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The Journal of Information Security and Cybercrimes Research (JISCR) is peer-reviewed, open-access (CC BY-NC), international journal that publishes specialized research on Information Security and its relevant issues to share the broad information security concepts of security policies and mechanisms in the cyberspace. Furthermore, JISCR contributes to the advancement of knowledge about the regulations and laws for ensuring cybersecurity. JISCR is one of the official publications of Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS), located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The topics covered in JISCR include, but are not limited to:

• Computer and network security and its applications (encryption, e-commerce security, intrusion detection systems and firewall, biometric applications security).


• Policies, laws, and legal frameworks (cybercrime laws), developing cyber safety policies.


• Copyright and Intellectual Property Law.


• IT Governance, Risk Management, Incident Response, Digital Forensics & Security, Blockchain and Smart Contract.


• Security, privacy, multimedia, and mobile security.


• Data Science Security.


• Computer physical security.


• Human Factors in Cybersecurity.

1-Manuscript categories

• Original Research Paper:​​A full-length research report. Such submissions showing the following factors:
  
  
  
  • A clearly stated hypothesis.
  
  
  • A good quality of the literature review and clear statement of the novelty and value of the work in this context.
  
  
  • A strength of the experimental design, e.g., clear description of sample size and experimental controls.
  
  
  • A sufficient method validation and figures of merit.
  
  
  • A reasonable, defensible, and data-based interpretation and conclusions.
  
  
  • The potential of the paper to strengthen the scientific foundation of information security and its related topics in legal and regulatory communities around the world. 
  
  
  
  


• Research review papers:A detailed review of a specific subject, backed up by a full reference list and exploring all aspects of the subject.


• Letter to the editor:Comment or valid critique on material published in the journal. The decision to publish submitted letters rests purely with the Editor-in-Chief. The answer to the letter is given by the editor or the corresponding author of the manuscript and is published in the journal.


• Book reviews:A review of a book or other publication of interest to the cybersecurity community, or closely related fields, and not older than 2 years. Unsolicited reviews will not usually be accepted, but suggestions for appropriate books for review should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief.


• Conference proceedings:Conference Proceedings are a compilation of research papers presented at a scientific meeting, symposium, or conference and -produced from authors' manuscripts.


• Case Reports:Investigative case studies and reports describe how practitioners are dealing with emerging challenges in the field. Also, case studies establish a meaningful forum between practitioners and researchers with useful solutions in various cybersecurity and digital forensics fields. It includes all kinds of practical applications, covering principles, projects, missions, techniques, tools, methods, processes etc.


• Technical Notes:A description of a technical aspect of a field or issue, a report on a procedure or method, or a validation of techniques or methodologies. Technical Notes are usually shorter than Original Articles.


• Legal analysis and updates:Accurate comments by legal experts on: (1) recent cases related to information security applications and cybercrimes and cybersecurity, (2) digital evidence and multimedia related legal developments, (3) privacy issues, and (4) legislative restrictions.

2-Terms and Conditions of Publishing in the JISCR

The journal welcomes original contributions from scholars, researchers, academics, and information security & digital forensic practitioners from all over the world, under the following terms and conditions:

• Papers must be written in English.


• A statement must accompany each manuscript that the manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere unless it was a conference paper. If it was a conference paper, then this should be noted together with a statement that the paper has been completely re-written and that either:
  
  
  
  • It was not originally copyrighted or
  
  
  • That the author has cleared any necessary permission with the copyright owner if it has been previously copyrighted.
  
  
  
  

• Previous publications in another language should also be disclosed.


• All papers are refereed, and the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to refuse any manuscript, whether on the invitation or otherwise, and to make suggestions and/or modifications before publication.


• JISCR places great emphasis on the originality and quality of the papers published in this journal. Submitted manuscripts are first reviewed by the editor in chief who has the authority to reject the paper, or he can refer to one of the associate editors for further review. The associate editors evaluates the paper and decides whether it describes a sufficient body of work to support a major advance in a particular field. If the associate editors does not judge the manuscript as “suitable for the journal”, alone or in consultation with other associate editors, the manuscript may be rejected outright, without external peer review, with the reasons outlined in the decision letter sent to the author. If the associate editors does judge the manuscript suitable for the journal, it will then be subjected to external peer review with the consent of editor in chief.

