Our journal adheres to national and international standards regarding research and publication ethics.
National Legislation
• Press Law
• Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works
• Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines
International Legislation
• Committee on Publication Ethics
• Directory of Open Access Journals
• International Council of Medical Journal Editors
• World Association of Medical Editors

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics
ARTICLE 4 - (1) Actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics are as follows:
• Plagiarism: Presenting the original ideas, methods, data, or works of others as one's own, in whole or in part, without proper citation in accordance with scientific rules,
• Fabrication: Using data that does not actually exist or has been falsified in scientific research,
• Distortion: Altering research records or obtained data, presenting devices or materials not used in the research as if they had been used, altering or shaping research results in line with the interests of the individuals and organizations providing support,
• Re-publication: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
• Salami slicing: Dividing the results of a research study into parts in an inappropriate manner that compromises the integrity of the research and publishing them as multiple publications, presenting these publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
• Unfair authorship: Including individuals who have not made an active contribution among the authors or excluding those who have, changing the author order in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have made an active contribution from subsequent editions, or including one's name among the authors by using influence despite not having made an active contribution,

Click here for information on other types of ethical violations listed in the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines.

Objections, Complaints, and Ethical Violation Reports
Readers who notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in our Journal, or who have any complaints regarding editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, objections, complaints, etc.), may submit a notification by sending an email to aijhs@artuklu.edu.tr. Objections, complaints, and reports submitted to our journal will be evaluated in accordance with COPE principles.

ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL
Our journal requires that all studies in scientific fields requiring ethics committee approval have obtained the relevant ethics committee decision. In this context, information regarding ethics committee approval (committee name, date, and decision number) must be clearly stated in the article text. In case reports, information regarding the informed consent form must be included in the article.
In line with the regulations implemented by Ulakbim TR Index since 2020, studies without ethics committee approval are not considered for publication in our journal.

Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
Studies requiring ethics committee approval in our journal include the following:
• All research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observation, experiments, and discussion techniques.
• Studies in which humans and animals (including materials or data) are used for experimental or other scientific purposes.
• Clinical research conducted on humans.
• Scientific research conducted on animals.
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
For such studies to be considered for evaluation, the relevant ethics committee approvals must have been obtained and these approvals must be clearly stated in the article text.
Note: Scientific research conducted on humans and animals must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and ARRIVE guidelines and must be approved by the relevant ethics committee. Studies without ethics committee approval will not be considered for publication in our journal.

Research Ethics Principles
Artuklu Health Journal adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and embraces the international research ethics principles outlined below. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their articles comply with ethical guidelines.
• Integrity, quality, and transparency principles must be upheld in the design, review, and conduct of research.
• The research team and participants must be fully informed about the purpose, methods, and anticipated uses of the research; the requirements for participation in the research; and any risks involved.
• The confidentiality of the information provided by research participants and the anonymity of respondents must be ensured. Research must be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of participants.
• Research participants must participate voluntarily and not be coerced in any way.
• Harm to participants must be avoided. Research must be planned in a way that does not put participants at risk.
• Research independence must be clear and transparent; any conflicts of interest must be disclosed.
• In experimental studies involving human subjects, written informed consent must be obtained from participants who decide to participate in the research. The consent of the legal guardian must be obtained for children, those under guardianship, or those with certified mental illness.
• If the study is to be conducted at any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from that institution or organization.
• In studies involving human subjects, the article text must state that “informed consent” was obtained from the participants and that ethical committee approval was obtained from the institution where the study was conducted.

Principles of Publication Ethics

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are found in a published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, or conclusions. However, they may consider retracting the article if there are major errors or violations that could invalidate the findings and conclusions.
If there is a possibility that authors have misused their research or publication; if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable; and if the authors' affiliated institutions have not investigated the matter or if the investigation appears inadequate or inconclusive, editors may consider publishing a statement of concern.
Our journal follows COPE guidelines in cases of retraction, correction, or expression of concern.

Plagiarism Check
Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works as one's own, either partially or completely, without proper scientific attribution.
Our journal scans all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. Submitted works are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin or iThenticate software. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 20%. Works exceeding this rate will be rejected during the preliminary review stage.
If plagiarism is detected in a work published in our journal or under review, the following steps are meticulously applied:
• The plagiarism detection is officially reported to the author's university, and cooperation is sought to initiate the necessary legal proceedings.
• The PDF copy of the relevant article is removed from the journal's website, and links to the article are disabled. The phrase “Article Found to Contain Plagiarism” is added to the article title to publicly indicate the violation.
• The account of the author responsible for the plagiarism is closed, and the author is permanently banned from submitting any future articles to our journal.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Our journal is responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all published articles and the rights of the journal and author(s) in cases where these rights are violated. In addition, our journal must take the necessary measures to prevent the content of all published articles from infringing on the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Protection of Personal Information
All personal data submitted to our journal is protected in accordance with legal regulations and ethical rules.

Conflict of Interest
Authors must clearly declare any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that could influence their findings or interpretations in their articles. Potential conflicts of interest that must be disclosed include consulting activities, salary payments, and grant support. Such conflicts of interest should be stated at the earliest possible stage.

Financial Support
Authors must clearly state in the article text any financial support provided by any organization for their work.

Author Changes
Only processed before the article is accepted. Authors must carefully review the list and order of authors before submitting their articles and provide the final list of authors at the time of initial submission.

