Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 6/25/23

Year: 2023

The aim of the journal is to publish qualified manuscripts in the field of social and human sciences related to the Mediterranean Basin and African civilizations with interdisciplinary working methods. Pursuing the objective to contribute to the literature, the potential audience is national and international students, scholars, and people interested in the region.




1. The papers shall be prepared in “.doc or .docx” format of Microsoft Office Word (2010 and later) program; they shall be written in Times New Roman font. The default settings of the program shall be used in the page format and qualities, and they shall not be changed. (If the default settings have been changed, the page format shall be in A4 format and 2.5-cm space shall be left on all sides of the page.) Automatic formats or formulations (automatic content, automatic references, automatic chapter title/subtitle, or numbering), if any, shall be cleaned by all means. Page number shall not be included.

2. Title: It shall be reflective of the content of the paper and written in 12-point bold capital letters. It shall not exceed 12 words.

3. Author(s)’s Name(s) and Address(es): They shall be written in 11-point font letters with their titles aligned to the left after the title of the study; the surname should be written in capital letters, but only the first letter of the name(s) and title(s) shall be capitalized. A footnote should be marked with the author’s name, where his/her title, institution, e-mail address, and ORCID number shall be indicated.

4. Abstract: It shall take place at the beginning of the study; it shall be written in 10-point; it shall consist of a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 200 words, describing the whole study concisely. At least three at most five keywords shall be written one line below the abstract. Under the Main title (English or Turkish), abstract, and keywords there should be a secondary language (English or Turkish) title, abstract, and keywords.

5. The text of the study shall be written in 11-point Times New Roman font, and the paragraphs shall not be aligned on the left.

6. The paper is limited to 5000-7000 words, including Abstract and Bibliography.

7. The parts that need stressing within the text shall be provided “within quotation marks”, and quotations within the text shall be written in italic letters. The quotation marks and italic letters shall not be used together in quotations. The quotations that exceed 40 words shall be provided with a 1-cm indent on the left one space under the paragraph. Bold characters shall not be used unless necessary.

8. For articles written in Turkish, a 500-word extended abstract in English or French that includes the purpose, scope, method, findings, and results will be added at the bottom of the page in the section after the footnote.

9. The form declaring "No Conflict of Interest", which has a template on the system, will be filled out, For papers requiring ethical committee approval, documents regarding it will be submitted, and a "Plagiarism Report (max. %20)" will be uploaded to the system together with them.

10. Citation: Only for compulsory explanations shall a footnote be used, and the other citations shall be indicated within the text. While making a reference within the text, it should be given in parenthesis as follows: (Surname of the author, Publication year of the reference: Page number). For example: (Orta, 1959: 76)

  • If the author’s work predates the surname law, then the name of the author shall be used. For example: (Ziya Gökalp, 2018: 195)
  • If a citation is made from more than one reference, a semi-colon shall be used between them. For example: (Polat, 2007: 194; Köksal, 2005: 87)
  • To cite from the references with two authors, a hyphen shall be used between them. For example: (Koraş-Baykoca, 2000: 211)
  • To cite from the references with more than two authors, the abbreviation (vd.) shall be used after the surname of the second author. Example: (Kutlar vd., 2012: 99)
  • To cite from more than one work of the same year by the same writer, the publication year shall be followed by a slash and the number 1, 2, 3, and so on. Example: (Bilgegil, 1981/1), (Bilgegil, 1981/2)
  • If the cited work consists of more than one volume, such as an encyclopedia, the volume number shall be indicated after the colon and followed by the page number. Example: (Köprülü, 1967: 5/213)
  • If a manuscript is used as a reference, the abbreviation (yz.) shall be used after the name of the author. If necessary, the page number shall be given after the colon. The full colophon shall be given in the bibliography. Example: (Nef’î yz.: 45b) 
  • To show the archive documents as a reference, they shall be given as abbreviated within the text, and their full information shall be given in the bibliography. Example: (BOA Mühimme 15: 25)
  • If a citation is made in the footnotes, the same rules shall be followed for them, too. Example: Bu konuda geniş bilgi için bkz. Levend, 1984: 189-207; Dilçin, 1983: 296; Kut, 2000: 87-93.
  • If the name of the author is provided just before the quotation within the text, then just the publication year of the work shall be given and followed by a colon and page number. Example: Aktaş (2013: 69), bu hususu...
  • To cite from the secondary works, the first/primary work shall also be indicated. Example: Süleyman Nazif (1925: 40, Bilgegil 1979: 27’den)
  • Personal interviews shall be indicated with surname and date within the text, and they shall also be provided in the bibliography.
  • For the Web addresses, the date of accessing the source shall be indicated in a parentheses. Example: http://www.tdk.gov.tr/index.php?option=com_bts (Erişim tarihi: 20.06.2017) This information shall also be given in the bibliography.


