or the data obtained, showing the devices or materials not used in the research as being used, falsifying or shaping the research results in line with the interests of the people and organizations,
d) Republishing: To present repetitive publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
e) Slicing: Dividing the results of a research into pieces in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and inappropriately and publishing in more than one issue and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
f) Unfair authorship: Including persons without active contribution among the authors or not including those who are, changing the author's order in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have active contribution from the work in subsequent editions, having their names included among the authors by using their influence even though they have no active contribution,
Other types of ethical violations:
a) Not specifying the supporting persons, institutions or organizations and their contributions in the publications made as a result of researches conducted with the support,
b) To use the thesis or studies that have not yet been submitted or accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Not complying with ethical rules in researches on humans and animals, not respecting patients' rights in publications,
ç) To act contrary to the provisions of the relevant legislation in biomedical researches and other clinical trials related to humans,
d) Sharing the information contained in a work that has been assigned to review with others before it is published without the explicit permission of the owner of the work,
e) Misuse of the resources, places, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research,
f) To make unfounded, unwarranted and deliberate allegations of ethical violations,
g) To publish the data obtained without the express consent of the participants in a questionnaire and attitude research conducted within the scope of a scientific study or if the research will be conducted in an institution, also without the permission of the institution,
ğ) To harm animal health and ecological balance in research and experiments,
h) Failing to obtain written permissions from the authorized units in research and experiments before starting the work.
i) Research and experiments in legislation or engage in activities contrary to the provisions on related research and experimentation of the international conventions that Türkiye is a party.
i) Failing to comply with the obligation of researchers and authorities to inform and warn those concerned about possible harmful practices regarding the scientific research,
j) Not using the data and information obtained from other persons and institutions in scientific studies, to the extent and as permitted, not to respect the confidentiality of this information and to ensure its protection,
k) To make false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions (YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, Article 4).
Within the framework of ethical rules; Studies requiring Ethics Committee Permission to be evaluated in the journal are as follows:
1. All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using survey, interview, focus group study, observation, experiment, interview techniques,
2. Use of humans and animals (including material / data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
3.Clinical researches on humans,
4. Research on animals,
5. Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on protection of personal data.
In this context, in studies to be evaluated in our journal;
1.Obtaining and indicating "Informed Consent Form" in case presentations,
2. Obtaining and indicating permission from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires and photographs belonging to others,
3. It should be stated that the copyright regulations are complied with for the intellectual and artistic works used.
4. Editors ensure the protection of human and animal rights in the studies evaluated. Editors have the responsibility to refuse to work when there is no approval of the ethics committee on the subjects used in the study, and no permission for experimental research. In studies requiring ethics committee approval, information about the permission (name of the board, date and number) should be included in the method section and also on the first / last page of the article. In case reports, the information that the informed consent / consent form was signed should be included in the article.

