Ankara Üniversitesi Çevrebilimleri Dergisi

Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences aims to contribute to the studies in the field of environment at national and international level by bringing together researchers from both the discipline of environmental sciences and other disciplines on environmental problems, environmental protection and sustainability, by producing and sharing information and producing scientific solutions.

Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences is published by the Centre for Environmental Studies of Ankara University since 2009. It is published twice a year.

Original articles prepared by researchers from both the discipline of environmental sciences and other disciplines are published in the journal on all branches and subjects related to environmental sciences. The publication policy of the Journal of Environmental Sciences; is to publish experimental and review-type articles, especially articles based on research and examination by applying new scientific methods and techniques. Apart from articles, book reviews, congress, symposium reports, or research reports can also be included in the journal.

Manuscripts to be sent to the journal must first be approved by the Editorial Board. In addition, the articles are evaluated by at least two referees. Manuscripts should not exceed 20 pages in total, including the main text, references, charts, figures, and photographs. The responsibility of the articles published in the journal belongs to the author. When submitting a manuscript to the journal, the authors are deemed to have accepted that their studies have not been previously published or sent for publication in another scientific publication. In order to use the article evaluation process more efficiently and to increase the scientific quality of the journal, it is obligatory for the authors to comply with the journal's writing and structural format specifications. 

• The following types of papers are accepted to be published in the Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences: research papers, review papers, technical notes, conference notes, book reviews, and translations of research articles. Papers must be written either in Turkish or English. 

• All submitted manuscripts are subjected to scientific and editorial review by the editorial board and qualified ad hoc reviewers. Rejected manuscripts are sent back to the corresponding author.  

• The authors must certify with a written and signed statement that the manuscript has not been published elsewhere. 

• The manuscript should be uploaded via the web platform of Dergipark (https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/aucevrebilim).

• The paper size must be A4 with margins: top=3 cm., left= 2.5 cm., right= 2.5 cm., and bottom= 4 cm. The text has to be written in Times New Roman; font size 11 pt; and justified with single line spacing in Microsoft Word. Paragraph indentation should be 1 cm. and 6 pt clear line must be left between paragraphs. Do not use bold characters within the text, figures, and tables except headings. The manuscript should not exceed 20 pages, including references. 

• The title of the paper must be written in 14 pt bold and centered. First letters of the title must be capital. Full author names must be written in 12 pt. Abstract must be written in 9 pt italic. 

• Author names must be written without titles. Address information should be written in 11 pt. Leave no space between author names and adress line. Authors with different affiliations and addresses should use superscripts. 

• If the research has been supported by an institution or organization, or is a part of a thesis, then a footnote should be inserted at the end of the paper title. 

• Original research papers should be organized under the following headings; abstract, introduction, material and methodology, research findings, discussion, conclusions, if necessary acknowledgments, and finally references. Review papers may contain three sections as; introduction, main text with appropriate heading(s), and conclusion. All main and secondary headings must be numbered in Arabic numerals. The abstract should be no more than 200 words and must include the purpose of the study, methodology used, findings, and a brief evaluation of the findings. At most 7 key words should be given. Introduction part should include the significance and purpose of the study, as well as a literature review of previous studies. Material and methodology section should include sufficient information. Tables and figures should be explained within the text clearly in research findings. Research findings should be discussed and compared to previous studies in the Discussion section.

• All figures, maps and photographs must be in high resolution for quality printing. They must be placed within the text and separate copies should be sent. Table titles should be written above the table and the reference should be written below the table with 9pt. Name of the figures should be written below the figure with 9pt. 

• When referring within the text, author last name(s) and year of publication must be written separated with a comma within brackets (Akpınar, 2000). For two authors, use “and” between the last names, and for three authors use “et al.”. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b" etc., placed after the year of publication (Akpınar, 2002a).  Multiple references should be written in alphabetical order, separated with a semicolon (Avcıoğlu, 2002; Oğuz, 2004; Uslu and Kiper, 2005). 

• Interviews and unpublished works (except postgraduate theses) should not be cited. 

• Reference list must be written in alphabetical order according to first author last name, in 9 pt. For multiple authors, “and” should be used before the last author name. Indentation must be “hanging” by 1.25 cm.

Journal article:

Karadeniz, N., Somuncu, M.  2003. Approaches for Preservation of Mountainous Areas in Turkey Case Study: Kaçkar Muntains (Turkey). Montagnes Méditerranénnes, 17, 89-90.

Book:

Lynch, K. 1960. The Image of the City. The MIT Press: 194, USA.

Chapter of a book:

Somuncu, M. 2011. Sustainable Development in the Eastern Black Sea Mountains: Present State and Pesperctives. Editor(s): Zhelezov,G., Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe, Springer, London-New York, 215-226.

Papers in conference proceedings:

Somuncu, M., İnaner, H., Çiçek, İ. 2004. An Example of Geological and Geomorphological Heritage to be Protected: Gölcük Caldera (Isparta-Southwestern Turkey). Proceedings of 5th International Symposium on Eastern Mediterranean Geology , Thessaloniki-Greece, Volume 1, 427-429.

If no author is available:

Anonymous 1997. National Environmental Action Plan. State Planning Organization, Ankara.

Web pages:

Web pages should be cited as Anonymous with the year of access within the text (Anonymous, 2005), URL should be given in the reference list.

