WRITING GUIDE

The articles to be sent to the journal must be written in accordance with the “Article Template”. When creating an article by using the Article Template, the authors are recommended to take advantage of the ‘Styles’ chapter on the Entry tab.

To download the Article Template Click here.

A. STYLISTIC FEATURES OF THE ARTICLE

1. PAGE STRUCTURE: The top, left, right and bottom margins of the page must be set at 2.5 cm. The articles must be written on a PC in MS Word.doc format. The letters must be size 11 in Times New Roman font with a line spacing of 1.25 and the paragraph space must be 6 nk and the first line indent must be set at 1.25 cm. There must not be any bold characters in the text, including the tables and figures.

2. TITLE OF THE ARTICLE: Considering that readers get their first impressions of an article from its title, it is crucial that the title completely reflects the purpose and limits of the article. In this regard, the title of the article must not be too long, i.e. it must not exceed 10 words. The title of the article must be left-aligned and it must be written with bold, size 16 letters in Times New Roman font (the first letters of each word must be capitalized).    If the article is written in Turkish, then a second title must be written in English and vice versa. Of this second article, only the first letter of the first word must be capitalized (with the exception of proper nouns). The title must also be left-aligned and written with size 14 letters in Times New Roman font. The top and bottom paragraph spaces must be adjusted as 6 nk.  After the first title, the name of the author, which is only to be included on an article that is approved to be published, must not include any titles. It must also be left-aligned and written with normal size 12 letters in Times New Roman font and the organization and ORCID information of the author(s) must be specified as a left-aligned footnote in normal size 9 letters in Times New Roman font. A contact/responsible author of the article must be identified and their e-mail address must be written left-aligned in size 9 letters under the first page as it is shown on the template.

3. ABSTRACT: The article must have an abstract written both in Turkish and English. As is known, an abstract leaves out the trivial details of an article and features the subject, purpose, method, tool(s) and techniques of data collection, type of analysis and findings or results of the study. Therefore, the abstract must include the purpose, sources of data, findings and results of the article. The abstract must not exceed 150 words. Abstracts must be single paragraph texts written in size 10 letters in italics and Times New Roman font. Only the Abstract titles must be written in bold and italics before the abstract text; there must also be five keywords. 

4. KEYWORDS: Keywords allow easier accessibility in index and abstract databases that include published articles. Keywords must be accurate in order to obtain more rational results from database searches. The geographical area/region, where the study was conducted, must be indicated at the end. 5 keywords must be provided.

5. TEXT TITLES:  The titles which are to be used in the article must be left aligned and written with size 11 letters in Times New Roman font. Their first letter must be capitalized; the paragraph indent must be 1.25 cm and the top and bottom spaces must be 6 nk. The titles, including the chapters of Introduction and Conclusion, must be stylized and numbered as shown in the template (The titles in the template and the explanations regarding the structural features of an article only serve as suggestions for authors). It is possible to use subtitles in compliance with the sub-targets / hypotheses of the study. The subtitles must be with a paragraph indent of 1.25 and their first letter must be capitalized. Since the ‘Styles’ chapter in the text template is also organized in line with the text template, the titles, tables, figures & photographs, paragraphs, notes and sources can be organized by making use of this chapter.

6. TEXT AREA: The text area must have a line spacing of 1.25, top and bottom spaces of 6 nk and be aligned on both sides; it must be written with size 11 letters in Times New Roman font and the paragraph indent must be 1.25 cm for the first line only.

7. FIGURES AND TABLES: Records of figures, maps and photographs in the article must be in high definition that is appropriate for a high quality print; they must be properly positioned in the article text and their original copies must also be sent along with the article during the printing stage. Each and every map, table, chart, photograph, graphic or figure that are used, must be referenced in the text. Table titles must be written over and the table sources must be given under the tables. Tables must be structured as shown on the template and there must not be any kind of vertical lines, coloring or shading. Tables cannot include any bold characters. Only the first letter of the definitions of tables and figures is to be capitalized; all others letters must be lowercase. The same rule applies for the texts within tables. All tables must be named as ‘Table’; all graphics, maps and drawings must be named as ‘Figure’ and all photographs must be named as ‘Photo’. The names of figures and photographs (including definitions) must be given under the related figures or photographs. Names of all figures, tables and photographs must be written with size 9 letters Times New Roman font and there must be a full stop after each number. Figures, tables and photographs must be center aligned. The texts and source texts of figures, tables and photographs must be aligned with the starting point of the image. 

8. NOTES: If a ‘Notes’ chapter will be included: Here, the authors must give their footnotes under the title of ‘Notes’ before references and acknowledgements chapters (if there is one). Notes must not have any line indents and they must be written with size 9 letters in Times New Roman font. 