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

The stakeholders and readers of the researches are pleased to inform Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences about the scientific research and publication ethics they see in the published articles to kiid@aku.edu.tr.
a) Editors' Responsibilities
Editor and field editors of Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences, Code of Conduct and Best Practice for Journal Editors (COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors), Best Practice Guidelines (COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors) for Journal Editors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and provide the following ethical duties and responsibilities based on the principles of Publication Ethics Flowcharts developed by COPE in possible situations of abuse or breach of publication ethics.
• Impartiality and publisher freedom. Editors evaluate the submitted article suggestions by considering their suitability to the scope of the journal and the importance and originality of their studies. Editors do not take into account the race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, nationality or political views of the authors submitting the article proposal. Editors should not have personal or financial conflicts of interest with articles. Other institutions other than the journal editorial board cannot influence the correction or publication decision. Editors take care that the published issues contribute to the reader, researcher, practitioner and the scientific field and to be original.
• Independence: The relationship between Editors (Editor and Assistant Editors) and the publisher is based on the principle of editor independence. According to the written agreement between the editors and the publisher, all decisions of the editors are independent of the publisher and the journal owner. Editors should reject, under no influence, incomplete or erroneous research that does not comply with the journal policy, publication rules and level.
• Privacy. Editors do not share information about a submitted article with anyone other than the responsible author, referees and editorial board. It ensures that the articles evaluated by at least two referees are evaluated according to the double-blind review system and keeps the referees confidential.
• Disclosure and differences of opinion. Editors and editorial board members may not use unpublished information in an article submitted for their own research purposes without the express written consent of the authors. Editors should not have a conflict of interest regarding articles they accept or reject.
• Printing decision. Editors ensure that all articles accepted for publication are reviewed by at least two referees who are experts in their field. Editors are responsible for deciding which work will be published from the articles submitted to the journal, the validity of the study in question, its importance to researchers and readers, the comments of referees and such legal requirements. Editors have the responsibility and authority to accept or reject articles. Therefore, it has to use its responsibility and authority in place and on time.
• Ethical concerns. Editors will take action when ethical concerns arise regarding a submitted article or published article. As a matter of fact, they continue their business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards. Any reported unethical publishing behavior will be reviewed, even if it occurs years after publication. Editors follow COPE Flowcharts in case of ethical concerns. If ethical issues are significant, correction, retraction may be applied or concerns regarding the issue may be published in the journal.
• Collaboration with Journal Boards: Editors ensure that all members of the advisory committee advance the processes in accordance with the editorial policies and guidelines. Informs the advisory board members about publication policies. It enables advisory board members to evaluate their work independently. It can contribute to new advisory board members and decide accordingly. For evaluation, the advisory board should send studies appropriate to the expertise of its members. It interacts regularly with the advisory board. It holds regular meetings with the editorial board for publication policies and magazine development.
b) Authors' Responsibilities
1. Reporting standards: The authors of the original research should ensure that the study and results are presented accurately, and then the importance of the study is discussed objectively. If authors make use of other studies or use other studies, they must cite and / or cite completely and accurately.
2. Data access and retention: Authors are required to keep the raw data of their studies. When necessary, they should submit it for editorial review if requested by the journal.
3. Originality and plagiarism: Authors must submit entirely original works and if they have used the work or words of others, this must be appropriately cited. Plagiarism constitutes unethical publishing behavior in all its forms and is unacceptable. For this reason, a similarity rate report is requested from all authors who submit an article to the journal.
4. Multiple, duplicate, backup or simultaneous submission / publication: Authors cannot have their work in the application process of more than one journal at the same time. Each application can be started following completion of the previous application. A study published in another journal cannot be sent to the Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences. Simultaneous submission of an article to more than one journal is unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
5. Authorship of the manuscript: Only those who fulfill the authorship criteria should be listed as authors in the content of the manuscript. These authorship criteria are as follows; (i) contributed to the design, implementation, data collection or analysis phases (ii) prepared the manuscript or made significant intellectual contribution or critically revised it; or (iii) saw the final version of the manuscript, approved it and agreed to be submitted for publication. Corresponding author should ensure that all authors (according to the definition above) are included in the list of authors and declare that they have seen the final version of the article and agree to be submitted for publication.
6. Statement and conflicts of interest: Authors should reveal conflicts of interest at the earliest possible stage (usually by submitting a disclosure form at the time of submission and including a statement in the article). All sources of financial support for the study must be declared (including the grant / fund number or other reference number, if applicable). In accordance with the publication policy of Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences, people who contribute in real terms to the articles submitted to the journal (original scientific research article) should be written as authors. The author (s) of the article must declare that there is no personal and financial conflict of interest within the scope of the study. They should indicate this declaration at the end of the article under the heading "Conflicts of Interest" (The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest).
7. Peer review: Authors are responsible for participating in the peer review process and are obliged to fully cooperate by responding promptly to editors' requests for raw data, explanations and evidence of ethical approval, and copyright permissions. If a "required revision" decision is made first, the authors should review and re-submit their manuscript until the deadline given to the reviewers' comments in a systematic manner.
8.Fundamental errors in published works: When authors find material errors or inaccuracies in their own published work, they are obliged to inform the journal editors or publishers immediately and to cooperate with the journal editors or publishers to correct a typo in the article (erratum) or remove the article from publication. If editors or publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a material error or inaccuracy, the author must take the responsibility of correcting or withdrawing the article immediately or providing the journal's editors with evidence of the paper's accuracy.
c) Responsibilities of Referees
1. Contribution to editorial decisions: Assists editors in their editorial decisions and assists authors in improving their articles through editorial communication. Completion of other articles, works, references, citations, rules and similar deficiencies related to the article should be pointed out.
2. Speed: Any referee who does not feel qualified to review the proposal of the article or knows that the article review cannot take place on time should immediately notify the editors and reject the invitation to review, thus ensuring the appointment of a new referee.
3. Confidentiality: All article suggestions submitted for review are confidential documents and should be handled as such. It should not be shown or discussed to others unless authorized by the editor. This also applies to referees who decline the invitation to review.
4. Impartiality standards: Comments on the proposal of the article should be made impartially and recommendations should be made in a way that the authors can use to improve the article. Personal criticism of the authors is not appropriate.
5. Acceptance of references: Referees should describe relevant published works that are not cited by the authors. The referee should also inform the editor of any significant similarities between the manuscript reviewed and any other manuscript (published or unpublished).
6. Conflicts of interest: When the referees suspect that there is any conflict of interest in the article they evaluate, they should inform the editor of the journal about the evaluation process and, if necessary, refuse the article evaluation. There should be no conflict of interest between the reviewers and the stakeholders of the article under review.

