ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Ethical Standards for Research and Publication
ASBU Journal of Faculty of Law is committed to academic principles and ethical values in its publication policy. It continues its publication life in accordance with national and international standards of ethical principles and values. In this context,
The standards set by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) (https://publicationethics.org/guidance),
the "Directive on Ethics in Scientific Research and Publication", the "Ethical Guidelines on the Use of Productive Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Research and Publication Activities of Higher Education Institutions", and the "Code of Conduct for Researchers".
The ethical principles adopted by Elsevier for scientific journals (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics/ https://www.elsevier.com/editor/perk/ https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/generative-ai-policies-for-journals/ https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/editorial-decision-appeals-policy/ https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/article-withdrawal).
These principles will be taken into account. If, during the peer-review process, it is found that a paper does not comply with the accepted standards of research and publication ethics, it will be rejected. If the breach is discovered after the paper has been published, the process will be carried out in accordance with the COPE and Elsevier principles.
*The following policy is based on the standards set by COPE, YÖK and Elsevier. In the event that changes or updates are made to the above mentioned national and international standards on which the stated principles are based, these changes will be directly applied in relation to the publication activities of the ASBU Law Faculty Journal.

Responsibility of the editors
1. Checks that the submitted article conforms to the publication policy and ethical principles of the journal. It takes into account the COPE principles, the explanatory guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance), the TR Index Editor's Manual (https://cabim.ulakbim.gov.tr/cabim/trdizin/editorelelkitap/editorelkitabi.pdf) and the Elsevier Editor's Guide (https://www.elsevier.com/editor/perk/legal-guide-for-editors) throughout the publication process.

2. Conducts the publication process in an impartial manner, regardless of the author's religion, gender, nationality, political and philosophical views.

3. During the publication process, it will appoint referees according to the principle of double-blind refereeing and ensure that the principle of double-blind refereeing is maintained (https://www.elsevier.com/reviewer/what-is-peer-review/guidelines), and will not disclose the names of the referees. It will also take steps to prevent any conflict of interest between the author and the reviewer.

4. Keeps all data and information related to the article confidential until publication.

5. With regard to ethical standards, takes into account the principles and standards accepted by the journal. Keeps abreast of developments and updates in these ethical principles and standards.

6. Consider the suggestions and criticisms received from stakeholders.

7. Provide the necessary cooperation and coordination to complete the evaluation process of the papers within the specified time.

8. In case of suspicion of duplicate publication, slicing, plagiarism, fabricated data, conflict of interest and unfair authorship of a paper submitted to the journal for publication or published in previous issues of the journal, it takes decisions according to the guidelines and principles announced by COPE.

9. The Editor-in-Chief shall only follow up the work and procedures under his/her authority and responsibility. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editors a) Evaluate manuscripts submitted to the Journal in terms of quality, content, and contribution to the field, and decide whether the manuscript should be included in the publication process. At this stage, the manuscript may be rejected or returned before it enters the peer review process. b) Use appropriate tools to detect AI products in the study. c) Take into account the COPE guidelines regarding the compliance of the peer review process with ethical standards. After the referee reviews, the Editorial Board will evaluate the referee reports. The Editorial Board will decide whether to accept the article, refer it to a third referee, or reject it. The reasons for the rejection decision and the referee reports will be communicated to the author. d) If necessary, an error page may be published or corrections may be made at the request or information of the author (see https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/article-withdrawal for guidelines). e) Manuscripts for which two referees give a negative opinion (rejection/major) will be rejected. If one of the referees gives a negative opinion, the article may be rejected by decision of the Editorial Board or sent to a third referee. f) Sends a certificate of appreciation to the referee at the end of the evaluation process. g) It follows that the information and documents related to the published issues and articles are made available to the indexes and databases where the journal is scanned in due time.

10. Assistant Editors; a) Check the articles for which they are responsible for compliance with the journal's spelling rules and help the authors to make the necessary arrangements. a) Maintain communication with authors and referees and provide the editors with the necessary information and reminders. b) If they find that the author has committed an ethical violation, they report the situation immediately to the editor. c) Send a certificate of appreciation to the referee at the end of the review process. c) Sends a certificate of appreciation to the referee at the end of the evaluation process. d) Follows up on time the exchange of information and documents concerning the published issues and articles with the indexes and databases where the journal is indexed. e) Follows the work and procedures assigned by the editors.

Responsibilities of the referees
1. A referee who is not in the field of the article for which the referee invitation is sent, who is unable to return in time, who has an article in the review process of the journal, or who plans to send an article to the journal for publication in the same issue, should not accept the referee invitation or request to withdraw from refereeing by notifying the editor of this situation.