9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: If an ‘Acknowledgements’ chapter will be included: In this chapter, author(s) can thank the people who have helped them while conducting their study; the individuals, institutions or organizations who have contributed with financial assistance or the individuals, institutions or organizations who have let them use their data. This note must be located at the end of the text of the study but before the references chapter.

 10. REFERENCES: The references and sources used in the study must be specified. The quotations must be given in quotation marks if the word count is less than 40. If the word count is more than 40, however, quotations must be given in a separate paragraph without any quotation marks and in size 10 normal letters followed by a full stop. After the indented paragraph, spaces on each side must be 2 cm.

NOTE: References within the text and bibliography must follow the rules given below and the bibliography must be listed in alphabetical order.

Only the studies that are mentioned in the text can be included in this chapter. This chapter must not include the names of any missing (mentioned in the text but not given as a reference) or extra (not mentioned in the text but given as a reference) sources. References must be listed in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names.  References must be compiled under this title and they must be written with size 9 letters in Times New Roman format. Finally, the second indent of each work must be 1.00 cm.  

Examples of Bibliography and References

This guide offers examples of referencing other authors. Due to rapid diversification of information sources, this chapter will be updated on a regular basis. Therefore, it is recommended for the author to check this chapter before sending their articles to our journal.

You can find some notes related to the expressional differences that are necessary for the articles written in English at the end of this guide.

References within the Text

• The authors are expected to give page numbers for the references in the text.
• The system given in the example (Chart 1; Photo 3) shall be used for references of maps, figures and photographs.   

Examples

• When referencing institutions, the name of the institution must be written in full, followed by its abbreviation. It is acceptable to use just this abbreviation when referencing the same institution again in the text.

Example
First Use
According to the report published by the Ministry of National Education (MEB, 2013)…
In a report published in 2013 (Ministry of National Education, MEB)…

Further Use
In the report created by MEB (2013), the subject of lifelong learning was given a significant coverage.

Writing References
If the same author was mentioned in many sources in the bibliography, the sources must be listed in chronological order from old to new.
The authors are expected to provide the DOI numbers of their articles. If this is not possible, then they need to add the URL addresses of the journals in which their articles have been published.
Examples
These examples were created anonymously. The purpose is to show how different sources used in articles should be listed in the references.

Book written by a single author
İzgül, E. (2006). Coğrafya Bilmek. Ankara: Bahtiyar.

Book written by multiple authors
İzgül, E., Arslan, T. S., Ulucan, R. (2005). Coğrafya Bilmek. Ankara: Bahtiyar.

Book with an editor
İzgül, E. (Ed.) (2005). Coğrafya Bilmek. Ankara: Bahtiyar.

Chapter in a book with an editor
Ulucan, R. (2005). Coğrafyanın Tarihsel Gelişimi. Emel İzgül (Ed.), Coğrafya Bilmek içinde (115-135). Ankara: Bahtiyar

Book with multiple editions
İzgül, E., Arslan, T. S., Ulucan, R. (2005). Coğrafya Bilmek (3^rd Edition). Ankara: Bahtiyar.

Article from a journal written by a single author
İzgül, E. (2010). Coğrafya Bilmek. Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 80 (2), 150-185. doi: 10.1237/0096- 2445.134.2.260

Article from a journal written by multiple authors
İzgül, E., Arslan, T. S., Ulucan, R. (2010). Coğrafya Bilmek. Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 80 (2), 150-185. doi: 10.1237/0096- 2445.134.2.260

Unpublished theses, posters, memorandums
The URL extensions of theses from the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education must also be included.
İzgül, E. (2010). Coğrafya Bilmek. Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Ankara. Obtained from: https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/112545**-1

Internet Sources
The sources taken from the internet must include a last access date.
İzgül, E. (2013, December 23). Coğrafyada Temel Kavramlar, taken on 10 December 2018 from the website http://cografyadersnotları.acikarsiv/Old.pdf

Statistics, reports
Published
Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat, 2012). Yaşlılık İstatistikleri, 1990-2010. Ankara: Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu Yayınları, Edition No: 12.
Unpublished
Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat, 2012). Yaşlılık İstatistikleri, 1990-2010. Taken on 10 December 2018 from the website http://tuiknufus/arsiv.pdf                                             

Notes for the Articles Written in English

11. EXTENDED ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH
The articles which have been approved are expected to have an extended abstract.The extended abstract should contain a minimum of 1500 words and a maximum of 1800 words. The extended abstract must cover all the chapters (Introduction, Method, Findings and Conclusion) of the study in general. These chapters must also be given under separate titles in the text. The references given in the text should be used in the English extended abstract as much as possible.

B. STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF THE ARTICLE (The instructions given here serve only as examples)

1. INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this chapter is to make a general identification and analysis of the study. The readers should be provided with the purpose and subject of the study, its stages, chapters and ideas as well as the hypothetical framework on which the study is based upon. This chapter should have the answers to the questions of what the subject is, why the research was conducted, which chapters there are and what these chapters discuss. These questions may be related to purposes such as showing a problem, offering a solution to that problem and contributing to the literature in any field. This chapter may also include a literature review regarding the subject.

2. RELEVANT STUDIES: It may be given under introduction without necessarily reserving a separate title for it. Similar studies to the subject field of the article may be given in this chapter. As in the examples of ‘literature’ and ‘body of literature’, authors can name this chapter differently. This chapter briefly touches on which subjects were analyzed in the related studies under which methods and what kind of results have been obtained etc. In addition, it is important to mention the related studies in order to evaluate the contribution made by the article to the subject field.

3. MATERIALS AND METHOD: When starting this chapter, within the light of the descriptions thus far, the information related to the conducted study is presented in order to show the problems that exist or believed to exist as well as their solutions. Here, a complete description of the approach and the method to be used in the study is given. The reason for providing this information is to allow other researchers to repeat the same thing by making use of that method. This is why the method should be explained clearly for the sake of repeatability, which is the foundation of scientific knowledge. Here, the topics related to the features of the main body, the information collection technique, why this data collection technique is preferred and the pros and cons of the technique are all discussed. The study should explain in detail the subjects such as the development stages and content of the tool that was utilized for data collection. If the research was made by using one of the field research techniques; the chosen sampling technique and the reason for this choice should be explained with their reasons.

4. INTERPRETING THE ANALYSES AND FINDINGS: This chapter is where the main data of the study is analyzed. The analysis chapter only applies to the studies that are based on the collection of data. The articles of compilation (synopsis) generally do not have an analysis chapter. The explanations given here are generally related to the analysis of the data which is collected through field research techniques. The points such as the choice of the analysis type, statistical tests, confidence interval and the reason behind the choice of statistical tests etc. are explained in the introduction of the chapter. After these steps, it is time for interpreting the findings. In the chapter where the findings are interpreted; the analysis of the data and obtained results are given. Findings and research questions, in other words, the hypotheses are organized by assessment. The data is analyzed and interpreted in the light of hypotheses. The consistency of the findings and the hypothesis is assessed. The presentation can be achieved by making use of one or more from the methods of maps, tables, graphics or figures. The presentation of the results of statistical analysis is also included in this chapter. In the chapter of interpreting the analyses and findings, it would be appropriate to present the findings in single, double or multiple tables along with the results of statistical tests. In this way, it would be easier to comprehend the information regarding which test is used on which data. The chapter of interpreting the findings should be presented in two stages: The general information regarding the sampling (demographical data) and the information obtained from the research.  The information obtained from research could be presented in one or multiple stages in itself. However, the author should be careful not to use too many tables while trying to clarify their article. The tables should be combined when it is possible and the tables that are unrelated to the research purpose/question should be avoided altogether. Moreover, it is better to present the general information with a single table.

5. CONCLUSION: This is the chapter where the results obtained from the article are given in a nutshell and the generalizations are made when they are necessary. This chapter should start with a short repetition of the problem at hand, followed by a short summary of the obtained results (for empirical studies). The statements should be short and clear. Any other possible scientific contributions to the related literature can be also summarized in this chapter. The author may also include here the statements that can pave the way for future researchers in the field. The author may refer to the subjects that need to be looked into and the points to be considered for the benefit of potential researchers.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
All manuscripts submitted to the Turkish Journal of Geographical Sciences must be original, unpublished, or not under review in another journal. Each manuscript is blind-reviewed by the editor and at least two referees. Plagiarism, duplication, pseudo-authorship/ denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, sliced publication, copyright infringement, and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviors. All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from publication. This includes articles containing possible irregularities and nonconformities detected after publication.

The ethical principles and publication policy of the Turkish Journal of Geographical Sciences have been prepared in accordance with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics
• Plagiarism: Presenting the original ideas, methods, data or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citation in accordance with scientific rules,
• Forgery: Using non-existent or falsified data in scientific research,
• Distortion: Falsifying research records or data obtained, falsifying devices or materials that were not used in the research, falsifying or shaping the results of the research in line with the interests of the persons and organizations receiving support,
• Republishing: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
• Slicing: Inappropriately and inappropriately dividing the results of a research into parts in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and publishing them in more than one issue and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
• Unfair authorship: Including or excluding people who have not actively contributed, changing the author ranking in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of active contributors from the work in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has not actively contributed,

Click here to get information about other types of ethical violations in the Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics of Higher Education Institutions.

ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL
Our journal requires that the relevant ethics committee decision must be obtained for all studies in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval. In this context, authors should write the date and number of Ethics Committee approval in the “Sampling and Methods/ Materials and Methods” section. In case presentations, the information that the informed consent form has been obtained must be included in the article.
In line with the regulations implemented by Ulakbim TR Index since 2020, studies that do not have ethics committee permission are not evaluated in our journal.

Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
In our journal, researches that require ethics committee permission include the following studies:
• All research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, experiments and interview techniques,
• Studies in which humans and animals (including materials or data) are used for experimental or other scientific purposes,
• Clinical trials conducted on humans,
• Scientific research on animals,
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
In order for such studies to be included in the evaluation, the relevant ethics committee permissions must be obtained and these permissions must be clearly stated in the text of the article.

NOTE: Scientific research on humans and animals must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and ARRIVE guidelines and approval must be obtained from the relevant ethics committee. Studies without ethics committee approval are not evaluated in our journal.

Plagiarism Check
Every study that is submitted to Turkish Journal of Geographical Sciences is scanned with iThenticate software for any plagiarism. A maximum similarity rate of 15% can be accepted by our journal, provided that not all of them are taken from only one or two sources. The studies which have a similarity rate between 15-25% will be sent back to the author(s) for editing. However, the studies which have a similarity rate over 25% will not be accepted for publication. During this process, the matches detected by the software go through careful examination and the matches in the text with correct references are filtered. At the end of this filtering process, the remaining matches are examined and the mistakes are detected and reported. The Editors make their final decisions with the help of the plagiarism report for each study and then share this report with the author(s) if necessary. The Editorial Board may request author(s) to correct their mistakes or return the studies to them.

If plagiarism is detected in an article submitted or published in our journal, our journal acts in accordance with the COPE principles (Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript - Plagiarism in a published article).

Relations with the Journal Owner and Publisher
The relationship between the editor and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence. In accordance with the written contract between the editor and the publisher, all editorial decisions are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are identified in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations and conclusions. In the case of major errors/violations that invalidate findings and conclusions, editors should consider retracting the article. COPE principles are taken into account in relation to correction, withdrawal or expression of concern.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Our journal is obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of the journal and the author(s) in possible violations.

Protection of Personal Data of Participants
All personal data sent to our journal are protected in accordance with legal regulations and ethical rules.

Complaints
Any unethical behavior of the editors, referees, authors, or any unethical situation related to an article in the review process, in early view, or published in the Turkish Journal of Geographical Sciences should be reported to tucaum.cbd@gmail.com. Our journal follows the procedure outlined in the COPE flowcharts for complaints.

Conflicts of interest
Our journal guarantees the independent and impartial completion of the publication process, taking into account the conflicts of interest between the author(s), reviewers and other editors.

Change of Author
Only the article is processed before acceptance. Authors are required to carefully review the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the exact list of authors at the time of original 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 should be carried out within the framework of ethical rules and should never be used for unethical purposes such as fabricated data and manipulation.
For studies involving the use of artificial intelligence, it is mandatory to inform our journal about this situation at the article submission stage. All responsibility for the use of artificial intelligence lies with the authors themselves.

Article Tracking
Authors can obtain information about the stage (field editor review, peer review) of their manuscripts submitted to the journal by sending an e-mail to tucaum.cbd@gmail.com asking about the status of their manuscripts or, in very necessary cases, by contacting the managing editor (Dr. Lect. Prof. Dr. Ayla Deniz: (312) 310 32 80/1207) via telephone.

