Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

PUBLICATION ETHICS
While establishing the ethical duties and responsibilities below, as open access, guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) were taken into account.
It is expected that the author(s) submitting a paper to Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science comply with ethical responsibilities and all stakeholders have the following ethical responsibilities within the scope of publication ethics.

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,

Other types of ethical violations include:
a) Failing to acknowledge the individuals, institutions, or organisations that provided support for research conducted with such support, or failing to acknowledge their contributions in publications resulting from such research,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or defended and accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Sharing information contained in a work assigned for review with others prior to publication without the express permission of the author,
ç) Using resources, premises, facilities, and equipment provided or allocated for scientific research for purposes other than those intended,
d) Making unfounded, inappropriate, and deliberate allegations of ethical violations,
e) Publishing data obtained without the explicit consent of participants in surveys and attitude studies conducted as part of scientific work, or without the additional permission of the institution if the research is to be conducted at an institution,
f) Failure to comply with the obligation to inform and warn those concerned about possible harmful practices related to scientific research conducted by researchers and officials,
g) In scientific studies, failing to use data and information obtained from other persons and institutions to the extent and in the manner authorised, failing to respect the confidentiality of this information and failing to ensure its protection,
h) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions,

Principles of Research Ethics and Scientific Responsibility
• Scientific integrity, impartiality, reliability, and transparency must be the guiding principles in the planning, conduct, reporting, and publication of research. Researchers must avoid misleading, incomplete, or manipulative practices during data generation, analysis, and interpretation; they must document all processes in a manner that allows for verification when necessary.
• Individuals participating in the research and the research team must be informed in a clear and understandable manner regarding the study’s purpose, method, scope, duration, data collection tools, and the intended uses of the data obtained. Sufficient explanations must be provided for all questions participants may have regarding the research, and the informed consent process must be carried out in its entirety.
• Personal data and sensitive information obtained from participants must be protected in accordance with the principle of confidentiality. During the processes of storing, processing, and sharing data, actions must comply with national and international data protection regulations; the principles of anonymity and privacy must be upheld. Any information that could lead to the disclosure of participants’ identities must be securely protected.
• Participation in research must be entirely voluntary. No pressure, coercion, threats, or material or emotional coercive elements should be imposed on participants. Participants must be clearly informed that they may withdraw from the study at any time without providing a reason.
• All necessary measures must be taken to ensure that individuals do not suffer physical, psychological, social, cultural, or economic harm during the research process. Potential risks must be assessed in advance, and strategies to mitigate harm must be developed. Studies involving children, individuals with disabilities, the elderly, or groups with limited decision-making capacity require additional ethical sensitivity; where necessary, consent from a legal representative must be obtained.
• Researchers must maintain their scientific independence and transparently disclose any conflicts of interest that could influence the study’s results. Financial support, sponsorship relationships, institutional affiliations, and project funding must be clearly disclosed. Research results must not be altered to serve the interests of any individual, institution, or organization.
• Conduct must adhere to the principles of scientific publication ethics; ethical violations such as plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, salami slicing, and unfair authorship must be avoided. Citations must be made in accordance with academic standards, and all scientific contributions used must be properly referenced.
• Research results must be evaluated with the public interest in mind. Incomplete or misleading statements that could lead to the misinterpretation of scientific knowledge or the misrepresentation of the public must be avoided. Researchers must act with a sense of academic responsibility in scientific communication processes.
• In research utilizing artificial intelligence, digital analysis tools, or automated data processing systems, the role of these technologies within the scope of the study must be clearly stated; data security, accuracy, and ethical usage principles must be taken into account.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHORS
The articles submitted by the author(s) are expected to be original. If the author(s) benefit from or use other articles, they are required to cite and/ or give reference completely and accurately. Those who do not contribute to the content intellectually in the creation of the article should not be specified as the author. If any article(s) submitted for publication have situations and relationships that may constitute a conflict of interest, this must be clearly stated. Raw data regarding their articles can be requested from the author(s) within the framework of the evaluation processes. In such a case, the author(s) should be ready to present the expected data and information to the editorial board and scientific committee. If the author(s) notices an inaccuracy or error in their published, early appearance or evaluation processes of their articles, he/she is obliged to cooperate with the editor in informing the journal editor or publisher, correcting the error or withdrawing the article. Authors cannot have their article in the application process of more than one journal at the same time. Each application can be started following the completion of the previous application. An article published in another journal cannot be sent to Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science. Changing the author responsibilities of an article whose evaluation process has begun (such as adding an author, changing the order of authors, removing an author) cannot be proposed.

ETHICAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS

General duties and responsibilities
Editors are responsible for every article published in Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science. Within the context of this responsibility, editors have the following roles and responsibilities:
• Making efforts to meet the information needs of readers and writers,
• Ensuring the continuous development of the journal,
• Conducting processes to improve the quality of articles published in the journal,
• Supporting freedom of thought,
• Ensuring academic integrity,
• Continuing business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
• Showing openness and transparency in terms of publication on issues that require correction and explanation.

Relations with the Reader
Editors should make decisions by considering the knowledge, skills and experience expectations of all readers, researchers and practitioners. They should pay attention to the fact that the published articles contribute to the reader, researcher, practitioner and scientific literature and that they are original. In addition, editors are obliged to consider the feedback from readers, researchers and practitioners, and to provide explanatory and informative feedback.

Relations with Authors
The duties and responsibilities of the editors to the authors are as follows:
• Editors should make a positive or negatory decision based on the importance, original value, validity, clarity of the narrative, and the journal's goals and objectives.
• Articles that are suitable for the scope of publication should be taken to the preliminary evaluation stage unless they have serious problems.
• Editors should not ignore positive referee suggestions unless there is a serious problem with the article.
• New editors should not change the decisions made by the previous editor(s) for articles unless there is a serious problem.
• “Blind Reviewing and Evaluation Process” must be published and the editors must prevent deviations that may occur in the defined processes.
• Authors should be given feedback in an explanatory and informative way.

Relations with Referees
The editor;
• should assign the referees in accordance with the subject of the article.
• is responsible for providing the information and guides that the referees will need during the evaluation phase.
• has to consider whether there is a conflict of interest between the authors and the referees.
• should keep the identity of the referees confidential in the context of blinded refereeing.
• should encourage the referees to evaluate the article in an impartial, scientific and objective language.
• should determine practices and policies that increase the performance of referees.
• should take the necessary steps to dynamically update the referee pool.
• should avoid rude and unscientific reviews.
• should take steps to ensure that the referee pool is broad.

Relations with the Editorial Board
Editors should ensure that all editorial board members follow the processes in accordance with editorial policies and guidelines. The Editor should inform the members of the Editorial Board about the editorial policies and keep them informed of the developments. In addition, editors should;
• ensure that members of the Editorial Board evaluate the article impartially and independently.
• nominate new editorial board members who can contribute and are suitable.
• submit articles suitable for the expertise of the members of the Editorial Board for evaluation.
• interact with the Editorial Board regularly.
• hold regular meetings with the Editorial Board for the development of editorial policies and the journal.

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

Editorial and Blind Peer Review Processes
Editors; is obliged to apply the “Blind Refereeing and Evaluation Process” policies included in the journal’s publication policies. In this context, the editors ensure that the fair, impartial and timely evaluation process of each article is completed.

Quality Assurance
Editors; are responsible for publishing every article published in the journal in accordance with journal publication policies and international standards.

Protection of Personal Data
Editors; are obliged to ensure the protection of personal data regarding the subjects or images included in the evaluated studies. They are responsible for rejecting the article unless the explicit consent of the individuals used in the studies is documented. In addition, editors are responsible for protecting the individual data of authors, referees and readers.

Ethics Committee Approval
Our journal requires that all studies in scientific fields requiring ethics committee approval have obtained the relevant ethics committee decision. In this context, information regarding ethics committee approval (committee name, date, and decision number) must be clearly stated in the article text.
In line with the regulations implemented by Ulakbim TR Index since 2020, studies without ethics committee approval are not considered for publication in our journal.
Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
Studies requiring ethics committee approval in our journal include the following:
• All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using survey, interview, focus group study, observation, interview techniques,
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
For such studies to be considered for evaluation, the relevant ethics committee approvals must have been obtained and clearly stated in the article text.

Precaution Against Possible Abuse and Misconduct
Editors are obliged to take precautions against possible abuse and misconduct. It is among the responsibilities of the editor to share the relevant findings, as well as to conduct a rigorous and objective investigation regarding the identification and evaluation of complaints regarding this situation.