Anonymous 2007. Explore Europe’s changing landscape. http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/ explore-europe2019s-changing-landscape (Accessed: 21.12.2020).

• If ethical approval is necessary, author(s) must submit the approval of the Ethical Board and state that ethical approval has been obtained within the manuscript. 

• No adding and removal can be made after the acceptance of the manuscript for publishing. 

• Accepted manuscripts are published according to the manuscript submission date after reviewing and the editing process is over. 

• No more than two papers of an author can be published in the same issue as long as he/she is not the first author in one of the papers. 

• If the manuscript is more than 20 pages, it can be submitted in two parts with appropriate titles to be published in the following issues. 

• Authors are responsible for the content of accepted manuscripts.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

All articles submitted to Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences should be based on original work and must not be published before. Likewise, the authors should not submit the sme article to other journals for consideration at the same time. Each article is first checked by the Editorial office and goes through a blind peer-review process, with at least two referees. Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, slicing, 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 the publication. This includes articles with possible irregularities and inconsistencies detected after publication.
In case of possible scientific unethical behavior and ethical publication violation, COPE Ethics Flowcharts are taken into account: https://publicationethics.org/files/Full_set_of_flowcharts_Turkey_2017%20%281%29.pdf

PUBLICATION POLICY

Original articles prepared by researchers from both the discipline of environmental sciences and other disciplines related to environmental sciences are welcomed for submission. The publication policy of the Journal of Environmental Sciences; is to publish research and review articles, especially articles based on research and examination by applying new scientific methods and techniques. Apart from articles, book reviews, congress, symposium reports, research reports can also be included in the journal.

Manuscripts to be sent to the journal must first be approved by the Editorial Board. In addition, the articles are evaluated by at least two referees. Manuscripts should not exceed 20 pages in total, including the main text, references, charts, figures, and photographs. The responsibility of the articles published in the journal belongs to the author. When submitting a manuscript to the journal, the authors are deemed to have accepted that their studies have not been previously published or sent for publication in another scientific publication. In order to use the article evaluation process more efficiently and to increase the scientific quality of the journal, it is obligatory for the authors to comply with the journal's writing and structural format specifications.

PUBLICATION LANGUAGE
Publication languages ​​are Turkish and English. 

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY
 The journal is published twice a year.

COPYRIGHT
The authors are responsible for their opinions and suggestions in the articles and the accuracy of the resources they used. No copyright is paid to the articles published in the journal. The authors agree to transfer the copyright of the articles accepted for publication to Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences. The Editorial Board is authorized to publish the articles. However, the following rights are reserved by the authors:
1. All registered rights other than copyright.
2. The right to reproduce the article for its own purposes, provided that it is not sold.
3. Books, articles, etc. that the author will produce. The right to use all or part of the article in their studies provided that the Journal is cited.

REVISIONS
When submitting the revised texts, the author(s) should submit the report containing the list of revisions made according to the suggestions of the editor and the referees as a separate file.

ARTICLE STATUS
Other than Dergipark system, authors can track their articles via e-mail (csaum@ankara.edu.tr) or phone (Dr. Işıl Kaymaz: 903125961659) when it is necessary. 

OPEN ACCESS POLICY
Open access increases global access to information. Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences adopts an open access policy.

USE
Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences can be used, reproduced, and shared, provided that the source is cited in the context of open access policy. The official website of the journal is https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/aucevrebilim. Readers can access all published articles in the journal from this link.

ARTICLE EVALUATION PROCESS
This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa.
The manuscripts submitted to the journal are subject to peer-reviewing as well as a preliminary evaluation of the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board if necessary. Evaluations are made in accordance with the following criteria;
· Compliance with the scope and subject areas of the journal
Plagiarism check
· Compliance with the scientific rules of the journal
· Publication language (abstract, adequacy of keywords, structured abstract translation, etc.),
After the preliminary evaluation process is completed, two main and one substitute reviewers are invited to review, depending on the subject and content of the manuscripts.
First, the manuscript's abstract is sent to the reviewers. The reviewers must declare within 7 days whether they accept reviewing or not. If the reviewers accept the invitation, a full-text file of the manuscript is sent to them. The review period is a maximum of one month. The reviewers evaluate the manuscript on a standard evaluation form sent to them. In addition, if the reviewers wish, they can submit their notes stating their suggestions and opinions.

There are 4 options at the end of evaluation process for the reviewers
· Accept
· Minor revision. (Whether or not the revisions are made is decided by the referee and/or the editorial board).
· Major revision. (After the revision is received by the author(s), it is evaluated for the second round).
· Cannot be published.
If revisions are requested by the referees, the article is directed to the author(s) for necessary actions. The author(s) should submit their revisions within a month. When submitting the revised texts, the author(s) should submit a report containing the list of revisions made according to the suggestions of the editor and the reviewers as a separate file. Revisions made by the author(s) are sent to the reviewers for another round of evaluation which is a 15-day evaluation period. According to the re-evaluation of the reviewers;  authors can be asked to revise the article again, the article can be published or rejected with the approval of the editorial board. The final statement of evaluation is sent to the responsible author. 
In line with the opinions of the reviewers, 3rd or 4th reviewers can be appointed with the same procedure described above. 
Peer reviews guide the Editors and  Editorial Board to make their Final Decision. The final decision always rests with the Editors and the Editorial Board.

Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences does not charge any fee at any stage of submission, evaluation and publication of the articles.