Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Kontrol notu: Sarı ile işaretlenen ifadeler değişmesi önerilen yerleri gösterir. Mavi italik notlarda gerekçe ve öneri verilmiştir. Mavi ile işaretlenen yerler değişiklik yapılan yerleri ifade eder ve yanında değişiklik yapılan ifade yorum olarak yer alır. Kırmızı ile işaretlenen ifadeler websitesi ve belgelere göre değişiklik yapılacak yerleri ifade eder. İçerik olarak Aİ’e kontrol ettirildi sakıncalı bulunan yerler Öneri adı altında yazıldı.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Argentum Journal of Engineering (AGJE) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. The journal follows internationally recognized ethical guidelines throughout the submission, review, and publication processes.

The journal adheres to the ethical principles and standards established by the following organizations:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

Öneri: WAME ve ICMJE daha çok tıp/biyomedikal yayıncılıkla ilişkilidir. Mühendislik dergisi için kalacaksa ifade 'COPE principles and, where applicable, WAME and ICMJE recommendations' şeklinde yumuşatılabilir.

All authors, reviewers, and editors involved in the publication process are expected to comply with these ethical principles. The full text of the COPE guidelines can be accessed at: https://publicationethics.org

Research involving human participants must comply with internationally accepted ethical standards. Such studies should be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The full text of the Declaration of Helsinki is available at: https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submitted manuscripts are original, have not been previously published, and are not under consideration by another journal. Any form of academic misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication, or unethical research practices, is strictly prohibited.

Editors and reviewers are expected to conduct the evaluation process with fairness, confidentiality, and academic integrity.

AGJE has adopted the principle of full compliance with research and publication ethics, and in the studies sent to our journal for evaluation within this scope, it is mandatory to obtain the approval of the relevant ethics committee in cases requiring ethics committee approval. Regarding the approval of the ethics committee, information such as the name of the committee, the date of approval, and the decision or document number should be clearly stated; this information should be added to the system at the first upload stage together with the article file. In addition, if requested by the editorial board, the ethics committee approval document should also be shared . Ethics committee approval is mandatory for qualitative or quantitative research on humans such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observations, clinical trials, animal experiments, biomedical studies requiring special data, and research that falls within the scope of personal data protection. In addition, in studies where intellectual and artistic works are used, it is mandatory to fully comply with the relevant copyright regulations. In this context, the necessary permissions regarding the copyrights of the visual, audio, written or digital materials used must be obtained and this must be clearly stated in the study.

A study submitted to our journal should not have been previously published in any other journal in any language and should not be under review in another journal simultaneously. All manuscripts submitted to the journal should be prepared in accordance with the general ethical rules set by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines (https://publicationethics.org). Authors, reviewers and editors must adhere to international standards in line with COPE's recommendations and general publication requirements. In this context, some important issues are clearly stated below.

Öneri: Etik kurul bölümü Türkçeden çevrilmiş gibi duruyor. Öneri: 'For studies requiring ethics committee approval, authors must clearly state the name of the ethics committee, approval date, and approval/document number in the manuscript.'

Öneri: 'biomedical studies requiring special data' ve 'intellectual and artistic works' ifadeleri muğlak. Kişisel veri, telif hakkı bulunan materyal ve veri kullanım izni ayrı ayrı açık yazılmalı.

Definitions and Responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief and Editors
AGJE is based on originality, scientific contribution, methodological soundness and clarity of expression in the articles to be published. Editorial decisions are made in line with the principle of impartiality and in harmony with the purpose and scope of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief must ensure that every manuscript submitted to AGJE is reviewed for its scientific content, regardless of the author's race, gender, religious belief, ethnicity, citizenship or political philosophy. The Editor-in-Chief and editors evaluate the publications submitted to the journal primarily by taking into account the originality, scientific quality, contribution to the field, academic qualities such as clarity of language, and their suitability for the scope of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief and editors are responsible for accepting, rejecting or requesting improvements from the author. In some cases, editors may ask the author for corrections in more than one round before making a decision. Editors forward the evaluation results to the editor-in-chief as soon as possible. The editor-in-chief carefully considers the whole process at the decision stage and finalizes the final evaluation.

