Open Access and Article Processing
The Mediterranean Medical Journal provides open access to scientific publications. Access to the published issue and the full text of the articles within is available free of charge. No fee is requested from the author(s) for publication of their articles.
The readers can download the Journal content for free for academic or educational use. The Journal is free for everyone. To ensure this goal, the Journal uses the financial resources of Akdeniz University, and the ongoing voluntary efforts of the editors and referees.
All scientific responsibility for the articles belongs to the authors. The name order of the submitted articles should be a joint decision. The responsible author is considered to accept the author order in the name of all authors by signing the “Author responsibility and Copyright Transfer Form”. Anyone who does not meet the criteria for authoring but has contributed to the study can be listed in “Acknowledgements”. The authors should declare in writing that the article is an original paper that has not been published before and that they will not attempt to publish it somewhere else during the evaluation process.
The authors are considered to have accepted any changes and corrections made by the editor as long as the scientific content is not changed. The articles sent are not returned whether published or not, and only images and figures that are not published can be returned to the author upon request.
The articles sent should be prepared in accordance with the journal rules and be ready for page layout. The editorial board has the authority not to publish articles that do not comply with the spelling rules, to return the article to the author for correction or to re-edit the article. The editor and language editors have complete authority in making changes and corrections in the writing language and spelling, making sure the references comply with the spelling rules, and other relevant issues. If previously published quoted text, tables, images, etc. are present in the article, the responsible author of the article should obtain the written permission of the related copyright owner and authors and also state it in the article.
The Publication Process and the Article Evaluation Period
The articles sent to the Akdeniz Medical Journal first undergo an objective review by the Editorial Board. The editors have the right to reject the articles directly or to send them back for re-editing. If there is no reason to reject the article in this stage, it is sent to two separate reviewers familiar with the article subject. Referees invited for article evaluation are asked to accept the invitation within a maximum of 7 days. An article that receives two positive referee reports from the field assessment is entitled to be published. An article that receives a positive and a negative referee's report is sent to a third referee, and whether the article is published or not is determined in accordance with the third referee’s report and/or the editorial decision. The evaluation period of the referees accepting the invitation is a maximum of 30 days. If the referees do not agree to the evaluation or do not submit the evaluation report at the end of the period, the article is sent to a new referee for evaluation. After evaluating the article, the referees send the evaluation form with their comments and suggestions to the editor. The editor then submits the editor comments and suggestions to the authors and asks them to upload the revised article back to the system. The authors' revision period is a maximum of 60 days. If the referees have asked to see the article again after the revision, the article is sent back to the referees for evaluation. This process continues until the referees provide their opinion as regards the acceptance or rejection of the article. The opinions of the referees are evaluated by the editors within 15 days at the latest. The final decision is declared to the author(s) as a result of this review.
The final decision for publication belongs to the editors. Once the page layout is prepared and corrections are made, the responsible authors will be asked for a final check and “publishing approval” to be provided in writing. Articles accepted for publication are published in the early online articles section in order of the date of acceptance. The presence of an article in early view does not indicate that it will be included in the next issue. During this early view period, the authors are required to review their articles and report their recommendations for revision according to the Journal writing rules and layout to the editorial board. The time to publication of the articles accepted for publication is 12-18 months. However, depending on factors such as the timeliness of the article, its originality, and the number of articles waiting for publication, this period may be shorter or longer. No changes can be made to the articles once the Journal is published.
The articles are sent to the reviewers after the authors’ names are removed from the text, in accordance with the peer-review system. Information on which reviewers the article has been sent to is not provided to the authors. Reviewers and Editorial Board members cannot discuss the articles in public. The comments of the reviewers on an article can be sent by the editor to other reviewers reviewing the same article, for clarification. Another reviewer can be assigned to replace a reviewer who cannot evaluate the sent article within the specified period.
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
The Akdeniz Medical Journal requires the authors to comply with research and publication ethics. Compliance with national and international ethical guidelines and receiving permission from the related ethics committees are essential for studies performed on humans and animals. The “Ethics Committee Approval” should be sent to the www.akdeniztipdergisi.org address online. Compliance of articles with ethics rules is the responsibility of the authors.
Researches on humans: The journal accepts the principle of compliance with the principles stated in the WMA “Helsinki Declaration”, “Good Clinical Practice Guide” and “Good Laboratory Practice Guide” and the related regulations of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health for all studies where a “Human” factor is included. Obtaining permission from the “Clinical Studies Ethics Committee” and sending the relevant document to the journal is obligatory for studies conducted on humans. The authors should state that they obtained a signed “Informed consent” document from the relevant ethics committee and the study subjects in the Material and Method section of the article.
An “Informed consent” document should be obtained from the patients or if necessary from their legal representatives for case presentations without considering whether the identity of the patient is revealed and this process should be stated in the text under the case presentation part of the article. The “Informed consent” document obtained from the patient or the legal representative should be sent to the journal.
Animal research: Permission should be obtained from the “Experimental Animals Ethics Committee” for research conducted on animals and a copy of the relevant document should be sent to the journal. The Material and Method section of all animal research studies should state that all animals were treated humanely and in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html) and that consent was obtained from the Experimental Animals Ethics Committee. The measures taken to prevent pain and distress of the animals should be clearly stated in such studies. The article will not be published if a copy of the Ethics Committee consent is not sent to the journal.
Permissions: The Mediterranean Journal of Medicine allows articles to be shared according to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY) International license. Accordingly, the authors and readers may copy, reproduce and adapt the works if they comply with the terms of appropriate attribution, not using the material for commercial purposes, and sharing what they have adapted with the same license. No royalties are paid for articles published in the Journal.
