ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY

A- PUBLICATION ETHICS
Publication processes of Journal Belgi are based on producing, developing and sharing knowledge evenhandedly within scientific methods.

B- ALL CONTENT OF JOURNAL BELGİ IS OFFERED TO USERS FREE OF CHARGE IN AN “OPEN ACCESS” MANNER. THERE IS NO APPLICATION FEE AND NO FEE IS CHARGED FOR ANY PROCESS.
In our journal, we use the double blind review process. The manuscripts are firstly submitted to the editorial and/or field editors then forwarded to reviewers.

Peer-reviewed articles are studies that ensure the application and impartiality of the scientific method. All components of publication process (publisher, editors, authors, reviewers and readers) should obey ethical rules for scientific production. Within this context, the policies of ‘publication ethics’ and ‘open access’ also require all components of publication process to obey the ethical principles, in direction of guides and policies of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.

*In case we identify that author(s) of the manuscript use(s) falsified and fabricated data, then we will report this to the institution of the authors where he/she works and reject the manuscript. Editorial members of the journal and/or the reviewers reserve the right to ask author(s) to provide raw data which was used in the manuscript.

C- THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORIAL BOARD OF JOURNAL BELGİ
Board is based on independence policy, and all decisions of the editors are independent from the publisher and the other persons and institutions.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi permanently strives to develop and raise the quality of the journal.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi determines and performs journal policies as publication, blind review, evaluation process and ethical principles.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi protects the copyright of the authors of the articles published in the journal.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi is responsible for keeping intellectual property rights of authors in publication processes and guarding against unethical behaviors, plagiarism and reference gangs.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi prepares a “Guide for Authors” to inform authors and “Guide for Reviewers” to inform reviewers about evaluation processes.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi determines incentive policies for the authors.
The Editorial Board of Journal Belgi keeps records of every article electronically or in written forms.

D- EDITORS ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
1-Editors try to inform reviewers, authors, researchers and readers, to answer their questions clearly within the principles of clarity.
2- Editors, during the publication process, consider that the articles should be original and contribute the literature, the readers and researchers.
3- While editors are making decisions about the article publication, they consider originality, contribution to the field, clarity of expressions, content and validity and reliability of the articles.
4- Editors take the articles without any problem to the preliminary evaluation, consider positive views of reviewers, and they do not change the decisions of the reviewers unless there is a big problem for publishing. Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by editor-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope.
5- Editors implement the policies of blind review and evaluation processes, keep private personal identity information of the authors, and provide impartial evaluation processes in due of time for the articles.
6- Editors send the articles to field editors and reviewers considering their professional fields, and care that the articles are evaluated impartially and independently.
7- Editors, in evaluation processes, consider if there are conflicts or collaborations between authors and reviewers or not.
8- Editors generate a large number or reviewers, and they update it consistently.
9- Editors prevent non-scientific evaluations that do not comply with academic writing rules.
10- Editors ensure that journal publishing processes are operated in accordance with publishing policies and guidelines, inform those who are in the process of the developments on publishing policies, and prepare training programs when necessary.
11- Editors communicate effectively with everyone involved in the publishing processes, and organize meetings at regular intervals.
12- Editors provide protection of personal data in assessed articles; they keep personal data of authors, referees and readers.
13- Editors take precautions against misconduct. When there are complaints about the abuse of duty, they share the findings about the subject by conducting an objective investigation.
14- Editors ensure that errors, inconsistencies or misdirections in articles are corrected.
15- Editors protect the intellectual property rights of the published articles, and defend the rights of the journal and the author (s) in case of violation. Editors also take the necessary precautions to ensure that the content of the published articles does not infringe the intellectual property rights of other publications; they control authenticity-similarity.
16- Editors consider consistent critiques for the articles published in the journal and enables authors to answer these critiques.
17- Editors evaluate the complaints sent to the journal and make necessary statements.

E- ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Journal Belgi is evaluated by double-blind review in a process, which neither the authors know the reviewers nor the reviewers know the authors; reviewers cannot communicate the authors directly; article evaluation forms and proofreading requests are sent to the authors through the website of the journal. Reviewers must bear the ethical responsibilities in Pamukkale University Journal Belgi as below:
1- Reviewers should only accept to evaluate the articles related to the field of their specializations.
2- Reviewers should make the evaluation impartially and confidentially. In accordance with this principle, the articles they review should be annihilated after the evaluation process, but they should be used after publication. Nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns should not distort the impartiality of the evaluation.
3- When reviewers understand that there is a conflict or collaboration, they should inform the editors and refuse to evaluate the article.
4- Reviewers must evaluate articles with a constructive attitude in accordance with the academic etiquette rules; they should refrain from insulting and hostile personal comments.
5- Reviewers should evaluate the article they accept within the deadline.

F- ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHORS
The ethical responsibilities of the authors that apply to Journal Belgi as below:
1- The author(s) should not send an article that they have published or submitted for publication elsewhere and more than one article at the same time to Journal Belgi.
2- The authors should send original articles to Journal Belgi . Authors should refer to the sources they use in writing articles in the correct way in the direction of ethical principles.
3- Persons who do not contribute to the articles should not be listed as authors, and it should not be proposed to change the author order of a published article and to add authors.
4- Reviewers must notify the editors of the conflicts and collaborations about the article.
5- In the evaluation process of the articles the authors should provide the editorial staff with information about the articles or the raw data if required.
6- The authors must document the rights to use the data they use in their articles, the permission for research or the approval of the participants to whom they have searched.
7- Authors should communicate with the editors to provide information, to correct the article or to withdraw it when they are aware of the error associated with the evaluation and early appearance phase or the published article in electronic form.
8- The author (s) should present proof of their ethical principles in the data collection process (such as obtaining permission from others to use documents such as scale, questionnaire, photograph). It should be noted that the articles comply with copyright regulations for research and publication ethics and intellectual and artistic works.

G- NOTIFICATION OF ETHICS NON-PRINCIPLES STATUS EDITOR
In case of encountering an unethical situation in articles or about editors, reviewers and authors or in articles that does not comply with the ethical principles regarding in Journal Belgi , it should be reported by e-mail to the belgidergisi@pau.edu.tr address.