3-Peer-Review Process

A full double-blind refereeing process is applied in which papers are sent to 3-4 experts for their peer review. The opinions of up to three experts are sought to evaluate the manuscript fully concerning its significance, relevance, quality, and clarity. On receipt of all reviewer comments and potentially further consultation amongst other editors, a decision is rendered by the associate editors and co-signed by the editor in chief, who will send the decision to the corresponding author. The whole process may take 2-3 months.

Possible decisions include:

• Accept


• Accept with minor revision


• Accept with major revision


• Reject

For papers, which require changes, the same reviewers will be used to ensure that the quality of the revised paper is acceptable.

4-Revisions deadline

• Please note that articles sent back to the author for modifications need to be returned within 60 days (and within 20 days for subsequent revisions). A reminder will be sent in the second month. Any articles that are received after the two-month period of revision will be considered a new submission.


• JISCR shall furnish authors of accepted papers with proofs for the correction of printing errors. The proofs shall be returned within 14 calendar days of submittal. Reviewers and the JISCR shall not be held responsible for errors resulting from the author’s oversight.


• Manuscripts which have been accepted for publication will be freely available online. JISCR is an Open Access (OA) journal and strictly adheres to the policy of (CC BY-NC) as per the terms and conditions laid down in Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License.


• Use for commercial purposes of the article is strictly prohibited. For detailed instructions regarding the preparation of manuscripts, an online submission, and author/publishing guidelines, kindly visit: https://journals.nauss.edu.sa/index.php/JISCR/auth-info.

5-Text Formatting

The text formatting can be found in both formats word and latex 

Please note that the use of IEEE templates is meant to assist authors in correctly formatting manuscripts for final submission and does not guarantee how the final paper will be formatted JISCR publication staff. This template may be used for initial submissions. You might refer to the IEEE Editorial Style Manual, which contains a formal set of editorial guidelines.

If the manuscript is accepted, it will be checked by our copyeditors for spelling and formal style before publication.

6-Word Limits

• Original articles should be up to 5000 words (excluding abstract and references and appendices) and have no more than around six figures and tables.


• Review articles should have a maximum length up to 6000 words (excluding abstract and references and appendices), and around plus 4-5 tables or figures. Subheadings should be used within the article to highlight the content of different sections.


• Letters to the Editor may deal with comments on recently published papers in the journal or other observations that the authors may feel warrants publication. These are usually up to 800 words.

7-Title Page Information

• Title. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems and, therefore, the title of the submitted work should be concise, informative, and in English. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.


• Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.


• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publishing, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.


• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract: each abstract should be no more than 250 words.  Although the JISCR uses unstructured abstracts; however, the abstract should include the following – background, brief description of methods and results (give specific data and their statistical significance, if possible), and conclusion. Abstracts must not include mathematical expressions or bibliographic references. Please note that abstracts are formatted as left-justified in our editing template.

Keywords: immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords that will aid in cross-indexing the article. The first keyword must be information security; other keywords must enable abstracters to correctly categorize the manuscript, so interested researchers can easily find it in journal article databases.

8- Text Structure and Sections

The text of observational and experimental articles is usually – but not necessarily – divided into sections with headings.  JISCR makes use of headings which include Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusion.

Long articles may need subheadings within the sections to clarify their content.  Other types of articles, such as Case Reports are likely to need different headings and subheadings.  Generally, avoid overuse of subheadings. 

Introduction: the introduction must include the adequate background and objectives of the work, avoiding detailed literature surveys or lengthy result summaries of previously published relevant studies.

Tables: the general style for table captions is such that each caption number should be centered above the table with the label TABLE and the enumeration given in Roman numerals. The descriptive text of the caption should be centered directly below the table number caption. The descriptive text of the table caption does not contain a period at the end of the caption, although punctuation may be necessary within the caption itself. In general, table captions should be set as an inverted pyramid.

