Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty

Research in Agricultural Sciences is a scientific, open access, online-only periodical published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blinded peer-review principles. The journal is official publication of the Atatürk University Agricultural Faculty and published tri-annually on January, May and September. The publication languages of the journal are Turkish and English.

Research in Agricultural Sciences aims to contribute to the science by publishing high quality publications in all fields of agricultural sciences. The journal publishes original articles, compilations, technical notes and letters to the editor.

The scope of the journal includes but not limited to horticultural crops, plant protection, biosystems engineering, food engineering, forestry engineering, landscape architecture, aquaculture, agricultural economics, agricultural mechanization, agricultural structures and irrigation, field crops, soil, plant physiology, animal sciences, cultivation technique and horticultural crops.

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal is in conformity with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).

Research in Agricultural Sciences is currently indexed in Web of Science-Zoological Record, DOAJ, CABI, EBSCO, ProQuest, MIAR, DRJI, CNKI, and TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM TR Dizin.

All expenses of the journal are covered by the Atatürk University. Processing and publication are free of charge with the journal. No fees are requested from the authors at any point throughout the evaluation and publication process. All manuscripts must be submitted via the online submission system, which is available at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org. The journal guidelines, technical information, and the required forms are available on the journal’s web page.

Statements or opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in the journal reflect the views of the author(s) and not the opinions of the Research in Agricultural Sciences, editors, editorial board, and/or publisher; the editors, editorial board, and publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials.

Open Access Statement
Research in Agricultural Sciences is an open access publication, and the journal’s publication model is based on Budapest Access Initiative (BOAI) declaration. All published content is available online, free of charge at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org. Authors retain the copyright of their published work in the Research in Agricultural Sciences. The journal’s content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License which permits third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the original work.

From January 2022 onwards, content is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. The journal’s back content was published under a traditional copyright license however the archive is available for free access.

Editor in Chief: Göksel Tozlu
Address: Atatürk University Faculty of Agriculture, Erzurum, Turkey
E-mail: gtozlu@hotmail.com

Publisher: Atatürk University
Address: Atatürk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey

Publishing Service: AVES
Address: Büyükdere Cad., 105/9 34394 Şişli, İstanbul, Turkey
Phone: +90 212 217 17 00
E-mail: info@avesyayincilik.com
Webpage: www.avesyayincilik.com

How to Submit a Manuscript?

Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship Form

Research in Agricultural Sciences is a scientific, open access, online-only periodical published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blinded peer-review principles. The journal is official publication of the Atatürk University Agricultural Faculty and published tri-annually on January, May and September. The publication languages of the journal are Turkish and English.

Research in Agricultural Sciences aims to contribute to the science by publishing high quality publications in all fields of agricultural sciences. The journal publishes original articles, compilations, technical notes and letters to the editor.

The scope of the journal includes but not limited to horticultural crops, plant protection, biosystems engineering, food engineering, forestry engineering, landscape architecture, aquaculture, agricultural economics, agricultural mechanization, agricultural structures and irrigation, field crops, soil, plant physiology, animal sciences, cultivation technique and horticultural crops.

EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATION PROCESS
The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal conforms to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).

Originality, high scientific quality, and citation potential are the most important criteria for a manuscript to be accepted for publication. Manuscripts submitted for evaluation should not have been previously presented or already published in an electronic or printed medium. The journal should be informed of manuscripts that have been submitted to another journal for evaluation and rejected for publication. The submission of previous reviewer reports will expedite the evaluation process. Manuscripts that have been presented in a meeting should be submitted with detailed information on the organization, including the name, date, and location of the organization.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS
Manuscripts submitted to Research in Agricultural Sciences will go through a double-blind peer-review process. Each submission will be reviewed by at least two external, independent peer reviewers who are experts in their fields in order to ensure an unbiased evaluation process. The editorial board will invite an external and independent editor to manage the evaluation processes of manuscripts submitted by editors or by the editorial board members of the journal. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all submissions.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES
The authors are expected to submit researches that comply with the general ethical principles which include; scientific integrity, objectivity, collegiality, data integrity, institutional integrity and social responsibility.