Editors strictly adhere to the code of ethics and editorial policies and support freedom of thought and scientific diversity. Editors protect the personal data and intellectual property rights of authors, reviewers and readers. Reviewer assignments are made in accordance with expertise, credentials are kept confidential, and conflicts of interest are not allowed. Editors intervene in reviews that are unscientific or exceed the limits of courtesy. The entire evaluation process is transparent, fair and timely. Studies requiring ethics committee approval are rejected unless documented. Studies with negative results are also evaluated within the scope of scientific contribution. The Editor-in-Chief works in effective communication with the editorial board, guides the process and contributes to improve the quality of the journal.

The Editor-in-Chief and editorial board members cannot share any information about a submitted manuscript with anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers language editors, layout editor and other editorial advisors.

The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members of AGJE and members of the editorial board may not use unpublished material from a submitted manuscript for their own research without the express written permission of the author. The editor-in-chief assigns another member of the editorial board to carry out the preliminary review and evaluation stages of the publication in cases where the editors have conflicts of interest arising from cooperation or connections with any of the author(s), companies or institutions. The editor-in-chief, together with the publisher, reviews any behavior reported to be in violation of publication ethics, regardless of the date of publication. In the event that an unethical situation is detected according to COPE procedures, it is responsible for issuing a statement that there is an error, inconsistency or misdirection related to the relevant publication.

 

Öneri: Son cümlede 'it is responsible' öznesi belirsiz.

Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers
The evaluation process in AGJE is carried out with the principle of double-blind peer review. Reviewer do not communicate directly with the authors. Evaluation forms and reviewer reports are sent to the author(s) through the journal management system by the editor. reviewer evaluation helps the editor to make decisions about the manuscript and to improve the manuscript through communication mediated by the editor.

Reviewers should use constructive and courteous language in the review process and avoid derogatory or offensive remarks. Comments should be objective and limited to the scope of the work and should not be influenced by religion, language, race, political views or commercial concerns. Impartiality and confidentiality are essential. If there is a conflict of interest, the reviewer should not review and should inform the editor. If the study is outside his/her area of expertise, he/she should decline the review invitation. The review invitation should be accepted or declined in a timely manner; accepted reviews must be completed within the deadline.

All studies received for review should be treated as confidential documents. They should not be shown to or discussed with others unless authorized by the editor-in-chief or editor. The Editor-in-Chief or editor may grant such authorization only in exceptional circumstances that may contribute to peer review.

Information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not agree to review manuscripts in which there are conflicts of interest arising from competitive, collaborative or other relationships or connections with any of the authors.

Reviews by reviewers should be conducted in an objective manner. Personal criticism of authors is not acceptable. Reviewers should clearly express their views with appropriate supporting arguments. Any invited reviewer who feels unable to review the manuscript, or who knows that it will not be possible to review in a timely manner, should notify the editor as soon as possible so that alternative reviewers can be contacted. Reviewers should inform the editors if they recognize any similarities to any previously published work. They should also inform the editors if there are any quotations that are not cited in the study.
 

Author(s) Duties and Responsibilities
Authors are obliged to follow the journal's writing guidelines and manuscript templates. Authors must ensure that the submitted work is completely original. Authors should confirm that the article has not been previously published elsewhere. Authors must properly cite all sources used in the manuscript. Authors must sign and submit the Article Copyright and Transfer of Copyright Form, which states that the work is original and prevents copyright infringement. The results of research should be presented in a single publication while maintaining scientific integrity and quality. Information and raw data should be provided when requested by the editorial office. Author contributions should be clearly and accurately written in the section specified in the article writing rules.

All authors mentioned in the article must have contributed significantly to the research. The author responsible for correspondence submitting the manuscript to the journal ensures that all contributing co-authors are included and that non-contributors are not included in the author list. No additions or deletions of authors are made during or after the manuscript evaluation phase. Authors should inform the editors of any conflict of interest that could be interpreted as influencing the manuscript. When an error is detected, regardless of the stage of the manuscript (review, early view, published), the editor should be notified for correction or retraction.

