Acta Mores: Jurnal Hukum dan Sosial Humaniora is an open‑access, peer‑reviewed journal published by Anugrah Malebbi Research that focuses on law and social justice from multidisciplinary perspectives and appears three times a year in April, August, and December. The journal welcomes submissions from scholars, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers worldwide whose work engages with law, socio‑legal studies, governance, human rights, ethics, and related social sciences, and it requires that all manuscripts be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere, with every submission screened using plagiarism detection software to ensure that the similarity index remains within the journal’s acceptable threshold.

The journal publishes several categories of contributions, namely original research articles, conceptual and theoretical papers, case notes and legal commentaries, and optional book reviews, each with indicative word ranges that reflect the expected depth of analysis and argumentation. Original research articles, which may employ doctrinal (normative) or empirical approaches, are expected to offer significant theoretical, methodological, or practical contributions to debates in law and social justice, while conceptual and theoretical papers should advance or refine existing frameworks and engage critically with current scholarship. Case notes and legal commentaries provide rigorous analysis of important court decisions, statutory developments, or policy reforms, and book reviews focus on recent, high-impact publications that are relevant to the journal’s scope, with the editorial team reserving the right to adjust word limits for particularly strong submissions.

All manuscripts must be written in clear academic English and prepared using the official Acta Mores manuscript template in Microsoft Word format, which standardizes page size, margins, fonts, and heading styles across submissions. The typical structure includes a concise and informative title of no more than 15 words, the full names of all authors without academic titles accompanied by their numbered institutional affiliations, and the designation of a corresponding author with an active email address. Each article begins with an abstract of 150–250 words that succinctly presents the background and research gap, the main objective of the study, the methodological or legal approach, the principal findings, and the theoretical or practical implications, followed by three to five specific, searchable keywords separated by semicolons.

The body of the manuscript is organized into clearly defined sections: Introduction, Research Method, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion, following the numbered heading system used in the template. In the Introduction, authors are expected to develop the broader context of the topic, demonstrate familiarity with current literature, identify a precise research gap, articulate the research problem, and explicitly state the objectives and, where appropriate, the novelty of the study, for example by clarifying how the work fills the gap or contributes new perspectives to existing debates. The Research Method section must transparently describe whether the study is doctrinal or empirical; doctrinal research should explain the legal approaches employed—such as statute, conceptual, comparative, or historical approaches—while empirical or socio‑legal research should outline the research design, population or sample, data collection techniques including interviews, surveys, observations, or document studies, and the procedures used to analyze the data.

The Results and Discussion section forms the core of the manuscript and should present findings in a logical sequence supported by relevant data, legal sources, and authoritative literature. Authors are encouraged to move beyond mere description by offering critical analysis, comparing their findings to previous research and established legal theories, and explaining how their work contributes to ongoing national or global academic discourse, with sub‑headings such as 3.1 or 3.2 used where necessary to structure complex arguments. The Conclusion should directly address the research objectives, synthesize the main insights of the study, highlight its contribution to the fields of law and social sciences, acknowledge any limitations, and propose concrete implications for policy or future research rather than simply repeating the abstract.

Before the reference list, authors must include a Declarations section that covers potential conflicts of interest, the presence and nature of any funding, and acknowledgments of individuals or institutions that provided support but do not meet the criteria for authorship. References must follow APA 7th Edition consistently, with a minimum of 20–30 entries that predominantly consist of recent publications from reputable international journals, ideally with at least 80 percent of the sources appearing within the last 5–10 years unless seminal works are required to frame the theoretical discussion. The journal strongly recommends the use of reference management software such as Mendeley, Zotero, or EndNote to ensure citation accuracy and consistency, and in‑text citations should conform to standard APA formats, for example (Smith, 2023) for a single author or (Rahman et al., 2022) for works with three or more authors.

Formatting and layout are standardized to support professional presentation and compatibility with indexing systems: manuscripts must use A4 page size with margins, line spacing (single or 1.15), and font settings—typically Cambria or a similar serif font at 11–12 point—exactly as defined in the template. Numbered headings (1., 1.1., etc.) should be used consistently, and authors are asked not to introduce additional colors, underlining, or stylistic variations beyond those already built into the template. Tables must be inserted as editable objects rather than images, numbered consecutively with clear titles placed above and any data sources or notes indicated below, and designed so that they remain legible if printed in black and white, while figures—including diagrams, charts, and photographs—must be high‑quality, numbered consecutively, accompanied by descriptive captions, supplied at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi in standard formats such as PNG, TIFF, or JPEG, and referenced explicitly in the text.

Acta Mores upholds stringent standards of ethical and legal compliance in research and publication. Authors are responsible for ensuring that empirical studies respect principles of informed consent, confidentiality, and data protection, and that citations of statutes, cases, regulations, and policy instruments are accurate, current, and properly identified. Any use of copyrighted material—including images, extensive quotations, or reproduced tables and figures—must be supported by appropriate permission where necessary and accompanied by correct attribution, and all conflicts of interest and funding sources must be transparently disclosed in the Declarations section to avoid any perception of bias.

Authorship is expected to reflect substantial intellectual contribution to the conception, design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of the study, and all listed authors should have participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript and approved the final version. The corresponding author bears primary responsibility for communication with the editorial office, for ensuring that all co‑authors agree with the submission, and for coordinating responses to reviewers’ comments, while any proposed changes to authorship—such as adding or removing names or altering the order—after submission must be justified in writing and receive the approval of all authors and the editor‑in‑chief.

Submissions are made via the journal’s online submission system (OJS), where authors must complete all required metadata, including the title, abstract, keywords, author information, and affiliations, and upload the main manuscript along with any supplementary material such as datasets or additional documents. When a double‑blind review process is applied, authors should ensure that their manuscript file is anonymized by removing names, affiliations, and other identifying information, and by phrasing self-citations in a way that does not reveal their identity. Each manuscript first undergoes an editorial screening to assess its fit with the journal’s scope, adherence to basic formatting and ethical standards, and overall quality; suitable manuscripts are then sent to at least two independent reviewers for single‑blind or double‑blind peer review, depending on the journal’s policy.

Reviewers evaluate the originality of the work, the rigor and appropriateness of the methodology, the coherence and depth of the analysis, the adequacy and currency of the literature review, and the overall clarity and organization of the writing, as well as its relevance to broader discussions on law and social justice. Based on these evaluations, the editor may decide to accept the manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or reject it, and authors are expected to revise their submissions carefully and respond point‑by‑point to each reviewer’s comment within the timeframe communicated by the editorial office.

Acta Mores follows an open‑access publishing model that makes all accepted articles freely available online immediately upon publication, thus promoting wide dissemination and accessibility of scholarship in law and social justice. Authors retain copyright in their work while granting the journal a license to publish and distribute the article, and the journal may apply a specific Creative Commons license such as CC BY, which will be clearly indicated on the journal’s website and must be accepted by authors as a condition of publication. If Article Processing Charges (APCs) or submission fees are introduced, the journal will transparently communicate the amount and payment procedures and will ensure that these fees do not affect editorial decisions or the integrity of the review process.

After publication, authors are encouraged to deposit and share their articles in institutional repositories, personal websites, and academic networking platforms with full citation of the original publication in Acta Mores, thereby increasing visibility and impact. The journal is committed to maintaining the scholarly record and will handle any necessary corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern in line with recognized international publication ethics frameworks, including the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).