Magnetization measurements of laser-ablated Al-doped YBa2Cu3O7 superconducting thin films in fields up to 12 T were performed for different dopant concentrations. The critical current density J(c) was strongly dependent on both applied magnetic field and Al concentration. However, in all samples with different concentrations, J(c) was found to scale very well to a formula J(c) = J(c)(0)[1 - T/T-c](n). In addition, the pinning force ((F) over right arrow (p) = (J) over right arrow (c) x (H) over right arrow) extracted from magnetization loops scaled well to a relation of the form F(p)similar toh(p)(1 - h)(q) where h is the reduced field and p and q are scaling parameters [p similar to 0.70 and q similar to 1.70]. This type of scaling can be easily discussed in terms of flux line shear model. The extracted scaling law was not affected greatly by thermal fluctuations or vortex phase transition near T-c, suggesting a small effect of thermal fluctuations on superconducting properties in the vortex state. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.