Guidelines for new writers

As a Muslim, whatever profession you are associated with, whatever job you may be doing you need to learn basic Islamic values and teach your children about it so that they grow up as good Muslims who are an asset to place they live in and productive to the society as a whole because Islam turns people into good human beings.

There is another dimension to Islam, which is the life after death. We need, not just be successful in this brief life on this planet, we also ensure our salvation in Hereafter. For this purpose, we need to have Sahih Iman. The one who does not have Sahih Iman in this world has lost both the worlds, this life and the life after death.

Thus, it is important that together we work to spread the light of Sahih Iman for the benefit of our families and others in society. We need to live in peace and harmony with all people of the world, irrespective of faith, color or ethnicity and region. These are the basic teachings of Islam.

The reason for establishing Cifia Global Journal (CGJ) is a step in this direction. It is an open source journal where we do not charge any fee to the writers, authors and readers. The Journal will play a great role for the academic community among Muslims and help them to place their work in front of global readership. Their writings will help Muslims to know more about Islam and act upon Islamic principles to ensure salvation in Hereafter.

It is important that our student community is trained to think intellectually about Islam. Cifia Global Journal will help them engage in serious writing. While writing their points of views, they will put their arguments on Islamic issues, supporting their arguments with evidence to back up their arguments. This exercise by Muslim youth will help Muslim community at large to enhance their understanding of Islam.

This article is written to help new writers. If they write good articles on Islamic subjects and current topics related with Muslims, these will be published in Cifia Global Journal where they will get global exposure to their work.

How the articles are to be written? We have provided a brief account below for our writing community.

(i) Remember, whatever you write, it should be within the parameters of Sahih Iman. If you deviate from Sahih Iman, you will lose the support of Allah (عَزَّ وَجَلَّ), and His Apostle (صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم) and lose in both the worlds.

(ii) Pick a topic. Think about those who will read it. Develop an argument about that topic. Your argument should be supported with facts based on truthful Islamic teachings. It should not be just an opinion.

(iii) Do research, read papers on that topic previously written by scholars. Make notes on your topic along with citation/reference. Make points to support your argument. Write the body of the article first, then go to second point till the body of the article is complete. Write a conclusion. Now read what you have written. Revise your points and keep them in order to connect the dots. You can write the introduction now. You can also do vice versa by writing the introduction first. See what is easier for you.

The types of papers generally written are as follows.

(i) Research Papers are fully documented and interpreted accounts of findings of the author. Read the guidelines to the authors generally documented by the respective Journals. Follow the instructions of the Journal(s) where you intend to publish your paper. Your type written format should match with the requirement of the publishers/Journals. Papers not conforming to these guidelines may be rejected at the Editor's level.

(ii) Review Papers are critical and comprehensive reviews that provide new insights or interpretation of a subject by thorough evaluation of available evidence. Follow the guidelines of the publishers/Journals.

(iii) Short Reviews are timely articles that summarize recent developments in a field without providing an exhaustive review of all the literature. Short reviews provide new ideas and sometimes challenge accepted opinions. Follow the guidelines of Journals in this context.

(iv) Commentaries are generally letters, about a published article in a Journal. A commentary would normally include substantiated disagreement with, or alternative interpretation of, one or more aspects of a paper. It would also normally discuss associated implications for the conclusions reached. Commentaries are generally accepted within three months from publication of the paper. Commentaries should be brief and tidy. If accepted by the Journal, the commentary is generally communicated to the Author for his input.

Several online tools are available to help you write papers. A few of these are given below.

(i) Qiqqa is free tool that enables you to organize the PDFs, import them into separate libraries, search through them and detect duplicate sources. It provides information about papers, as well as connections between different concepts.

(ii) Mendeley is a free tool that helps you in writing research and citation with ease. Mendeley provides 2GB space for online storage, which is enough to keep all your sources secure in one place. It also enables you to generate the citations and bibliography in the style you choose.

(iii) Colwiz can be used to locate relevant articles and manage the notes and references through cloud backup. It enables you to format the bibliography automatically with over 6500 citation.

(iv) EndNote is good for team projects as it has a collaborative feature. It enables you to collect and manage different reference materials and manage the journals, research papers, essays or books you write.