Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
The Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University is an international, peer-reviewed, scholarly, and open access journal that aims to publish original, high-quality research contributing to the fields of social sciences and humanities. The journal is published by the Faculty of Letters of Bartın University and is issued electronically twice a year, in June and December.
The journal may publish original research articles, review articles, translated articles, and book reviews in the fields of Information and Document Management, Contemporary Turkish Dialects and Literatures, Translation and Interpreting, Philosophy, Psychology, Art History, Sociology, History, Turkish Language and Literature, and related areas of the social sciences and humanities. The journal is guided by the principles of scientific originality, research ethics, methodological consistency, accuracy in the use of sources, academic language, and contribution to the international literature.
The publication policy of the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University is based on the principles of research and publication ethics, editorial independence, impartiality in peer review, transparency, accountability, academic integrity, open access, and the free circulation of scholarly knowledge.
1. International Standards and General Principles
The Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University takes national and international standards of academic publishing into account in its publication processes. The journal’s publication ethics and editorial practices are conducted in accordance with the principles of scientific research and publication ethics determined by the Council of Higher Education, and with the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and other relevant national and international publishing guidelines.
All submissions to the journal are evaluated within the framework of the following principles:
Scientific originality and academic contribution,
Compliance with research and publication ethics,
Impartiality and confidentiality in the peer review process,
Clear definition of author, reviewer, and editor responsibilities,
Transparent disclosure of conflicts of interest,
Prevention of plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, and unethical authorship practices,
Clear disclosure of open access and copyright policies,
Transparent handling of corrections, retractions, and ethical complaints.
2. Publication Policy
The Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University aims to publish works of high academic quality that are original and make a scholarly contribution. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been previously published, must not be under consideration by another journal, and must be prepared in accordance with scientific research and publication ethics.
Manuscripts to be published in the journal must fall within the aims and scope of the journal. Manuscripts that are outside the journal’s scope, lack sufficient scholarly quality, have limited originality, contain incomplete ethical declarations, or are not prepared in accordance with the author guidelines may be rejected by the editorial board without being sent for peer review.
The scientific, ethical, legal, and linguistic responsibility of the articles published in the journal belongs to their authors. Published articles do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Faculty of Letters of Bartın University, the journal, the editors, or the editorial board.
3. Peer Review Policy
Research and review articles submitted to the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University are evaluated through a double-blind peer review system. In the double-blind peer review system, the identities of the authors are not disclosed to the reviewers, and the identities of the reviewers are not disclosed to the authors.
Submissions to the journal are first subject to preliminary editorial review. At this stage, the manuscript is evaluated in terms of its relevance to the journal’s scope, compliance with the author guidelines, completeness of ethical declarations, similarity rate, citation and referencing practices, and scholarly quality. Manuscripts that do not pass the preliminary review may be returned to the author or rejected without being sent for peer review.
Manuscripts that pass the preliminary review are sent to at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. If one reviewer provides a positive opinion and the other provides a negative opinion, the editorial board may send the manuscript to a third reviewer or may make the final decision by considering the justifications provided in the reviewer reports. The final publication decision is made by the editor-in-chief/editorial board in accordance with reviewer reports and editorial assessment.
The peer review process is conducted in accordance with the principles of impartiality, confidentiality, scientific competence, and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Reviewers are expected to decline the review invitation if they have any conflict of interest regarding the manuscript they are asked to evaluate.
Manuscripts authored by editors, editorial board members, or individuals affiliated with the journal are subject to an independent peer review and editorial evaluation process in which the relevant person is excluded from all editorial decision-making processes.
4. Research Ethics
All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be prepared in accordance with the principles of research ethics. Ethics committee approval is required for studies involving human participants, surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, experiments, applications, personal data use, or similar methods.
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the name of the ethics committee, the approval date, and the approval number must be clearly stated in the manuscript. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, this must be stated in the manuscript with an appropriate justification.
Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions and fulfilling all ethical and legal obligations in studies involving archival documents, historical records, visual materials, personal data, oral history records, private collections, or copyrighted materials.
In studies involving participants, informed consent must be obtained; the privacy, personal data, and identity information of the participants must be protected. Personal data must be used in accordance with relevant legal regulations and ethical principles.
During manuscript submission, the Ethics Committee Approval Declaration Form signed by all authors must be uploaded to the system. If the study falls within the scope of ethics committee approval, the relevant Ethics Committee Approval Declaration Form must also be included in the submission files. Explanations regarding research that requires or does not require ethics committee approval are provided in detail in the Ethics Committee Declaration Letter document. Authors are advised to review this document before submission.
5. Publication Ethics
The Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University does not tolerate unethical publishing practices such as plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, salami slicing, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, guest authorship, ghost authorship, unauthorized use of data, concealment of conflicts of interest, or manipulative citation practices.
Submissions to the journal must be original and must not have been published elsewhere. The same manuscript may not be submitted simultaneously to another journal. Studies previously presented as conference papers may be considered for evaluation provided that they have been expanded and converted into article format. In such cases, the previous version of the study and the event at which it was presented must be clearly stated in the manuscript.
Authors must cite all sources used in their studies accurately, completely, and in accordance with the appropriate citation rules. Ideas, texts, data, visuals, tables, figures, or findings belonging to others may not be used without proper citation.
6. Similarity and Plagiarism Policy
Submissions to the journal may be screened for similarity/plagiarism during the preliminary editorial review stage. Similarity reports are evaluated not only based on the numerical similarity rate but also in terms of the nature of the similarity, citation practices, proper use of direct quotations, and compliance with academic writing principles. Manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated through the iThenticate software after the peer review process is completed and before publication in order to prevent plagiarism. The maximum acceptable similarity rate is 20%.
Manuscripts in which plagiarism, self-plagiarism, improper quotation, unattributed use of sources, data manipulation, or text manipulation is detected are rejected. If an ethical violation is identified after publication, correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction procedures may be initiated.
7. Author Responsibilities
Authors acknowledge that the manuscript they submit to the journal is original, scholarly, and prepared in accordance with ethical principles. Authors are required to declare that the manuscript has not been previously published and is not under consideration by another journal at the same time.
The main responsibilities of authors are as follows:
To prepare the manuscript in accordance with scientific research and publication ethics,
To cite all sources accurately and completely,
To obtain the necessary ethics committee approvals and legal permissions,
To clearly declare conflicts of interest, financial support, and author contributions,
To be responsible for the accuracy of the data presented in the manuscript,
To respond to reviewer and editor comments in a scientific and constructive manner,
To inform the editorial office immediately if an error is identified in the manuscript,
Not to submit the manuscript to another journal before the evaluation process is completed.
All authors share responsibility for the content of the manuscript. Authorship order and author contributions must be agreed upon among the authors before manuscript submission. Requests to add or remove authors or to change the author order after submission may be considered only with the written approval of all authors and the approval of the editorial board.
8. Authorship and Contribution Statement
Individuals listed as authors must have made a meaningful academic contribution to the study. Individuals who have not contributed to the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, critical revision, or final approval should not be listed as authors.
Guest authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are not accepted. Individuals who have contributed to the study but do not meet the authorship criteria may be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section.
In multi-author studies, the contribution rate or type of contribution of each author must be clearly stated. Authors are jointly responsible for the published version of the manuscript and its ethical obligations.
9. Conflict of Interest Policy
Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest that may influence the evaluation, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript.
Conflicts of interest may be financial, institutional, academic, personal, professional, or of another nature. Authors must clearly state in the manuscript if there is no conflict of interest.
Reviewers must withdraw from the evaluation process if they believe they have a conflict of interest regarding the manuscript they are invited to review. Editors may not take part in the decision-making process for manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.