Figures: the general style for captions is such that each caption number should be cited with the abbreviation “Fig.” and the number, followed by a period, an em space, and then the text of the caption. The first word of the caption should always be capitalized, regardless of any style that may be chosen to list caption parts (a), (b), etc., if included. If you are citing Fig. 1(a) and 1(b), the singular "Fig." is still used. In general, do not use A, An, or The at the beginning of a figure or table caption.

Citations: IEEE style is to note citations in individual brackets, followed by a comma, e.g. “[1], [5]” (as opposed to the more common “[1, 5]” form.) Citation ranges should be formatted as follows: [1], [2], [3], [4].  When citing a section in a book, please give the relevant page numbers [2]. In sentences, refer simply to the reference number, as in [3]. Do not use “Ref. [3]” or “reference [3]” At the beginning of a sentence, use the author names instead of “Reference [3],” e.g., “Smith and Smith [3] show ... .” Please note that references will be formatted by JISCR production staff in the same order provided by the author.

Equations: for display equations as seen below, number equations consecutively with equation numbers in parentheses flush with the right margin. First, use the equation editor to create the equation. Then, select the “Equation” markup style. Press the tab key and write the equation number in parentheses. To make your equations more compact, you may use the solidus ( / ), the exp function, or appropriate exponents. Use parentheses to avoid ambiguities in denominators. Punctuate equations when they are part of a sentence.

Be sure that the symbols in your equation have been defined before the equation appears or immediately following. Italicize symbols (T might refer to temperature, but T is the unit tesla). Per IEEE style, please refer to “(1),” not “Eq. (1)” or “equation (1),” except at the beginning of a sentence: “Equation (1) shows ... .” Also see The Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences, 1993.

Please note that math equations might need to be reformatted from the original submission for page layout reasons. This includes the possibility that some in-line equations will be made display equations to create better flow in a paragraph. If display equations do not fit in the two-column format, they will also be reformatted. Authors are strongly encouraged to ensure that equations fit in the given column width.

The IEEE Mathematics Guide illustrates how mathematical equations should be rendered in your article.

Lists: the IEEE style is to create displayed lists if the number of items in the list is longer than three. For example, within the text, lists would appear 1) using a number, 2) followed by a close parenthesis. However, longer lists will be formatted so that:

• Items will be set outside of the paragraphs.


• Items will be punctuated as sentences where it is appropriate.


• Items will be numbered, followed by a period.

Theorems and Proofs: theorems and related structures, such as axioms, corollaries, and lemmas, are formatted using a hanging indent paragraph. They begin with a title and are followed by the text in italics.

Theorem 1. Theorems, corollaries, lemmas, and related structures follow this format. They do not need to be numbered, but are generally numbered sequentially.

Proofs are formatted using the same hanging indent format. However, they are not italicized.

Proof. The same format should be used for structures such as remarks, examples, and solutions (though these would not have a QED box at the end as proof does).

Conclusion: although a conclusion may review the paper's main points, do not replicate the abstract as the conclusion. A conclusion might elaborate on the importance of the work or suggest applications and extensions. Authors are strongly encouraged not to reference multiple figures or tables in conclusion, these should be referenced in the body of the paper.

Acknowledgments: the Acknowledgements section immediately precedes the Reference list. The preferred spelling of the word “acknowledgment” in American English is without an “e” after the “g.” Use the singular heading even if you have many acknowledgments. Avoid expressions such as “One of us (SB. A.) would like to thank ... .” Instead, write “F. A. Author thanks ... .” Sponsor and financial support acknowledgments are included in the acknowledgment section. For example: This work was supported in part by the US Department of Commerce under Grant BS123456 (sponsor and financial support acknowledgment go here). Researchers that contributed information or assistance to the article should also be acknowledged in this section. Also, if the corresponding authorship is noted in your paper, it will be placed in the acknowledgment section. Note that the acknowledgment section is placed at the end of the article before the reference section.