Ensuring Academic Publication Integrity
Editors should ensure that judgments containing errors, inconsistencies or misdirection in studies are promptly corrected.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Editors are obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of the journal and the author(s) in case of possible violations. In addition, the editors are obliged to take the necessary measures so that the contents of all published articles do not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Constructivism and Openness to Discussion

Editors should;
• consider persuasive criticisms of the articles published in the Journal and should adopt a constructive attitude towards these criticisms.
• give the right of reply to the author(s) of the criticized articles.
• not ignore or exclude studies with negative results.

Complaints
Editors are responsible for carefully examining and responding to complaints from authors, referees or readers in an enlightening and explanatory manner. 

Political and Commercial Concerns
The journal owner, publisher and no other political or commercial factors affect the editors’ independent decision making.

Conflicts of Interest
The editors ensure that the publication process of the studies is completed independently and impartially, taking into account the conflicts of interest between the author(s), referees and other editors. Our journal acts in accordance with COPE principles (1,2) regarding potential conflicts of interest. 

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. Our journal acts in accordance with COPE principles (1,2,3,4,5) regarding relevant changes.

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. The COPE Principles (1,2,3,4,5,6) shall be taken into account with regard to corrections, retractions or expressions of concern.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF REFEREES
Evaluation of all articles with “Blind Refereeing” directly affects the quality of the publication. This process provides confidence through an objective and independent evaluation of the publication. Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science evaluation process is carried out with the principle of double-blind refereeing. Referees cannot directly communicate with authors, evaluations and comments are transmitted through the journal management system. In this process, reviewer comments on evaluation forms and full texts are forwarded to the author(s) through the editor. In this context, it is expected that the referees who evaluate the articles for Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science have the following ethical responsibilities:
• Reviewers should agree to evaluate only articles related to their field of expertise.
• They should evaluate articles neutrally and confidentially.
• If the referees think that they are facing a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, they should refuse to review the article and inform the journal editor.
• In accordance with the principle of confidentiality, the referees should destroy the articles they have reviewed after the evaluation process. They can only use the final versions of the articles they have reviewed after they are published.
• Referees should make the evaluation objectively only in relation to the content of the article. They should not allow nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns to influence the evaluation.
• Referees must do the evaluation in a constructive and courteous language. They should not make derogatory personal comments that include hostility, slander or insults.
• The referees must perform the article they accept to evaluate in the allotted time and in line with the above-mentioned ethical responsibilities.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PUBLISHER
Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science Editors and Editorial Board act with the awareness of the following ethical responsibilities:
• The editors are responsible for all processes of the articles submitted to Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science. In this context, the decision makers are the editors, regardless of economic or political gains.
• Undertakes to create an independent editorial decision.
• Protects the property and copyright of every article published in Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science and undertakes to keep a record of each published copy.
• Takes precautions against all kinds of scientific abuse, citation fraud and plagiarism regarding the editors.

In Case of an Unethical Situation
If you encounter any unethical behavior or content other than the above-mentioned ethical responsibilities and content in the Bitlis Eren University Journal of Science, please don’t hesitate to e-mail us. You can submit your submissions to our journal via fbe@beu.edu.tr. Our journal follows the procedure outlined in the COPE Principles (1,2) regarding complaints.

PUBLICATION POLICIES

General Principles
• Articles must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
• Manuscripts submitted to our journal are evaluated by at least two independent reviewers through a double-blind peer review process. Click here for more information.
• The copyright of articles published in the journal belongs to the authors, while the right to commercial use belongs to the journal. All articles published as open access in our journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Click here for more information.
• Articles published in our journal are digitally archived via LOCKSS. Articles published in our journal can be accessed free of charge at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/bitlisfen/archive. Click here for more information.

Special Issue Policy
The Editorial Board may decide to publish a special issue once a year. The publication and review principles applied to articles in regular issues are applied in the same manner to articles published in special issues. Click here for more information.

Artificial Intelligence Policy
Our journal acknowledges that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI technologies can be used as auxiliary and supportive tools in scientific research, academic writing, and publishing activities. However, AI systems cannot assume the scientific responsibilities and ethical obligations of authors, reviewers, or editors. Therefore, the use of AI technologies must be guided by the principles of transparency, accuracy, academic integrity, accountability, confidentiality, and research ethics. Click here for more information.

Fee Policy
Article submission, review, and publication processes in our journal are completely free of charge. No fees are charged for submitted or accepted articles. In accordance with our publication policy, we do not accept sponsorships or advertisements, and all expenses of the journal are covered by our Publisher.