Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

Purpose

Islamic Sciences expects authors, reviewers, editors, and members of the editorial board to disclose interests or relationships that could reasonably affect, or appear to affect, their academic judgment.

A conflict of interest does not necessarily imply misconduct. In many cases, disclosure is sufficient. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that relevant interests are made known and managed fairly.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict may arise from financial, professional, institutional, academic, personal, supervisory, or other relationships.

Examples may include:

  • Employment or financial relationships connected with the subject of the research

  • Research funding or sponsorship

  • Recent collaboration with an author

  • Supervisory or student relationships

  • Close personal or professional relationships

  • Academic or institutional disputes

  • Direct competition in a closely related area of research

  • A personal interest in the outcome of a manuscript or editorial decision

Not every professional connection constitutes a conflict. What matters is whether the relationship could reasonably influence independent scholarly judgment.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors should disclose any relevant conflict of interest when submitting a manuscript.

Where no conflict exists, authors may provide a statement indicating that they have no competing interests to declare.

Authors should also disclose financial or institutional relationships that are directly relevant to the research.

If a previously undisclosed conflict becomes apparent during review or after publication, the author should inform the journal.

Funding Disclosure

Authors should identify financial support received for the research where applicable.

A funding statement should normally identify:

  • The funding organization or institution

  • Grant or project information where relevant

  • The role of the funder where this has a bearing on the research

Where research has received no external funding, authors may state this where required.

Funding does not in itself create a conflict of interest. The journal is concerned with transparency about whether a funding body had any significant role in the design, interpretation, writing, or publication of the research.

Reviewers

Reviewers should decline an invitation where a relationship with the author, institution, subject matter, or research could prevent an independent assessment.

Where a reviewer is uncertain whether an interest amounts to a conflict, the matter should be disclosed to the editor, who may decide whether the review can proceed.

Reviewers must not use information obtained through confidential peer review for personal, academic, professional, or financial advantage.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

Editors should not handle manuscripts where they have a significant conflict of interest.

Where an editor has collaborated closely with an author, supervised the author, has a personal relationship with the author, or has another interest that could reasonably affect impartiality, responsibility for the manuscript should be transferred to another suitable editor.

The same principle applies when a manuscript is submitted by an editor or editorial board member of Islamic Sciences. Such manuscripts should be handled independently of the person concerned.

Editorial position or association with the journal does not guarantee publication.

Institutional Relationships

An author's affiliation with the journal's publisher, editorial institution, or an institution represented on the editorial board should not influence the editorial decision.

Such manuscripts should be assessed according to the same scholarly standards as other submissions.

Managing a Conflict

Where a relevant conflict is disclosed, the journal may:

  • Assign another editor

  • Select different reviewers

  • Request further disclosure

  • Include an appropriate conflict-of-interest statement with the article

  • Seek independent academic advice where necessary

Disclosure does not automatically lead to rejection.

The journal's aim is to manage conflicts in a way that protects the fairness and credibility of the publication process.

Conflicts Discovered After Publication

Where a significant undisclosed conflict becomes known after publication, the journal may consider whether it affected the integrity or interpretation of the published work.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal may take no further action, add or correct a disclosure statement, issue a correction or editorial notice, or take further action where the matter raises a serious concern about the scholarly record.

Principle of Transparency

Islamic Sciences regards disclosure as part of responsible academic practice. Authors, reviewers, and editors are therefore encouraged to disclose relevant interests where there is reasonable uncertainty rather than leaving a potentially important relationship unexplained.

Research Ethics, Data and AI Policy

Purpose

Research published in Islamic Sciences may involve textual scholarship, historical sources, manuscripts, scientific and philosophical inquiry, interviews, field research, translations, archival materials, digital resources, or other forms of evidence.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research has been conducted and presented responsibly and that the evidence on which their conclusions depend can be represented honestly and accurately.

Research Ethics

Authors should follow the ethical requirements appropriate to the type of research being undertaken.

Where a study involves human participants, interviews, questionnaires, private communications, personal records, or other identifiable information, appropriate consent, institutional permission, or ethical approval should be obtained where required.

The journal may ask an author to provide information about ethical approval or consent where this is relevant to the submitted research.

