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All articles submitted to Ankara University Journal of Environmental Sciences should be based on original work and must not be published before.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.