The Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University adheres to international standards in research and publication ethics and embraces the international ethical-publishing principles established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). All authors who submit work to the journal are expected to comply fully with the ethical rules set out below in accordance with these principles.

The Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University expects authors to submit original work that has not been published elsewhere and not to send the same work for evaluation to another journal simultaneously. Authors must not divide the outputs of a single study inappropriately so as to undermine its integrity and present them across multiple publications; they must be able to share the raw data of their research at the request of the editors or reviewers and must retain these data for a reasonable period after publication. When authors identify a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, they must notify the editorial office without delay and cooperate with the editors in correcting or retracting the article.

All articles published in the Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University are open access. No fee is charged to authors at any stage of the submission, evaluation, or publication process, and no royalties are paid to authors.

The authorship of a work submitted to the Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University must be limited to those who have made a genuine and substantial contribution to the research. Authors and the order of authorship must be agreed upon before the article is submitted. Listing individuals who have not contributed to the study as authors ("gift authorship") or omitting individuals who have contributed ("ghost authorship") is unacceptable.

Authors must clearly state any institutions and financial sources supporting their work in the "Financial Support and Acknowledgements" section of the article.

Works submitted to the Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University must be based entirely on the authors' original research. When the work of other researchers is drawn upon, the relevant sources must be appropriately cited and listed in full in the reference list. All submitted articles are screened for similarity using the iThenticate plagiarism-detection software before being admitted to evaluation; articles with a similarity ratio exceeding 15% are returned to their authors without being taken into evaluation.

For studies that require the collection of data through methods such as questionnaires, scales, interviews, or observation, ethics committee approval must have been obtained, and evidence that ethical rules were observed during the data-collection process (for example, permission obtained for scales, questionnaires, or photographs belonging to others) must be stated in the article.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

• Authors have academic, ethical, and social responsibilities.
• Authors are obliged to submit original and previously unpublished work and must fully comply with the author guidelines and the article template provided on the journal's website.
• Authors must not commit ethical violations such as plagiarism, misappropriation of others' work, improper citation, or failure to cite. Otherwise, the article is rejected.
• Authors must acknowledge the institutions and organisations that supported their work in their articles.
• In studies with more than one contributing author, the order of authorship must be determined by the joint decision of the authors.
• When authors identify an error or inaccuracy in a published article, they must report it to the editorial office immediately.
• Authors may not publish the same work, in whole or in part, in more than one journal without a valid justification and without permission or cross-referencing.
• Authors may withdraw their articles only during the preliminary evaluation stage, before the blind review process has begun.
• For studies conducted with human participants that require ethics committee approval, such approval must be obtained, and a statement must be provided indicating that the necessary permissions were obtained from the participants and that their rights were protected. Research requiring ethics committee approval includes:
  • Qualitative or quantitative research requiring the collection of data from participants through questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, observation, experiments, and interview techniques;
  • The use of humans and animals (including materials and data) for experimental or other scientific purposes;
  • Clinical research conducted on humans;
  • Research conducted on animals;
  • Retrospective studies within the scope of the Personal Data Protection Law.
• In addition, the necessary permissions for the following matters must be obtained and documented:
  • A statement that an "Informed Consent Form" has been obtained in case reports;
  • Permission obtained from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires, and photographs belonging to others, with these permissions stated in the article;
  • A statement that copyright regulations have been observed for the works of intellectual and artistic property used.
• Generative artificial intelligence tools may under no circumstances be listed as an author or co-author of an article. Full responsibility for the work rests entirely with the authors.
• If authors have used generative artificial intelligence tools in processes such as text generation, data analysis, or literature review, they must declare this transparently in the "Method" or "Ethical Statement" section of the article. This declaration must clearly specify the full name of the application used (for example, "ChatGPT-4o" rather than "OpenAI"), its version, and the purpose of use. Use limited to simple language and spelling corrections need not be declared.
• Having generative artificial intelligence tools fabricate data, distort existing data, or invent sources or authors that do not exist in the literature is strictly prohibited and is regarded as a direct ethical violation.
• Generative artificial intelligence cannot replace the cognitive processes that constitute the essence of research, such as developing hypotheses, interpreting findings, or conducting advanced critical analysis. All sources, data, and translations suggested by generative artificial intelligence must be personally verified by the author through institutional academic databases.
• Personal data, data requiring ethics committee approval, or confidential research materials obtained within the scope of the research must not be uploaded to generative artificial intelligence systems.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Reviewers must be aware that they assume the most important role in determining the academic quality of the articles to be published and must act with the responsibility of enhancing academic quality.
• Reviewers should agree to evaluate only articles that fall within their area of expertise, for which they can respect the blind review process, and whose content they can keep confidential. They must not share any information about the article with third parties even after the evaluation process is complete.
• The task of reviewers is to evaluate the scientific accuracy of the content of articles and their conformity with academic standards; the fact that the views presented in an article differ from the reviewer's personal views must not affect the evaluation.
• Reviewer reports must be objective and measured, avoiding insulting, disparaging, or accusatory expressions. Superficial and vague statements must not be used in reports; the deficient and flawed points underlying a negative assessment must be clearly indicated.
• Reviewers must evaluate articles within the time allotted to them. If they are unable to undertake the evaluation, they must notify the editorial office within one week.
• Reviewers may not, under any circumstances, upload the articles sent to them for evaluation to any generative artificial intelligence system for the purpose of rapid reading, summarising, or assessment. This act is regarded as a direct breach of confidentiality and intellectual theft.
• The evaluation of an article must rest entirely on the reviewer's expertise and judgement; the scientific critique directed at the article must be produced by the reviewer personally.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

