Every manuscript submitted to Al-Arabi goes through a blind peer-review process. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two (2) reviewers who are experts in the field.

1. Submission
   The author submits the manuscript through the online system using the journal template.
2. Initial screening
   The editor checks scope, compliance with the template and author guidelines, and similarity (maximum 25%). Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements are returned or declined.
3. Peer review
   The manuscript is sent to at least two reviewers. Identities of authors and reviewers are not disclosed to each other.
4. Editorial decision
   Based on the reviewers’ recommendations, the editor decides to accept, request minor or major revisions, or reject the manuscript.
5. Revision
   Authors revise the manuscript and respond to the reviewers’ comments. Revisions returned later than three months are treated as new submissions.
6. Copyediting, layout & publication
   Accepted articles are copyedited, laid out, assigned a DOI and published online in the June or December issue.

If reviewers consider a manuscript unsuitable for publication, a statement explaining the decision is sent to the author within three months of the submission date.

This journal 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. Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search and link to the full texts of all articles free of charge.

Authors who publish in Al-Arabi retain the copyright of their work without restrictions and retain full publishing rights, giving them the freedom to disseminate their work as they choose. Published articles are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC) licence.

Al-Arabi content is permanently preserved in the Digital Commons repository of Universitas Negeri Malang and through the LOCKSS system, which creates a distributed archive among participating libraries for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Al-Arabi does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. All submitted manuscripts are checked for similarity; the maximum similarity accepted is 25%.

What counts as plagiarism

• Quoting terms, words, sentences, data or information from a source without citing it adequately;
• Quoting random terms, words, sentences, data or information from a source without adequate citation;
• Using ideas, opinions, views or theories from a source without adequate attribution;
• Paraphrasing words, sentences, ideas, opinions, views or theories from a source without adequate attribution;
• Submitting a work produced and/or published by others as one’s own without adequate acknowledgement.

Prevention. Every article submitted to Al-Arabi must be accompanied by a statement signed by the author declaring that the article is free of plagiarism and that, if plagiarism is later proven, the author is willing to accept sanctions in accordance with applicable regulations.

Download the plagiarism-free statement

Sanctions: reprimand; letter of warning; revocation of the article; cancellation (retraction) of publication.

Al-Arabi recognises that generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or DeepL can support research and writing. To protect the integrity of the scholarly record, their use is governed by the principles below, which follow the COPE position statement on authorship and AI tools and common practice among international publishers.

Authorship. AI tools cannot be listed as an author or co-author and cannot be cited as an author. Authorship carries responsibilities that only humans can take on. Authors remain fully accountable for the originality, accuracy and integrity of the whole manuscript, including any part produced with the help of AI.

Permitted use by authors

• Improving the language, grammar, spelling and readability of a text the authors themselves have written;
• Assisting with translation, provided the authors check the result carefully against the original;
• Supporting literature searches or brainstorming, provided every source is read and verified by the authors.

Use that is not permitted

• Generating the main scientific content, arguments, analysis or conclusions of the article;
• Generating, fabricating or altering research data, results, interview or test responses;
• Producing references or citations that the authors have not checked; AI-invented (“hallucinated”) references are treated as fabrication;
• Creating or manipulating figures, images or tables, unless this is part of the research design and fully described in the methods section;
• Rendering Qur’anic verses, hadith or classical Arabic texts through AI without verifying them against an authoritative original source.

Disclosure. Any use of generative AI beyond basic spelling and grammar checking must be declared in a short statement placed before the References, for example: “During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [name of tool] for [purpose]. After using this tool, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.” AI used as a research method (for example, AI-assisted data analysis or an AI tool that is the object of study) must be described in the methods section.

Reviewers. Manuscripts under review are confidential. Reviewers must not upload a manuscript, or any part of it, or their review report into a generative AI tool. The critical assessment in a review report must be the reviewer’s own; AI may only be used to polish the language of a report the reviewer has written.

Editors. Editors are bound by the same confidentiality and must not upload manuscripts, reviews or decision letters into generative AI tools. All editorial decisions are made by human editors.

Screening and breaches. The editors may use similarity and AI-detection tools as one indicator among others, never as the sole basis for a decision. Undisclosed or inappropriate use of AI is handled under our Publication Ethics and the COPE guidelines, and may lead to rejection of the manuscript or, after publication, a correction or retraction.

Al-Arabi publishes the following types of manuscripts in Arabic or English. All types follow the same blind peer-review process and the Author Guidelines (3,000–7,000 words, including references).

Manuscripts are accepted throughout the year and assigned to the next available issue after acceptance.

Al-Arabi applies an Article Processing Charge (APC) to cover editorial processing, layout formatting, DOI registration and online publication. The following author fees apply from June 2025:

The names, e-mail addresses and other personal data entered on this journal site are used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal: processing submissions, peer review, communication with authors and reviewers, and publication. They will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.