10. Funding and Support Statement
Authors must clearly disclose all financial support, project numbers, and institutional or organizational support provided for their studies. If no financial support has been received, this must also be declared in the manuscript.
If the funding institution or organization has had any role in the design of the research, data collection and analysis, interpretation, writing, or decision to publish, this role must be clearly explained.
11. Ethics Committee Approval and Permissions
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, approval information must be included in the manuscript. This information must include at least the name of the ethics committee, the approval date, and the approval number.
Manuscripts that require ethics committee approval but do not include approval information may not be evaluated or may be returned to the authors. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, this must be clearly stated in the manuscript.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the use of copyrighted visuals, tables, figures, archival documents, photographs, translated texts, or other materials.
12. Data Sharing and Research Integrity
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, reliability, and ethical collection of the data used in their studies. When necessary, the editorial office may request research data, analysis files, permission documents, or additional explanations from the authors during the evaluation process.
Fabrication, falsification, distortion, selective reporting, or use of data in a way that may mislead research results is considered an ethical violation.
Personal data, sensitive information, or data concerning the privacy of third parties must be protected in accordance with relevant legal regulations and ethical principles.
13. Reviewer Responsibilities
Reviewers must evaluate the manuscripts assigned to them in accordance with the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, and scientific objectivity. Reviewers should accept evaluation requests only for manuscripts that fall within their area of expertise.
The main responsibilities expected of reviewers are as follows:
To evaluate the manuscript according to scientific criteria,
To avoid personal, derogatory, or offensive comments directed at the author,
To maintain confidentiality throughout the review process,
Not to share the content of the manuscript with third parties,
Not to use information obtained from the manuscript for personal or academic benefit,
To inform the editor if similarity, ethical violation, missing references, or scientific problems are identified,
Not to review manuscripts where a conflict of interest exists,
To submit the review report in a timely and justified manner.
14. Editor Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for preserving the scholarly quality of the journal and for conducting the publication processes in accordance with the principles of impartiality and transparency. Editors evaluate manuscripts according to scientific criteria, regardless of the authors’ identity, institution, title, gender, language, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, political opinion, or personal characteristics.
The main responsibilities of editors are as follows:
To evaluate submissions in terms of aims and scope, originality, scholarly quality, and ethical compliance,
To select appropriate reviewers and conduct the peer review process impartially,
To make the final decision by taking reviewer reports and editorial assessments into consideration,
To manage conflicts of interest,
To protect editorial independence,
To carefully examine allegations of ethical violations,
To initiate correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction procedures when necessary,
To evaluate complaints from authors, reviewers, and readers fairly.
Editors base their decisions on scholarly quality, research ethics, the journal’s scope, and contribution to readers.
15. Editorial Board and Section Editors
The editorial board and section editors contribute to the development of the journal’s academic quality. Board members support the scholarly evaluation processes in accordance with the journal’s aims and scope, may recommend reviewers, and contribute to the development of publication policies.
Editorial board members may submit manuscripts to the journal for publication; however, such manuscripts are subject to an independent evaluation process in which the relevant board member is excluded from all editorial decision-making processes.
16. Editorial Independence
Publication decisions in the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University are made solely on the basis of the scholarly quality, originality, ethical compliance, contribution to the journal’s scope, and reviewer evaluations of the manuscript.
The publisher, institutional authorities, sponsors, or third parties may not interfere in editorial decision-making processes. The editorial board has the authority to make independent decisions in accordance with the principles of scholarly publishing.
17. Correction, Retraction, and Expression of Concern Policy
If a significant error affecting the scientific content, data accuracy, author information, ethical declarations, or bibliographic information of a published article is identified, a correction may be published.
If serious ethical violations, plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, unauthorized use, duplicate publication, or another issue that undermines scientific reliability is identified, the article may be retracted.
In cases where an investigation has not reached a final conclusion but serious concerns exist regarding the reliability of the article, an expression of concern may be published.
