Islamic Moral Architecture in Primary Education (IMAPE) publishes high-quality primary research examining pedagogical, curricular, technological, social, cultural, and institutional dimensions of developing Islamic morality and religious awareness in primary education.

Relevant areas include Islamic character education, Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah-based pedagogy, spiritual development, moral and religious literacy, child-responsive educational technology, neuro-pedagogy, school culture, teacher practices, family engagement, and assessment of Islamic moral development.

Manuscripts must be based on original empirical data collected within primary or elementary education settings. Research and development (R&D), literature reviews, systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, bibliometric analyses, and other secondary research are outside the journal's scope.

Primary Research   •   Original Empirical Data   •   Primary Education   •   Islamic Moral Development   •   Methodological Rigor

Manuscripts should normally contain approximately 5,000–8,000 words, including the abstract, tables, figure captions, acknowledgments, declarations, appendices, and references. Longer manuscripts may be considered when justified by the complexity and scholarly contribution of the empirical study.

• OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF format • Microsoft Word .docx is recommended • Main text generally 12-point font • Single-spaced text

• A4 page size unless template states otherwise • Consistent margins and paragraph formatting • Tables and figures placed within relevant text • Follow the current IMAPE template and guidelines

• Use clear research terms in the title • Avoid unnecessarily long or vague titles • Use precise and searchable keywords

• Reflect the central topic in the abstract • Use accurate metadata during submission • Avoid artificial keyword repetition

The title must be concise, informative, and accurately represent the principal variables, phenomenon, population, educational context, or scholarly contribution of the empirical study.

Avoid sensational wording, unsupported causal claims, unnecessary abbreviations, overly general expressions, and titles that imply conclusions beyond the available evidence.

• Provide each author's full and accurate name • State institution and country accurately • Identify the corresponding author

• Provide an active professional email address • Include ORCID where available • All authors must satisfy legitimate authorship criteria

All listed authors must have made a meaningful scholarly contribution and must approve both the submitted manuscript and the final version intended for publication.

Headings and subheadings must follow the hierarchy and typography specified in the current IMAPE manuscript template. Section headings should be concise, academically meaningful, consistently formatted, and logically organized.

Abbreviations should be limited and defined at first use. Technical, regional, Arabic, Islamic, cultural, or educational terms unfamiliar to an international readership must be explained clearly and used consistently.

Arabic and Islamic terminology, including terms such as akhlaq, adab, tarbiyah, and Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah, should follow a consistent transliteration system. Qur'anic verses, hadith, and classical Islamic sources must be cited accurately and contextualized appropriately when used as part of the scholarly argument.

1. Introduction 2. Method 3. Results 4. Discussion 5. Conclusion

6. Acknowledgments, when applicable 7. Funding Statement 8. Conflict of Interest Statement 9. Data Availability / Ethics Statement, when applicable 10. References

Results and Discussion may be presented as separate or combined sections when permitted by the current journal template.

The introduction should establish the educational problem, conceptual or theoretical basis, relevant empirical literature, research gap, novelty, and purpose of the study.

• Establish the primary-education context • Explain the scholarly problem • Present relevant recent research • Identify a clear research gap

• Clarify novelty and significance • Relate the study to Islamic moral development • Avoid excessive textbook-style background • End with a clear research objective

The method must provide sufficient information to evaluate methodological appropriateness, research transparency, reliability, validity, and ethical compliance. Authors should report, as applicable:

• research design and justification • study setting and educational level • population, participants, or informants • sampling or participant-selection procedures • instruments or data-collection techniques

• instrument validity or trustworthiness procedures • data-collection process • quantitative or qualitative analysis procedures • procedures ensuring rigor or credibility • relevant ethical safeguards

Research involving children requires particular ethical care. Authors must report appropriate institutional or ethical approval when required and explain procedures for informed consent, parental or guardian permission, child assent where appropriate, confidentiality, anonymity, privacy, and secure management of participant data.

Names, photographs, video recordings, identifiable school information, or other personally identifying material involving children must not be published without appropriate ethical justification and valid permission.

IMAPE may consider methodologically appropriate primary empirical designs, including:

• experimental research • quasi-experimental research • survey and correlational studies • observational studies

• qualitative case studies • ethnographic or phenomenological studies • mixed-methods research • other justified primary empirical designs

Acceptance of a methodological design depends on its rigor, relevance to the research question, originality, ethical appropriateness, and alignment with IMAPE's scope.

Studies involving educational technology are eligible when technology serves as a context, intervention, instructional medium, or empirical variable for investigating Islamic moral or religious development in primary education. Manuscripts whose primary purpose is developing and validating a new application, media product, module, platform, or other educational product through an R&D model are not eligible.

Results must present the empirical evidence clearly, systematically, and in direct relation to the research objectives or questions. Quantitative findings should include appropriate descriptive and inferential evidence where applicable. Qualitative findings should be supported by appropriately selected empirical evidence and systematic analysis.

Authors should avoid merely repeating complete tables or figures in prose. Findings must distinguish clearly between observed evidence and the authors' interpretation.

The discussion must interpret rather than merely repeat the findings. Authors should explain why the results matter and how they contribute to knowledge concerning Islamic morality, religious awareness, character formation, pedagogy, or primary education.

• interpret major findings • relate findings to relevant theory • compare with previous empirical studies • explain agreement or disagreement

• establish scholarly contribution • discuss educational implications • acknowledge limitations • avoid claims beyond the evidence

The conclusion should answer the research objective, synthesize the principal empirical findings, state the scholarly contribution, and explain appropriate educational implications. It should not merely reproduce the abstract or introduce new data, references, arguments, or unsupported recommendations.

Acknowledgments may identify individuals, schools, institutions, or organizations that contributed to the research but do not satisfy authorship criteria.

Financial support must be disclosed accurately, including the funder and grant number where applicable. When no external financial support was received, authors may explicitly state that the research received no specific external funding.

• Number consecutively • Cite each table and figure in the text • Place tables and figures near relevant discussion • Use editable tables rather than screenshots

• Provide concise titles or captions • Explain abbreviations and symbols • Protect participant identities • Obtain copyright permission when required

Figures should be clear, legible, and of sufficient resolution for publication. TIFF, JPEG, PNG, EPS, or high-quality PDF formats may be used when separate image files are requested. A resolution of approximately 300 dpi at final publication size is recommended for photographic material. Authors remain responsible for copyright permissions and protection of identifiable research participants.

Supplementary files may include extended instruments, anonymized supporting data where ethically appropriate, additional statistical information, observation protocols, interview guides, supplementary tables, or other materials that support evaluation and transparency of the research.

Supplementary files must not be used to omit essential methodological information or principal findings from the manuscript. All supplementary materials must comply with participant privacy, copyright, confidentiality, and research-ethics requirements.

A manuscript may be declined during initial editorial screening when it does not clearly demonstrate:

• original empirical data • a clearly defined primary-education setting • an appropriate and rigorous research design • transparent data collection and analysis

• ethical protection of participants • substantive relevance to Islamic morality • clear originality and scholarly contribution • alignment with IMAPE's focus and scope

IMAPE does not accept research and development studies, literature reviews, systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, bibliometric analyses, or other forms of secondary research. Manuscripts substantially outside the journal's stated educational and scholarly scope may be declined without external peer review.

Authors must consult the current IMAPE Author Guidelines, manuscript template where provided, and relevant publication policies before submission. Manuscripts that do not meet the journal's scope, empirical research requirements, formatting, methodological quality, ethical standards, originality, or scholarly expectations may be returned for correction or declined before external peer review.