(1) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ARTICLES

1.Why Publish in Journals

A. Why publish in International Journals?
– To strengthen CV: (1) Job (2) Promotion/Tenure (3) Grants
-First Step to Book Proposal (e.g., Oxford University Press), which then strengthens CV
- Strengthens your university research ranking, gets more grants and government money, better students.
-That’s why administration wants faculty to publish

2. Journals are ranked. International Conferences are also Ranked

A. High Ranking Journals
-Work is wasted if published in lower ranked journals or in edited volumes. Work is especially wasted if
published in pay-journals.
-The higher ranked journals are the most competitive and influential.
-Lots of competition. Top Journals 10% of less. Many rejections.
-There is lots of competition for everyone wants to publish to get jobs, promotion/tenure, grants.

3. Which Journals are Important.

-Academic Journal Ranking. Somewhat subjective, differs by field/area, a journal which is very important
in one field/area may not be important in another field/area.
-Impact factor is a good first step, but there are many journals with lower impact factors that are
prestigious in certain fields.
-To determine which journals are the most important in your field, should consult professors at leading
universities (e.g., Which journals are important for the study of Islamic law? Which are important for the
study of religion in Southeast Asia, Which are important for the study of human rights?)
-Can do online Check of CVs of Scholars, who work in your field at Top Universities in US, Britain,
Canada, Singapore

Examples of important Journals.

Islam
Islamic Law and Society.

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Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies
Muslim World
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Die Welt Des Islams
Arabica

Religion
Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
History of Religions

Area Studies
International Journal of Middle East Studies
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Journal of Asian Studies
Journal of Modern Asian Studies
Indonesia

Comparative Areas
Comparative Studies of Asia, Africa, and Middle East
Comparative Studies in Society and History.

Law Journals
Law and Society Review
Law and Social Inquiry.

4.Journal Process.
A. Present article at workshop/conference.
-Circulate among other professors for feedback.
B. Submit Article Online.
-Must be in perfect English.

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-One author (except in rare cases when two authors)
-Word limit (9-12,000)
-Must be formatted correctly (e.g. footnotes bibliography, transliterations)
-Can only submit to one journal at a time
-List of referees, should know at good universities.
-Cover Letter, with proper formatting and university letterhead
-Better to have a good online profile and research record
C. Period to decide whether to desk reject (two-four weeks)
D. Send to 2 to 4 outside reviewers who are US and European professors.
E. Decision after 2-8 months. Reject (most likely). Accept without Revisions. Revise and Resubmit.

5. Steps in Writing an Article

STEPS:
(1) Choose Topic
(2)Locate Relevant Scholarly Sources
(3) Read and Reflect on the Relevant Scholarly Sources
(4)Identify some Problem or Shortcoming with the Relevant Scholarly Sources
(5) Explain why the Problem is important
(5) Write the Article to Solve this Problem/Shortcoming

(1). Choose Topic (e.g., Islamic Finance in Indonesia, Abortion in Medieval Islamic law)

(2). Locate Relevant scholarly sources.

-The relevant scholarly sources are often referred to as the “literature”
-You can find Scholarly Sources using a variety of search tools (Google Scholar, UIN Library, JSTOR,
Amazon)
-LIBGEN, SCIHUB
-Put key words into search tools.
Example 1: “Islamic” “Finance” “Indonesia” --- Example 2: “abortion”, “Islam”
-Scholarly sources are not equal in importance. You must focus your research on the most important
scholarly sources.

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- The most important scholarly sources (i.e., the most read and cited) are written in English.
-There is no problem also using French, German, and Dutch scholarly sources – they make your article
stronger but are not necessary
-There is also no problem with using Indonesian language scholarly sources, but this should be done in a
limited fashion.
Important Scholarly Sources fall into two general categories.
First, Books with distinguished presses.
A. American/British university presses (oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, university of Hawaii).
B. Also might consider secondarily some non-American/British university Presses: McGill University
Press, Australian National University Press, Amsterdam University Press.
C. Also some other famous non-university presses (Brill, Routledge, Palgrave)
Second, Articles from International English language journals (find using JSTOR, Google Scholar).
-All things being equal, the most important scholarly sources are written by professors affiliated with
universities in USA, Europe, Australia.
-Whenever you are studying a topic it falls within a general field. It is helpful to familiarize yourself with
the most important professors in that field and read their work.
Example 1: Islamic Legal History: Joseph Schahct, Wael Hallaq, Baber Johansen, Christopher Melchert,
Ahmad ElShamsy
Example 2: Islam in Southeast Asia: Clifford Geertz, John Bowen, Robert Hefner, Michael Feener,
Michael Laffan.