If the study involves chemicals, procedures or equipment with any unusual hazards in their use, the authors should clearly indicate these in the manuscript. If the study involves subjects and guinea pigs, the authors must act in accordance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines for all procedures performed in the study and must have obtained the approval of the relevant committees/organizations. In studies that require documents such as ethics committee permission, data use permission, and participant approval, these permissions should be submitted in full; in cases where ethics committee permission is not required, this should be clearly stated in the method section and on the last page of the article.

When the author(s) notices a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her published work, the author responsible for correspondence is obliged to notify the Editor-in-Chief immediately in order to withdraw the article or publish it with appropriate correction. Authors are expected to avoid unnecessary communication with the editorial office during the average review period announced on the journal's website.
 

Öneri: Form adı, Author Guidelines dosyasındaki form adıyla tutarlı olmalı. 'Manuscript Submission and Copyright Transfer Form' tercih edilebilir.

Öneri: Yazar ekleme/çıkarma tamamen yasaklanmamalı; gerekçeli talep, editör onayı ve tüm yazarların yazılı rızası şartıyla mümkün olacak şekilde yazılmalı.

Öneri: 'subjects and guinea pigs' akademik/etik politika metni için uygun değil. Öneri: 'human participants or animal subjects'.

Öneri: Düzeltme/geri çekme cümlesi sadeleştirilmeli: 'to correct or retract the article, where necessary'.

Duties and Responsibilities of the Publisher
Gümüşhane University, as the publisher of the AGJE, acts in line with the open access policy that supports the free sharing of scientific knowledge. All articles published in the journal offer free and unlimited access to readers. In this way, it is aimed to disseminate scientific knowledge and present it for public benefit.

The publisher does not charge any fee (application fee, processing fee, page fee, etc.) from the authors in the application, evaluation, publication and all subsequent processes. It is one of the basic principles that the scientific contributions of the authors are published without any financial obstacle.

All content published in the journal is stored using the DergiPark infrastructure for long-term preservation and archiving and backed up through the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system. This guarantees the continuity and security of digital content.

The publisher ensures that the journal processes are carried out transparently, impartially and in accordance with academic ethical principles. It also provides the technical, administrative and ethical infrastructure necessary for the journal to operate in accordance with national and international publishing standards.

Öneri: 'application, evaluation...' yerine 'submission, peer review, publication...' kullanılmalı.

Öner: 'It is one of the basic principles...' cümlesi daha sade yazılmalı: 'The journal is committed to publishing scientific contributions without financial barriers.'

Retraction Policy
AGJE is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record. In cases where serious issues are identified in published articles, the journal may retract the article. Retraction may be considered under the following circumstances:

• Significant scientific errors or misleading findings
• Data fabrication, data manipulation, or falsification
• Plagiarism or other ethical violations
• Duplicate publication in another journal
• Copyright infringement
• Violations of research or publication ethics

The decision to retract an article is made by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board after careful evaluation. When necessary, the authors’ institutions or relevant authorities may be contacted. Retracted articles will not be removed from the journal archive. Instead, the article will remain accessible with a clear “Retracted Article” notice on the article page and PDF file, and the reason for retraction will be clearly stated. The retraction process follows the international ethical standards and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

COPE retraction guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

Correction and Erratum Policy
AGJE committed to maintaining the accuracy and reliability of the scientific record. When errors are identified in published articles, the journal may issue corrections to address these issues. Corrections may be issued in cases such as:

• Typographical or technical errors
• Errors in tables, figures, or data presentation
• Incorrect or incomplete information in the text
• Editorial errors that occurred during the publication process

Corrections may be published in two forms:
Erratum: Issued to correct errors introduced during the editorial or publishing process.
Corrigendum: Issued to correct errors made by the authors.

Correction requests may be submitted by authors, editors, reviewers, or readers. The editorial board evaluates the request and decides whether a correction should be published. Published corrections are linked to the original article and remain permanently accessible in the journal archive with the original article’s DOI.

Complaint Policy
If an ethical violation is identified in an article published in AGJE or made available as an early-view article, or in relation to editors, reviewers, or authors, the matter should be reported immediately to the editorial office. Notifications regarding ethical violations should be sent to the e-mail address gufbed@gumushane.edu.tr in order to make the necessary evaluations. Notifications will be handled within the framework of the principle of confidentiality and the relevant processes will be carried out transparently in line with the principles of publication ethics.

