Important Notice: Institutional Email and Template Compliance

To uphold the integrity of academic publishing and proactively prevent ghost authorship, identity fraud, paper mills, and unauthorized third-party manuscript submissions, the Indonesian Journal of Criminal Law Studies (IJCLS) hereby enforces a strict policy concerning submission, registration, manuscript formatting, and international collaboration.

1. Submission and Registration Policy

Effective immediately, IJCLS only accepts manuscript submissions using official institutional email addresses, such as [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].

Manuscripts submitted using personal or commercial email providers, including Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, and similar services, will be automatically rejected at the initial screening stage without further review. The email address used for submission must correspond directly with the author's stated institutional affiliation.

In line with this policy, the Editorial Board is conducting a comprehensive audit of the OJS user database. Registered user accounts, including Authors and Reviewers, that use non-institutional email addresses may be removed from the OJS system.

All members of the IJCLS community are therefore required to update their OJS profiles using an official institutional email address to avoid potential loss of access or account removal.

2. Mandatory Compliance with the Official IJCLS Template

In addition to identity verification, all manuscripts submitted to IJCLS must strictly comply with the official journal manuscript template.

Submissions that do not comply with the prescribed structure, formatting, citation, and writing guidelines may be returned to the authors for revision or rejected before entering the peer-review process.

Furthermore, authors are required to use Mendeley or an equivalent reference management tool in preparing footnotes and the bibliography, in accordance with the journal's prescribed referencing requirements.

The official IJCLS manuscript template can be accessed at: Template IJCLS .

3. Mandatory International Collaboration

All submitted manuscripts must be the result of genuine collaboration between authors from at least two different countries.

Each author's institutional affiliation must be clearly stated and verifiable. The Editorial Board may conduct verification of the authors' affiliations and institutional information during the editorial process.

Manuscripts that do not fulfill this international collaboration requirement will be rejected at the initial screening stage (desk rejection).

4. Purpose of the Policy

These measures constitute a core component of the IJCLS publication ethics and quality assurance framework. The policy aims to:

• Verify Author Identity: Ensure that contributors are verifiable members of their stated institutions and that the information provided during submission is accurate and accountable.
• Prevent Unethical Publication Practices: Deter ghost authorship, identity fraud, paper mills, and manuscript submissions conducted by unauthorized third parties.
• Maintain Academic and Professional Standards: Ensure consistency in manuscript presentation and establish transparent, accountable communication between the Editorial Board and the scholarly community.
• Strengthen Editorial Verification: Facilitate the verification of author identity, institutional affiliation, and the authenticity of the submitted manuscript throughout the editorial process.

5. Note to Independent Researchers

Independent researchers without institutional affiliations are not automatically exempt from the identity verification requirement. They are required to contact the IJCLS Editorial Office through a formal inquiry to request a verification waiver prior to registration or manuscript submission.

The Editorial Office will assess the request and determine whether the applicant may proceed with registration and manuscript submission. Independent researchers should not create an OJS account or submit a manuscript under this category before receiving confirmation from the Editorial Office.