Anadolu University Journal of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences (AÜİİBFD) is committed to maintaining high standards of research ethics, publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency, impartiality, confidentiality, and editorial independence. The journal adopts the principles and standards set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including the COPE Core Practices and relevant ethical guidelines for editors and reviewers. It also takes into account the principles of research and publication ethics established by the TÜBİTAK Research and Publication Ethics Board.
The journal’s ethical principles and publication policy are organized under two main headings: Research Ethics and Publication Ethics. Authors, reviewers, editors, section editors, editorial board members, and all other parties involved in the publication process are expected to comply with these principles.
1. Research Ethics
AÜİİBFD requires all submitted manuscripts to comply with the principles of research ethics, scientific integrity, transparency, and accountability. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research is designed, conducted, analyzed, and reported in accordance with national and international ethical standards. All research processes must respect academic integrity, human dignity, personal rights, legal requirements, and the ethical standards applicable to the relevant field of study.
1.1. Research Integrity and Scientific Conduct
Authors are expected to conduct and report their research in accordance with the principles of academic integrity, honesty, accuracy, objectivity, and transparency. Data fabrication, data falsification, manipulation of findings, selective reporting, inappropriate exclusion or alteration of data, misleading interpretation of results, and any other form of research misconduct are strictly unacceptable.
Authors must present their research methods, data sources, analyses, findings, and limitations clearly and accurately. The journal expects authors to avoid any practice that may distort the scientific record, including duplicate publication, salami slicing, inappropriate authorship practices, citation manipulation, and the concealment of relevant information that may affect the interpretation of the study.
1.2. Ethics Committee Approval and Legal/Special Permissions
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the relevant approval must be obtained before the research begins and uploaded during the submission process. Ethics committee approval is required for studies involving human participants or personal data, including but not limited to surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, experiments, clinical studies, retrospective studies, and other research designs that require ethical review under applicable regulations.
The name of the ethics committee, the date of approval, and the approval number must be clearly stated in the manuscript, preferably in the method section and, where applicable, on the first or last page of the article.
If the research requires institutional permission, legal permission, special permission, or authorization from public or private institutions, such permissions must be obtained before the research is conducted. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, authors may be asked to provide a declaration or explanation indicating why ethics committee approval is not required. The responsibility for determining and documenting the ethical and legal requirements of the research rests with the authors.
1.3. Human Participants, Informed Consent, and Personal Data Protection
Research involving human participants must comply with the principles of respect for human dignity, voluntary participation, informed consent, confidentiality, privacy, and protection of personal data.
Authors must ensure that participants are informed about the purpose, scope, procedures, potential risks, and intended use of the research before participation. Participation must be voluntary, and participants must have the right to withdraw from the research where applicable.
Personal data must be collected, processed, stored, reported, and shared, where necessary, in accordance with applicable legal regulations and ethical principles. If the manuscript includes personal data, images, statements, institutional information, or any material that may identify individuals or institutions, authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary consent and permissions before submission.
1.4. Use of Third-Party Materials, Data, Scales, and Permissions
Authors are responsible for ensuring that all data, scales, questionnaires, tables, figures, images, archival materials, software, and other third-party materials used in the manuscript comply with ethical principles, copyright regulations, licensing terms, and applicable legal requirements.
When copyrighted or restricted materials are used, authors must obtain the necessary permissions from the relevant rights holders before submission. The source of any material adapted, reproduced, translated, or modified from another work must be clearly indicated in the manuscript.
The journal may request documentation of permissions when necessary. Failure to obtain or provide the required permissions may result in the return, rejection, correction, or withdrawal of the manuscript, depending on the stage of the publication process and the nature of the issue.
1.5. Funding, Supporting Institutions, and Conflicts of Interest
Authors must clearly disclose all funding sources, supporting institutions, grants, project numbers, sponsorships, or other forms of financial and non-financial support related to the research.
Any potential conflict of interest that may directly or indirectly influence the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or reporting of the research must be declared. Conflicts of interest may include financial, institutional, personal, academic, professional, or other relationships that may affect, or be perceived to affect, the objectivity of the research.
If there is no conflict of interest, authors must explicitly state this in the relevant declaration form and, where required, in the manuscript. Authors are responsible for ensuring that funding sources, supporting institutions, or sponsors do not influence the scientific independence, objectivity, findings, interpretation, or conclusions of the research.
