Submissions

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Author Guidelines

Aims of the journal

The IJRF aims to provide a platform for scholarly discourse on religious freedom in general and the persecution of Christians in particular. The term persecution is understood broadly and inclusively by the editors. The IJRF is an interdisciplinary, international, peer reviewed journal, serving the dissemination of new research on religious freedom and is envisaged to become a premier publishing location for research articles, documentation, book reviews, academic news and other relevant items on the issue.

Editorial policy

The editors welcome the submission of any contribution to the journal. All manuscripts submitted for publication are assessed by a panel of referees and the decision to publish is dependent on their reports. The IJRF subscribes to the Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review of 2018 (https://sites.google.com/view/assaf-nsef-best-practice) as well as the National Code of Best Practice in Editorial Discretion and Peer Review for South African Scholarly Journals (http:// tinyurl.com/NCBP-2008) and tthe supplementary Guidelines for Best Practice of the Forum of Editors of Academic Law Journals in South Africa. As IJRF is listed on the South Africa Department of Higher Education and Training (DoHET) “Approved list of South African journals”, authors linked to South African universities can claim subsidies and are therefore charged page fees.

Submission adresses

  • Book reviews or suggestion of books for review: bookreviews@iirf.eu
  • Noteworthy items and academic news: noteworthy@iirf.eu
  • All other contributions: research or review articles, opinion pieces, documentation, event reports, letters, reader’s response, etc.: editor@iirf.eu

Selection criteria

All research articles are expected to conform to the following requirements, which authors should use as a checklist before submission:

  • Focus: Does the article have a clear focus on religious freedom / religious persecution / suffering because of religious persecution? These terms are understood broadly and inclusively by the editors of IJRF, but these terms clearly do not include everything.
  • Scholarly standard: Is the scholarly standard of a research article acceptable? Does it contribute something substantially new to the debate?
  • Clarity of argument: Is it well structured, including subheadings where appropriate?
  • Language usage: Does it have the international reader, specialists and non-specialists in mind and avoid bias and parochialism?
  • Substantiation/Literature consulted: Does the author consult sufficient and most current literature? Are claims thoroughly substantiated throughout and reference to sources and documentation made?

Submission procedure

  1. Submissions must be complete (see no.6), conform to the formal criteria (see no. 8-10) and must be accompanied by a cover letter (see no. 3–4).
  2. The standard deadlines for the submission of academic articles are 1 February and 1 August respectively for the next issue and a month later for smaller items such as book reviews, noteworthy items, event reports, etc.
  3. A statement whether an item is being submitted elsewhere or has been previously published must accompany the article.
  4. Research articles will be sent to up to three independent referees. Authors are encouraged to submit the contact details of 4 potential referees with whom they have not recently co-published. The choice of referees is at the discretion of the editors. The referee process is a double blind process. This means that you should not consult with or inform your referees at any point in the process. Your paper will be anonymized so that the referee does not know that you are the author. Upon receiving the reports from the referees, authors will be notified of the decision of the editorial committee, which may include a statement indicating changes or improvements that are required before publication. You will not be informed which referees were consulted and any feedback from them will be anonymized.
  5. Should the article be accepted for publication, the author will be expected to submit a finalized electronic version of the article.
  6. Include the following:
    • An abstract of no more than 100 words.
    • Between 3 and 10 keywords that express the key concepts used in the article.
    • Brief biographical details of the author in the first footnote, linked to the name of the author, indicating, among others, year of birth, the institutional affiliation, special connection to the topic, choice of UK or American spelling, date of submission, full contact details including e-mail address.
  7. Authors are encouraged to also engage with prior relevant articles in IJRF, the Religious Freedom Series, and IIRF Reports (www.iirf.eu) to an appropriate degree. So check for relevant articles.
  8. Articles should be spell-checked before submission, by using the spellchecker on the computer. Authors may choose either ‘UK English‘ or ‘American English’ but must be consistent. Indicate your choice in the first footnote.
  9. Number your headings (including introduction) and give them a hierarchical structure. Delete all double spaces and blank lines. Use as little formatting as possible and definitely no “hard formatting” such as extra spaces, tabs. Please do not use a template. All entries in the references and all footnotes end with a full stop. No blank spaces before a line break.
  10. Research articles should have an ideal length of 4 000 words and a maximum of 6 000 words. Articles longer than that are not normally accepted, but may be published if, in the views of the referees, it makes an exceptionally important contribution to religious freedom.
  11. Research articles are honoured with two complimentary printed copies.
  12. For research articles by members of the editorial team or their relatives, the full editorial discretion is delegated to a non-partisan editor and they are submitted to the same peer review process as all other articles.

Style requirements

  1. IJRF prefers the widely accepted ‘name-date’ method (or Harvard system) for citations in the text. Other reference methods are permissible if they are fully consistent.
  2. A publication is cited or referred to in the text by inserting the author’s last name, year and page number(s) in parentheses, for example (Mbiti 1986:67–83). More detailed examples can be found on: www.iirf.eu > journal > instructions for contributors.
  3. Graphics and Tables: These must be attached as separate files. Indicate in red where they should go in the text. Every effort will be made to place them in that spot.

Image Quality: minimum width must be 10.5 cm at 220dpi or simply 1000 pixels. The width of the image always goes over the entire width of the type area (10.5cm), but is flexible in hight.

Please send the image in its own file (e.g. JPG, TIF, EPS ...), not in a Word document.

Tables and “simple” diagrams: These will likely be redesigned by our layout expert. Please attach them in a separate file.

