IRL Submission Guide

Before submission, authors are required to abide by the “Authorship Policy” and “Ethical Policies” mentioned on the platform as well as following the below “Submission Guide”.

IRL’s editorial team has the right to decline or return publishing requests that do not adhere to the author writing standards, including citation and referencing, structural organization, grammatical and spelling errors at the initial review stage.

  1. Type of Published Issues:
    • Regular Issues: IRL publishes two regular issues per year.
    • Special Issue: Published alongside the two regular issues. The topic is either related to the College of Law’s conference or to a research topic that is determined in coordination between the editorial board at the College of Law and the Qatar University Press. A Call for Paper announcement is circulated for this purpose. The special issue is subject to the same authorship policy, writing standards, and editing, reviewing, and peer-reviewing procedures as regular issues.
  2. Submission means:
    • Platform submission: authors should confirm that they adhere to the checklist requirements mentioned on the submission page and ensure that they upload all required documents through the system.
    • Email submission: authors who wish to submit their papers through email to LawJournal@qu.edu.qa can do so while using the “New Submission Cover Letter” which requires authors to implement the same standards and instructions before submission.
  3. Submission conditions:
    1. The research must be original and not published previously, in part or in full, and should not be submitted for publication elsewhere.
    2. The research must be original and offer a valid scientific contribution in its respective field.
    3. The researcher shall comply with the intellectual property, integrity, scientific honesty, principles and ethics of scientific research.
    4. The journal accepts research papers in Arabic, English and French. Each issue of the journal states the following disclaimer: “The contents and opinions appearing in the article herein are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of QU Press.”
    5. The research must adhere to the linguistic guidelines of the specialization, and in terms of clarity of writing, language and expression, as well as value, novelty and diversity of scientific references.
    6. Legal research methods must be followed.
    7. Sources and references written in Arabic must also be mentioned in the bibliography, Romanized, included in the list of foreign references and arranged alphabetically. The Arabic reference data used in Romanization must be arranged in the same order as the source information.
    8. The word count should range between 6000-10000 words at the maximum, including footnotes, references and appendices (if any).
    9. The journal may accept an article that is extracted from a masters or doctoral thesis based on a strict selection criteria that includes the research quality and scientific contribution. This matter should be disclosed upon submission and in the “Author Declaration” form which requires that a reference to the student’s name, supervisor, program and university should be acknowledged in the first footnote of the article.
  4. Author’s Submission Checklist:

    Please visit our “Submission” page for more information on the required submission documents.

  5. Research Structure

    The following research structure shall be followed:

    Introduction : Definition of the research variables and terms - theoretical framework - previous research and studies - the importance of the subject – the research problem

    Research hypotheses : The relationships between the various variables and elements of the study - possible reasons for the occurrence of the mentioned problems - proposed hypotheses to solve the problem and reach the research result - research objectives

    Research methodology: Clarification on the research methodology and tools.

    Discussions and analysis: In relation to the results, hypotheses, research questions and objectives.

    Conclusion: A summary of the research results - practical and theoretical solutions – advantages and shortages of the study - recommendations - proposed research gaps for future studies.

  6. Headings

    Main headings and sub-headings should be numbered as per the following:

    Level Numbering
    Heading 1 1.
    2.
    Heading 2 1.1.
    1.2.
    Heading 3 1.1.1.
    1.1.2.
    Heading 4 •

  7. Writing Style

    Language: The International Review of Law Journal accepts articles in Arabic, English or French. British or American spellings are acceptable, but must be used consistently.

    Style: One of the following style guides should be used:

    For Articles in French, the Turabian Style derived from the Chicago Style, should be followed: Turabian 7 guide: https://library.stritch.edu/getmedia/3cb84140-2b6b-4afe-b926-809a72d43ce8/Turabian7Guide

  8. Text Specifications:
    1. The text font should be in Times New Roman font 12, line spacing 1.15.
    2. Page margins on all sides are 1 inch (2.5 cm), in the word file.
    3. Use bold font style for titles and descriptions of the figures and tables.
    4. Use bold font style for main headlines and sub-headlines instead of underline and organize the research papers by numbering its sections.
    5. The bold font is used in the Arabic reference list in the places where the Italic font is used.
    6. Do not use bold text in context - as much as possible.
    7. The page numbers should appear in the middle of the bottom of the research pages.
  9. Title Page Format

    The title page should have the following information in both English and Arabic, identically:

    The following three historical dates are filled by the editorial members:

    Received: ../../..       Reviewed: ../../..       Accepted: ../../..

