Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the Endnote and Reference format outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • For manuscripts not in English (e.g in Malay), the title, abstract and keywords in English are provided. The list of references have been written in Roman alphabet.

Author Guidelines

  1. All articles, scripts or reviews submitted for consideration to the Sejarah should have two files: a) the main file which must not include author(s) affiliation but with title, abstract, keywords, full article and bibliographic references. b). a separate title page file indicating the article title, author(s)' full name (in the form preferred for publication), corresponding author(s) name, full affiliation of all author(s) (including institutional,  email address, mobile number), and acknowledgement.
  2. Manuscript should be prepared as a Microsoft Word document, typed in Times New Roman with 12-point font size. The journal will not accept previously published work and those that are on offer to any other publisher.
  3. The length of the manuscript should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words and double-spaced throughout in accordance with the format requirements of the journal. All submitted articles will not be returned.
  4. Each article must be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 250 words, written in English (and also in Malay). Abstract must be very clear / detail consisting of objective, problem defined / significant, method, finding, and conclusion. Please provide 5 relevant keywords.
  5. Sejarah requires a complete citations/references--author, title, place of publication: publisher and date of publication--upon first use of a source, and an abbreviated form of citation/reference thereafter.
  6. Full quotation which are fewer than 3 lines (fewer than 30 words), run it into the text and use double quotation marks and put reference in the endnote. Full quotation which are 3 lines or more ( more than 30 words), use block quotations; indent the entire quotation  from the left (2cm) and right margin (2cm);  use double quotation marks; single spacing; 12-point font size, use an ellipsis (3 dots) to represent an omission; spacing before and after paragraph, and put reference in the endnote.
  7. Formatting, layout, clarity, conformity and the quality of tables and figures should be good.
  8. Use endnotes, NOT footnotes, typed in Times New Roman with 10-point font size and provide full references at the end of article.
  9. Please avoid stating the author (s) name in the manuscript. Please follow the following templates and format:

Download Sejarah's Template

Download Author Profile

 

ENDNOTES

a) Book:

Leon Comber, Malaya’s Secret Police 1945-1960: The Role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency, Singapore: Institute of South Asian Studies, 2008, pp. 10-12.

b) Journal article:

Leslie H. Palmier, “Modern Islam in Indonesia: The Muhammadiyah after Independence”, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1954, p. 255.

c) Chapter in a book:

Linda Tan, “Syed Shaykh: His Life and Times”, in Alijah Gordon (ed.), The Real Cry of Syed Shaykh al-Hady, Kuala Lumpur: MSRI, 1999, p. 10.

d) Thesis / dissertation / academic exercise

A.C. Milner, The Malay Raja: A Study of Malay Political Culture in East Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula in the Early Nineteenth Century, PhD Thesis, Cornell University, United States of America, 1977, p. 10.

e) Working paper:

William R. Roff, “Kaum Muda - Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction amongst the Malays, 1900-1941”, Working Paper Presented at Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, ISEAS, Singapore, 1985, pp. 1-14.

Book / journal article / chapter in a book / thesis / working paper (if citing same source):

Ibid. (implying the same author and page number as the previous one); or
Ibid., pp. 20-22 (for different page numbers)

*(The use of op.cit is not allowed)

Book / journal article / chapter in a book / thesis / working paper (if citing same source but preceded by other sources):

Leon Comber, Malaya’s Secret Police 1945-1960, p. 11.

Leslie H. Palmier, “Modern Islam in Indonesia", p. 256.

Linda Tan, “Syed Shaykh: His Life and Times”, pp. 11-12.

A.C. Milner, "The Malay Raja: A Study of Malay Political Culture", p. 10.

William R. Roff, “Kaum Muda - Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction”, p. 2.

f) British Colonial Records:

File / Letter / Telegram

Sir Donald MacGillivray to the Secretary of Colonial Office, 1 February 1956, CO 537/211 (35).

Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements to the Resident of Selangor, 20 January 1875, SSF 3/75.

Letter from J. Prince, the Resident of Selangor to John Anderson, the Governor, 7 November 1827, SSR 139.

Reports

Speech by Oliver Lyttelton, Secretary of Colonial Office, 1 August 1955, Federal Legislative Council, CO 1022/210 (11).

The Reid Commission Report, Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1957, pp. 30-40.

Minute of the Legislative Council of Selangor, 31 December 1877.

Annual Report of the Federated Malay States, 1899, p. 1.

Report on the Administration of the Straits Settlements during the Year 1855-56, p. 2.

g) Personal correspondence

Tan Cheng Lock to Tunku Abdul Rahman, 1 July 1955, Personal Correspondences of Tan Cheng Lock, SP13/1/21.

Collection of Royal Letters of Baginda Omar, Sultan of Terengganu, Attached, Letter from the Permanent Resident of Singapore to Baginda Omar, 1858, SP6/51.

h) Manuscript

Hikayat Riau, Microfilm MF 724.7, Main Library of the University of Malaya, Folio 1.

i) Newspaper

Alan Teh Leam Seng,"Tale of the Songkok", New Straits Times, 6 May, 2022, p. 1.

j) Magazine

Mohd. Khalid Saidin, "Naskah-Naskah Lama Mengenai Sejarah Johor", Dewan Bahasa, No. 6, August 1971, p. 9.

“The Status of Jurusalem: A Legal Viewpoint”, The Islamic Review, Vol. 55, No. 8, August 1967, pp. 4-6.

k) Interview

Interview with Emeritus Professor Abdullah Zakaria Ghazali at the Department of History, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 27 April 2023.

