Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 12/29/23

Year: 2023

AKAF is a refereed journal which brings together research on the contemporary politics and international relations of the Afrika, Türkiye, Mediterranean and the regions surrounding it.
The target audience of the journal is both national and international students, academics and people interested in the region. Thus, the journal seeks to act as a bridge between the relevant regional studies communities, and our coverage is inclusive of countries and populations in the broader European, African (North Africa and the Sahel), Middle Eastern (the Mashreq and the Gulf) and West Asian regions. Moreover, AKAF welcome contributions that examine the links between the Mediterranean area and the wider world. AKAF aims to be an internationally known, peer-reviewed field studies exchange that includes not only historical research, but also disciplinary and interdisciplinary research on current issues and debates. The journal seeks to shed light on the connectedness of polities and societies and thus takes an inter-disciplinary approach which, while generally focused on the disciplines of politics and international relations, is inclusive where appropriate of economics, political economy, human geography, sociology and anthropology. AKAF is affiliated with Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations Research and Application Center.

AKAF journal accepts articles and book reviews in the fields of social sciences, humanities and public policies that focus on the global change and development dynamics of Mediterranean and African nations, societies, cultures and diasporas, including Turkey. The scope of AKAF is understood not only as those countries whose borders are partially or wholly defined by the sea itself, but as a space that spans the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. The articles included in the journal are based on original research. The journal also publishes comparative scientific studies that address global perspectives across countries. Some focus on individual states, others on the relationships between them, on the international organizations which facilitate or complicate such relationships, or on themes and issues that are common to some or all.

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. Should be anonymous and any information regarding author's identity should not be seen on the submitted paper. 

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.

You can download the copyright form from here.


ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY

Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilisations operates under the international standards of publication ethics.

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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.tr). 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 Civilisations follows the publication ethics standards 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). COPE Publication Ethics Guidelines, "Code Of Conduct And Best Practice Guidelines For Journal Editors" and "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing" have been adopted by the journal editorial board.



Transparency Principle

The operation of the journal is transparent and subject to predetermined procedures.

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. The Journal of Mediterranean and African Civilizations, which has historical and cultural relations with Turkey, includes original scientific studies at national and international levels on the language, history, literature, art, and culture of Mediterranean and African countries.

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, reviews, 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.

The journal is published twice a year at the end of June and December or the latest in the first week of the following month. The system is always open for article acceptance. The article acceptance process can be accessed through the Dergipark system, where relevant departments and individuals can receive information at any time and at any stage.

Authors submit their articles to the journal through the Dergipark system. Dergipark is an organization that provides technical support for peer-reviewed academic journals published in Turkey by offering electronic hosting and editorial process management services. For detailed information on Dergipark, see https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/page/about

All processes of the Journal, including correspondence, are carried out through Dergipark's highly secure and constantly updated system. Article processes, files, and correspondence are archived through Dergipark.

As a rule, articles whose publication process is completed are published in the first subsequent issue. However, the Editorial Board may decide to publish some articles in the next issue, taking into account the number of articles or article topics. In this case, the authors will be informed.

Open Access Policy and Copyright
AKAF is an open-access journal. The authors own the copyright of their work published in AKAF and their work 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 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. However, all or part of the journal or studies cannot be reproduced without written permission. In addition, it cannot be cited in inappropriate proportions and quoted without citing the source.

There is no fee for submissions to the Journal of Mediterranean Basin and African Civilizations, 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 and English. You can download the copyright form from here.

Authors' Responsibilities
Submitted articles should be in accordance with the purpose and scope of the journal. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the articles comply with scientific and ethical rules. Problems such as plagiarism, duplication, false 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.

Articles submitted to the journal must be edited according to the journal rules. Articles 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 author uploads the printed Ethical Declaration Form to the system with a wet signature stating that the article is original, has not been published elsewhere before, and is not under evaluation for publication elsewhere, in another language.

The author is obliged to obtain the plagiarism report of the article and upload it to the system as an additional file. In studies 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 articles will be returned. The responsibility for this belongs to the author.

Articles can be submitted through the Article Tracking System at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaf from the personal page entered with an e-mail address and password, and the referee process can be followed from the same page.