    Article title……………… (Bold font size 14)

    Full name of the first author (bold 12 point)

    Title……..,, Academic/professional rank…….., Affiliation/University……., Country…...

    Email…

    Full name of co-author

    Title……..,, Academic/professional rank……….Affiliation/University……., Country..

    Email……

    Abstract:

    A statement of around 250 words summarizing the article and conclusions. No citations.

    Abstract components:

    Background and objectives: Whyo did you chose to write this topic? What is the available literature and what gap/s is your research trying to fill? State the bjectives/aims of the study.

    Methods/approach: What research approach and methods did you use in your research? (Empirical, theoretical, inductive, analytical, deductive, historical, descriptive, case and field study approaches…)

    Results/Findings/Observations: Explain accurately what the study found, and how the study answered the questions you raised, or did the study endorse the idea or theory on which your study was based? (You should specify exactly what your study found, without generalization, exaggeration).

    Originality/value: What is the importance of your study? How is it different than other studies? How does it contribute to future studies; mention some of the primary recommendations.

    Key words: ………..; …………………..; ………; …………..; ………… (5 to 7 key words)

    No less than five words should be selected depending on the topic (separated with a semicolon). Keywords allow researchers to search for the article.

  10. References:
    • For papers written in English, the author should set a bibliography of sources and references at the end of the manuscript, in the same style of citing footnotes, but arranged in alphabetical order by the author’s family name.
    • For papers written in Arabic, the author should set a bibliography of sources and references at the end of the manuscript, in the same style of citing footnotes, but arranged in alphabetical order by the author’s family name, in the same style of citing footnotes, then s/he can translate (Romanize) them into English alphabetically.
  11. Illustrations, figures and tables:

    The numbering of all illustrations, tables and figures should be consecutive (for example: Table No. 1, Figure No. 1). In case of multiple numbering divisions, each division should be classified (for example Figure 1 (A), Figure 1 (B).

    The captions of the figures should be descriptive and written in bold, such as: Figure 1, Figure 2.

    Each illustration, figure or table should be provided as a separate file named and numbered according to the research and in high resolution that is suitable for design.

    Note: The author must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures in the journal published elsewhere. Failure to provide this permission can result in images not being included.

  12. Supplying Digital Images:

    Most images sourced on the internet will not be of a high enough resolution and cannot be used. If you locate an image on the internet, you will need to find its original source and request a high-resolution version.

    You will need to clear permission as necessary for the use of images.

    Photographs

    Scan at a minimum of 300 dpi and save as a TIFF image for PC.

    Final size of scan to be approximately 250 x 200 mm.

    Line illustrations (maps, graphs, etc.)

    Scan at a minimum of 1200 dpi and save as a TIFF image for PC.

    Final size of the scan to be approximately 250 x 200 mm.

    Tints

    Tints used on computer-generated illustrations should be no lighter than 15% and no darker than 70%. Do not use pattern fills. Do not use color fills.

    Line weights Bearing in mind that line illustrations supplied at approximately 250 x 200 mm will be reduced in size to fit comfortably on an average page size of 234 x 156 mm, the line weights will be reduced correspondingly. Do not, therefore, use a line weight of less than 1 point/pixel in illustrations.

    Illustration file types TIFF

    Save files as TIFF images for PC. We would prefer you not to compress TIFF files; if you need to compress them, use a lossless compression software package such as LZW.

    EPS

    Images can also be supplied as EPS files, with a laser print for identification. EPS files cannot be altered; if we are required to edit these files, the original application files should be supplied with all fonts used.

    Other digital formats

    JPGs and images downloaded from the internet are normally low resolution (72 dpi) and are not usually suitable for reproduction by conventional printing methods.

    Unacceptable file types: MS Word and Excel.

    Print images

    If you are supplying print images, mark each illustration very lightly on the back (in the corner) in a soft pencil with its number (e.g. Figure 4.1).