 

REFERENCES

a) Book: Surname of the author(s), Name(s), Title of the book (Italicized), City of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Example: Comber,Leon, Malaya’s Secret Police 1945-1960: The Role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency, Singapore: Institute of South Asian Studies, 2008.

b) Journal article: Surnames of the author(s), Name(s), Title of the journal article, Name of the Journal (italic), Number or Volume and Issue, pages comprising the article within the journal. Example: Palmier, Leslie H., “Modern Islam in Indonesia: The Muhammadiyah after Independence”, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1954, pp. 255-263.

c) Chapter in a book:  Name(s) of the editor(s),  Title of the book (Italicized), City of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Example:  Alijah Gordon (ed.), The Real Cry of Syed Shaykh al-Hady, Kuala Lumpur: MSRI, 1999.

d) Thesis / dissertation / academic exercise: Surname of the author(s), Name(s), Title of the thesis / dissertation / academic exercise, Name of the univerisity, Year of graduation.

Example: Milner, A.C., The Malay Raja: A Study of Malay Political Culture in East Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula in the Early Nineteenth Century, PhD Thesis, Cornell University, United States of America, 1977.

e) Working paper: Surname of the author(s), Name(s), Title of the working paper, Location of the conference / seminar, Date of the conference / seminar. Example: Roff., William R., “Kaum Muda - Kaum Tua: Innovation and Reaction amongst the Malays, 1900-1941”, Working Paper Presented at Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, ISEAS, Singapore, 1985.

Privacy Statement

Peer Review Policies

Sejarah is a journal exercises a double-blind peer review policy with a minimum of two referees per submission. Prospective authors will receive feedback on their submission, with guidelines for revisions if, and where, appropriate.  

Sejarah  follows a code of best practice familiar to all scholarly journals. This means that the editorial board conducts peer-reviews to ensure the academic integrity and quality of all contributions; continually strives to improve the journal by listening to feedback from authors, editors, readers, and reviewers; provides comprehensive guidance for all authors and reviewers; and places intellectual and ethical standards over business needs.

 

Selection Criteria

Sejarah  is a masked or blind peer-review journal. The general guidelines for the acceptance for publication of a submitted manuscript are as follows:

  • Relevance

Papers within the disciplines and areas of archaeology, oral history, regional history, comparative politics, government, gender studies, political studies, regional and international politics, national and international security, human security, foreign policy and diplomacy, international inter and intra-cultural studies, peace and conflict studies, and area studies covering the Asia-Pacific regionsare considered.

  • Standard and Criteria

Manuscripts that exhibit most of the following characteristics meet the selection criteria for publication:

  • Content: Original manuscript with significant findings that contribute to the discipline of history, politics or international relations that also command a general interest.
  • Presentation: Systematic, easily comprehensible and well-organized prose. It is required that the arguments.
  • Language: Simple, coherent and highly intelligible to a general intellectual audience. The journal accepts manuscripts written in English, Malay or in Bahasa Indonesia. There should be minimal usage of specialized terms, jargons or technical language. If such specialized terms, jargons or technical language are unavoidable, please insert an explanatory note to follow in parentheses.
  • Convention: Conformity to Sejarah-style.

Many manuscripts are not accepted for publication because they are too elementary, poorly written and/or poorly organized, incoherent, too specialized in scope, unduly technical, or excessively long and do not conform to the journal style as mentioned in submission guideline. Such papers that are rejected are promptly returned to the author.

 

Peer-Review Process

The Managing Editor conducts a preliminary review of all the manuscripts sent to the journal. Manuscripts that are considered entirely inappropriate will be rejected at this stage. Next, the selected manuscripts are allocated to suitable reviewers. All reviews are conducted anonymously, to help ensure the integrity, objectivity, and fairness of the evaluation. The two reviewers will be asked to evaluate the strength of the manuscript based on its theoretical or conceptual framework, methodology, argument, contribution to the field, literature review, prose and style. They will then provide comments for the editor-in-chief, and suggestions for revision for the author where appropriate, within three weeks of receiving the manuscript. Based on their evaluation, reviewers will suggest one of the following:

  • That the manuscript be rejected
  • That additional reviews are required 
  • That the author(s) be invited to revise and resubmit the manuscript 
  • That the manuscript be accepted with minor changes

Reviewer’s comments are forwarded to the author. Where revisions are indicated, constructive suggestions and advice will be provided to the author for revising the manuscript. Manuscripts are rarely accepted without revision.

The decision as to whether or not, or how, to address the reviewers comments are left with the author. If the author decides to submit a revised manuscript, he or she is also expected to provide information describing how they have addressed the reviewer’s comments.

Subsequently, the editors send the revised paper out for review, if necessary. At least one of the original reviewers will be asked to re-examine the article.

When the second review is complete, the editors decide whether the paper is ready to be published; needs another round of revisions; or the paper should be rejected. It should be noted that the final acceptance or rejection entirely rests with the editorial board, who reserve the right to refuse publication on reasonable grounds.

 

Process after the Acceptance of a Manuscript

After a manuscript has been accepted, it is considered to be ‘in press’. At this stage, the author may be asked to respond to queries from the publisher normally on issues of style, in-text citations, references, tables, clarity, and grammar. Following these minor corrections, proofs are sent to the corresponding authors for their final approval. At this point, only essential changes are accepted.