Aims & Scope

IJMES focuses on the area encompassing the Middle East and adjacent geo-cultural regions from the seventh century to the present, including North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab, Turkic and Persianate worlds, the Mediterranean and Balkans, Central, South and Southeast Asia and areas to which peoples from these lands have migrated or settled. Essays on communities that have historical, political, cultural or religious ties to the Middle East and on transnational or trans-regional relations are encouraged. Particular attention will be paid to works dealing with anthropology, art and architecture, cultural studies, economics, gender and LGBQT studies, history, indigenous studies, law, literature, political science, religious studies, and sociology. IJMES does not accept technical or highly specialized material, nor does it publish in the areas of administration or training. Manuscripts should be framed for an interdisciplinary area studies readership.

IJMES editorial policy requires that articles be based on original research and the careful analysis of data including archival, ethnographic, and other primary-source materials. IJMES evaluates manuscripts with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere in any language and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

IJMES remains committed to combatting conscious or unconscious bias with regard to gender, sexual preference, class, ethnicity, religion, or nationality. The journal also remains committed to expanding the scope of international multi-lingual research that strives to interpret the lived and living experiences of peoples of diverse backgrounds and orientations.

Please follow this IJMES manuscript preparation guide prior to submitting any materials for review at the journal.

Article Types Accepted

• Article*
• Book Review (solicited)
• Book Review Essay (solicited)*
• Review Essay*
• Roundtable*
• Conversation (solicited)*

Policy on prior publication: When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.

English language editing services

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers. 

In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services, including language editing. You can find out more on our language services page.

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal. 

Additional Author Resources

Editorial Office Website

Manuscript Preparation Guide

IJMES Translation and Transliteration Guide
General IJMES guidelines for translations and transliterated text.

IJMES Word List
Includes transliterations of common words, exceptions to the transliteration guidelines, and IJMES-approved spellings, word choices, and capitalization/italicization/hyphenation preferences for many foreign-language and English terms (e.g., the Prophet Muhammad, the Arabian peninsula, World War II).

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
IJMES and Cambridge University Press use Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to determine whether a foreign-language word has an accepted English spelling. Except for words included in the IJMES Word List (above), any word that appears in Webster’s should be spelled as it appears there, without italicization or diacritical marks. Words that are neither in Webster’s nor the IJMES Word List are considered “technical terms” and must be transliterated, with diacritics, according to the IJMES Transliteration Guide and Transliteration Chart above, except in cases outlined in the Transliteration Guide (titles, names, etc.).

Jaghbub Uni Font
Any Unicode font may be used in submissions with transliterated text. IJMES prefers either recent versions of Times New Roman (which are Unicode-compliant), or Jaghbub Uni, which is based on Times New Roman. Jaghbub Uni may be downloaded for free through the link above. Once the font is downloaded, it must be installed on your system. For font installation instructions, see the Microsoft website for Windows, or the Jaghbub Uni site (link above) for Macintosh. Once installed, the transliteration symbols can be inserted in MS Word by selecting "Insert--Symbol" while Jaghbub Uni is selected as the font. From the Symbol popup window, shortcut keys can be set up (e.g., "alt-s" for "s" with a dot underneath) so that you do not need to use Insert--Symbol each subsequent time.

Cambridge University Press Author Hub, a suite of resources for Cambridge authors.