Open Access Policy
AGJE advocates that scientific knowledge should be accessible to everyone. In this direction, the journal publishes the content of the journal as open access by adopting the principle that making scientific research free of charge to the public will increase the sharing and impact of knowledge on a global scale. All published articles are available free of charge and unlimited access via the journal's website, and no subscription or access fee is charged to readers.

Öneri: Açık erişim cümlesi çok uzun ve çeviri gibi. Ayrıca lisans bilgisi eksik. Kullanılacak Creative Commons lisansı, örn. CC BY 4.0, açıkça belirtilmeli.

 Fee Policy
AGJE is based on accessibility and compliance with ethical principles in scientific publishing. In this context, no submission, evaluation or publication fee is charged for articles submitted to the journal. All articles that have completed the peer review process and are accepted for publication are made available online free of charge. Authors are under no financial obligation at any stage for the publication of their articles. In addition, all processes such as DOI assignment, page editing, language checks, graphic processing and similar processes performed during the preparation of the articles for publication are completely free of charge for the authors. This policy is implemented to promote equality among researchers and to support free access to scientific knowledge.

Öneri: DOI, dil kontrolü, grafik işleme vb. hizmetler gerçekten ücretsiz sağlanmıyorsa bu ifade daraltılmalı. Öneri: 'No submission, evaluation, or publication fee is charged.'

Institutional Author Quota Policy
To ensure editorial independence, transparency, and compliance with international indexing standards, the journal applies an institutional author quota. Manuscripts whose author(s) are affiliated with Gümüşhane University, as well as manuscripts authored by members of the journal’s editorial or advisory boards, are limited to a maximum of 10% of the articles published per volume/year.

Once the quota is reached, submissions falling within this scope will be returned at the editorial pre-evaluation stage without entering the peer-review process. This policy is applied independently of the scientific quality of the manuscript and is an integral part of the journal’s publication policy.

Öneri: Kotanın kapsamı netleştirilmeli: En az bir yazar Gümüşhane Üniversitesi mensubuysa mı kota uygulanacak, yoksa sadece sorumlu yazar mı?

Öneri/Not: 'maximum of 10% per volume/year' ifadesi uygulanabilirlik açısından netleştirilmeli: yıl mı, sayı mı, cilt mi esas alınacak?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted Technologies Policy
AGJE adopts the following principles regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in scientific research and publication processes:

1. Scope
This policy applies only to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the manuscript writing process. AI-based scientific methods used for data analysis, modelling, or other aspects of research are excluded from this scope; such uses should be clearly described in the “Methods” section of the manuscript.

2. Principles of Use During the Writing Process
Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted tools solely for purposes such as grammar checking, spelling correction, readability enhancement, or stylistic improvement. The use of such tools must be conducted under human supervision, and authors are responsible for carefully reviewing and verifying the accuracy and consistency of all AI-generated content. AI tools or systems cannot be listed as authors, co-authors, or cited as sources. Authorship requires scientific contribution, responsibility, and oversight, qualities that can only be attributed to human researchers.

3. Declaration Requirement
If the author(s) have used any generative AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, etc.) or AI-assisted software during manuscript preparation, this must be clearly declared in the manuscript. Basic checks of grammar, spelling and punctuation do not require declaration. The declaration should appear before the References section, following the format below:

Declaration of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL / SERVICE] for [PURPOSE]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed, edited, and approved the content as needed, and the author(s) take full responsibility for the entire content of the manuscript.

If no AI tools were used in the writing process, this declaration does not need to be included.

4. Responsibility and Oversight
Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the content in their manuscripts. Editors reserve the right to request additional information or clarification if there is any suspicion of improper or excessive use of AI tools. If necessary, the manuscript may be removed from the review process or retracted after publication.

5. Policy Updates
Given the rapid development of AI technologies, this policy will be periodically reviewed and updated when necessary. Authors are required to comply with the most recent version of the policy in effect at the time of manuscript submission.

Öneri: AI kullanımında 'grammar/spelling' ile 'readability/stylistic improvement' ayrımı netleştirilmeli. Üretken AI ile yeniden yazım/özetleme/çeviri yapıldıysa beyan şartı açık olmalı.