The Malaysian Journal of International Relations, MJIR (eISSN 2600-8181) is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published annually by the Department of International and Strategic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. The MJIR welcomes original contributions related to international relations, foreign policy, diplomacy, political science, international political economy, strategic and security studies, and related fields, to be considered for publication. In particular, the journal welcomes manuscripts with a focus on international relations in the Asia-Pacific. 

 

Aims and Scope
The world of international politics in the 21st century is a dynamic one, with challenges as well as opportunities. Contemporary news highlights the threat of nuclear proliferation, of terrorism in various parts of the world, climate change, and of the continuing side effects of the financial meltdown. Equally, there are opportunities to advance such causes as nuclear disarmament and crisis resolution. Hence, there is a need for scholars to address the challenges and arising issues in contemporary world affairs. Along these lines, the objectives of the MJIR are to promote scholarly research on international relations and strategic studies, to provide a channel for the publication of articles based on research, original thought, and commentaries on these topics, and to stimulate further debate and interest in the study of international relations. 

 

Peer-Review Policy
All submitted manuscript to MJIR are subject to initial appraisal by the Editors, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to blind peer review by at least a single independent, anonymous experts in the field. The reviews' recommendations are taken into consideration by the Editors in arriving at publication and revision decisions. Comments and feedback from the external reviewers are sent to the authors and they are notified of the journal's decision (accept, accept with revisions, reject). The entire review process will anywhere between 3 and 5 months after the submission of the manuscript. Throughout the process, all communications, review reports and decisions are treated confidentially at all times. The Editors' decision is final.

All new submissions to the MJIR are automatically screened using Turnitin within the editorial system. Editors may also choose to run a similarity report at any other point during the review process or post-publication. The default similarity report view (inside Turnitin) gives the percentage of the text of the manuscript which has overlap with one or more published articles. 

 

Journal Distribution and Open Acess Policy
The electronic version of the journal is available online. MJIR endorses the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The Public Knowledge Project (PKP), which has designed our journal system to improve the quality of research, is committed to supporting the open access publishing of scholarly resources. Authors are required to agree with this open access policy which enables unrestricted access and reuse of all published articles. The articles are published under the Creative Commons copyright license policy CC-BY (Open Acess Policy). For printed (hardcopy) subscription, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

MJIR charge no fee for submission, processing, or publication of our articles. There are also no charges to the reader.

 

Indexing and Abstracting 

MJIR is indexed and abstracted by the Directory of Open Acess Journals (DOAJ); Crossref; MyCite (Malaysian Citation Index); Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources (ROAD)

 

Publication Frequency

MJIR publishes a single issue in December, every year. 

 

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
We encourage the best standards of publication ethics and take all possible principles of transparency and measures to avoid publication malpractice. We subscribe to the guidelines set up by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) with regard to the expectations of editors, peer-reviewers, and authors (as outlined below). Fairness, objectivity, and confidentiality from our reviewers and editors and honesty, originality, and fair dealing from our authors are the critical values that enable us to achieve our goal to publish original work of value in literary and cultural studies, in the best possible form and to the highest possible standards.

 

Editors' responsibilities:

-  To act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the author.

-  To handle submissions for special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely event on their academic merit.

-  To adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the complaints of an ethical or conflict nature.

-  To gather evidence and to avoid spreading any allegations beyond those who need to know in the event of an investigation.

-  To give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained. 

 

Reviewers' responsibilities:

-  To contribute to the decision-making process, and to assist in improving the quality of the published paper by reviewing the manuscript objectively and in a timely manner.

-  To maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor or author. To not retain or copy the manuscript.

-  To alert the editor to any published or submitted content that is substantially similar to that under review.

-  To be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and author) and to alert the editor to these, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript.

 

Authors' responsibilities:

-  To carefully read MJIR's Instruction for Authors before submitting their manuscript.

-  To ensure that all names that appear as the manuscript's author or authors have significantly contributed to the research.

-  To confirm that the manuscript as submitted is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere.

-  To confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources.

-  To obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources. Any breach of copyright laws will result in rejection of the submitted material or its retraction after publication.

-  To agree to any necessary originality checks that the manuscript may have to undergo during the evaluation or production process.

-  To declare any potential conflicts of interest (e.g. where the author has a competing interest (real or apparent) that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage during the publication process).

-  To disclose any funding support.

-  To promptly notify the journal editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. To cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.