11. Bibliography: All the references shall be aligned according to the surname of the author at the end of the text and regarding the works predating the Surname Law, the name of the author shall be considered. (Alignment: justified text - 10 points, Hanging: 1 cm)

  • To use more than one work by the same author in the bibliography, the alignment shall be made from the oldest to the nearest one.
  • To give a work in a bibliography, the following order shall be followed with the first letter of every word as capitalized: Surname, First letter of the name. (Publication year). Title of the work in italics. Publication city: Publication house. Example: Dursun, Y. (2014). Oyunun Ontolojisi. Ankara: Doğu Batı Yayınları.
  • To give articles, presentations and encyclopaedia items: Author's surname, name, publication date shall be written without putting a comma between the author's name. The date shall be (in parentheses), the title of the article / paper / encyclopedia article ("in quotation marks”), the title of the periodical / proceedings book / encyclopedia shall be italicized; if known, the volume of the work shall be provided with the letter (C), and the issue number shall be in parenthesis (S), and the page number shall be given after the issue number as (s.). For the published presentations, the date of the organization of such meetings as symposium, congress, etc. shall be provided together with the publication year of the proceedings book. 

Example for articles:

LEVEND, Agâh Sırrı (1965), “Lâmiî’nin Ferhad u Şirin’i”, Türk Dili Araştırmaları Yıllığı Belleten 1964, s. 85-126.

Example for presentation papers:

KOZ, M. Sabri (2004), “Belli Mahlaslar Üzerinden Şiir Söyleme Geleneği ve Türkiye’de Yazılan Alevi-Bektaşi Cönk ve Mecmualarındaki Hatâî Mahlaslı Şiirler”, I. Uluslararası Şah İsmail Hatâyî Sempozyumu Bildirileri, 9-10-11 Ekim 2003, Haz.: Gülağ Öz, ATO Yayını, Ankara, s. 184-217.

Example for encyclopedia papers:

KÖYMEN, M. Altay (1983), “Turan, Osman”, Türk Ansiklopedisi, C. 32, MEB Yayını, Ankara, s. 2.

  • For manuscripts, if the author of the manuscript is known, the author's name should be written first, followed by the abbreviation "manuscript" (yz.) in parentheses, then the title of the work (italicized), the library, collection and number where it is located, and - if necessary - the page numbers.

Example for manuscripts:

 Mecmua-i Eş’âr (yz), Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Fatih, Nu. 5335.

Âlî b. Mustafa (yz), Nasîhatü’s-selâtîn, Ali Emiri Millet Kütüphanesi, Şer’iyye, Nu. 611.

12. Article Submission and Tracking: The submission of papers and process of evaluation shall be carried out through the DergiPark system.


ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN AND AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS JOURNAL

The Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations (AKAF), the scientific publication of Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations Application and Research Center, started its publication life as an international e-journal in 2019. It includes original scientific studies at national and international levels on the language, history, literature, art, and culture of Mediterranean and African countries that have historical and cultural relations with Turkey. In the journal, while research and research-based studies from all disciplines that can be evaluated in the context of social and human sciences on the Mediterranean Basin and African civilizations are evaluated; Turkish and English articles, translations, compilations, and book introductions from the fields of language, literature, translation, history, folklore, sociology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, art history, etc. and the relations of these fields with other human sciences are included.