d) Responsibilities of the Publisher

Our journal makes the editors responsible for all the works included in the process. The editor carries out the necessary measures to prevent political or economic gains from the work done in the journal. Our journal is committed to independence in the creation of editorial decisions. The responsibility of the editors to take the necessary precautions regarding academic misconduct and plagiarism related to the process is also under the commitment of our journal. Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences publishing the works under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license and authors retain the copyright to their work.

The reader can make a complaint by sending an e-mail to kiid@aku.edu.tr when he notices an important mistake or mistake in an article published in the Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences, or has any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.). We welcome complaints as they will provide an opportunity for us to improve, and we aim to respond quickly and constructively.

Editorial oversight and processing concerning special issues

A special issue can be published in the journal once a year upon the request of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts sent for inclusion in a special issue are first subjected to editorial review. Then it is examined in terms of compliance with the writing rules of the journal and similarity is scanned to prevent plagiarism. After these stages, it is taken into the peer review process in which the double-blind model is used. Articles sent to the special issue will also be evaluated in accordance with the principles we announced on the "Peer-Review Processes" page.

Publication Policy

Article Acceptance

It is required that the articles to be sent to Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences is an original article filling a gap in the related field or an analysis evaluating previously published studies and presenting new and significant opinions about this issue.

In order for the articles to be published in the journal, they should not be previously published or accepted for publication elsewhere. Reports presented previously at a scientific meeting may be accepted on condition that this is clearly indicated.

A maximum of 20% of the authors (excluding the editor-in-chief) in the editorial boards of each issue are accepted. Authors cannot interfere in any stage of the article evaluation process and publication. Title of the article should be written in Turkish and English, and the authors’ names, surnames, academic titles, institutions they work in, and ORCID information should be specified. Additionally, the authors’ contact information (e-mail addresses) should be given completely.

The language of Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences is Turkish. However, not exceeding 1/3 of the journal, English and Arabic articles may also be included in each issue. English and Arabic articles should include Turkish title, Turkish and English abstracts, and Arabic articles should also include a bibliography in Latin letters.

The length of a research article should be at least 3000 and no more than 9000 words (including Turkish and English abstracts and bibliography). At the beginning of the article, there should be Turkish and English Abstracts consisting of 250-300 words, at least 5 Turkish and English Keywords, Turkish and English titles and bibliography prepared in accordance with the Isnad Citation Style 2nd version.

The article should be prepared in accordance with the author guidelines and then uploaded to the system.

One study of an author can be published at most in an issue.

Article acceptance dates of the journal published in June and December are between 1 January and 1 March for the June issue and 1 July and 1 September for the December issue. Applications received after these dates will not be accepted. If the number of articles reaches a sufficient level, the process of accepting articles may be closed before these dates.