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

1- Responsibilities of the Editors
• Editors take care to meet the information requests of authors, reviewers, researchers, practitioners and readers and to provide timely and explanatory feedback when necessary. They approach situations that may arise during the publication process that require correction, clarification or withdrawal within the framework of the principle of transparency.
• In the evaluation processes regarding the articles; decisions are made based on the originality of the study, its contribution to the scientific field, the validity and reliability of the method used, the clarity of the narrative and its suitability to the purpose and scope of the journal.
• Editors fully implement the blind review system and evaluation policies adopted by the journal; protect the confidentiality of referee identities and ensure that all articles are evaluated impartially, fairly and in a timely manner.
• In assigning reviewers, attention is paid to the compatibility of the content of the article and the areas of expertise of the reviewers and field editors. An impartial and independent evaluation process is ensured.
• Necessary measures are taken against the possibility of conflict of interest or conflict of interest in the evaluation processes; editors are sensitive to possible ethical problems in author-referee-editor relations.
• Editors prevent reviews that are incompatible with scientific ethics and academic practices; the principle of constructive, scientific and impartial evaluation is observed.
• Editors attach importance to the confidentiality of personal data of all parties involved in the evaluation process and protect the privacy of authors, reviewers and readers.
• Maximum attention is paid to ethical principles in human and animal studies. It is mandatory to provide documents such as participant consent and ethics committee approval; articles are not accepted for publication in the absence of these documents.
• Editors protect the intellectual property rights of published works and defend the rights of both the authors and the journal in case of violation. They also meticulously carry out plagiarism and similarity checks to ensure that the articles do not violate the copyrights of other works.
• All complaints, comments and suggestions received by the journal are meticulously examined; necessary explanations are provided in a timely, clear and constructive manner.

2- Responsibilities of Authors
• Authors should not include plagiarism, falsification, fabrication of data or any practice contrary to research ethics in the submitted studies. The footnotes and bibliography section of the study must be complete, accurate and organized in accordance with the citation rules.
• The raw data of the research should be properly preserved in terms of scientific accuracy and transparency. These data should be submitted for editorial review if requested by the journal editorial board.
• In the study submitted for publication, only those who have made direct scientific contributions to the research should be granted authorship. It is an ethical obligation not to list people who do not contribute meaningfully to the research as authors. Those who made non-authorship contributions should be acknowledged appropriately.
• Authors should disclose any potential conflicts of interest at the earliest possible stage (preferably by submitting a declaration form with the manuscript submission and by clearly stating it in the manuscript).
• All authors are obliged to make scientific and technical corrections requested by the editors and referees in a timely and complete manner.

3-Responsibilities of Referees
• Reviewers should be impartial, objective and based on scientific criteria. They are expected to provide evaluations based solely on academic content, free from personal bias.
• Reviewers should not be in any conflict of interest with the study they are evaluating, the author(s) of the study, or the institution or persons funding the research. In the event of such a situation, they should inform the editorial board and withdraw from the review process.
• The review process should not be limited to a superficial opinion of approval or rejection. Reviewers should elaborate on their opinions based on clear, constructive and scientific justifications, especially in cases where they express a negative opinion.
• Criticism and evaluations should be text-centered and should not include any statements that damage the personal rights of the author(s), insulting or subjective. It is essential to evaluate within the framework of scientific respect and courtesy.
• Referees should identify the studies that should be cited in the article but are left incomplete, which can directly contribute to the subject, and suggest that these sources be added to the article.
• All information and documents submitted to the review process should be treated as confidential and should not be shared with third parties or used for personal gain.

PUBLICATION POLICIES

General Principles
• The Turkish Journal of Geographical Sciences, which started to be published within the body of Ankara University, Turkish Geography Research and Application Center, has been continuing its publication life since 2003. The journal is published regularly in April - October and two issues a year.
• In the journal, original articles prepared by researchers from both geography and other disciplines are published on issues related to all branches of geography. The publication policy of the Journal of Geographical Sciences is to publish empirical and review type articles (model proposals, literature reviews and discussions), especially articles based on research and analysis by applying new scientific methods and techniques. In addition to articles, book reviews or evaluations, congress or symposium reports, research reports and news about research reports can also be included in the journal.
• The publication language is Turkish and English. Articles should have two abstracts, one of which should be in Turkish. Abstracts should be given in English for Turkish articles and in Turkish for English articles. Articles can also be published bilingually. Author(s) of the manuscripts found suitable for publication are requested to submit an extended abstract in English of not less than 1500 words and not more than 1800 words, covering all parts of the study in general (introduction, method, findings and conclusion).
• Articles should not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
• Manuscripts submitted to our journal are evaluated by at least two independent reviewers within the scope of double blind review.
• Authors agree to transfer their copyrights to our journal under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license when the article is accepted for publication.
• All articles published as open access in our journal are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Non-Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
• Articles published in our journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS and DSpace. Articles published in our journal can be accessed free of charge at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/aucbd/archive.

Special Issue Policy
With the decision of the Editorial Board, a special issue may be published once a year. For articles to be published in the special issue, the publication and evaluation principles are applied as applied in the planned issues.

Price Policy
Article submission, evaluation and publication processes in our journal are completely free of charge. No fee is charged for articles submitted or accepted for publication. In accordance with our publication policy, sponsorship and advertising are not accepted and all expenses of our journal are covered by Ankara University.