There is no fee for submissions to the journal and articles are published through the DergiPark system with an open-access policy. The language of the articles submitted to the journal can be Turkish or English.

All works are licensed by Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University under the Creative Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. The license allows users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, search, or share links to the full text of articles, or use them for any other purpose, provided that appropriate credit is given, a link to the license is provided, and information is provided if changes have been made.
The Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations adheres to international standards in publication ethics and adopts the ethical publishing principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing can be found at: https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing

Problems such as plagiarism, duplication, fraudulent authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, copyright infringement and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviors. If ethical violations are detected after publication, the article will be removed from the system.

Papers submitted to the journal should not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere and should not be in the review process in another journal. After the papers are submitted through the Article Tracking System at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaf, on the personal page entered with e-mail address and password, the referee process can be followed on the same page.

At the time of submission, the paper should not contain any information that would reveal the identity of the author and authors. In addition, the Copyright Transfer Agreement for the study is presented to the authors through the DergiPark application system during the article application, and after it is filled in and signed, the digital copy must be uploaded to the system at the application submission stage.

Papers that are initially evaluated by the journal editorial office are sent to at least two referees through a blind review system. If the referees request corrections in their reports, the author can only make changes within the framework of the specified corrections. If one of the referee reports is negative, the manuscript is sent to a third referee. Unpublished papers are not sent back to the author. In order to make the corrections requested by the referees, the reports of all referees related to the paper are expected to be received.

It is not an obstacle for the submitted manuscripts to be published if they are produced from a thesis or presented as a paper at a congress, symposium or meeting. For papers derived from such events and studies, a note to the editor should indicate the event from which the work is derived. This should be indicated as a footnote under the article.

Papers submitted to the journal must be edited according to the journal rules. Papers that are not organized according to the spelling rules are rejected without going through the editorial evaluation and referee process. In this case, the author must create a new application after the necessary correction.

The manuscripts to be submitted to the Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations should be prepared according to the following specifications and the "TEMPLATE" on the page should be used while creating the article. Papers that do not use the template will be returned to the author.
Submissions sent at least 30 days (1 month) prior to the publication of the next issue may be considered for the next issue depending on the publication capacity of the journal.

The scientific, content, linguistic and legal responsibility of the articles published in the journal belongs to the authors.

The final decision regarding the publication of the manuscript belongs to the editorial board.

Open Access Policy
The Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations is open access and is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.tr).

The Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations provides all content free of charge to its readers. Readers can access the full text of all studies in the journal, except for commercial purposes. However, without written permission, reproduction of all or part of the journal or all or part of the studies and citation of inappropriate criteria and without citing the source cannot be done.

Research Ethics
In the Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations, where international standards are observed in research ethics, compliance with ethical rules is the responsibility of the author and international research ethics must be adopted and observed.

- In human research (surveys, interviews, experiments, etc.), Ethics Committee Approval must be obtained from the institutions. Studies without Ethics Committee Approval are not accepted to the journal. In these studies, the Ethics Committee Certificate must be uploaded to the system together with the study.

- In human research, it should be stated in the method section that "informed consent" is obtained from the participants.

- In human research, participants should be informed about the purpose, method and risks, if any. Participation in studies should not be compulsory and should be voluntary.

- If the studies will be conducted in any institution or organization, it must be documented that the necessary permissions have been obtained from this institution.

- If there is a conflict of interest in the research, it should be stated.

- The consent of the legal guardian of children, those under guardianship or those with a confirmed illness must be obtained and documented when necessary.

Responsibility of Authors

- Compliance with scientific and ethical rules is the responsibility of the author or authors. For manuscripts submitted to the journal, the author must guarantee that the paper has not been published elsewhere or in another language and is not under review elsewhere or in another language. Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality of the study.