The Editorial Board of the journal handles all appeal and complaint cases within the scope of COPE guidelines. In such cases, authors should get in direct contact with the editorial office regarding their appeals and complaints. When needed, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve cases that cannot be resolved internally. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all appeals and complaints.

ERRATUM
The correction requests submitted by the authors are reviewed by the Editorial Board and the corrections are applied based on the decision of the Editorial Board. In case of corrections in the published text, the readers are informed by publishing the Erratum text in the number following the correction. The edited article is updated on the journal web page and in the indexes when the journal is scanned.

PLAGIARISM AND ETHICAL MISCONDUCT
Research in Agricultural Sciences is extremely sensitive about plagiarism. All submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (iThenticate by CrossCheck) at any point during the peer-review and/or production process.

Even if you are the author of the phrases or sentences, the text should not have unacceptable similarity with the previously published data. When you are discussing others' (or your own) previous work, please make sure that you cite the material correctly in every instance.

Authors are strongly recommended to avoid any form plagiarism and ethical misconduct that are exemplified below.

Self- plagiarism (text-recycling): Overlapping sections or sentences with the author’s previous publications without citing them. Even if you are the author of the phrases or sentences, the text should not have unacceptable similarity with the previously published data.
Salami slicing: Using the same data of a research into several different articles. Reporting the same hypotheses, population, and methods of a study is into different papers is not acceptable.
Data Fabrication: It is the addition of data that never occurred during the gathering of data or the experiments. Results and their interpretation must be based on the complete data sets and reported accordingly.
Data Manipulation/Falsification: It means manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images (e.g. micrographs, gels, radiological images), removing outliers or ‘inconvenient’ results, changing data points, etc.

In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, the Editorial Board will follow and act according to COPE flowcharts.

PREPRINT
Research in Agricultural Sciences does not consider preprint publications as prior publication. In other words, authors are allowed to present and discuss their findings on a non-commercial preprint server before submission to a journal.

Authors must provide the journal with the pre-print server deposition of their article accompanying its DOI during initial submission.

If the article is published in the Research in Agricultural Sciences, it is the responsibility of the authors to update the archived preprint and link it to the published version of the article.

AUTHORSHIP
Being an author of a scientific article mainly indicates a person who has a significant contribution to the article and shares the responsibility and accountability of that article. To be defined as an author of a scientific article, researchers should fulfill below criteria:
1. Making a significant contribution to the work in all or some of the following phases: Research conception or design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation.
2. Drafting, writing or revising the manuscript
3. Agreeing on the final version of the manuscript and the journal which it will be submitted
4. Taking responsibility and accountability of the content of the article
Outside the above mentioned authorship criteria, any other form of specific contribution should be stated in the Acknowledgement section.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he/she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. Also, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

If an article is written by more than one person, one of the co-authors should be chosen as the corresponding author for handling all the correspondences regarding the article. Before submission, all authors should agree on the order of the authors and provide their current affiliations and contact details. Corresponding author is responsible for ensuring the correctness of these information.

Research in Agricultural Sciences requires corresponding authors to submit a signed and scanned version of the Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form (available for download at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org) during the initial submission process to act appropriately on authorship rights and to prevent ghost or honorary authorship. If the editorial board suspects a case of “gift authorship,” the submission will be rejected without further review. As part of the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author should also send a short statement declaring that he/she accepts to undertake all the responsibility for authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript.

CHANGE OF AUTHORSHIP
Research in Agricultural Sciences reviews the authorship according to the author’s declaration in the Title Page, thus it is the authors responsibility to send the final order of the complete author names. Requests in the change of authorship (e.g. removal/addition of the authors, change in the order etc) after submission are subject to editorial approval. Editorial Board will investigate this kind of cases and act following COPE flowcharts.

Change of authorship requests should be submitted to the Editorial Office with an official letter stating the reasons of the change. The letter must be signed by all authors and include their approval on the change in authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, authors need to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final order list.

APPEALS AND COMPLAINT
The Editorial Board of the journal handles all appeal and complaint cases within the scope of COPE guidelines. In such cases, authors should get in direct contact with the editorial office regarding their appeals and complaints. When needed, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve claims that cannot be resolved internally. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all appeals and complaints.

