Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
Bartın University Journal of Educational Research (BUJER) is an international, peer-reviewed, scholarly, and open-access journal committed to the principles of research and publication ethics. The journal’s publication processes are conducted in accordance with the principles of academic integrity, impartiality, transparency, accountability, editorial independence, scholarly quality, open access, and the free dissemination of scholarly knowledge.
1. International Standards and Fundamental Principles
The journal’s publication ethics and editorial procedures are conducted with due regard to 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), the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), and other relevant national and international standards of scholarly publishing.
All parties involved in the publication process—including authors, reviewers, editors, section editors, editorial board members, and the publisher—are required to comply with these ethical principles.
2. Publication Policy
Bartın University Journal of Educational Research aims to publish original, high-quality scholarly works that make meaningful contributions to educational policy, educational practice, and professional development.
The journal publishes original research articles and systematic reviews in the fields of curriculum and instruction, guidance and psychological counselling, open and distance learning, adult education and lifelong learning, art education, instructional technologies, primary education, early childhood education, language education, mathematics education, physical education and sports, science education, educational measurement and evaluation, and educational administration.
Submissions must not have been previously published or submitted to another journal for simultaneous consideration and must be prepared in accordance with the principles of research and publication ethics.
Works submitted for publication must fall within the journal’s aims and scope. Submissions that fall outside the journal’s scope, lack sufficient scholarly quality or originality, contain incomplete ethical declarations, or fail to comply with the journal’s author guidelines may be rejected by the editorial board without being sent for peer review.
Authors bear full scientific, ethical, legal, and linguistic responsibility for the works published in the journal.
3. Peer-Review Policy
Original research articles and systematic reviews submitted to Bartın University Journal of Educational Research are evaluated through a double-anonymized peer-review process. Under this 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 are first subject to a preliminary editorial assessment. At this stage, the following aspects are evaluated:
Conformity with the journal’s aims and scope;
Compliance with the author guidelines;
Scholarly quality and originality;
Appropriateness of the research methodology;
Completeness of ethical declarations;
Similarity rate;
Citation and referencing practices;
Compliance with file submission requirements.
Submissions that do not pass the preliminary assessment may be returned to the authors or rejected without being sent for peer review.
Submissions that pass the preliminary assessment are sent to at least two independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Where one reviewer provides a positive recommendation and the other provides a negative recommendation, the editorial board may refer the submission to a third reviewer or make a final decision after considering the scholarly reasoning provided in the reviewer reports.
The final publication decision is made by the editor-in-chief or the editorial board on the basis of the reviewer reports and the editorial assessment.
The peer-review process is conducted in accordance with the principles of impartiality, confidentiality, scholarly competence, and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Reviewers are expected to decline an invitation to review where they have an actual or potential conflict of interest concerning the work under consideration.
Reviewers are not selected from among individuals employed at the same institution as the authors. Editors must ensure that no institutional, academic, personal, or financial conflict of interest exists between the authors and reviewers.
Submissions authored by an editor, editorial board member, or another person affiliated with the journal are subject to an independent peer-review and editorial evaluation process from which the relevant individual is entirely excluded.
4. Research Ethics
All works submitted to the journal must be prepared in accordance with the principles of research ethics. Approval must be obtained from the relevant ethics committee for studies involving human participants and employing methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, classroom observations, experiments, interventions, scale development or adaptation, the use of personal data, or comparable research procedures.
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the name of the ethics committee, the date of approval, and the decision or approval number must be clearly stated in the manuscript. Where ethics committee approval is not required, this must be declared in the manuscript together with an appropriate justification.
Authors are responsible for obtaining all necessary institutional permissions and participant consent for research involving students, teachers, pre-service teachers, administrators, parents, or other participants.
Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions and fulfilling all ethical and legal obligations in studies involving educational records, student achievement data, personal data, visual or audio recordings, assessment instruments, scales, tests, instructional materials, or other copyrighted content.