- Attention should be paid to the rules of citation and referencing in the study and the author should be aware that he/she is responsible for the legal obligations that may arise in this regard. Necessary permissions must be obtained for copyrighted materials such as tables, figures and images to be used in the study and references must be given in the text.

- The order of the authors' names is the decision of the authors of the study and this order should be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form and the form should be signed by all authors. Any disputes arising in this regard are the authors' own responsibility.

- Any financial support and/or conflict of interest in the study that may affect the research should be indicated.

- The author reserves the right to withdraw his/her manuscript if he/she detects errors or inaccuracies in his/her own work. In this case, the author must apply to the journal with a written petition for withdrawal.

Responsibility of Editors
- All articles submitted to the journal are evaluated objectively.

- The articles submitted for review are subjected to double-blind peer review. In this process, it is ensured by the journal team that any information that would reveal the identity of the author or authors is not included in the peer review process.

- Editors and deputy editors are responsible for the continuity of the review process. They are responsible for meticulously managing the entire process from the submission of a manuscript.

- Editors are fully authorized to appoint referees without allowing any conflict of interest between authors and referees. On the other hand, the final decision about the studies to be published in the journal belongs to the editorial board.

Responsibility of Reviewers
- Reviewers should objectively examine the articles submitted for review.

- Reviewers should accept or reject the manuscripts sent to them for evaluation in accordance with their field of research, and inform the editors of their decision as soon as possible for the continuation of the journal's functioning.

- Reviewers should ensure the confidentiality of the information of the manuscripts they accept for evaluation and if they detect any copyright infringement or plagiarism in the article, they should report this to the editorial board with justifications and keep a report on this situation.

- When referees agree to evaluate a paper, they declare that they will evaluate the manuscript within the time period allotted to them. Otherwise, they are expected to inform the editors.

- Reviewers are expected to justify their decisions. This is important both for the development of academic studies and for the author to know the reasons for the final decision.

- Reviewers should write their decisions in detail in the 'note to the author' section of the evaluation form.

INFORMATION FOR WRITERS
- Studies submitted to the journal must be compatible with the scope of the journal. It is up to the decision of the editorial board to return the papers that do not comply with the editorial policy and objectives of the journal without evaluation.

- The author is responsible for the originality of the paper. In case of plagiarism or a similar problem, the final decision regarding the work belongs to the editorial board.

- Abstracts presented at scientific meetings or articles produced from theses are accepted into the evaluation process provided that they are specified. Even if the studies produced from master's or doctoral studies are accepted, the normal refereeing process is also carried out in these studies.

- After the paper is submitted for review, the names of none of the authors can be deleted, a new author cannot be added, and the order of authors cannot be changed without the written permission of all authors.

- Starting from the Fall 2022 issue, the similarity report obtained from plihal.net, Ithenticate or Turnitin will be received by the editors and uploaded to the system for the studies to be submitted to the journal. The submitted papers will first be checked by plagiarism scanning. For papers with 20% or more similarity, the editorial board has the right to correct or reject according to the content of the similarity. The similarity rate of the article should not exceed 20%. Plagiarized papers will be returned. The responsibility in this regard belongs to the author.


Referee Process
The blind peer review process is initiated for the manuscripts deemed suitable for evaluation.

Papers deemed suitable for review are sent to two national/international reviewers for evaluation.

In cases where the reviewers make different decisions, the papers are sent to a third reviewer and the decision is evaluated accordingly. As a result of the reviewer evaluations, there is a possibility that a paper may be directly accepted, rejected or requested for correction.

The papers for which corrections are requested can be re-reviewed in line with the reviewers' requests, or they can be checked by the editor in cases where the reviewer does not request a re-review. Once the corrections are deemed appropriate, a final decision is made regarding the publication of the paper.

Processing Fee
The publication of articles in the journal and the execution of article processes are not subject to any fee. No processing fee, submission fee or royalty fee is charged or paid for articles submitted to the journal or accepted for publication.

Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations is a free Journal. No fee is charged under any circumstances for the works submitted for publication.

Article acceptance continues for the June 2024 issue.