2. Referees should fill in the referee evaluation form (see 📄 ASBUHFD PEER REVIEW EVALUATION FORM.pdf ) in a truthful manner within the framework of courtesy rules and include objective scientific evaluations. The evaluation form should not contain hostile, provocative or condescending personal comments.

3. Reviewers should not discuss the manuscripts sent to them for review with other people; they should conduct the review process in a confidential manner.

4. If they find that the author has committed an ethical breach, they should report the situation to the editor immediately.

5. Take into account the principles described by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance) and Elsevier (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics#3-duties-of-reviewers) in the manuscript evaluation process.

Author's Liability

1. All authors of the submitted manuscript are required to make a direct academic and scientific contribution. Accordingly, an 'author' is a person who makes a substantial contribution to the conceptualisation and structural organisation, data collection, analysis or interpretation of the published research, and who also takes an active part in writing or critically reviewing the content of the article. Artificial intelligence cannot be the author of papers submitted to the journal. Support for research funding, data collection or general supervision of the research team alone does not confer authorship. Persons who have contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship (e.g. those who have provided technical support, writing assistance, or financial/material support) are listed in the 'Declarations/Thanks' section.
 

2. Before submitting the manuscript to the journal, the author checks and confirms that the manuscript conforms to the ethical standards, publication principles and spelling rules adopted by the journal.

3. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to prepare the work in accordance with the research and publication principles. By submitting the work, the author accepts, declares and undertakes that the work has been prepared in accordance with Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works, the research and publication ethics standards described by YÖK, COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance) and Elsevier (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics#4-duties-of-authors).

4. The order of authors' names should be determined by mutual agreement. Authors must agree to this order by signing the Cover, Declaration and Copyright Transfer Form. Authors must complete the Cover, Declaration and Copyright Transfer Form, declare that the article is original, that it has not been published elsewhere, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in another language, that there is no conflict of interest, and other issues specified in the form, and upload the signed form to the system. In cases where the author uses artificial intelligence, the author should be transparent about which artificial intelligence tool was used and how it was used. This use may be related to drafting the text, checking grammatical rules, or carrying out important research. In this case, clear information should be provided about which version of AI was used, at what time, and at what stage of the study. In cases where ethics committee approval is required, a written permission document from the author or the person/institution holding the publication rights for translated texts should be included in the application file.

5. The author should not directly or indirectly mention his/her identity and institutional information in the manuscript file submitted to the journal. Since the evaluation process is based on double-blind review, the author should disclose this information in the cover page, declaration and copyright transfer form.

6. If the author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, the author is obliged to contact the editor immediately and work together to correct the error or withdraw the work.
 