DISCLAIMER
Statements or opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in Research in Agricultural Sciences reflect the views of the author(s) and not the opinions of the editors, the editorial board, or the publisher; the editors, the editorial board, and the publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials. The final responsibility regarding the published content rests with the authors.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Research in Agricultural Sciences requires each submission to be accompanied by a Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form (available for download at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org). By signing this form, authors retain the copyright of their work and agree that the article, if accepted for publication by the Research in Agricultural Sciences will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License which permits third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the original work.

From January 2022 onwards, content is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. The journal’s back content was published under a traditional copyright license however the archive is available for free access.

When using previously published content, including figures, tables, or any other material in both print and electronic formats, authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder. Legal, financial and criminal liabilities in this regard belong to the author(s).

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, available at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org. Manuscripts submitted via any other medium and submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be evaluated.

The style of the manuscripts should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), Seventh Edition (journal revision).

Manuscripts submitted to the journal will first go through a technical evaluation process where the editorial office staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the submitting author with technical correction requests.

Authors are required to submit the following:
· Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship Form during the initial submission. These forms are available for download at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org.

Preparation of the Manuscript
Title page: A separate title page should be submitted with all submissions and this page should include:
· The full title of the manuscript as well as a short title (running head) of no more than 50 characters,
· Name(s), affiliations, highest academic degree(s), and ORCID IDs of the author(s),
· Grant information and detailed information on the other sources of support,
· Name, address, telephone (including the mobile phone number), and email address of the corresponding author,
· Acknowledgment of the individuals who contributed to the preparation of the manuscript but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria.

Abstract: A Turkish and English abstract should be submitted with all submissions except for Letters to the Editor. The abstract of Original Articles should be without the subheadings. Please check Table 1 below for word count specifications.

Keywords: Each submission must be accompanied by a minimum of three to a maximum of five keywords for subject indexing at the end of the abstract. The keywords should be listed in full without abbreviations.

Manuscript Types
Research Articles: This is the most important type of article since it provides new information based on original research. Acceptance of original papers will be based upon the originality and importance of the investigation. The main text of original articles should be structured with Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion and Recommendations subheadings. Please check Table 1 for the limitations for Original Articles.

Editorial Comments: Invited brief editorial comments on selected articles are published in the Research in Agricultural Sciences. Editorials should not be longer than 1000 words excluding references. Editorial comments aim to provide a brief critical commentary by reviewers with expertise or with high reputation in the topic of the research article published in the journal. Authors are selected and invited by the journal to provide such comments. Abstract, Keywords, and Tables, Figures, Images, and other media are not included.

Review Articles: Reviews prepared by authors who have extensive knowledge on a particular field and whose scientific background has been translated into a high volume of publications with a high citation potential are welcomed. These authors may even be invited by the journal. Reviews should describe, discuss, and evaluate the current level of knowledge of a topic in clinical practice and should guide future studies. The subheadings of the review articles should be planned by the authors. However, each review article should include an “Introduction” and a “Conclusion” section. Please check Table 1 for the limitations for Review Articles.

Short Note: This type of manuscript present significant findings from tangential investigations that are offshoots from larger studies or from early results that will have to be confirmed through further study. The main text should be structured with Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion subheadings. Please check Table 1 for the limitations for Short Note.

Letters to the Editor: This type of manuscript discusses important parts, overlooked aspects, or lacking parts of a previously published article. Articles on subjects within the scope of the journal that might attract the readers’ attention, particularly educative cases, may also be submitted in the form of a “Letter to the Editor.” Readers can also present their comments on the published manuscripts in the form of a “Letter to the Editor.” Abstract, Keywords, and Tables, Figures, Images, and other media should not be included. The text should be unstructured. The manuscript that is being commented on must be properly cited within this manuscript.

Table 1. Limitations for each manuscript type

*Word limit should not include the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.

Tables
Tables should be included in the main document, presented after the reference list, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text. A descriptive title must be placed above the tables in title case in italics. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the tables by footnotes (even if they are defined within the main text). Tables should be created using the “insert table” command of the word processing software and they should be arranged clearly to provide easy reading. Data presented in the tables should not be a repetition of the data presented within the main text but should be supporting the main text.