1.6. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Authors are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript submitted to AÜİİBFD is original, has not been previously published, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
All listed authors must have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the study. Individuals who have made a substantial contribution must not be excluded from authorship, and individuals who have not made a sufficient contribution must not be included as authors.
The order of authors must be determined before submission and must reflect the contribution and agreement of all authors. Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after the review process has started are not accepted, except in justified cases evaluated by the editorial office.
All authors are responsible for approving the final version of the manuscript and ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and ethical compliance of the submitted work. By submitting a manuscript, authors are deemed to have accepted the journal’s ethical principles, publication policy, author guidelines, and review process.
For studies derived from graduate theses, the student’s authorship rights must be respected. The student cannot waive authorship rights for publications derived from the thesis, and the student’s name must not be removed from such publications. Supervisors or other contributors may waive their authorship rights, where applicable, by completing and signing the Authorship Waiver Form.
Authors must submit all required declarations and forms accurately and completely during the submission process, including declarations related to authorship, contribution, conflict of interest, copyright and publishing license, ethics committee approval, artificial intelligence use, and originality.
1.7. Plagiarism, Similarity, and Artificial Intelligence Use
AÜİİBFD does not tolerate plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate reuse of previously published material, or any other practice that violates academic integrity and research ethics.
Submitted manuscripts are screened for similarity and artificial intelligence use through Turnitin and/or other relevant software tools during the editorial review process. The reports generated by these tools are considered as part of the editorial evaluation.
The editorial board applies the following rules regarding similarity and artificial intelligence use:
Manuscripts with a similarity score higher than 20% (excluding bibliography) may be rejected without peer review or returned to the authors for revision, depending on the nature and extent of the similarity identified in the report and the editorial assessment of the manuscript.
Manuscripts with a similarity score of 20% or lower (excluding bibliography) may proceed to the review process, provided that they comply with the journal’s ethical and editorial standards.
Manuscripts with an artificial intelligence usage score higher than 20% may be rejected without peer review or returned to the authors for revision, depending on the nature and extent of the artificial intelligence use identified in the report, the authors’ declaration, and the editorial assessment of the manuscript.
Manuscripts with an artificial intelligence usage score of 20% or lower may proceed to the review process, provided that the use of artificial intelligence is properly declared and complies with the journal’s artificial intelligence usage policy.
The use of artificial intelligence tools does not remove the authors’ responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of the submitted manuscript. Authors are fully responsible for all content generated, edited, translated, or supported by artificial intelligence tools.
2. Publication Ethics
AÜİİBFD conducts all editorial, peer review, and publication processes in accordance with the principles of transparency, impartiality, confidentiality, accountability, academic integrity, and editorial independence. The journal follows internationally recognized publication ethics standards, particularly the principles and guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, section editors, editorial board members, and the publisher, are expected to act responsibly and to report any suspected breach of publication ethics to the editorial office.
2.1. Principles of Publication Ethics
Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly merit, originality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, clarity of presentation, relevance to the journal’s scope, and contribution of the manuscript to the relevant literature. Decisions are made independently of the authors’ gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, political views, institutional affiliation, academic title, or any other personal or social characteristic.
An author whose article has been published in AÜİİBFD cannot have another article published in the journal for two years following the publication date of the previous article.
Confidential information obtained during submission, editorial screening, peer review, revision, or publication processes must not be disclosed or used for personal, academic, institutional, or financial advantage.
The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate authorship practices, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misuse of confidential information, or any other form of publication misconduct. Suspected breaches of publication ethics are evaluated in accordance with the journal’s ethical principles and, where applicable, COPE guidance.
2.2. Responsibilities of Editors and Section Editors
Editors and section editors are responsible for ensuring that the editorial and peer review processes are conducted fairly, impartially, confidentially, and in accordance with the journal’s ethical principles and publication policy.
Editors and section editors evaluate manuscripts on the basis of scholarly merit, originality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal’s scope, and contribution to the literature. They are also responsible for selecting reviewers according to academic expertise, independence, and suitability for the manuscript under evaluation.
Editors and section editors must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts, reviewer reports, author responses, editorial correspondence, and all information obtained during the evaluation process. Unpublished materials or confidential information must not be used for personal, academic, institutional, or financial advantage.
Editors and section editors must ensure that reviewer comments are constructive, respectful, and scientifically grounded. Reviews containing personal attacks, discriminatory language, offensive expressions, or comments lacking a scientific basis must not be considered in the editorial decision-making process.
