Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

Manuscript Formatting Requirements

1.The manuscript must be prepared in Microsoft Word using the journal manuscript template, in A4 size (210 × 297 mm) with 2.5 cm margins on all sides (top, bottom, left, and right). The entire manuscript should be formatted in a single-column layout, double-spaced, using 11-point Times New Roman font in plain text. Excluding the title page, the manuscript must not exceed 30 pages. Continuous page numbers and line numbers should be provided on every page.

2.The manuscript title in both the manuscript language and the second language should be written in 14-point Times New Roman font.

3.Section headings should be formatted in 12-point bold Times New Roman, with 0 pt spacing before and 3 pt spacing after.

4.The main text should be written in 11-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, with 0 pt spacing before and 6 pt spacing after paragraphs. Paragraph indentation should not be used.

5.The manuscript submitted to the journal should be organized in the following order:

• Title Page
• Turkish Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
• English Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusion (or Results; Discussion and Conclusion)
• Author Contributions Statement
• Conflict of Interest Statement
• Ethics Committee Statement
• Acknowledgements
• References

Title Page

The title page should include a statement declaring that the manuscript has been submitted to the journal and has not been published, either partially or entirely, elsewhere. It should also include the manuscript title, the full names of all authors, their affiliations, e-mail addresses, ORCID IDs, telephone and fax numbers. The corresponding author should be clearly identified.

Title

The title should be centered, with the first letter of each word capitalized, except for conjunctions.

Abstract and Keywords

The abstract should clearly and concisely state the objective of the study, the materials and methods used, the major findings, and the conclusions. Both the Turkish and English abstracts should not exceed 250 words.

The headings "Öz" and "Abstract" should be used for the Turkish and English summaries, respectively. The abstracts should be written in 10-point Times New Roman font. Up to five keywords, preferably not included in the title and best describing the study, should be listed below the abstract in lowercase letters.

Introduction

This section should present the research topic, its significance, previous studies, and the objectives of the study in an integrated manner. The final sentence should clearly state the objective of the research presented in the manuscript.

Materials and Methods

New or modified methods should be described in sufficient detail to enable other researchers working in the same field to reproduce the study. The statistical methods used should also be described in detail.

Tables and Figures

• Tables and figures should clearly present statistical information.
• Captions of tables and figures should facilitate the interpretation of the statistical results.

Results and Discussion

The findings obtained should be presented in this section and, where appropriate, supported by tables and figures. Summary tables or graphs presenting the results should be preferred over detailed statistical analysis tables. The findings should be discussed without unnecessary repetition. Similarities and differences between the present findings and those of previous studies should be presented, and possible reasons for these similarities and differences should be discussed.

Conclusion

The contribution of the findings to science and practical applications should be emphasized together with appropriate recommendations.

Alternatively, these sections may be presented under the headings Results and Discussion and Conclusion.

Acknowledgements

If included, acknowledgements should be as concise as possible. If the manuscript contains findings derived from a funded research project or from undergraduate or graduate thesis studies, this should be stated in this section.

Author Contributions Statement

Information should be provided regarding each author's contribution to the manuscript, for example:

"All authors contributed equally to this manuscript."

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors should declare that there is no conflict of interest.

References

References should be listed alphabetically according to the first author's surname at the end of the manuscript, presented in their original language, using a 0.5 cm hanging indent.

6.

All main section headings should be written in bold uppercase letters. First-level subheadings should be written in bold, with the first letter of each word capitalized. Second-level subheadings should also be written in bold, with only the first word capitalized.

7.

When formatting headings, one blank line should be left after the end of the preceding section. However, no blank line should be left between the heading and the following text. Neither headings nor the main text should include paragraph indentation.

8.

All graphs, illustrations, maps, photographs, and similar visual materials should be referred to as Figures. They should be prepared electronically, aligned with the text, and inserted in image format (copied as pictures). Numerical data should be presented as Tables.

Figure captions should be placed below the figures, whereas table titles should be placed above the tables. Captions should begin at the left margin, with only the first word capitalized and all subsequent words in lowercase. A single blank line should be left between the preceding text and the table or figure caption.

Vertical lines should not be used in tables, and tables should be prepared in accordance with the Manuscript Preparation Template.

All tables and figures must be cited in the text before they appear. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript (e.g., Table 1, Figure 1).

Table and figure titles and captions should be concise and informative. The font used in tables and figures should be Times New Roman, with a font size not smaller than 8 pt and not larger than 10 pt. Any abbreviations used in tables or figures should be explained immediately below the relevant table or figure.

9.

The International System of Units (SI) should be used throughout the manuscript. Decimal numbers should be expressed using a period rather than a comma (e.g., 1.25 instead of 1,25). The slash symbol (/) should not be used in unit expressions. Units should be separated by a space (e.g., 4 m s⁻¹ instead of 4 m/s, and 5 kg N ha⁻¹).

10.

Equations should be numbered consecutively, with the equation number placed in parentheses and aligned to the right of the equation. Equations should be prepared using MathType or similar software. Equations should be written in 10-point font; variables and principal symbols should be italicized, whereas numbers and mathematical operators should be presented in regular font. References to equations within the text should be written as Equation 1 (e.g., The proposed model is presented in Equation 1.).

11. Revisions

When submitting a revised manuscript, authors should clearly indicate all changes made in the main manuscript. In addition, they should submit a separate Response to Reviewers document addressing all reviewer comments.

In the Response to Reviewers document, each reviewer comment should be followed by the corresponding author response, together with the line numbers indicating where the revisions have been made.

Revised manuscripts should be submitted within 30 days following receipt of the editorial decision letter. If the revised manuscript is not uploaded within the specified period, the revision option may be cancelled. Authors requiring additional time should submit their extension request to the Editorial Office before the initial 30-day revision period expires.

In-text Citations

1.

Whenever possible, authors should cite the most recent and relevant publications. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references. Both in-text citations and the reference list must conform to the APA Publication Manual (7th Edition). In-text citations should include the author's surname and the year of publication in parentheses.

a) A single-author reference should be cited as:

(Author, 2018)

b) A two-author reference should be cited as:

(First Author & Second Author, Year)

Examples:

• (Dönmez & Hatipoğlu, 2019)
• (Steel & Torrie, 1997)

c) References with three or more authors should be cited as:

(First Author et al., Year)

Examples:

Plant growth is accelerated by temperature (Namaghi et al., 2010; Koç et al., 2018).

According to Çimrin et al. (2018), soil is a living material.

d) According to APA 7, references with more than 20 authors should list the first 19 authors, followed by an ellipsis (...) and the final author's name:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., ..., Author, Z. Z.

e) When citing multiple references within the same parentheses, they should be arranged chronologically from the oldest to the most recent publication.

Example:

(Hatipoğlu, 2018; Filik, 2019; Ateş & Kaya, 2020; Hatipoğlu et al., 2022).

f) Narrative citations within the text should follow these formats:

• Filik (2024)
• Hatipoğlu and Dönmez (2025)
• Ateş et al. (2025)