EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION ETHICS POLICY

 INTRODUCTION AND LEGAL BASIS

The Academic Journal of Language and Literature (ADED) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access periodical aimed at producing scholarly literature of global standards, academic originality, and methodological depth, focusing primarily on philology, linguistics, and Classical Turkish literature.

To safeguard scientific transparency and academic integrity at the highest level throughout all publishing workflows, our journal guarantees absolute compliance with the provisions of the Turkish Press Law (No. 5187), the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (No. 5846), and the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, as well as the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing jointly declared by international publishing authorities: the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).

 1. TERMS OF PUBLICATION AND ACCEPTANCE

• Thematic Scope: ADED publishes original research articles that contribute significantly to science within the sub-disciplines of the Turkish Language and Literature Department, specifically Old Turkish Literature (Classical Turkish Literature), Old Turkish Language (Philology), Modern Turkish Literature, Modern Turkish Language, and Turkish Folk Literature.
• Manuscript Type Restriction: In strict accordance with international indexing objectives and editorial policies, our journal exclusively accepts "Research Articles." Master's or doctoral thesis summaries (or any derivative papers therefrom), book reviews, translations, symposium proceedings, and review essays are categorically excluded from consideration.
• Language and Frequency: The journal is published three times a year (March, July, and November) within a single annual volume and is released solely in electronic (e-journal) format in Turkish and English.
• Submission Periods: To ensure the seamless management of editorial processes and adherence to international indexing schedules, manuscript submissions are accepted exclusively through the DergiPark platform during the following intervals:
  • For the March Issue: January 20 – January 30
  • For the July Issue: May 20 – May 30
  • For the November Issue: September 20 – September 30
• Annual Article Quota: To maintain academic diversity and ensure a fair evaluation pipeline, an author may publish only one (1) article per calendar year (within the same volume period) in ADED.
• Fee Policy (Diamond Open Access): ADED operates on a diamond open-access model. No fees of any kind—including article processing charges (APCs), submission fees, or editorial handling processing fees—are requested from authors or their institutions at any stage of submission, evaluation, peer-review, typesetting, DOI assignment, or publication.
• Word Count Limit: Manuscripts must be between 6,000 and 12,000 words in length, including the title, abstracts, in-text citations, tables, and references. Submissions falling outside these boundaries will be rejected during the preliminary review stage.

 2. EVALUATION PROCESS: DOUBLE-BLIND PEER REVIEW

ADED operates a strict Double-Blind Peer Review system to guarantee impartiality, scientific objectivity, and academic quality. The workflow consists of the following time-bound phases:

2.1. Preliminary Review and Plagiarism Screening

Manuscripts undergo a technical preliminary evaluation by the Editor-in-Chief and the Section Editor regarding their alignment with the journal’s publishing principles, academic writing manual, and APA 7 format. Concurrently, manuscripts are screened using iThenticate plagiarism detection software.

• A similarity index of less than 20% (excluding references) is an absolute prerequisite. Manuscripts exhibiting dense text duplication from a single source will be rejected even if they satisfy the quantitative percentage requirement.
• Manuscripts that fail to comply with formal formatting guidelines or exhibit high similarity/plagiarism indicators will be returned to the author by the decision of the Editorial Board without initiating the peer review process.

2.2. Academic Evaluation and Peer Review

Manuscripts passing the initial screening are forwarded to at least two (2) independent external reviewers via a double-blind mechanism. Reviewers are selected based on their established academic expertise, such as having a doctoral thesis, books, or peer-reviewed articles on the relevant subject matter.

• Reviewers are required to substantiate their assessments with a scientific rationale of at least 150 words on the online evaluation form or via explicit annotations on the text.
• Authors reserve the right to contest reviewer feedback by providing scholarly evidence; the Section Editor coordinates this communication while maintaining strict anonymity.
• Editorial Decision Balance: If both reviewer reports are favorable, the manuscript is submitted to the Editorial Board for final approval. If one reviewer issues a negative decision, the manuscript is routed to a third (3rd) reviewer. A minimum of two positive reviewer decisions is mandatory for publication acceptance.

2.3. Revision (Tashih) and Control Phases

• Author Revision Window (Maximum 10 Days): If corrections are requested, the author must address all points within a maximum of 10 days and re-upload the revised manuscript with all changes clearly highlighted in red text.
• Section Editor Verification (Maximum 5 Days): The Section Editor verifies whether the author has meticulously implemented the modifications requested by the reviewers and completes this verification within 5 days.
• Reviewer Re-Evaluation (Maximum 7 Days): If a reviewer requests to see the revisions, the modified text is sent back to them. The reviewer reassesses the text for compliance within 7 days and issues a final verdict.

2.4. Language Quality Control and Final Proofreading (7 + 7 Days)

Manuscripts passing academic review are audited sequentially by the Turkish Language Editor (max. 7 days) and the English Language Editor (max. 7 days) to ensure linguistic flawlessness. Authors may be requested to perform stylistic adjustments at this stage.

2.5. Final Decision and Editorial Board Review

Manuscripts that have successfully completed all technical, academic, and linguistic tracks are reviewed a final time by the Editorial Board. The Board holds the ultimate authority to approve or reject a manuscript based on its contribution to the field and its alignment with the journal's scope, regardless of positive peer reviews. Disagreements within the Board are resolved by a majority vote.

