As part of the article submission process for the Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University Journal of Natural Sciences, all authors are required to complete and sign the “Author Declaration Form Regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence” concerning the use of AI-based tools in the preparation and writing of the article.

When submitting a manuscript, the signed version of the form must be uploaded as an attachment to the DergiPark system by all authors.

If the form is incomplete or not uploaded, the manuscript submission process will not be initiated.

You can access the Author Declaration Form Regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence below.

📝 BSEU_FenBilimleri_Yapay_Zeka_Kullanim_Beyan_Formu.docx 

Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

General Framework

The Journal of Natural Sciences at Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University adheres to national and international standards regarding research and publication ethics. The journal has adopted the principles established by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). The journal’s ethical policy is outlined separately below under the headings “Research Ethics” and “Publication Ethics.”

RESEARCH ETHICS

All studies submitted to the journal must have been conducted in accordance with the following research ethics principles at every stage, from the design of the research to its reporting:

1. Scientific integrity, transparency, and ethical responsibility are fundamental to the design, review, conduct, and reporting of research.
2. For research in all scientific disciplines requiring ethics committee approval, such approval must have been obtained; the name of the committee, the date of the decision, and the decision number must be stated in the Methods section of the article, and the approval document must be uploaded to the system during submission as proof.
3. Studies that use data collection methods such as surveys, scales, interviews, focus group discussions, observations, experiments, and similar methods, as well as retrospective studies involving human or animal material or containing personal data, fall under the scope of ethics committee approval.
4. Research involving human participants is conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki; informed consent is obtained from participants, and this is clearly stated in the Methods section.
5. For research conducted on animals, the ARRIVE Guidelines are followed, and approval is obtained from the Local Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments.
6. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, this fact is stated in writing by the author(s), along with the rationale.
7. When using scales, questionnaires, tests, software, visuals, tables, and photographs belonging to others, permission is obtained from the rights holders, and this permission is indicated in the article.
8. Copyright regulations are adhered to in the use of intellectual and artistic works.
9. The provisions of the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 are followed regarding the processing and protection of personal data; participants’ identifying information is kept confidential.
10. Financial support provided for the research, as well as the contributions of the individuals, institutions, and organizations providing such support, are clearly stated.
11. Data fabrication, data manipulation, plagiarism, salami slicing, duplicate publication, and unfair authorship constitute violations of research ethics; if detected, COPE flowcharts are applied.

PUBLICATION ETHICS

The journal adheres to the COPE Core Practices, the “Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Best Practice for Journal Editors,” and the “Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers” throughout all stages of the publication process. All stakeholders in the publication process bear the following ethical responsibilities.

1. Authors’ Responsibilities

• All authors must have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the research; the ICMJE authorship criteria are followed.
• It must be declared that all data in the article are accurate and original.
• The reference list must be complete and accurate.
• Plagiarism and fabricated data must not be included.
• Attempts to publish the same research in more than one journal must not be made.
• The submitted work must not have been published elsewhere or submitted simultaneously to another journal.
• Conflicts of interest and financial support must be disclosed.
• Authors are responsible for ensuring that errors they identify in their published works are corrected or that the work is retracted.

Actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics:

a) Plagiarism: Presenting the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works of others—in whole or in part—as one’s own without properly citing the original authors in accordance with scientific standards,

b) Fabrication: Generating data not based on research; manipulating or altering a submitted or published work by basing it on false data; reporting or publishing such data; or presenting an unconducted study as if it had been conducted,

c) Falsification: Tampering with research records and obtained data; presenting methods, devices, and materials not used in the research as if they had been used; excluding data inconsistent with the research hypothesis from evaluation; manipulating data and/or results to conform to relevant theories or assumptions; or distorting or shaping research results in the interests of the individuals or institutions providing support,

ç) Duplicate Publication: Submitting more than one work containing the same research results as separate works in associate professor examination evaluations and academic promotions,

d) Salami slicing: Presenting the results of a single study as separate works in associate professorship examinations and academic promotions by dividing them into parts in an inappropriate manner that compromises the integrity of the research and publishing them as numerous separate publications without cross-referencing one another,

e) Unjustified authorship: Including individuals who made no active contribution among the authors; failing to include individuals who made an active contribution among the authors; altering the author order without justification or in an inappropriate manner; removing the names of those who made an active contribution from the work during publication or in subsequent editions; or using one’s influence to have one’s name included among the authors despite having made no active contribution,

f) Other types of ethical violations: Failing to clearly state the individuals, institutions, or organizations that provided support for research and their contributions to the study in publications resulting from such research; failing to comply with ethical guidelines in research involving humans and animals; failing to respect patient rights in publications; sharing information contained in a manuscript assigned for review as a referee with others before publication; misusing resources, facilities, equipment, and devices provided or allocated for scientific research; making completely baseless, unfounded, and deliberate allegations of ethical violations.

2. Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Reviews must be impartial, objective, and constructive; they must not contain personal criticism.
• Reviewers must not have a conflict of interest with the research, the authors, and/or research funders; in the event of a conflict of interest, the assignment must be declined and the editor must be informed.
• Reviewers should not accept review assignments for studies outside their area of expertise.
• Reviewers must identify relevant published works that have not been cited.
• The review process is based on the principle of confidentiality; no part of the work under review may be shared or used.

3. Editors’ Responsibilities

• Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject a manuscript.
• Articles are evaluated solely based on scientific content and originality, regardless of the authors’ language, religion, race, gender, nationality, institution, or political views.
• Editors must not have a conflict of interest regarding the articles they accept or reject; the evaluation of editors’ own work is conducted by an independent editor.
• Only articles that contribute to the field should be accepted.
• When an error is found, the publication of a correction or the retraction of the work should be supported.
• The identities of reviewers must be kept confidential, and plagiarism and fabricated data must be prevented. The peer review process is central to the success of scientific publishing.
• Objections, complaints, and allegations of ethical violations are investigated in accordance with COPE flowcharts.

4. Plagiarism Action Plan and the Journal’s Measures

The journal respects intellectual property and aims to protect and encourage authors’ original work. Articles containing plagiarism violate standards of quality, research, and innovation. Therefore, all authors submitting articles to the journal are expected to adhere to ethical standards and avoid plagiarism in any form.

Manuscripts that pass the preliminary screening are screened for plagiarism. If plagiarism or self-plagiarism is detected, authors are notified. Editors may, if necessary, subject the manuscript to additional plagiarism checks at various stages of the review or production process. High similarity rates may result in a manuscript being rejected before acceptance or even after acceptance. The similarity rate is expected not to exceed 20% overall—after excluding the reference list and header—or 5% from a single source.

The journal immediately contacts the university to which the author(s) are affiliated regarding published articles found to contain plagiarism; it removes the PDF copy of the published article from its website and disables all links to the full-text article.

5. Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors and cannot assume authorship responsibilities. Any AI-based tools used at any stage of the work must be disclosed using the “Author Declaration Form Regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence” located at the top of this page, specifying the purpose, scope, and stage of their use. Authors are responsible for the scientific accuracy and integrity of the final content. Reviewers may not upload all or part of the manuscripts they evaluate to artificial intelligence tools due to the principle of confidentiality. Editors will take action in accordance with COPE principles if they detect unreported use of artificial intelligence.

6. Conflict of Interest Policy

Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose all potential conflicts of interest, whether financial, institutional, or personal in nature. Disclosed conflicts are listed in the article under the heading “Conflict of Interest.”

7. Article Retraction, Correction, and Appeal Process

Articles may be retracted only if they have not yet been officially published. To retract an article, authors must write a clear and concise letter containing a detailed explanation of why the article should be retracted. The letter must be signed by all authors. The journal reserves the right to retract an article due to plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or other violations of ethical guidelines.

8. Special Issue Publication Policy

Articles submitted for inclusion in a special issue are first subject to an editorial preliminary review. They are then examined for compliance with the journal’s style guidelines, and a similarity check is conducted to prevent plagiarism. Following these stages, the articles undergo a peer-review process using a double-blind model.

ARTICLE REVIEW PROCESS

The Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University Journal of Natural Sciences employs a two-stage process for evaluating submitted articles, consisting of an internal editorial review and an external peer review. Immediately after submission, the Editor-in-Chief/Editor reviews the article to ensure it aligns with the journal’s purpose and scope and adheres to ethical standards in research and writing. Articles that comply with the journal’s publication policy are forwarded to one of the Associate Editors for formal review. The Associate Editor reviews the article for compliance with the journal’s formatting guidelines and submits it to a plagiarism check to detect any instances of plagiarism. Once these processes are completed, the external review process for the articles begins. During the external review stage, the Subject Editor selects at least two external reviewers from among experts with research experience in the article’s subject area. Reviewers are selected from among researchers holding at least a Ph.D. in the relevant field. The reviewers evaluate the article in detail in terms of its subject matter, methodology, and results, and provide their opinions on whether it should be published. Articles under review are subject to double-blind peer review. Articles accepted by at least two reviewers are prepared for publication. The accepted manuscript is reviewed one final time by the Editor-in-Chief or Editor. It is then sent for English language editing.