References

Reference Style : References should be in the IEEE style. Further details of IEEE style of references can be found at the IEEE Reference Guide  which outlines how to cite a variety of references in IEEE style.

Herein some general examples of correct forms of references:

The heading of the reference list should be 'References,' and it should contain only published or in-press references cited by number (s) in the text. The References header should be bolded. Published abstracts, printed manufacturer’s protocols or instructions, and World Wide Web (WWW) site URLs may be validly cited as references. However, when citing the WWW as a reference, mention the date and time of accessing the website.

The order in which the references are submitted in the manuscript is the order they will appear in the final paper, i.e., references submitted non alphabetized will remain that way.

Please note that the references at the end of this document are in the preferred referencing style. Within the text, use “et al.” when referencing a source with more than three authors. In the reference section, give all authors’ names; do not use “et al.” Do not place a space between an authors' initials. Papers that have not been published should be cited as “unpublished” [4]. Papers that have been submitted or accepted for publication should be cited as “submitted for publication” [5]. Please give affiliations and addresses for personal communications [6].

Capitalize all the words in a paper title. For papers published in journals not published in English, please give the English citation first, followed by the original foreign-language citation [7].

Authors are required to cite underlying or relevant datasets in their manuscript by citing them in the text and including a data reference in the Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: Author, Title of Dataset, vol., Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication. [Format]. Available: internet address. [Accessed: Date of access].

9- Additional information

Figures and Tables

Because JISCR publication staff will do the final formatting of your paper, some figures may have to be moved from where they appeared in the original submission. Figures and tables should be sized as they are to appear in print. Figures or tables not correctly sized will be returned to the author for reformatting.

We strongly encourage authors to carefully review the material posted here to avoid problems with incorrect files or poorly formatted graphics.

Place figure captions below the figures; place table titles above the tables. Figure captions appear as left-justified. Table captions are restricted to one sentence and are formatted as title case. If your figure has two parts, include the labels “(a)” and “(b)” as part of the artwork. Please verify that the figures and tables you referred to in the text are actually existing. Figures and tables should be called out in sequential order, as this is how they will be placed in your paper. For example, avoid referring to figure “8” in the first paragraph of the article unless figure 8 will again be referred to after the reference to figure.

Please do not include figure captions as part of the figure. Do not put captions in “text boxes” linked to the figures. Do not put borders around the outside of your figures.

Please use the abbreviation “Fig.” even at the beginning of a sentence. Do not abbreviate “Table.” Tables are numbered numerically using Roman numerals.

Submission of Manuscripts

• Manuscripts submitted electronically via the JISCR website: https://journals.nauss.edu.sa/index.php/JISCR/about/submissions. This will allow for transparent, quick and efficient processing of the manuscript. Submissions process requires first your registering to the website and then uploading your manuscript parts after signing in using your username and password. Upon acceptance of the manuscript for publication, authors must provide the original copy of the assignment of copyright dully signed by all authors.


• Cover letter: submitted manuscript should provide publishing request and permissions to reproduce previously published material or to use illustrations identifying human subjects must be submitted with the manuscript. The EIC reserves the right to publish the manuscript in a different category than specified by the author.


• Conflict of interest: the authors of the submitted manuscript have to mention any possible duplicate publication issues, financial or any other factors that may cause conflicts of interest, should be stated in the cover letter along with any other information the EIC may need in making a decision in such cases. Permission to include sensitive personal information about identifiable persons, or to name persons for their contributions must be included.


• Copyright Notice: for manuscript publication, a Copyright Form must be signed by all authors and submitted. Authors can sign electronically, using digital signing tools. This will facilitate the publication process in a short time especially when authors are at different institutions or in geographically separated area. The copyright form demonstrates that all required approvals and/or reviews have been obtained. The EIC reserves the right to request a written clarification of individual author’s roles in the manuscript content. Submission of manuscripts from third parties without the explicit, written permission of the author(s) will not be accepted. Please note, that submissions received without a signed copyright form cannot be published. You can find the copyright form here