Formatting Guidelines

1. General Principles

Kemal Tahir Çalışmaları is an academic journal open to interdisciplinary work spanning the classical fields of law and the intersections of law with technology and society. The rules below rest on the principles of simplifying the submission process for authors, ensuring a sound peer review and applying a consistent academic format to all accepted articles.

2. Submission Process and Format

The journal adopts an author-friendly publication process. Full compliance with the strict formatting rules is not required at initial submission; these rules apply only to accepted articles. This practice aims to prevent the author from having to reformat the same work for different journals and to keep the review process focused on content.

2.1 Minimum Requirements at First Submission

• File format: PDF (main text) and .docx (Title Page); two separate files.
• Page layout: A4, 1.5 line spacing, a readable typeface, justified alignment.
• Citation style: APA 7 is recommended; at first submission any consistent citation system is accepted.
• Title, abstract and keywords in Turkish and English for every manuscript (see § 5).
• ORCID identifier for all authors.
• Ethics committee approval document for research that requires it.
• For blind review, author information must not appear in the main text file; this information is placed only in the Title Page.
• Explicit declaration if AI tools have been used (see § 11).

2.2 Full Format After Acceptance

Once your work is accepted, the author is required to fully comply with the page format set out in § 3, the APA 7 citation style defined in § 7 and the rules for legal-source adaptation set out in § 8. At this stage the journal templates are sent to the author.

3. Page and Document Format

• Page size: A4 (210 × 297 mm)
• Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides
• Typeface: Times New Roman 12 pt
• Line spacing: 1.5
• Paragraph indent: 1.25 cm first line
• Alignment: Justified
• Footnotes: Times New Roman 10 pt, single spacing (for explanatory footnotes only, see § 7.4)
• Page numbers: Bottom-centre

4. Article Types and Length

Word counts include abstract, main text, footnotes and references. Tables and figures are not included.

5. Title, Author Information, Abstract and Keywords

Author information (name, affiliation, ORCID, email, correspondence address) appears only on the Title Page; the main text file must be stripped of author information for blind review.

• Title: Up to 15 words; a subtitle may follow a colon.
• Abstract: 150–250 words, a single paragraph, no subheadings. A structured abstract is preferred: context, aim, method, findings and contribution in that order.
• Keywords: 5–7 terms, lowercase, separated by commas.
• Bilingual presentation: Each manuscript must contain title, abstract and keywords in both Turkish and English.

6. Text Structure and Heading Hierarchy

The structure of the manuscript depends on the type of work but at a minimum includes introduction, body sections (with subheadings), conclusion and references. Empirical work follows the IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion) structure. The heading hierarchy goes no deeper than three levels (1, 1.1, 1.1.1); deeper hierarchies are avoided.

• Level 1: 14 pt, bold, left-aligned, numbered (1. Introduction)
• Level 2: 12 pt, bold, left-aligned, numbered (1.1. Conceptual Framework)
• Level 3: 12 pt, bold italic, left-aligned, numbered (1.1.1. Related Debates)

7. Citation Style — APA 7

The journal adopts the principles of the APA 7th edition (American Psychological Association, Publication Manual, 7th edition) as its citation system. All citations are given in parentheses within the text; footnotes are not used for citation purposes.

7.1 In-text Citation

• Single author: (Hallaq, 2013, p. 37)
• Two authors: (Oudihat & Bahari, 2024, p. 15)
• Three or more authors: (Santos et al., 2007, p. 12) — “et al.” is used from the first citation.
• Corporate author: First citation (Grand National Assembly of Türkiye [TBMM], 2022); later citations (TBMM, 2022).
• Multiple sources: Alphabetical, separated by semicolons within parentheses: (Asad, 1993, p. 28; Hallaq, 2013, p. 37).
• Same year, same author: Add letters to the year: (Hallaq, 2013a; Hallaq, 2013b).
• Secondary source: (Quijano, as cited in Grosfoguel, 2013, p. 78).