Editors and section editors are responsible for evaluating suspected ethical violations and may request explanations, documents, raw data, ethics committee approvals, permission documents, or additional information from authors when necessary. The final publication decision is made by the editor-in-chief based on the reviewers’ reports, the section editor’s evaluation, the journal’s ethical principles, and the editorial assessment of the manuscript.
2.3. Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers play a fundamental role in maintaining the scientific quality, integrity, and reliability of the publication process. The peer review process at AÜİİBFD is based on academic expertise, impartiality, confidentiality, and voluntarism.
Reviewers are expected to accept review invitations only for manuscripts within their field of expertise. If they do not have sufficient expertise or cannot complete the review within the required period, they should decline the invitation or inform the editorial office as soon as possible.
Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly, and constructively. Their comments should be clear, specific, evidence-based, and aimed at improving the scientific quality of the manuscript. Personal criticism, offensive language, discriminatory statements, derogatory expressions, or evaluations lacking a scientific basis are not acceptable.
Reviewers must treat all manuscripts and related documents as confidential and must not use any unpublished material, data, ideas, or findings obtained during the review process for personal, academic, institutional, or financial advantage.
Reviewers must inform the editorial office if they have any actual or potential conflict of interest or if they identify any ethical issue, including plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, or undisclosed conflicts of interest.
2.4. Editorial Independence and Publisher Relationship
AÜİİBFD is published by Anadolu University. The relationship between the journal’s editorial bodies and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence.
Editorial decisions are made independently and solely on the basis of scholarly merit, ethical compliance, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal’s scope, reviewer reports, section editor evaluations, and the editorial assessment of the manuscript.
The publisher, journal owner, sponsoring institutions, or any other third parties must not influence decisions regarding the acceptance, rejection, revision, correction, or withdrawal of manuscripts. Editors and section editors are responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions are free from political, institutional, financial, personal, or other inappropriate influence.
The journal is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record and conducting the publication process in accordance with academic standards, publication ethics, transparency, and accountability.
2.5. Double-Blind Peer Review
AÜİİBFD applies a double-blind peer review process for manuscripts sent to external review. In this process, the identities of authors are concealed from reviewers, and the identities of reviewers are concealed from authors.
Authors are responsible for submitting an anonymized full-text manuscript that does not include any information that may directly or indirectly identify the authors, their institutions, funding details, acknowledgements, project information, or other identifying statements. Author information must be provided only in the designated submission fields and in the title page.
Editors and section editors are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the double-blind review process. If the anonymity of the manuscript is compromised at any stage, the journal may request correction, return the manuscript to the authors, or take other appropriate editorial action depending on the nature and extent of the issue.
2.6. Conflicts of Interest
All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, section editors, editorial board members, and the publisher, are responsible for disclosing any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest.
Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, academic, or professional relationships that may influence, or may be perceived to influence, the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, reporting, or publication of the research.
Reviewers must decline the review invitation or inform the editorial office if they have any conflict of interest with the authors, the manuscript, the research topic, or the institutions involved. Editors and section editors must not take part in the evaluation or decision-making process of manuscripts for which they have a conflict of interest.
Undisclosed conflicts of interest identified during or after the publication process may result in editorial action in accordance with the journal’s ethical principles and, where applicable, COPE guidance.
2.7. Quality Assurance
AÜİİBFD is committed to maintaining and improving the scientific quality, editorial standards, and ethical integrity of all published content.
Editors and section editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts accepted for publication comply with the journal’s publication policy, ethical principles, author guidelines, peer review standards, and relevant international academic publishing practices.
The journal aims to ensure that each published article has undergone an appropriate editorial and peer review process. Editorial procedures, reviewer selection, decision-making, revision evaluation, and publication preparation are carried out with due attention to scholarly quality, transparency, impartiality, and consistency.
The journal regularly reviews and updates its editorial practices, author guidelines, ethical principles, review procedures, and publication policies in line with current academic publishing standards.
2.8. Allegations of Ethical Misconduct
AÜİİBFD evaluates allegations of research or publication misconduct in accordance with the journal’s ethical principles and, where applicable, COPE guidance.
Allegations of ethical misconduct may include plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, image or data manipulation, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, citation manipulation, misuse of artificial intelligence tools, breach of confidentiality, or failure to obtain required ethics committee approval or permissions.
