About the Journal

Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics is a peer-reviewed, open access scholarly journal that publishes original research and critical discussions at the intersection of Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia), philosophical thought, and ethical inquiry. The journal aims to serve as a platform for academic dialogue and knowledge dissemination among scholars, researchers, theologians, and philosophers who are committed to exploring both traditional and contemporary questions related to moral reasoning, religious law, and philosophical principles within Islamic and comparative contexts. As a quarterly publication, the journal issues four volumes per year, and each submission undergoes a rigorous double-blind peer-review process to ensure academic quality, originality, and scholarly relevance.

By fostering interdisciplinary perspectives, the journal encourages submissions that challenge prevailing paradigms, propose new interpretations, and address emerging ethical dilemmas in diverse domains including law, theology, bioethics, political philosophy, comparative ethics, and applied moral philosophy. The editorial board comprises internationally recognized scholars in the fields of Islamic law, Western and Islamic philosophy, religious ethics, and jurisprudential theory. The journal welcomes articles in English and Persian that exhibit methodological rigor and contribute substantially to the academic discourse on the intersection of Sharia, philosophy, and ethics.

Aims and Scope

The central aim of Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics is to provide a scholarly venue for the exploration of normative frameworks, legal reasoning, and moral values in the Islamic tradition and beyond. Specifically, the journal seeks to:

  • Promote advanced scholarly research on classical and contemporary interpretations of Sharia and Islamic legal theory.

  • Explore philosophical foundations of ethics in both Islamic and comparative traditions.

  • Analyze moral and ethical dimensions of legal, political, social, and scientific developments.

  • Investigate intersections between philosophy of law, moral philosophy, and jurisprudence in religious and secular contexts.

  • Foster critical debates on applied ethics in relation to modern challenges such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, environmental justice, and human rights.

The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to:

  • Foundations and development of Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh and Usul al-Fiqh)

  • Ethical theories in Islamic and comparative philosophy

  • Meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics in Islamic contexts

  • Interdisciplinary approaches linking Sharia and Western philosophy

  • Contemporary legal and ethical challenges in Muslim societies

  • Hermeneutical and epistemological issues in moral and legal reasoning

  • Gender ethics, social justice, and minority rights in Islamic law

The journal encourages submissions from both emerging and established scholars. Interdisciplinary studies, comparative legal analyses, philosophical treatises, and critical book reviews are also welcome.

Open Access Statement

Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics is committed to the principle of open access to scholarly research. All articles published in the journal are freely available online without any subscription fee or access restrictions. This policy is grounded in the belief that open access promotes a greater global exchange of knowledge, enhances the visibility of research, and supports academic freedom.

Readers are entitled to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, provided that the use is non-commercial and proper citation is given.

This journal supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and aligns with the principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing.

Copyright and License

Authors publishing with Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics retain full copyright of their articles. By submitting to the journal and upon acceptance, authors agree to license their work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

This license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work, and derivative works based upon it, but only for non-commercial purposes and with appropriate credit to the original author(s). Authors are encouraged to widely disseminate their work and may upload it to personal websites, institutional repositories, or other open-access platforms, provided that a link to the original publication is included.

Authors also retain the right to reuse their work in future books, compilations, or other academic outputs, with proper attribution to the original source in Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics.

Plagiarism Policy

The journal maintains a strict policy against plagiarism and academic misconduct. All submitted manuscripts undergo a thorough plagiarism screening using iThenticate, a leading plagiarism detection software.

Authors are expected to ensure the originality of their submissions and to properly cite all sources, whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarized material or fabricated data will be rejected outright. If plagiarism is discovered after publication, the article may be retracted, and the incident will be reported to the author’s affiliated institution.

The journal adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for dealing with allegations of research misconduct, including plagiarism, data falsification, and unethical research practices.

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

To support the costs associated with peer review management, open access hosting, professional editing, and long-term digital archiving, Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics charges a one-time Article Processing Charge (APC) of 1,500,000 Iranian Tomans for each accepted manuscript.

There are no submission charges. APCs are only payable after an article has passed peer review and been formally accepted for publication. The APC helps ensure that all published content remains freely available to the global academic community without paywalls or subscription barriers.

Fee waivers and discounts may be considered for authors with limited funding, particularly from low-income countries or junior researchers, upon formal request to the editorial office.

Peer-Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics are subject to a double-blind peer-review process, meaning that the identities of both the authors and reviewers are concealed throughout the review.

Each manuscript is initially reviewed by the editorial team to ensure compliance with the journal’s thematic scope, formatting standards, and ethical policies. Once deemed suitable, the paper is assigned to two or three independent expert reviewers in the relevant field. The reviewers evaluate the manuscript on criteria such as originality, scholarly contribution, methodological rigor, and clarity of presentation.

Reviewers are given approximately 3–4 weeks to submit their feedback. Based on the reviewers’ comments, the editorial board may decide to:

  • Accept the paper as is,

  • Request minor or major revisions,

  • Reject the manuscript.

Authors are given clear feedback and, if revisions are requested, a reasonable timeframe to resubmit the manuscript. All revised submissions undergo another round of editorial evaluation and, if necessary, further peer review. The average time from submission to first decision is typically between 4 to 6 weeks.

Archiving and Repository Policies

Sharia, Philosophy and Ethics is committed to the long-term preservation and accessibility of its published content. The journal maintains a comprehensive archiving policy that ensures the perpetual availability of scholarly materials.

All articles are archived in the journal’s official website and backed up on secure institutional servers. The journal supports self-archiving and encourages authors to deposit their final published versions (publisher's PDF) in institutional repositories, personal websites, or disciplinary repositories such as SSRN, PhilPapers, and Academia.edu.