Copyrighted material (e.g. tables, figures, or large quotations) is used with appropriate permission and acknowledgment. The work of other authors and contributors or the sources used are used appropriately and cited in the references.

Individuals who did not contribute directly to the content academically and scientifically in the creation of the work are not listed as authors. The order of authors' names reflects the joint decision of the authors. All authors must indicate the author ranking on the Copyright Agreement Form. After the form is filled in and signed, a digital copy must be uploaded to the system at the application submission stage.

For translated works, written permission for publication must be obtained from the author or the person or institution holding the right to publish, and this permission document must be attached to the application document.

All individuals who did not meet the criteria for authorship but contributed to the study (those who provided technical support, helped with the writing or just provided general support, financial and material support) are listed in the "acknowledgments/information" section.

Authors declare any financial relationships, conflicts of interest, and competition of interest that have the potential to influence the results of the research or the scientific evaluation.

If an author identifies a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, he/she has the responsibility to immediately contact and cooperate with the editor for correction or retraction of such inaccuracies.

Authors must be able to demonstrate that they have the rights to use the data used, the necessary permissions for the research/analyses, or that the consent of the subjects of the experiment has been obtained.

Authors cannot have their work in the submission process of more than one journal at the same time. Each submission can be initiated following the completion of the previous submission.

It cannot be proposed to change the author's responsibilities (such as adding an author, changing the author order, or removing an author) of a study whose evaluation process has started.

The fact that the submitted articles are derived from a thesis or presented as a paper at a congress, symposium, or meeting is not an obstacle to publication. For article submissions derived from such events and studies, it should be conveyed as a note to the editor which event the study is derived from. This should be indicated as a footnote under the article.

Submissions submitted at least 30 days (1 month) before the publication of the next issue may be considered in the next issue depending on the journal's publication availability.

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

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.

Responsibilities of Editors and Co-Editors
The editor is the person who manages the entire publication and refereeing process from the receipt of the article to publication and is responsible for the quality and performance of the journal.

The editor-in-chief is responsible for the cohesion and coordination between editors and associate editors and for the quality of the publication. As a rule, editors deal with articles related to their area of expertise.

Editors evaluate articles independently of the ethnicity, gender, nationality, religious beliefs, and political philosophy of the authors.

Each article has an editor and co-editor, who are also visible to the authors through the Dergipark system. The distribution of tasks is made according to the expertise of the editors and co-editors and this distribution is predetermined. It is possible to make a distribution other than this rule for reasons such as workload and leave of absence.

The editors evaluate the articles submitted to the journal in terms of quality, content, and contribution to the field and decide whether the article should be included in the publication process. At this stage, the article may be rejected without going through the process.

Co-editors check whether the article files are complete and complete and whether the articles comply with the journal's spelling rules; they ensure that the authors make the necessary arrangements.

Co-editors direct the articles whose preliminary review is completed to the relevant field editor for referee assignments.

Co-editors communicate with the authors and ensure that the process progresses quickly by providing the necessary information and reminders to the editors.

After the initial evaluation by the journal editorial office, the articles are sent for double-blind peer review by the editors in a fair manner. Articles that are deemed suitable for evaluation are sent to two national/international referees for evaluation.

Editors do not allow conflicts of interest between authors, editors, and referees. If the peer review is not completed in a reasonable time, the editors may contact the referee and request that the process be accelerated or appoint a new referee.

Editors monitor the performance of the referees they appoint in terms of content, speed, and style.

At the end of the referee review, the editors evaluate the referee reports. The Board of Editors meets and decides whether to accept the article, send it to a third referee or reject it. The reason for the rejection decision and the referee reports are sent to the author.

All information regarding the articles submitted during this process is kept confidential until the article is published.

The editor-in-chief, with the author's knowledge, may publish an error page or make corrections when necessary.

The final decision on the publication of the article belongs to the editorial board.

Responsibility of Referees
- Referees should objectively review the articles submitted for review.

- Referees should accept or reject the articles sent to them for evaluation in accordance with their field of research, and inform the editors of their decision as soon as possible to continue the journal's process.

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

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

- Referees 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.

- Referees are expected to write their decisions in detail in the 'note to the author' section of the evaluation form.

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 forupcoming 2024 issues.