Table Examples in APA Format

Source: Sample Tables, APA accessed https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-tables

Figures and Figure Legends
Figures, graphics, and photographs should be submitted as separate files (in TIFF or JPEG format) through the submission system. The files should not be embedded in a Word document or the main document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should not be merged to form a single image. Each subunit should be submitted separately through the submission system. Images should not be labeled (a, b, c, etc.) to indicate figure subunits. Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks, and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legends. Like the rest of the submission, the figures too should be blind. Any information within the images that may indicate an individual or institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process, all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions: 100 × 100 mm). Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document.

All acronyms and abbreviations used in the manuscript should be defined at first use, both in the abstract and in the main text. The abbreviation should be provided in parentheses following the definition.

When a drug, product, hardware, or software program is mentioned within the main text, product information, including the name of the product, the producer of the product, and city and the country of the company (including the state if in USA), should be provided in parentheses in the following format: “Discovery St PET/CT scanner (General Electric, Milwaukee, WI, USA)”

All references, tables, and figures should be referred to within the main text, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text.

Limitations, drawbacks, and the shortcomings of original articles should be mentioned in the Discussion section before the conclusion paragraph.


References
Both in-text citations and the references must be prepared according to the APA Manual Seventh Edition.

While citing publications, preference should be given to the latest, most up-to-date publications. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. In the main text of the manuscript, references should be cited by author’s name and the publication year in parenthesis. In the case of direct citations in the main text, only publication year should be stated in parenthesis after the name of the author. Please see below the examples.

Reference List
The reference styles for different types of publications are presented in the following examples.

Journal Article: Aksoy, A., 1973. Yumurta kabuk kalitesine tesir eden faktörler. Research in Agricultural Sciences, 4(1), 129-141.

Journal Article with more than one author: Jerrentrup, A., Mueller, T., Glowalla, U., Herder, M., Henrichs, N., Neubauer, A., & Schaefer, J. R. (2018). Teaching medicine with the help of “Dr. House.” PLoS ONE, 13(3), Article e0193972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193972

Article in Turkish: Mutlu, B., & Savaşer, S. (2007). Çocuğu ameliyat sonrası yoğun bakımda olan ebeveynlerde stres nedenleri ve azaltma girişimleri [Source and intervention reduction of stress for parents whose children are in intensive care unit after surgery]. Istanbul University Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 15(60), 179–182.

Books
By a Single Author: Kimmel, M. S. (2007). The gendered society. Oxford University Press.
By Two or More Authors: DiFonzo, N., & Bordia, P. (2007). Rumor psychology: Social and organizational approaches. American Psychological Association.
By a Corporate (Group) Author: American Sociological Association. (1975). Approaches to the study of social structure. Free Press.
Edited Book : Rhodewalt, F. (Ed.). (2008). Personality and social behavior. Psychology Press.
Book Chapter with Editor(s): McCormack, B., McCance, T., & Maben, J. (2013). Outcome evaluation in the development of person-centred practice. In B. McCormack, K. Manley, & A. Titchen (Eds.), Practice development in nursing and healthcare (pp. 190-211). John Wiley & Sons.

Dissertation or Thesis: Valentin, E. R. (2019). Narcissism predicted by Snapchat selfie sharing, filter usage, and editing (s. 67). (Master's thesis). California State University Dominguez Hills, CA. https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/3197xm925?locale=en
No Author: The universal declaration of human rights. (1974). U.S. Catholic Conference, Division of Latin America.
Web sites: Sparks, Dana. (2018, September 12). Mayo mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness exercises. Mayo Clinic.

In the seventh edition, up to 20 authors should now be included in a reference list entry. For sources with more than 20 authors, after the 19th listed author, any additional authors' names are replaced with an ellipsis (…) followed by the final listed author's name:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., Author, C. C., Author, D. D., Author, E. E., Author, F. F., Author, G. G., Author, H. H., Author, I. I., Author, J. J., Author, K. K., Author, L. L., Author, M. M., Author, N. N., Author, O. O., Author, P. P., Author, Q. Q., Author, R. R., Author, S. S., . . . Author, Z. Z.

REVISIONS
When submitting a revised version of a paper, the author must submit a detailed “Response to the reviewers” that states point by point how each issue raised by the reviewers has been covered and where it can be found (each reviewer’s comment, followed by the author’s reply and line numbers where the changes have been made) as well as an annotated copy of the main document. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 30 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option may be canceled. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request this extension before the initial 30-day period is over.

Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, and format by professional language editors. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.

Editor in Chief: Göksel Tozlu
Address: Atatürk University Faculty of Agriculture, Erzurum, Turkey
E-mail: gtozlu@hotmail.com

Publisher: Atatürk University
Address: Atatürk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey

Publishing Service: AVES
Address: Büyükdere Cad., 105/9 34394 Şişli, İstanbul, Turkey
Phone: +90 212 217 17 00
E-mail: info@avesyayincilik.com
Webpage: www.avesyayincilik.com

Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty is published three times a year (January, May, September). The journal publication’s language is Turkish and English. Scientific research and review articles related to all fields of agriculture are included in the journal. Free Open Access is provided to all articles in the journal. In addition, our journal support Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). This journal uses the LOCKSS system to allow it to create permanent archives.

The authors agree that the article, if accepted for publication by the Journal will be licensed under a Creative Commons International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). This allows the work to be copied and distributed in any medium or format provided that the original article is appropriately cited. However, the articles work cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
The publication process at Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty is the basis of the improvement and dissemination of information objectively and respectfully. Therefore, the procedures in this process improves the quality of the studies. Peer-reviewed studies are the ones that support and materialize the scientific method. At this point, it is of utmost importance that all parties included in the publication process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, reviewers and editors) comply with the standards of ethical considerations. Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty expects all parties to hold the following ethical responsibilities.

The following ethical duties and responsibilities are written in the light of the guide and policies made by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1. Publication and Authorship
• The references used in this article text should be given alphabetically in the references section according to the surname of the author.
• If there are institutions or organizations providing support to the subject of research article, superscript asterisk should be placed to the end of the article title, and the necessary explanations should be made in the footnote of the first page of the article.
• Articles submitted to the journal for publication are controlled by a suitable program in terms of similarities with articles published in various journals and numerous Internet resources. As a result of controls, articles showing 20% or greater similarity are rejected.
• Articles identified as false data used in any way will be rejected.
• Articles previously published in another journal shall not be taken into consideration.
• For giving consideration to any article -concerning diseases and pests accepted as compulsorily notifiable to the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry conducted within the borders of Turkey and transformed into a manuscript for the journal, it must be submitted to the editor along with a written permission received from the Ministry.

2. Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
• The editor and field editors of Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty should hold the following ethical responsibilities that are based on the guides "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published as open Access by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Editorsare responsible for each study published in Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty. In this respect, the editors have the following roles and responsibilities:
• Ensuring the continuous development of the journal,
• Managing the procedures aimed to improve the quality of the studies published in the journal,
• Supporting freedom of expression, • Ensuring academic integrity,
• Following the procedures without making concessions on intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
• Editors must make positive or negative decisions about the studies' importance, originality, validity, clarity in wording and suitability with the journal's aims and objectives.
• Editors must accept the studies that are within the scope of publication into pre-review process unless there are serious problems with the study.
• Editors must not ignore positive suggestions made by reviewers unless there are serious problems with the study.
• "Blind Review and Review Process" must be published and editors must prevent possible diversions in the defined processes.
• Authors should be provided with explanatory and informative feedback.

Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with reviewers:
Editors must;
• Choose reviewers according to the subject of the study.
• Provide the information and guidance reviewers may need during the review process.
• Observe whether there are conflicting interests between reviewers and authors.
• Keep the identities of reviewers confidential in blind review.
• Encourage the reviewers to review the manuscript in an unbiased, scientific and objective tone.
• Develop practices and policies that increase the performance of reviewers.
• Take necessary steps to update the reviewer pool dynamically.
• Prevent unkind and unscientific reviews.
• Make effort to ensure the reviewer pool has a wide range.
Editors must make sure that the members of the editorial board follow the procedures in accordance with the publication policies and guidelines, and must inform the members about the publication policies and developments.