When a suspected ethical violation is identified before, during, or after publication, the editorial office may request explanations, documents, raw data, ethics committee approvals, permission documents, authorship statements, conflict of interest declarations, or other relevant information from the authors or other parties involved.
Depending on the nature and stage of the ethical issue, the journal may suspend the evaluation process, request revision or clarification, reject the manuscript, publish a correction, issue an expression of concern, retract the article, or notify relevant institutions where necessary.
All allegations are handled with due attention to confidentiality, fairness, impartiality, and the integrity of the scholarly record.
2.9. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
AÜİİBFD is committed to maintaining the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of the scholarly record. If an error, omission, or ethical concern is identified in a published article, the journal evaluates the issue in accordance with its ethical principles and, where applicable, COPE guidance.
Corrections may be published when an error is identified in a published article but the overall findings, conclusions, and scholarly integrity of the work remain valid. Corrections may relate to factual errors, author information, affiliations, funding statements, acknowledgements, formatting errors, or other matters requiring clarification or amendment.
An expression of concern may be issued when there is a serious concern regarding the integrity, reliability, or ethical compliance of a published article, but the available information is not yet sufficient to make a final decision.
Retraction may be considered when there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable or that the article involves serious ethical misconduct, such as plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, unethical research practices, serious authorship violations, or failure to obtain required ethics committee approval or permissions.
Requests for correction, expression of concern, or retraction may be initiated by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other relevant parties. The journal may request explanations, documents, raw data, permission records, ethics committee approvals, or institutional statements before making a decision.
All corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions are handled transparently and are linked to the relevant published article where appropriate.
2.10. Complaints and Appeals
Authors, reviewers, readers, or other relevant parties may submit complaints or appeals regarding editorial decisions, peer review processes, ethical concerns, published content, or the conduct of parties involved in the publication process.
Complaints and appeals must be submitted to the editorial office with a clear explanation of the issue and, where applicable, supporting documents or evidence. The journal evaluates all complaints and appeals fairly, impartially, and confidentially.
Appeals against editorial decisions are considered only when the author provides a reasoned and evidence-based explanation indicating a possible error in the review or decision-making process.
Appeals do not guarantee reconsideration or reversal of the editorial decision.
Complaints and appeals are reviewed by the editor-in-chief and, where necessary, by section editors or editorial board members who have no conflict of interest regarding the case. When appropriate, the journal may seek additional opinions or follow relevant COPE guidance.
2.11. Privacy and Confidentiality in the Review Process
All manuscripts submitted to AÜİİBFD are treated as confidential documents. Editors, section editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and all parties involved in the evaluation process must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, author responses, editorial correspondence, and related documents.
Information obtained during the submission, editorial screening, peer review, revision, or publication process must not be disclosed to unauthorized parties or used for personal, academic, institutional, or financial advantage.
The journal protects the identities of authors and reviewers in accordance with the double-blind peer review process. Reviewer identities, reviewer reports, and editorial communications must not be shared with third parties except where required by the journal’s ethical procedures or applicable legal obligations.
Personal data obtained during the editorial and publication process are processed and protected in accordance with applicable legal regulations and the journal’s ethical principles.
2.12. Post-Publication Discussions and Scholarly Record
AÜİİBFD supports responsible post-publication discussion that contributes to the accuracy, transparency, and development of scholarly knowledge. Readers, authors, reviewers, institutions, and other relevant parties may contact the editorial office regarding published articles when they identify a possible error, ethical concern, clarification need, or matter requiring editorial attention.
Post-publication concerns are evaluated carefully and impartially. When necessary, the journal may request explanations from authors, consult reviewers or subject experts, examine supporting documents, or follow relevant COPE guidance.
The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. If a post-publication issue requires editorial action, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, retraction, or editorial notice, depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue.
2.13. Ethical Violation Notification
Suspected violations of research ethics or publication ethics related to AÜİİBFD may be reported to the editorial office. Notifications may concern submitted manuscripts, published articles, reviewer conduct, editorial conduct, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, data integrity, authorship issues, confidentiality breaches, misuse of artificial intelligence tools, or any other matter that may compromise ethical standards.
Notifications should include a clear description of the concern and, where possible, supporting information or documents. All notifications are evaluated in accordance with the principles of confidentiality, fairness, impartiality, and due process.
Reports of suspected ethical violations may be submitted to the journal via e-mail at auiibfd@anadolu.edu.tr.