Article Evaluation Process

All article types (including symposium papers, book reviews) sent to be published are gone through the editorial board review, Pre-Control and Peer-Review Processes.

In the evaluation of the submitted articles, academic objectivity and scientific quality are the most important criteria.

Articles are first examined by the editorial board for compliance with the journal principles and Editorial Board Review: Internal Review is filled. Studies that are not deemed suitable for inclusion in the journal are returned to the author.

The articles that the editorial board deems appropriate to be included in the process are subject to Pre-control review.

Articles are passed through the plagiarism control process through intihal.net software. The similarity rate in the plagiarism detection policy is 20%. The studies that are considered as inadequate in the pre-control process are returned to the author by the Editorial Board before the referee process/ peer-review process . For the studies that are considered as adequate in the pre-control process, the peer-review process is initiated or these studies are sent to the authors to correct the deficiencies.

A study which cannot pass through this process even though it is examined one time during the pre-control process is returned to the author and does not put into process again in the same publication period.

For the studies which pass through the pre-control process, the evaluation process in which at least two reviewers serve within the frame of double-sided blind reviewer principle is started. The names of the reviewers are kept confidential. If one of the reviewer reports is positive and the other is negative, the article may be sent to a third reviewer/ referee or the Editorial Board may make a final decision by examining the reviewer reports. The authors consider the criticism and suggestions made by the reviewer and Editorial Board. Authors have the right of opposition and defence for their ideas on the condition that the authors disagree with the idea of reviewer.

Citation and Reference System

Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences requires the Isnad Citation Style 2nd edition for writing, citation and reference.

Plagiarism Detection Policy

In detecting plagiarism, it is confirmed with the intihal.net software that articles have not been published before and do not include plagiarism. The similarity rate in the plagiarism detection policy is 20%.

Processing and Printing Charge

Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences does not ask for processing and printing charge from the authors.

Conflict of Interest

Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences ensures that the publishing process is carried out objectively and independently for the authors and reviewers.

The studies having more than one author should include contribution rate statements of support and appreciation statement, if there are, and statement of conflict at the end of the study completing the process of peer-review. (see Article Writing Template)

Also, it is demanded from the authors to fill out the form for Conflict of Interest and Author Contributions Statement .

Open Access Policy
Every single study published in the Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences has been licenced by Creative Commons International Licence (CC-BY-NC 4.0). See open access policy.

Copyright
Authors publishing with Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences retain the copyright to their work, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

Artificial Intelligence Policy

This policy aims to establish ethical and scientific standards regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in articles submitted to our journal.

The primary objectives of this policy are to ensure the proper use of AI in writing and analyzing academic articles, and to uphold data privacy and academic integrity principles.

This policy will be updated as necessary based on developments concerning the application, methods, and capacities of AI tools.

It adheres to the ethical principles and publication policies of Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences.

AI tools may only be used to check grammar, spelling errors, and stylistic consistency in articles submitted to the journal.

Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences commits to refraining from using AI tools at any stage of its article review processes.

Considerations in the Use of Artificial Intelligence:

Transparency and Accountability: Transparency must be maintained in every process where AI is utilized. The stages and methods of AI use, as well as how data is collected, should be clearly stated, and the contribution of AI must be explicitly acknowledged. Journal of Kocatepe Islamic Sciences will present author declarations on the covers of published articles.

Accuracy: The accuracy of content/information produced by AI must be verified, and the obtained data should be cross-checked and validated against reliable sources.

Responsibility: Authors bear full responsibility for the data generated through AI use. Therefore, authors should carefully review the points where they rely on AI and recognize their accountability.

Impartiality: Authors must transparently declare potential conflicts of interest and act in accordance with the principles of impartiality. To ensure unbiased use of AI, regular monitoring and evaluation processes should be implemented.

Privacy and Security: The confidentiality and security of personal data must be safeguarded. Privacy of all parties should be respected during data collection, storage, and processing, and appropriate security measures must be taken.

Source Attribution: AI should not be included in footnotes or bibliographies. The use of AI should instead be disclosed in the ethical statement section.

Price Policy

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

2025

Publication Type

Aim & Scope

Author Guidelines

Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Price Policy