Conflicts of interest: The authors should report any conflicts of interest related to the article. If any direct or indirect commercial connections (such as employment, direct payments, owning shares, company consultancy, patent licensing arrangements, or a service fee) or an institution providing financial support for the study is present, the authors should state that they do not have any commercial relationship with the commercial product or drug used, the company, etc. or explain the relationship if any in the cover letter and also under the title of “Conflict of interest” before the references section of the article. http://icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/
Authoring contribution: The contributions of the authors (constitution of an opinion, study design, experimental practices, statistics, writing of the article, etc.) in articles with multiple authors should be explained and submitted to the editor with a signed form (within the scope of the copyright transfer form). Authoring contribution information should be reported in the article before the references.
Financial support: Financial support, donations and all other activities (statistical analysis, English/Turkish evaluation) and/or technical help should be clearly stated if present before the references part of the article. The authors should also declare the roles of the sponsors of the study, if any, in the following areas: (1) Design of the study, (2) Data collection, analysis and the interpretation of the results, (3) Writing of the report, (4) Deciding to send the article for publication.
Plagiarism: All articles sent to the Journal go through the iThenticate or Turnitin software and a similarity report is obtained before being accepted to the evaluation process. Articles with a similarity rate of more than 20% are considered to represent plagiarism and are rejected.
The editorial board of the Mediterranean Medical Journal can act in accordance with COPE's rules in case of allegations and suspicions of theft, citation manipulation, and data forgery related to the studies submitted to the Journal.
ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
The aim is to have all stakeholders (authors, editors and reviewers) who put forward a scientific study to contribute to the appropriate advancement of science. Compliance with the scientific ethical principles is important in scientific studies prepared in accordance with this goal.
These principles have been adopted by us and their adoption has also been proposed by various stakeholders, some of which are presented below.
The editorial and publication processes of the Journal have been developed according to the directives of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The Journal has adopted the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org./bestpractice).
Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors
-To ensure the accuracy of data related to the study, to keep regular records of the research, and to be able to provide access to this data upon a possible request.
- Make sure that the article submitted is not published or accepted elsewhere.
- If the content presented matches any other content published or submitted elsewhere, to acknowledge this match and provide a reference. If necessary, to provide to the editor a copy of any other study that may have similar content related to the work. To obtain permission to reproduce or use any content from other sources, and to provide references.
- For all studies involving human or animal subjects, to ensure compliance with national and international laws and guidelines (for example, the WMA Declaration of Helsinki, NIH Policy on the Use of Laboratory Animals, the EU Directive on the Use of Animals) and indicate that the necessary approvals have been obtained, and to respect the subject's privacy. To specify the relevant ethics committee approvals and research details in the “Materials and Methods” section of the study.
- In case of any conflict of interest, or when an ethical violation related to the article is detected, to share this with the editor and publisher and to publish a statement of error, addendum, or notice of compensation, or to withdraw the work if deemed necessary.
Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of the Editors
- To act in a balanced, objective, and fair manner when performing the duties without discrimination regarding the gender, religious or political beliefs, or the ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.
- To evaluate the work submitted to the Journal according to its content and not act favorably towards any author.
- To take the necessary measures to prevent possible conflicts of interest and evaluate any existing relevant declarations.
- To treat sponsored work or any work on special subjects in the same way as other work.
- To apply the necessary procedures while adhering to the policies and rules of the Journal in case of a complaint related to ethical violation. To provide the authors an opportunity to respond to a received complaint, and not to refrain from enforcing the necessary sanctions no matter who owns the work.
- To refuse received work if it does not meet the purpose and scope of the Journal.
Ethical Responsibilities of the Referees
- To objectively review the article in a timely manner to contribute to the editor's decision-making process and to agree to evaluate only the work related to the field of specialization.
- To make the assessment objectively and only in relation to the content of the study. To evaluate the work without regard to religious, political and economic interests.
- To make recommendations that will help improve the quality of the article to be published and to carefully evaluate the work. To communicate any comments to the author with a constructive and polite style.
- To protect the confidentiality of the information provided by the editor and the author, to destroy in accordance with the privacy principle after the evaluation process the work that has been evaluated, to notify the editor and not evaluate the work if there is anything preventing blind arbitration.
- To be aware of possible conflicts of interest (financial, corporate, collaborative, or other relationships between the authors) and warn the editor to withdraw assistance for this article if necessary.
Some actions considered to violate scientific research and publication ethical principles:
• Plagiarism: Claiming the original ideas, methods, data or work of others as one's own work in part or in whole without providing a reference to them in accordance with scientific rules.
• Forgery: Using data that does not actually exist or is falsified in Scientific Research.
• Distortion: Falsifying research records or the data obtained, making it appear as though devices or materials not used in the research were actually used, falsifying or reshaping research results in the interests of the persons and organizations providing support.
• Republication: Presenting duplicate work as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions.
• Slicing: To present the results of a study as separate publications by improperly dividing them into multiple pieces in a way that violates the integrity of the research and creates several derivatives for academic appointments and promotions.
• Unfair authorship: Including those without an active contribution in the authors list or omitting those with an active contribution, changing the author order in an improper manner and without rationale, removing the names of those with an active contribution in the later revisions, forcing the inclusion of one's name through influence although there is no active contribution.
• Not specifying the person, institution or organizations providing their support and contributions in publications created as a result of research conducted with support.
• To use dissertations or works that have not yet been submitted or defended in front of a jury as sources without the permission of the owner.
• Not complying with ethical rules during research on humans and animals, not respecting the rights of patients in publications, harming animal health and the ecological balance, not obtaining the necessary permissions.
• To use for unrelated purposes the resources, space, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research.
• To make false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications for academic appointments and promotions.
January 1, 2015
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