Correction, retraction, and expression of concern procedures are evaluated by the editorial board, and additional information may be requested from relevant institutions, authors, reviewers, or readers when deemed necessary.
18. Complaint and Appeal Process
Authors, reviewers, readers, or other stakeholders may submit complaints and appeals regarding the publication process, editorial decisions, allegations of ethical violations, or published content to the journal editorial office in writing.
Complaints and appeals are examined impartially. When necessary, opinions may be obtained from the editorial board, publication board, or independent field experts. The appeal process is conducted within the framework of the scientific justifications of peer review decisions and editorial evaluation principles.
19. Artificial Intelligence Use Policy
Authors may use generative artificial intelligence tools only in a limited and responsible manner for language editing, grammar checking, translation support, idea development, or technical assistance. Generative artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors because authorship requires scientific responsibility, ethical accountability, and copyright responsibility.
If artificial intelligence tools have been used, the scope and purpose of their use must be clearly declared in the manuscript. Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, referencing, and ethical compliance of all content produced with the support of artificial intelligence.
Reviewers and editors may not upload confidential manuscript content under evaluation to third-party artificial intelligence tools. Confidentiality is essential in the peer review process.
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/buefd/page/19891
20. Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing Policy
The Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University is an open access journal. All articles published in the journal are freely available to all readers immediately upon publication, without any subscription, access fee, registration requirement, or embargo period.
The full texts of the articles published in the journal may be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, printed, searched, and used for academic, educational, and scholarly purposes, provided that proper attribution is given.
Articles published in the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License — CC BY-NC 4.0. This license permits non-commercial sharing and use of the work, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author and the source in which it was first published.
Authors retain the copyright of their published works. By submitting their manuscripts to the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University, authors grant the journal the non-exclusive right of first publication and the right to publish, archive, index, and distribute the published version in accordance with open access principles.
Authors must complete the Copyright and Publishing Agreement Form when submitting a manuscript to the journal.
21. Price Policy
The Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University does not charge any fees to authors or readers. No submission fee, editorial processing fee, peer review fee, article processing charge, page charge, color figure charge, DOI fee, language editing fee, withdrawal fee, or any other fee is charged.
All publication processes of the journal are free of charge. The absence of fees does not affect the scientific independence of the peer review and editorial evaluation processes.
22. Archiving and Preservation Policy
Articles published in the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University are made available through the DergiPark system and are digitally archived. The journal supports digital preservation and archiving principles in order to ensure the long-term accessibility of published content.
Authors may share the published version of their articles on personal websites, institutional repositories, academic networks, and other open access platforms, provided that proper citation and a link to the first publication in the journal are given.
23. Privacy Statement
Names, e-mail addresses, institutional information, and other personal data entered into the journal system are used only for the scholarly publication processes of the journal. This information is not shared with third parties except where legally required.
Manuscripts under evaluation, reviewer reports, and editorial correspondence are considered confidential. Editors, reviewers, and editorial board members may not share this information with third parties.
24. Ethical Misconduct Notifications
The editorial office may be notified if there is a suspicion of ethical misconduct regarding a manuscript published in the journal or under evaluation.
Ethical misconduct notifications are carefully examined by the editorial board. The principles of impartiality, confidentiality, and fair investigation are observed in the evaluation of allegations. When necessary, explanations may be requested from authors, reviewers, or field experts, and relevant institutions may be contacted.
25. Final Provisions
Authors who submit manuscripts to the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Bartın University are deemed to have accepted the journal’s ethical principles, publication policy, open access policy, copyright and licensing terms.
The journal editorial office reserves the right to update the ethical principles and publication policy in accordance with developments in national and international scholarly publishing standards. Updated policies become effective as of the date they are published on the journal website.
If you notice a significant error or mistake in a published article, or if you encounter behavior or content that does not comply with the ethical responsibilities mentioned above, please report it via email to mbalik@bartin.edu.tr.
Bartın University Journal of Faculty of Letters