 3. ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF STAKEHOLDERS

A. Sponsoring and Submitting Authors

• Originality and Redundant Publication: Authors must guarantee that their submitted manuscripts are entirely original, have not been published elsewhere in any language, and are not currently under evaluation by another journal.
• Authorship Integrity and Post-Submission Changes: Only individuals who have made significant intellectual contributions to the study may be listed as authors; practices such as gift or ghost authorship are strictly prohibited. No authors may be added, deleted, or re-ordered after the manuscript enters the evaluation process.
• Citation Ethics and Paraphrasing: The reference list must be complete, and the text must be formatted strictly in accordance with APA 7th Edition standards. To avoid plagiarism violations, information retrieved from other sources must be thoroughly synthesized, interpreted using the author’s own academic voice (paraphrasing), and properly integrated; direct verbatim quotes must be kept to an absolute minimum.
• Data Integrity and Accountability: Authors are accountable for the authenticity of their data. If a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered post-submission or post-publication, the author is obligated to promptly notify the editor to withdraw the paper or issue an erratum.

B. Peer Reviewers

• Impartiality and Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as highly confidential documents and must not share information regarding the content with third parties prior to publication. Evaluations must be conducted objectively and constructively, free from bias regarding race, gender, religious beliefs, or political philosophy.
• Conflict of Interest Mitigation: Reviewers must decline to evaluate manuscripts in which they detect any conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the authors, institutions, or funders.
• Uncited Literature Notification: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors and bring it to the attention of the editor.

C. Editors and Editorial Board

• Editorial Independence and Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board retain absolute authority and independence to accept or reject manuscripts based solely on scientific merit, originality, clarity, and methodological validity, without external interference.
• Anonymity Safeguards: Editors are responsible for ensuring that the double-blind peer review process is executed fairly, keeping the identities of both authors and reviewers entirely confidential.
• Misconduct and Complaint Management: Editors respond to allegations of plagiarism, fabrication, or unfair authorship by following COPE flowcharts. Readers and stakeholders may file formal complaints or report ethical violations by contacting adeddergi@gmail.com. Reviewer names remain strictly confidential.

 4. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION MISCONDUCT

In accordance with Article 8 of the YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, ADED defines the following actions as serious ethical violations and will reject manuscripts at any stage of evaluation if they are detected:

• Plagiarism: Presenting the ideas, methods, data, text, or works of others as one's own, without proper attribution or citation.
• Fabrication and Falsification: Reporting or publishing fabricated data that is not backed by research; manipulating, altering, or misrepresenting actual research data or records.
• Duplication and Salami-Slicing: Publishing the same research results across multiple venues to inflate academic output; splitting the integrity of a study inappropriately into separate fragments to publish them as independent papers.
• Unfair Authorship: Including non-contributing individuals, excluding active contributors, or modifying author order without clear, justified grounds.
• Mandatory Ethics Committee Approval: For studies employing qualitative or quantitative data collection methods involving human participants (such as surveys, interviews, or focus groups), authors must secure an Ethics Committee Approval from their home institution. Full institutional details of this approval (committee name, approval date, and decision/grant number) must be declared both in the methodology section and as a footnote on the first page. The official approval certificate must be uploaded to DergiPark as a supplementary file.

 5. PLAGIARISM ACTION PLAN AND SANCTIONS

If plagiarism or publishing misconduct is suspected in a submitted or published manuscript, the Ethics Editor and the Editorial Board will initiate an inquiry. The author(s) will be contacted and required to submit a formal defense within two (2) weeks. If no response is received within the timeframe or if the explanation is deemed insufficient, the journal will escalate the matter to the author's home institution for a formal internal investigation.

If plagiarism or a severe ethical violation is verified after the article has been published, ADED will immediately enforce the following sanctions in compliance with COPE and ICJME guidelines:

1. Retraction and Digital Labeling: The PDF copy of the article is removed from public view and full-text links are deactivated. The metadata and digital title are permanently watermarked with the phrase "RETRACTED ARTICLE / İNTİHAL EDİLMİŞ MAKALE."
2. Institutional Escalation: A formal notification accompanied by verifiable evidence of the infraction is dispatched to the author’s university administration and to the Higher Education Council (YÖK) Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee.
3. Blacklisting and Submission Ban: The author's user account on the journal platform is suspended, and all future submissions from the author will be categorically rejected for a duration of three (3) years.

 6. OPEN ACCESS, LICENSING, AND COPYRIGHT POLICY

• Open Access Licensing: All articles published in ADED are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. This license permits third parties to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to adapt or build upon the material, provided proper credit is given to the original work and the use is strictly non-commercial.
• Copyright Retention: Authors retain the full copyright of their published works. Authors are required to upload a high-resolution PDF copy of the Copyright Agreement Form, bearing their wet ink signatures (signed with a blue pen), during the initial submission.
• Persistent Identifiers (DOI): In full compliance with international tracking and citation indexing requirements, a unique and permanent DOI (Digital Object Identifier) number is assigned to every article published in ADED.
• Digital Preservation and Archiving: All published issues and manuscript archives are electronically preserved and made permanently accessible via the DergiPark national repository infrastructure.

 7. SPECIAL ISSUE PUBLICATION POLICY

Upon the request and official decision of the ADED Editorial Board, a "Special Issue" dedicated to a specific academic theme may be published at most once (1) per calendar year.

• Manuscripts submitted for consideration in a special issue are subject to the exact same editorial, technical, and academic review standards as regular submissions.
• These papers must undergo preliminary technical screening, iThenticate plagiarism checks (< 20%), and language quality control.
• All special issue submissions must successfully pass evaluation by at least two independent reviewers under the double-blind peer review model. No article can be published in a special issue without the definitive final approval of the Editorial Board.