7.2 Direct and Block Quotation

• Quotation under 40 words: Within the text in double quotation marks; the citation appears in parentheses at the end of the quotation.
• Quotation of 40 words or more (block quotation): No quotation marks; indented 1.27 cm from the left; the citation appears in parentheses after the final full stop of the block.
• Page number is required in direct quotations.

7.3 Secondary Sources

Secondary-source citation is used only when the primary source is unavailable. Only the source actually read (the secondary source) is included in the reference list. The author is expected to seek the primary source where possible.

7.4 Footnote Policy

Under APA 7, footnotes are used only for explanatory purposes; they provide supplementary information that would disrupt the flow of the text but may be of value to the reader. Citation footnotes are not permitted; all citations appear in the text in APA 7 format.

8. Reference List

• Heading: “References” (in English manuscripts), “Kaynakça” (in Turkish manuscripts).
• Order: Alphabetical by author surname.
• Hanging indent: First line flush left; subsequent lines indented 1.27 cm.
• DOI: Always included where available, in the form https://doi.org/...
• All in-text citations must appear in the reference list and every entry in the reference list must be cited in the text.

9.1 Common Source Types

Book (single author):
Hallaq, W. B. (2013). The impossible state: Islam, politics, and modernity’s moral predicament. Columbia University Press.

Book (two authors):
Oudihat, S., & Bahari, S. (2024). Islamic discourses in modernity. Springer. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Edited volume:
Bhambra, G. K. (Ed.). (2007). Rethinking modernity: Postcolonialism and the sociological imagination. Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter in an edited volume:
Grosfoguel, R. (2013). The structure of knowledge in Westernized universities. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, 11(1), 73–90.

Journal article:
Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power and Eurocentrism in Latin America. International Sociology, 15(2), 215–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580900015002005

Translated book:
Asad, T. (2007). Sekülerliğin biçimleri: Hıristiyanlık, İslamiyet ve modernlik (F. B. Aydar, Trans.). Metis. (Original work published 2003)

Thesis:
Surname, A. B. (2020). Thesis title [Master’s thesis, University Name]. CoHE Thesis Centre.

Web source:
Author, A. B. (2024, 15 March). Article title. Site Name. https://www.sitename.com/article

9. Tables, Figures and Images

• Tables and figures are placed immediately after the point in the text where they are first mentioned.
• Each table and figure is numbered: Table 1, Table 2 / Figure 1, Figure 2.
• The table number appears above the table in bold; the title in italics below the number. In an APA 7 table no vertical lines are used; horizontal lines appear at the top, beneath the header row and at the bottom.
• If a table or figure is taken from another source, attribution is given under it as a “Source.” note; where necessary, copyright permission must have been obtained.
• Images are uploaded at high resolution (minimum 300 dpi).

10. AI Use Declaration

If artificial intelligence tools have been used in the preparation of the work, the name and version of the tool used and the scope of its use (e.g., text generation, source summarisation, language editing, data analysis, code generation) are disclosed under a separate “Artificial Intelligence Use Declaration” heading. This statement appears before the reference list.

Tools used solely for grammar checking or text formatting are exempt from this declaration. For detailed rules see Ethical Principles and Publication Policy § 6.

11. Submission Files

The following files are uploaded separately at submission:

• Main text (PDF): Manuscript stripped of author information, prepared for blind review.
• Title Page (.docx): Author names, affiliations, ORCID, email, conflict of interest, funding, ethics committee approval, AI use declaration, copyright/license declaration and author signatures.
• Ethics committee approval document (where applicable): Committee name, decision number and date for research involving humans or animals.
• Third-party permissions (where applicable): Written permissions for any third-party images, tables or extended quotations.
• Table and figure files (where applicable): Separate high-resolution files.

12. Submission Templates

You may prepare your submission by downloading the template and sample documents below. Templates are updated as the journal template is revised.

• Title Page: Turkish (.docx · PDF) · English (.docx · PDF)
• Main Text Template: Turkish / English (.docx · PDF)
• Reviewer Evaluation Form: Turkish (.docx · PDF) · English (.docx · PDF)

The Title Page contains author identifying information and is uploaded as a separate file; the Main Text file must be anonymized for double-blind review.