• Editors are responsible for ensuring the quality of the published material and protecting the integrity of the published record.
• In line with the reviewers' recommendations, editors may take one of the following decisions:
  • Accept the article without any changes;
  • Accept the article after minor revisions or corrections;
  • Ask the authors to revise their work and restart the review process;
  • Reject the work.
• Editors base their decisions solely on academic criteria and assume full responsibility for these decisions.
• They act in accordance with the principle of freedom of thought so that works can be evaluated fairly and impartially.
• They conduct their processes in conformity with intellectual property rights and ethical standards.
• They protect the confidentiality of authors and reviewers and manage the review process in accordance with these principles of confidentiality. Since the evaluation is conducted using the double-blind method, identity information is kept confidential; the list of reviewers for each issue is disclosed collectively in the relevant issue.
• They ensure that all works are reviewed by reviewers competent in the relevant field.
• They provide detailed information for authors regarding the process on the Author Guidelines page.
• They monitor whether there is any conflict of interest between authors and reviewers when assigning reviewers.
• They encourage reviewers to use impartial, scientific, and objective language in their evaluations.
• They prevent or have corrected discourteous and unscientific evaluations.
• They are obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of the journal and the authors in cases of potential infringement.
• They take into account criticism directed at the works published in the journal, approach such criticism constructively, and publish critical and discussion pieces concerning the articles.
• They may not use generative artificial intelligence as a decision-making authority in decisions concerning the evaluation processes of submitted articles.
• They are obliged to protect the confidentiality of articles submitted to the journal and may not transfer this content to external generative artificial intelligence systems during the evaluation process.
• They are responsible for carrying out the necessary investigations into works suspected of ethical violations related to generative-AI-assisted content production and for rejecting the article where necessary.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

• Members of the Editorial Board accept the publication ethics principles and policies of the Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University and evaluate decisions concerning them.
• They make recommendations to enhance the visibility and recognition of the journal.
• In cases of suspected publication ethics violations such as misconduct, plagiarism, conflict of interest, misuse of artificial intelligence, and copyright infringement, they inform the journal's editorial team in order to clarify the situation.
• They make recommendations regarding the indexes in which the journal might be listed in order to strengthen its academic quality.
• Members of the Editorial Board may submit articles to the journal; however, the author concerned may not hold any position in the issue in which their article appears, and all journal processes relating to that issue are closed to that person.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher and the Owner

• The publisher of the Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University is Dokuz Eylül University Press, on behalf of Dokuz Eylül University.
• The owner of the Journal of Humanities of Dokuz Eylül University is the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, on behalf of Dokuz Eylül University.
• The publisher and the owner are obliged to take the necessary steps to clarify the situation in cases of suspected publication ethics violations such as misconduct, plagiarism, conflict of interest, misuse of artificial intelligence, and copyright infringement.