Informed consent must be obtained for research involving participants. Participants’ privacy, personal data, and identifying information must be protected. For studies involving children or other vulnerable groups, the necessary consent must be obtained from parents or legal representatives.
Personal data must be collected, stored, processed, and reported in accordance with applicable legal requirements and the principles of research ethics.
During submission, an Ethics Committee Approval Declaration Form, signed by all authors, must be uploaded to the journal system. Where the study is subject to ethics committee approval, the relevant ethics committee approval document must also be included among the submission files.
Detailed information regarding studies that require or do not require ethics committee approval is provided in the Ethics Committee Declaration Form. Authors are advised to review this document before submitting their work.
5. Publication Ethics
Bartın University Journal of Educational Research does not tolerate the following unethical publication practices:
Plagiarism and self-plagiarism;
Data fabrication;
Data falsification or manipulation;
Misleading presentation of research findings;
Salami slicing or fragmented publication;
Duplicate or redundant publication;
Simultaneous submission;
Inappropriate authorship;
Gift or honorary authorship;
Ghost authorship;
Unauthorized use of data or materials;
Failure to disclose conflicts of interest;
Manipulative or irrelevant citation practices.
Submissions must be original and must not have been published elsewhere. The same work may not be submitted simultaneously to another journal.
Works previously presented at a scholarly meeting but not published in full may be considered for publication, provided that they have been substantially expanded and converted into article format. In such cases, the previous version of the work and the name, location, and date of the event at which it was presented must be clearly stated in the manuscript.
Authors must cite all sources used in their work accurately, completely, and in accordance with the applicable citation rules. Ideas, texts, data, images, tables, figures, scales, tests, instructional materials, or findings belonging to others may not be used without appropriate attribution.
6. Similarity and Plagiarism Policy
Submissions are screened using iThenticate software during the preliminary editorial review or prior to publication.
Similarity reports are not evaluated solely on the basis of a numerical percentage. The nature of the similarity, citation practices, the appropriateness of direct quotations, standard expressions used in the methodology section, and compliance with academic writing principles are also taken into consideration.
The total similarity rate, excluding the reference list, is expected not to exceed 20%. Similarity with any single source must not exceed 3%.
A submission may still be considered ethically unacceptable even where the similarity rate falls below the specified thresholds, depending on the nature of the similarity. The final evaluation and decision regarding similarity rates rests with the editorial office.
Submissions found to contain plagiarism, self-plagiarism, inappropriate quotation, unattributed material, or manipulation of data or text are rejected. Where an ethical violation is identified after publication, the journal may initiate procedures for correction, editorial clarification, expression of concern, or retraction.
7. Authors’ Responsibilities
By submitting a work to the journal, authors affirm that it is original, scholarly, and compliant with ethical principles. Authors are required to declare that the work has not previously been published and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
Authors’ primary responsibilities include:
Preparing the work in accordance with the principles of scholarly research and publication ethics;
Citing all sources accurately and completely;
Obtaining all necessary ethics committee and institutional approvals;
Obtaining the required consent from participants;
Clearly disclosing conflicts of interest;
Disclosing funding and support information;
Stating author contributions;
Assuming responsibility for the accuracy and reliability of the data presented in the work;
Responding to reviewers’ and editors’ comments in a scholarly, reasoned, and constructive manner;
Promptly informing the editorial office if a significant error is identified in the manuscript;
Refraining from submitting the work to another journal before the evaluation process has been concluded;
Providing research data, analysis files, permission documents, or additional explanations to the editorial office when requested.
All authors share responsibility for the content of the manuscript. The order of authors and their respective contributions must be agreed upon before the submission process is completed.
Requests to add or remove an author or change the order of authors after submission may be considered only where the reason for the requested change is explained, written consent is obtained from all authors, and the editorial board approves the request.
8. Authorship and Contribution Statement
Individuals listed as authors must have made a meaningful scholarly contribution to the work. Authorship requires a substantial contribution to the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, critical revision, or final approval of the manuscript, as well as acceptance of responsibility for its content.