(3) Read and Reflect on the Relevant Scholarly Sources (i.e., the Literature)

(4) Identify some Problem or Shortcoming with the Relevant Scholarly Sources (i.e., the Literature)
-There are two basic types of problem
A. first the relevant scholarly sources contain a mistake or false idea.
Example 1: Existing sources assume that traditional Islamic law bans abortion, but matter is more
complex, as some schools permit abortion under certain circumstances.
Example 2: Existing sources assume that the Hindu religion is gradually dying out in Indonesia, but in
reality it is becoming stronger and spreading.
B. the relevant scholarly sources neglect or ignore an important topic.
Example 1: Many people have written about the general subject of religion in Aceh, but no one has
examined the specific topic of religious dance performances in Aceh

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Example 2: Many people have written about Indonesia’s cultural and religious relations with the Arab
world, but not one has written about Indonesia’s cultural and religious relations with central Asia or sub-
Sahararn Africa.

(5) Explain why the problem you have identified is important.

Example 1: Many people have written about Indonesia’s cultural and religious relations with the Arab
world, but not one has written about Indonesia’s cultural and religious relations with sub-Sahararn Africa.
This is important because, thousands of students from Africa are studying in Indonesia, and Indonesians
ideas about religious pluralism are have a significant influence on African societies.
(6) Write your article to address Solve the problem/shortcoming that you have identified.
Example. You say in this article I examine Indonesia’s cultural and religious relations with Africa. I do
this by providing an account of African students studying at UIN Jakarta.
-Some people think that the most important thing about an article is that it be correct. But this is mistaken.
-An article must be correct but that is not enough. For what if you have written a correct article on a topic,
but it simply repeats information already found in other articles and books that have already been
published. That is not sufficient.
-The most important thing for any article to do is to add something new to the existing literature- to the
existing body of scholarly sources.
-The only way you can do this is by gathering together the scholarly sources, reading them, identifying a
problem with them, and then writing your article to address that problem. By addressing that problem,
you add something new, rather than merely repeating what has already been published.

6. Format and Structure of the Article

Now I have told you various steps that you must go through to write an article. These steps are also
relevant to the format and structure of the article.
Generally speaking an article must have the following structure.
(1)Introduction
(2)Data/Analysis
(3)Conclusion

(1)Introduction
-You begin your article by citing the relevant scholarly sources, and briefly summarizing their findings.
This is called a literature review.
-You then clearly point out a problem with the relevant scholarly sources
-You then make a statement about why this problem is important.

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-You then provide a brief preliminary statement about how paper will solve the problem.
-You tell the reader what type of data/analysis you will use to solve the problem
(2)Data/Analysis
-You provide the data and analysis
(3) Conclusion
-Summarize article
-Comment further on importance of article.

9. Further Tips for Writing Journal Articles

A. Language Objective (what do Muslims Believe). Different from Islamic scholarship.

B. Pay attention to Historical and Geographical context.
-Rarely appropriate to talk generally about marriage in Islam, or law of religious minorities, or blasphemy
law. (Must distinguish by historical period and geography)
C. Avoid normative perspective
-Avoid “islam says” “God says”. Better to talk about what a group particular Muslims believe.
Example: Hence, rather than write: “Islam says you cannot drink beer”, or “God says you cannot drink
beer”, write: “going back to the medieval period Muslims have generally held that it is religiously
impermissible to drink beer.” This is actually more accurate, for some early Hanafi scholars did believe
that one could drink some quantity of beer.
-Avoid policy-perspective recommendations
D. When examining a phemenon, must account for relationship to social institutions and political power,
esp, when examining change over time. E.g. marriage in Islam, blasphemy – premodern power, colonial
power, NGOs, Islamist movements.

E. Utilize your strengths as scholars in Indonesia, they are advantages:

(1) Use unique Ethnographic Data from Indonesia – interviews, participant observation, mapping
institutions and personnel
(2) Use Indonesian primary sources. Or Javanese, Sundanese
(3) Shift from area Studies to transnational studies which link Indonesia with the wider world (Indonesia
and Arab world, Indonesia and Japan/Korea (e.g., Halal Industri), or Indonesia and Africa--- student
netwarks from Indonesia to India, Indonesian adat vs Berber and Kazakh adat)

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(4) Links between Indonesian Colonial Governance and modern phenomenon (e.g. continuity between
dutch concepts of islam and islam nusantara, etc.)