Human Participants and Privacy

Research involving individuals should respect privacy, dignity, confidentiality, and informed participation.

Personally identifiable or confidential information should not be published without appropriate permission unless there is a clear lawful and scholarly basis for doing so.

Particular care should be taken when research concerns sensitive religious, social, medical, political, sectarian, or community matters.

Textual, Historical and Manuscript Research

In disciplines represented by Islamic Sciences, research evidence may include Qurʾanic material, Hadith, classical Islamic texts, manuscripts, archival records, historical documents, scientific writings, philosophical texts, translations, and modern scholarly literature.

Authors should represent such materials faithfully.

Quotations, translations, references, dates, manuscript information, and attributions should be checked carefully. Authors should not claim to have consulted an original or primary source where their knowledge comes from a secondary source unless this is made clear.

Material should not be altered selectively in a way that changes its meaning or gives a misleading impression of the source.

Research Data

Where research depends upon data, authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of that data.

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or deliberate misrepresentation of research data is unacceptable.

Where reasonable and appropriate to the discipline, the journal may ask authors to provide supporting information needed to understand or verify a significant claim.

Not all scholarship published in Islamic Sciences produces datasets suitable for public deposit. Data expectations should therefore be understood in relation to the nature of the research rather than applied mechanically to every article.

Availability of Supporting Material

Authors are encouraged to preserve research materials that may be necessary to support their published findings.

Where data, transcripts, images, archival material, or other supporting evidence cannot be shared publicly because of privacy, copyright, confidentiality, legal restrictions, or the nature of the material, authors should explain such limitations where relevant.

Images, Figures and Digital Material

Images, figures, tables, manuscript reproductions, maps, photographs, and other materials should not be manipulated in ways that distort the underlying evidence.

Routine adjustments made for readability or presentation should not alter the scholarly meaning of the material.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material where permission is required.

Use of AI-Assisted Tools

AI-assisted tools may be useful in certain parts of scholarly work, but they do not qualify for authorship and cannot take responsibility for academic claims.

Authors remain responsible for everything contained in their manuscripts, including:

  • Arguments

  • References

  • Quotations

  • Translations

  • Data

  • Interpretations

  • Images

  • Factual statements

  • Conclusions

AI-generated material should not be treated as a scholarly source unless the AI system itself is the object of study.

Disclosure of AI Use

Substantive use of AI-assisted tools in preparing a manuscript should be disclosed where it has materially contributed to writing, translation, analysis, image creation, data processing, or another significant part of the research.

Ordinary spelling, grammar, formatting, or similar technical assistance does not normally require extensive disclosure.

The important question is whether the tool made a substantive contribution that a reader or editor would reasonably need to know about when evaluating the work.

Verification of AI-Assisted Content

Authors should independently verify material produced with AI assistance.

AI systems must not be relied upon to provide unverified:

  • References

  • Quotations

  • Hadith citations

  • Qurʾanic references

  • Classical-text references

  • Historical claims

  • Scientific claims

  • Translations

  • Biographical information

  • Bibliographic details

Fabricated references or evidence remain the responsibility of the author even where they originated from an AI system.

AI and Original Scholarship

AI tools should not be used to conceal plagiarism, manufacture research evidence, generate false citations, impersonate another scholar, or replace the intellectual contribution expected from an author.

The journal may ask authors to clarify the role of AI-assisted tools where there is a reasonable concern about the originality, reliability, or authorship of a submission.

Confidentiality and AI Use in Peer Review

Editors and reviewers should protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.

Confidential manuscripts, reviewer reports, personal information, or unpublished research should not be uploaded to public or third-party AI systems where doing so would compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, or the integrity of the peer-review process.

Research Integrity

Where serious concerns arise about ethical approval, data integrity, fabricated evidence, AI-generated material, or another aspect of research integrity, the journal may seek clarification or supporting documentation from the author.

Depending on the nature of the concern, the manuscript may be revised, rejected, withdrawn from consideration, or dealt with under the journal's post-publication procedures.

The central principle is straightforward: technology, methodology, and disciplinary practice may differ, but authors remain responsible for presenting their research and evidence honestly.