Individuals who have not made a meaningful scholarly or academic contribution to the preparation of the work must not be listed as authors.
Gift authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are not permitted. Individuals who have contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship may be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section, provided that their permission has been obtained.
In multi-authored works, the contribution rate or type of contribution of each author must be clearly stated in the manuscript. Where appropriate, the CRediT contributor roles may be used to describe author contributions.
Authors share responsibility for the published version of the manuscript and for all associated ethical obligations.
9. Conflict of Interest Policy
Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest that could influence the preparation, evaluation, interpretation, or publication of a work.
Conflicts of interest may be financial, institutional, academic, personal, professional, commercial, or of another nature.
Authors must also explicitly declare where no conflict of interest exists.
Reviewers who believe that they have a conflict of interest in relation to a work they have been invited to review must withdraw from the review process. Editors must not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process for submissions in which they have a conflict of interest.
10. Funding and Support Statement
Authors must clearly disclose all financial support received for their work, including project numbers and the names of supporting institutions or organizations. Where no financial support has been received, this must also be declared in the manuscript.
Where a funding institution or organization has played a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, interpretation of findings, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish, that role must be explicitly described.
11. Ethics Committee Approval and Permissions
Information concerning ethics committee approval must be included in manuscripts for which such approval is required. This information must include, at a minimum, the name of the ethics committee, the date of approval, and the decision or approval number.
Studies requiring ethics committee approval but lacking the relevant approval information or documentation may not be considered for evaluation, may be returned to the authors, or may be rejected.
Where ethics committee approval is not required, this must be explicitly stated in the manuscript.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use copyrighted images, tables, figures, scales, tests, surveys, instructional materials, photographs, translated texts, or other protected materials.
12. Data Sharing and Research Integrity
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and reliability of the data used in their work and for ensuring that the data were obtained in accordance with ethical principles.
Where necessary, the editorial office may request the following information or documentation from the authors during the evaluation process:
Research data;
Analysis files;
Codes or explanations of data-processing procedures;
Ethics committee documents;
Institutional permissions;
Participant consent forms;
Permissions to use scales or other materials;
Additional methodological explanations.
The fabrication, alteration, falsification, selective reporting, or misleading presentation of data or research findings is regarded as an ethical violation.
Personal data, sensitive information, and data concerning the privacy of third parties must be protected in accordance with applicable legal requirements and ethical principles.
Where legally and ethically possible, authors are encouraged to share their research data in reliable data repositories and explain the conditions of data access in the manuscript.
13. Reviewers’ Responsibilities
Reviewers must evaluate assigned works in accordance with the principles of confidentiality, impartiality, and scholarly objectivity. Reviewers should accept only those assignments that fall within their area of expertise and that they can complete within the specified period.
Reviewers’ primary responsibilities include:
Conducting the evaluation according to scholarly criteria;
Presenting comments and recommendations clearly, with appropriate reasoning and in a constructive manner;
Avoiding personal, disparaging, discriminatory, or offensive remarks directed at the author;
Maintaining confidentiality throughout the review process;
Refraining from sharing the content of the work with third parties;
Refraining from using information obtained from the work for personal, academic, or commercial advantage;
Informing the editor of any similarity, ethical violation, missing reference, or significant scholarly concern identified in the work;
Declining to review works in relation to which they have a conflict of interest;
Submitting a reasoned review report within the specified period.
Reviewers may not upload manuscripts, tables, data, or supplementary files submitted to them for evaluation to third-party generative artificial intelligence tools.
14. Editors’ Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for protecting the scholarly quality of the journal and conducting publication processes in accordance with the principles of impartiality, transparency, and editorial independence.
Editors evaluate manuscripts according to scholarly criteria, irrespective of the authors’ identity, institutional affiliation, academic title, gender, language, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, political opinion, or other personal characteristics.