PUBLICATION PRINCIPLES

1. ASBU Law Journal is committed to the research and publication principles and ethical values which the Journal has accepted and announced.
2. ASBU Law Journal is published twice a year, as in June and December, electronically. In each issue, maximum of fifteen works are published. The deadline for submission of the works is April 1 for the June issue of the Journal and October 1 for the December issue. Works to be submitted after these dates, works accepted after the maximum number of publications of the issue is reached, and works whose process has not been completed on the publication date of the issue are taken into consideration for the following issue. In order to ensure that the article processes are carried out in a healthy manner and the number of works to be published in the journal issues is balanced, the editorial board may close the journal to the acceptance of works.
3. The Editor-in-Chief is appointed by the ASBU Scientific Publications Coordinator upon the recommendation or approval of the Dean of ASBU Faculty of Law. Journal editors and officers are determined by the Editor-in-Chief upon the approval of the Dean.
4. The principle of double blind refereeing is adopted for the evaluation of the article. The names of the referees are not published. Persons working in the same institution with the author cannot serve as editors and referees in the evaluation process of the work.
5. Fee Policy: Article submission/processing is free of charge. No fee is charged to the author or the author’s institution under any name. Editors and referees are not paid.
6. Similarity and  Plagiarism Policy: The works submitted to the Journal are evaluated for plagiarism at the preliminary review stage. Works with more than 15% similarity in the similarity report, excluding references and quoted expressions, are rejected directly. If a violation of publication ethics standards is detected in the work, action is taken according to the ethical principles and standards accepted and announced by the journal.
7. Open Access Policy: The works published in ASBU Law Journal are open access and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. Readers may read, download, copy or reproduce the full texts of the works published in the Journal without the permission of the authors or the publisher, provided that they do not use them for commercial purposes and cite them where necessary.
8. Appeal Policy: Elsevier's appeals policy applies if an author appeals against editorial decisions (See https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/editorial-decisio… for detailed information).
9. Concern, Correction and Retraction and Removal Policy: Actions are taken according to the principles and procedures adopted in the COPE Retraction Guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/retraction-guidelines) and the Elsevier Correction, Retraction and Removal Policy (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-andstandards/article-withdrawal).
10.  Copyright Policy: If the works are accepted for publication, all publication/publication rights of the works, including electronic publication, belong to ASBU Faculty of Law. Authors are not paid royalties.
11. The number of works published in one issue by authors from the same institution cannot exceed fifty percent of the works in that issue. An author may submit only one work for peer review in a calendar year; no more than one work may be published in the same issue or in four consecutive issues. Accordingly, the later work submitted by the author will be returned directly.
12. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Submission of the manuscript to our journal means the author's commitment to this issue. The opinions in the studies published in the journal and the responsibility for this issue belong to the author.
13. Authors' submission of their works to this journal means that they accept the publication principles of ASBU Law Journal. Works must be written in “Microsoft Office Word” program. The Cover, Declaration and Copyright Transfer form must be signed by all authors and sent in pdf format.
14. Authors are deemed to have accepted that their works are ready for "publication" as submitted to the journal. In the preliminary review made by the editors, the works that are found not to comply with the scientific criteria, journal publication principles and spelling rules will be returned.
15. The works to be published in the journal can be written in Turkish, English, German or French. The manuscript should not exceed 15,000 words, excluding abstract and extended summary. The works submitted to the journal must comply with the spelling and citation rules. The manuscripts submitted to the journal should include an abstract of 100-300 words and an extended summary of 500-1500 words. If the language of the work is Turkish, the abstract should be in Turkish and English. If the language of the work is a language other than Turkish, an abstract in that language and its translation in Turkish and English should be attached to the work. The title of the abstract should include 5-7 keywords in each language and the title of the work. The extended summary should be in English.
16. After the preliminary review stage, the manuscripts are subjected to peer review in accordance with the double blind peer review system. Works that pass the peer review and have two positive referee reports are published in the journal. Manuscripts in which two referees express a negative opinion (rejection / major) are rejected. If one of the referees gives a negative opinion, the article may be rejected by the decision of the editorial board or sent to a third referee. If corrections are requested in the referee report, the author can only make changes within the framework of the specified corrections. After the corrections suggested by the referee are made by the author, the manuscript is sent to the referee again if specified in the report.
17. The editorial board makes the necessary follow-up and announcements in terms of the comprehensibility and currency of the writing rules, ethical principles and standards accepted in the publication principles; informs the stakeholders, especially the authors and referees.
18. (Added: 01/09/2026) Archiving and digital preservation policy: The Journal regards the preservation and permanent accessibility of all published works as an integral element of its publishing activity. All issues of the Journal are stored on the DergiPark infrastructure, which is operated by TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM and serves as a national archive. DergiPark permits the LOCKSS system to harvest, preserve and serve the Journal's content.
19. (Added: 01/09/2026) Revenue policy The publishing activities of the Journal are financed entirely by ASBU. The Journal has no other source of revenue. The Journal's revenue sources and financial structure do not influence editorial decision making at any stage.
20. (Added: 01/09/2026) Advertising policy: ASBU Law Journal does not accept advertising of any kind. No commercial advertisement, sponsored content or promotional material is published in the electronic edition of the Journal, on its website, or in its email notifications. Should advertising be accepted, it would not influence editorial decision making and would be clearly separated from published content
21. (Added: 01/09/2026) Direct marketing Any direct marketing conducted on behalf of the Journal, including the solicitation of manuscripts, is directed at researchers working within the Journal's scope and is carried out in a measured and unobtrusive manner. Information provided about the Journal and its publisher is truthful and does not mislead authors or readers as to the Journal's nature, scope, indexing status or review processes. The Journal does not solicit manuscripts by means of bulk or untargeted email.
22. (Added: 01/09/2026)  Use of artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or counted among the authors. Where generative artificial intelligence has been used in preparing a work, the name and version of the tool, together with the stage at which and the purpose for which it was used, are declared in the Copyright Transfer Form. Authors alone are responsible for the scholarly content of the work, the accuracy of its citations and the originality of the text. Reviewers may not upload works submitted for their assessment, or any part of them, to artificial intelligence systems whose confidentiality is not secured. This prohibition arises not only from the duty of confidentiality but also from the need to protect the double blind review procedure. A review report must reflect the reviewer's own scholarly assessment. Editors may not delegate decisions on the acceptance or rejection of a work to artificial intelligence systems.
23. The editorial rules of the journal may be amended by the decision of the editorial board; the publication principles may be amended by the recommendation of the editorial board and the decision of the Dean of ASBU Faculty of Law, taking the opinion of the advisory board