Moreover, editors must;
• Ensure that the members of the editorial board review the manuscripts in an unbiased and independent manner.
• Send manuscripts for review based on the subject of expertise of the editorial board members.
Precautions against possible Abuse and Malpractice
Editors are supposed to take precautions against possible abuse and malpractice. They must conduct investigations meticulously and objectively in determining and evaluating complaints about such situations. They must also share the results of the investigation.
Ensuring Academic Integrity
Editors must make sure that the mistakes, inconsistencies or misdirections in studies are corrected quickly.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all the articles published in the journal and the rights of the journal and author(s) in cases where these rights are violated. Also, editors must take the necessary precautions in order to prevent the content of all published articles from violating the intellectual property rights of other publications.
Constructiveness and Openness to Discussion
Editors must•
• Pay attention to the convincing criticism about studies published in the journal and must have a constructive attitude towards such criticism.
• Grant the right of reply to the author(s) of the criticized study.
• Not ignore or exclude the study that include negative results.
Complaints
Editors must examine the complaints from authors, reviewers or readers and respond to them in an explanatory and enlightening manner.
Political and Economic Apprehensions
Neither the owner of the journal, publisher or any other political or economic factor can influence the independent decision taking of the editors.

3. Responsibilities of Authors
• Authors are obliged to participate in peer review process of the manuscripts submitted.
• The contribution given to the article by authors whose names appear on the manuscript has to be notified to the editor.
• Authors should send their articles prepared in accordance with the instructions for authors of the journal.
• The authors whose names are taking part in any article submitted to the journal for publication are deemed to have declared that data of all kinds presented in this article are real and original.
• The authors cannot send the article submitted to the journal to another journal to be published simultaneously.
• The authors are obliged to make all kinds of the corrections about to the articles subjected to peer review by related referees and fulfilling requests of the editor.
• In scientific studies based on experimental animals and sent for the purpose of publication in the Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty; the statements of "The approval of Local Ethics Committee was obtained" or "The principles of Board of Ethics have been adhered to" should take place in Materials and Methods section of the article. If the approval of a Local Ethics Committee has been obtained beforehand, the Author(s) should indicate the name of authority issuing the approval of ethics committee and the confirmation number.
• The authors are obliged to comply with the copyright conditions relating to the material used or those from other sources and sign a contract stating the transfer of copyright to the Journal.
• Any liability that may arise from the article included in the journal belongs to the author(s).

4. Responsibilities of Referees
• The referees considering the article should make an objective and impartial assessment.
• The referees declaring any conflicts of interest with article authors or institutions and organizations supporting the article should inform the editorship about the situation and not involve in the article evaluation.
• Referees cannot share the data of articles sent to them for consideration with anyone.
• The referees recommending that the article can be published after corrections have the right to re-examine the article after the necessary corrections have been made.

5. Editorial Board Responsibilities
• Preliminary assessments of the papers are made by the Editorial Board.
• Articles to be evaluated are sent to at least two referees by the Editorial Board. Editorial Board decides the acceptance, rejection or modification of articles depending on referees’ reports.
• The Editorial Board may not use the data of unpublished article for their personal affairs in any way and not share this data in any way.
• When the evaluation process of articles is completed, the editor forwards the decision to the author.
• The Editor, when deciding on the rejection or acceptance of an article, should not to be affected by the conflict of interest of the person or persons taking part among the authors.

6. Responsibilities of Advisory Board
• Advisory Board members should keep the data of articles sent to them for evaluation secret and cannot share them in any way.
• If referees determine that data in the article being evaluated are similar to those published in another article previously, they should report the situation immediately to the Journal Editorship.
• Referees should assess the articles sent to them in an objective way and express their views in clear and understandable language.
• If a referee had concluded that the article sent to be evaluated it is not appropriate for the assessment in person, it should be notified the Editorship as soon as possible.

7. Publishing Ethics Issues
• The integrity of academic records should be created and maintained.
• If necessary, sufficient correction, explanation, or apology should be published.

8. Unethical Behavior
Should you encounter any unethical act or content in Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty apart from the ethical responsibilities listed above, please notify the journal by e-mail to Editor in Chief Prof. Dr. Göksel TOZLU (auzfdeditor@atauni.edu.tr).

Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty is an open access publication, and the journal’s publication model is based on Budapest Access Initiative (BOAI) declaration. All published content is available online, free of charge at www.agriculture-ataunipress.org. Authors retain the copyright of their published work in the Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty. The journal’s content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License which permits third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the original work.