  1. Footnotes should be reserved for content notes only. Bibliographical information is cited in the text according to the Harvard method (see 2 above). Full citations should appear in the References at the end of the article (see below).
  2. References should be listed in alphabetical order of authors under the heading “References” at the end of the text. Do not include a complete bibliography of all works consulted, only a list of references actually used in the text.
  3. Always give full first names of authors in the list of references, as this simplifies the retrieval of entries in databases. Keep publisher names short.

Articles

Section default policy

Article Submissions

Articles submitted to the IJRF should be 4000-6000 words. Authors should conform to the Guidelines for Authors found on the ijrf.org website. Acceptance is subject to peer review. Please submit your essay by registering for an account with IJRF and then creating a new submission. Your submission should include 1) an abstract, 2) a MS document of your article and 3) a document that includes your biography and a mailing address.

Copyright Notice

The International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Privacy Statement

I. Introduction

The International Institute for Religious Freedom (“IIRF”) and the International Journal for Religious Freedom (“IJRF”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit https://iirf.global or https://ijrf.org and the content, features, and functionality of these websites (“Websites”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information.

This policy applies to information we collect:

  1. on these Websites;
  2. in e-mail, text, and other electronic communications between you and these Websites; or
  3. otherwise through these Websites.

It does not apply to information collected by:

  1. the IIRF and the IJRF offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by any third party; or
  2. any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on these Websites.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Websites. By accessing or using these Websites, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of these Websites after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

II. Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect several types of information from and about users of our Websites, including information:

  1. by which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, birthdate, social security number, screen name or other identifier, or ANY OTHER INFORMATION THE WEBSITE COLLECTS THAT IS DEFINED AS PERSONAL OR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION UNDER AN APPLICABLE LAW (“personal information”);
  2. that is about you but individually does not identify you, such as employment history, educational history, or personal statements; and/or
  3. about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Websites, and usage details.

We collect this information:

  1. directly from you when you provide it to us;
  2. automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies; and/or
  3. from third parties, for example, our business partners.

III. Information You Provide To Us

The information we collect on or through our Websites may include:

  1. Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Websites. This includes information provided at the time of making donations, posting materials, submitting employment applications, submitting mobility papers, or signing up for events, notifications, or to receive further information. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Websites.
  2. Records and copies of your correspondence (including e-mail addresses), if you contact us.
  3. Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
  4. Details of the fulfillment of your orders or completion of donations. You may be required to provide financial information before placing an order or making a donation through our Websites.
  5. Your search queries on the Website.
  6. Your login information for any portions of the Website that require it.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on public areas of the Website, or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

IV. Information We Collect Through Automated Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Websites, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

  1. Details of your visits to our Websites, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data, and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
  2. Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).

The information we collect automatically is statistical data and we may maintain or associate the data with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Websites and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  1. Estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
  2. Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Websites according to your individual interests;
  3. Speed up your searches; and/or
  4. Recognize you when you return to our Websites.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

  1. Cookies(or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Websites. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Websites.
  2. Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Websites may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Websites. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.
  3. Web Beacons. Pages of our the Website and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs. pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an e-mail and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

We do not collect personal information automatically, but we may tie this information to personal information about you that we collect from other sources or you provide to us.

V. How We Use Your Information

We may use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  1. To present our Websites and its contents to you;
  2. To allow you to register for events and programs;
  3. To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
  4. To enable you to make donations and for us to acknowledge them;
  5. To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection;
  6. To notify you about changes to our Websites or any products or services we offer or provide though it;
  7. To allow you to participate in the mobility process;
  8. In any other way we may describe when you provide the information; and
  9. For any other purpose with your consent.

We may also use your information to contact you about events and activities that may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, if the form on which you are submitting the information has a box allowing you to opt out of this use of the information, please check that box. If the form does not have such a box, e-mail us at info@iirf.global.

We may use the information we collect from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

VI. Disclosure of Your Information

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

  1. To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our mission and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them;
  2. To a successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of the IIRF’s and the IJRF’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by the IIRF and the IJRF about our Websites users is among the assets transferred.
  3. To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you provide information as part of the mobility process, we will transmit that information to synods in which you are interested in serving.
  4. For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
  5. With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

  1. To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including responding to any government or regulatory request.
  2. To enforce or apply our terms of use or terms of any agreement you enter into with us, and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
  3. If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of the IIRF and the IJRF, its employees, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

VII. Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

  1. Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
  2. Promotional Offers from the IIRF and the IJRF. If you do not wish to have your e-mail address or other contact information used by the IIRF and the IJRF to promote products, services, events, or ministry opportunities, you can opt-out by checking the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your data (if there is such a box), by logging into the Website and adjusting your user preferences in your account profile (if you have an account profile with user preferences) or by sending us an e-mail stating your request to info@iirf.global. If we send you a promotional e-mail, you may send us a return e-mail asking to be omitted from future e-mail distributions.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way.

VIII. Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You may send us an e-mail at info@iirf.global to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. If you have a user account, we cannot delete your personal information associated with that account except by also deleting that user account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

If you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Website users.

IX. Data Security

The safety and security of your information depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Websites. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

X. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page and to accompany material changes with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the Website home page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the Website home page. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for periodically visiting our Websites and this privacy policy to check for any changes.

XI. Contact Information

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at:

International Institute for Religious Freedom
c/o World Evangelical Alliance
Church Street Station
P.O. Box 3402
New York, NY 10008-3402
info@iirf.global