Editors’ primary responsibilities include:
Evaluating submissions in terms of the journal’s aims and scope, originality, scholarly quality, and ethical compliance;
Appointing appropriate and independent reviewers;
Conducting the peer-review process impartially and confidentially;
Making final decisions after considering the reviewer reports and editorial assessments;
Identifying and managing conflicts of interest;
Protecting editorial independence;
Carefully and impartially investigating allegations of ethical misconduct;
Initiating correction, editorial clarification, expression of concern, or retraction procedures where necessary;
Evaluating complaints from authors, reviewers, and readers fairly;
Protecting personal information and confidential documents related to the publication process.
Editorial decisions are based on scholarly quality, research ethics, originality, conformity with the journal’s aims and scope, and the contribution of the work to readers.
15. Editorial Board and Section Editors
The editorial board and section editors contribute to the development of the journal’s scholarly quality and publication policies.
Board members:
Support scholarly evaluation processes consistent with the journal’s aims and scope;
May recommend appropriate reviewers;
May provide editorial opinions within their fields of expertise;
May contribute to improving the journal’s scholarly visibility;
May support the revision and updating of publication policies.
Editorial board members may submit their own work to the journal. However, such submissions are subject to an independent peer-review process from which the relevant board member is entirely excluded.
16. Editorial Independence
Publication decisions at Bartın University Journal of Educational Research are based solely on the scholarly quality, originality, ethical compliance, contribution to the journal’s aims and scope, and peer-review reports concerning the work.
The publisher, institutional administrators, sponsors, funding bodies, or other third parties may not interfere with 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
Where a significant error affecting the scholarly content, accuracy of data, author information, ethical declarations, or bibliographic information of a published article is identified, a correction may be published.
An article may be retracted where serious ethical misconduct, plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, unauthorized use, duplicate publication, or another circumstance that undermines the scholarly reliability of the work is identified.
An expression of concern may be published where an investigation has not reached a definitive conclusion but serious concerns remain regarding the reliability of an article.
Correction, retraction, and expression of concern procedures are evaluated by the editorial board. Where necessary, additional information may be requested from the relevant authors, reviewers, institutions, or subject experts.
The bibliographic record of a retracted article is retained, and the reason for retraction is transparently disclosed.
18. Complaints and Appeals Procedure
Authors, reviewers, readers, and other interested parties may submit written complaints and appeals to the journal’s editorial office concerning the publication process, editorial decisions, allegations of ethical misconduct, or published content.
Complaints and appeals are reviewed impartially and confidentially. Where necessary, the opinions of editorial board members or independent subject experts may be sought.
Appeals against editorial decisions must be supported by scholarly reasoning and relevant explanations.
The appeals process is conducted in accordance with the scholarly reasoning underlying reviewer reports, the journal’s publication policy, and the principles of editorial evaluation.
19. Policy on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Authors may use generative artificial intelligence tools in a limited, transparent, and responsible manner solely for supportive purposes such as language editing, spelling and grammar checks, text simplification, translation assistance, summarization, idea development, or technical support.
Generative artificial intelligence tools may not be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship requires scholarly responsibility for the content of the work, ethical accountability, copyright obligations, and legal responsibility.
Where generative artificial intelligence tools have been used, the scope, purpose, nature, and name of the tool must be clearly disclosed in the manuscript.
Authors remain fully responsible for ensuring that all content produced or modified with the assistance of artificial intelligence:
Is accurate;
Is original;
Is appropriately referenced;
Complies with ethical principles;
Complies with copyright requirements;
Does not contain false, misleading, or fabricated information.
Generative artificial intelligence systems may not be cited as scholarly sources. Unverified references, citations, data, or findings generated by artificial intelligence may not be used in the manuscript.
Reviewers and editors may not upload confidential manuscript content, reviewer reports, personal data, or unpublished research findings under evaluation to third-party artificial intelligence tools. Confidentiality is fundamental to the peer-review and editorial evaluation processes.
Detailed rules concerning the use of generative artificial intelligence are provided on the journal’s Generative Artificial Intelligence Use Policy page.
20. Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing Policy
Bartın University Journal of Educational Research is an open-access journal. All articles published in the journal are made available to readers immediately upon publication without any subscription requirement, access fee, registration requirement, or embargo period.
The full texts of published articles may be read, downloaded, copied, shared, distributed, reproduced, printed, searched, and used free of charge, subject to compliance with the applicable license terms.
Articles published in Bartın University Journal of Educational Research are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This license permits the sharing and adaptation of the work, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author and the original source of publication, a link to the license is provided, any modifications made to the work are clearly indicated, and the material is used only for non-commercial purposes.
Authors retain the copyright to their published works. By submitting their manuscripts to the journal, authors grant Bartın University Journal of Educational Research the right of first publication and a non-exclusive right to publish, archive, preserve, index, and distribute the published version in accordance with open-access principles.
This permission does not constitute a transfer of copyright to the journal or the publisher.
Authors must complete the Copyright and Publication Agreement Form during the manuscript submission process.
21. Fee Policy
Bartın University Journal of Educational Research does not charge authors or readers any fees.
The journal does not charge any of the following:
Manuscript submission or application fee;
Editorial processing fee;
Peer-review fee;
Article processing charge or APC;
Publication fee;
Page charge;
Colour figure charge;
DOI fee;
Language-editing fee;
Withdrawal fee;
Any other publication-related fee.
All publication processes of the journal are free of charge. The absence of publication fees does not affect the scholarly independence of the peer-review or editorial evaluation processes.
22. Archiving and Preservation Policy
Articles published in Bartın University Journal of Educational Research are made available and digitally archived through the DergiPark platform.
The journal uses reliable digital preservation and archiving systems to support the long-term accessibility and preservation of published scholarly content and the integrity of the scholarly record.
Authors may share the submitted, accepted, and published versions of their articles on personal websites, in institutional repositories, subject-based repositories, open-access repositories, academic networking platforms, and other repositories of their choice without any embargo period.
When sharing the published version, authors must clearly state that the article was first published in Bartın University Journal of Educational Research and must provide an appropriate bibliographic citation, the DOI, and a link to the official article page on the journal’s website.
The sharing and reuse of published versions must comply with the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
23. Privacy Statement
Names, email addresses, institutional information, contact details, and other personal data entered into the journal system are used exclusively for the journal’s scholarly publication processes.
Such information is not shared with third parties except where required by law and is not used for commercial purposes.
Manuscripts under evaluation, reviewer reports, editorial decisions, ethical review documents, and editorial correspondence are treated as confidential.
Editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and other individuals involved in the publication process may not disclose such information to unauthorized third parties.
24. Reporting Ethical Misconduct
The editorial office may be notified where there is a suspicion of ethical misconduct concerning a work published in the journal or currently under evaluation.
Reports of alleged ethical misconduct are carefully examined by the editorial board in accordance with the principles of impartiality and confidentiality.
Where necessary:
Explanations may be requested from the authors;
Opinions may be sought from reviewers or independent subject experts;
Relevant institutions may be contacted;
Research data or permission documents may be requested;
The evaluation or publication process may be temporarily suspended.
Anonymous reports may also be considered where they contain concrete, verifiable, and sufficient information.
25. Final Provisions
Authors who submit a manuscript to Bartın University Journal of Educational Research are deemed to have accepted the journal’s ethical principles, publication policy, peer-review policy, open-access policy, copyright and licensing conditions, policy on the use of generative artificial intelligence, and other publication-related provisions.
The editorial office reserves the right to update the journal’s ethical principles and publication policy in response to developments in national and international standards of scholarly publishing.
Updated policies take effect on the date on which they are published on the journal’s official website.
Where a significant error or inaccuracy is identified in a published article, or where conduct or content inconsistent with the ethical responsibilities described above is encountered, the journal’s editorial office may be notified by email:
Email: bujer@bartin.edu.tr
Bartın University Journal of Educational Research (BUJER)