Use of Artificial Intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence in processes that do not affect the originality of the article, such as literature review or language control, is acceptable in studies submitted to our journal. However, the use of artificial intelligence must be carried out within the framework of ethical rules and must not be used for unethical purposes such as fabricated data or manipulation.
For studies involving the use of artificial intelligence, it is mandatory to inform our journal of this situation during the article submission stage. All responsibility regarding the use of artificial intelligence lies with the authors themselves. Click here for detailed information.

Publisher's Responsibilities
• To establish the necessary policies to prevent plagiarism and ethical violations by adhering to COPE and other international ethical principles.
• To protect intellectual property rights and ensure the protection of personal data.
• To determine journal policies and carry out the necessary work to be included in international indexes.
• To work on meeting the infrastructure and other needs of the journal.
Note: All decisions made by the editors working for the journal are independent of the publisher. The relationship between the editors and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence.

Responsibilities of Editors
• Ensuring that the publication process is conducted in an ethical, impartial, and transparent manner.
• Evaluating the scientific standards of articles, managing the peer review process, resolving conflicts of interest, and identifying situations that are not in line with publication ethics.
• Carrying out corrections or retractions in case of errors or violations in articles.
Note: Editors evaluate articles fairly based on their intellectual content, regardless of the author(s)' gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, or political views.

Authors' Responsibilities
• Prepare their work in accordance with ethical and scientific rules.
• Ensure that article data is original and accurate, and refrain from plagiarism, fabrication, or manipulation.
• Clearly declare any conflicts of interest, financial support, or individuals and institutions contributing to the study.
• Conduct research involving human or animal subjects in accordance with international ethical principles. Obtain approval from the relevant ethics committee for such studies and include information about this approval in the article text.
• Act in accordance with international ethical principles during and after the article evaluation process with editors and reviewers.

Responsibilities of Reviewers
• Accept only studies within their area of expertise.
• Evaluate articles impartially in accordance with scientific, ethical, and academic standards.
• Maintain confidentiality regarding study data during the evaluation process.
• Disclose conflicts of interest during the evaluation process and provide objective and constructive comments.
• Inform editors in cases of suspected plagiarism, data manipulation, or ethical violations.

Publication Policies
• All processes and procedures of our journal are conducted through the DergiPark platform; our journal does not have any other website.
• Submissions to our journal must be unpublished and not simultaneously submitted to another journal for evaluation.
• Submitted works must be appropriate for the purpose and scope of our journal and comply with the writing rules. Works that do not meet the specified criteria are returned to the authors during the preliminary review stage.
• Our journal publishes research articles, reviews, case presentations, and letters to the editor.
• A maximum of one work by an author can be published in the same issue.
• Manuscripts prepared in Turkish and English are accepted for evaluation in our journal.
• All articles published in our journal are published as open access under the CC-BY-NC license and are freely accessible from our archive page.
• Double-blind peer review is applied during the review process. Authors and reviewers do not know each other's identities. Members of the editorial board who submit articles (such as editors or members of the editorial board) are suspended from their duties at the journal until the process is completed and are prevented from viewing the process.
• In the article evaluation process, care is taken to ensure that reviewers are experts in their field, hold at least a doctoral degree, and do not work at the same institution as the author. To protect double-blind peer review, members of our editorial board do not serve as reviewers.

Special Issue Publication Policy
In accordance with the decision of the Editorial Board, our journal may publish a special issue once a year. Articles submitted for the special issue undergo the same evaluation process as articles published in our regular issues. These articles must comply with the journal's Writing Guidelines and Ethical and Publication Policies.

Fee Policy
There are no fees for publishing articles or for the article submission process in the journal. No processing fees or submission fees are charged under any name for articles submitted to the journal or accepted for publication

Advertising Policy
In accordance with our publication policies, our journal does not accept sponsorships or advertisements. All expenses of our journal are covered by Mardin Artuklu University.

Open Access Policy
Articles published in our journal are published as open access under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. The full text of all published articles can be accessed free of charge from our archive page. Click here for detailed information.

Copyright Policy
Authors retain the copyright of their work published in our journal, and their work is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. For more information, click here.

Archiving and Data Distribution Policy
All works published in our journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS. For more information, click here.

Article Evaluation Process
The article evaluation process in our journal consists of four main stages: preliminary review, peer review, revision, and publication. Click here for detailed information.

1- Preliminary Review
• The work is reviewed by the editor for compliance with the journal's publication principles, academic writing rules, and the APA 7 citation system, and is screened for plagiarism using the İthenticate or Turnitin program. The similarity rate must be less than 20%. Works exceeding this rate are returned to the authors at the preliminary review stage.

2- Peer Review Process
• For manuscripts that pass the preliminary review stage, a Double-Blind Peer Review process is initiated. As part of this process, the manuscript is sent to two reviewers who are experts in the field for evaluation. Throughout the peer review process, the identities of the reviewers and authors are kept confidential, and the process is conducted in accordance with the principle of confidentiality. For a manuscript to be published in our journal, both reviewers must give a positive opinion. However, if one reviewer gives a positive opinion and the other gives a negative opinion, the work is sent to a third reviewer for a final decision.

3- Revision Process
• If reviewers request revisions, authors must mark the changes they make in their work in red. Revisions made in accordance with reviewer requests are first evaluated and checked by the editor, then by the reviewers.
• Papers that have completed the referee process are reviewed by our journal's language editors. If deemed necessary, authors are asked to make revisions related to language and writing. Revisions made by authors are reviewed again by language editors and approved.

4- Publication Process
• Articles that have passed technical, academic, and linguistic reviews are typeset and formatted, made ready for publication, and published in the next issue.