Published under the auspices of the Turcology Research Institute of Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University, the Journal of Turcology is grounded in the principles of absolute transparency, objectivity, and academic integrity in the production of scientific knowledge. Our editorial processes strictly adhere to the universal ethical guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

I. PUBLICATION POLICY

1. Blind Peer Review and Editorial Evaluation Process To guarantee scientific merit and impartiality, the Journal of Turcology implements an uncompromising double-blind peer review system. The identities of both authors and reviewers remain strictly confidential throughout the entire process. Manuscripts that fail to meet the journal's scope, formatting template, or minimum scientific standards during the preliminary desk review are categorically rejected by the Editorial Board without entering the peer review process.

2. Plagiarism and Similarity Check A zero-tolerance policy regarding scientific theft and plagiarism is enforced. All submitted manuscripts are screened via Turnitin/iThenticate software during the preliminary review and immediately prior to publication. Manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 15% (excluding bibliography, direct quotations, and author names) are unconditionally rejected. Missing quotation marks, absent page numbers in direct quotes, or the falsification/fabrication of sources constitute grounds for immediate rejection.

3. Multiple, Concurrent, and Redundant Publications Submitting a manuscript based on the same research simultaneously to multiple journals, or re-submitting a previously published work, is strictly prohibited. Upon detection of such an ethical violation, the manuscript is rejected, and the author's affiliated institution may be notified.

4. Open Access and Copyright Policy The journal adopts Open Access principles, making all published articles freely available to the international scientific community. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits the non-commercial use, reproduction, and distribution of the work, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source.

II. ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

1. Duties of Editors and the Editorial Board

• Absolute Objectivity: Editors evaluate manuscripts based solely on scientific originality, methodological validity, contribution to the international literature, and relevance to the journal's focus. The demographic, institutional, or political identities of the authors must not influence editorial decisions.
• Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality: Editors and board members must not utilize unpublished data from submitted manuscripts in their own research. An editor must recuse themselves from the review process if a competitive or collaborative conflict of interest exists with the author or the supporting institution. Submitted texts must not be shared with anyone outside of the publisher and the assigned reviewers.

2. Duties of Reviewers

• Scientific Rigor and Impartiality: Reviews must be conducted with objectivity conforming to international standards. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Reviewers must support their claims with concrete academic arguments and relevant literature.
• Competence and Timeliness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to evaluate the manuscript or anticipates being unable to complete the review within the designated timeframe must immediately notify the editor and withdraw from the process to prevent delays.
• Acknowledgement of Sources and Violation Detection: Reviewers should identify fundamental published works relevant to the topic that have not been cited by the authors. If a reviewer notices any substantial overlap or similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any other published work, they must report it to the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

3. Duties of Authors

• Originality and Data Transparency: Authors guarantee that their submitted research is entirely original. Data fabrication, data falsification, and the use of fictitious sources (e.g., hallucinated DOIs or bibliographic records) are considered academic fraud. Research methodologies and primary sources (archival documents, data sets) must be presented transparently to allow independent verification and replication.
• Authorship Criteria: Authorship is strictly limited to individuals who have made a direct and substantial contribution to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or drafting of the manuscript. The corresponding author guarantees that all co-authors have approved the final version of the work.
• Declaration of Conflicts of Interest and Funding: Any institutions or projects supporting the research (e.g., grant numbers), as well as any potential conflicts of interest, must be explicitly declared at the end of the manuscript.

4. Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In accordance with COPE and WAME guidelines, the rules governing the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the academic publication process are as follows:

• Prohibition of AI Authorship: No AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) may be listed as an author or co-author of a manuscript. AI tools cannot hold intellectual property rights, assume ethical responsibility, or bear legal liability; therefore, they do not meet the criteria for authorship.
• Transparency and Mandatory Disclosure: If an author uses any AI tool during the conceptualization, data analysis, translation, or proofreading of the manuscript, they must explicitly declare this usage in the "Methodology" or "Acknowledgements/Declarations" section, specifying the name of the tool, its version, and the purpose of its use.
• Accountability for Content: The human author(s) bear full and exclusive responsibility for the accuracy of all text, analyses, citations, and bibliographical references within the manuscript. The author is accountable for any "hallucinations" (fabricated sources, fake author names, or invalid DOIs) generated by AI tools. The detection of AI-generated fake data or fabricated sources will result in the immediate rejection of the manuscript or its retraction if already published.

Access to Information and Publications

The official website of the “Türkoloji” journal provides unrestricted access to information for authors and readers. Users can freely access publication guidelines, editorial policies, submission rules, peer-review procedures, editorial board contacts, and other relevant information. Previous issues of the journal are also available for free download in the archive section.

Copyright

The “Türkoloji” journal accepts only manuscripts that have not been previously published elsewhere (print, electronic, or other formats). Copyright of accepted manuscripts is protected by the journal. Copyright holders may reuse, modify, copy, and incorporate their published work in other publications with proper citation in accordance with journal rules. Individuals not listed as authors must use the work in compliance with plagiarism and citation rules.

Confidentiality Agreement

To ensure fairness during the review process, both authors and reviewers remain mutually anonymous. Therefore, manuscripts submitted via the electronic system do not contain author information, and authors are not provided with reviewer identities. This mutual confidentiality system is implemented to prevent direct communication between authors and reviewers and to avoid potential bias or unfair treatment. Mutual confidentiality directly contributes to the quality of scientific publishing.