ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Works submitted to DSJOURNAL must comply with the principles of research and publication ethics within the framework of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In this regard, attention should be paid to issues such as plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, publication duplication, salami slicing, and the inclusion of authors who were not involved in the article preparation process. If any of these issues are identified, the article in question will be rejected during the editorial review process.

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics
• Plagiarism: Presenting the original ideas, methods, data, or works of others as one's own, in whole or in part, without proper scientific attribution.
• Fabrication: Using data that does not actually exist or has been distorted in scientific research.
• Distortion: Altering research records or obtained data, presenting equipment or materials not used in the research as if they had been used, altering or shaping research results in line with the interests of the individuals and organisations providing support,
• Duplicate publication: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointment and promotion,
• Salami slicing: Dividing the results of a research study into parts in an inappropriate manner that compromises the integrity of the research and publishing them as multiple publications, presenting these publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
• Unfair authorship: Including individuals who have not made an active contribution among the authors or excluding those who have, changing the author order in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have made an active contribution from subsequent editions, or including one's name among the authors by using one's influence despite not having made an active contribution,

Other types of ethical violations include:
a) Failing to acknowledge the individuals, institutions, or organisations that provided support for research resulting in publications,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or defended as sources without the permission of the owner,
c) Failing to comply with ethical rules in research involving humans and animals, failing to respect patient rights in publications,
c) Acting contrary to the provisions of relevant legislation in biomedical research involving humans and other clinical research,
d) Sharing information contained in a work assigned for review with others prior to publication without the express permission of the author,
e) Using resources, premises, facilities and equipment provided or allocated for scientific research for purposes other than those intended,
f) Making unfounded, unwarranted, and deliberate allegations of ethical violations,
g) Publishing data obtained without the explicit consent of participants in surveys and attitude studies conducted as part of scientific work, or without the additional consent of the institution if the research is to be conducted at an institution,
h) Harming animal health and ecological balance in research and experiments,
ı) Failing to obtain the necessary written permissions from the competent authorities before commencing research and experiments.
i) Conducting research and experiments that violate the relevant provisions of legislation or international agreements to which Turkey is a party.
j) Failure by researchers and officials to comply with the obligation to inform and warn relevant parties about potentially harmful practices related to scientific research,
k) In scientific studies, failing to use data and information obtained from other persons and institutions to the extent and in the manner permitted, failing to respect the confidentiality of this information and failing to ensure its protection.
l) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions.

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

Responsibilities of the Publisher
• To demonstrate a fair, transparent and ethical approach at every stage of the publication process.
• Not to interfere in any way with the independent decision-making processes of the editors.
• To share the publication policy, open access principles, copyright and ethical rules on the journal website in a clear and understandable manner.
• Initiate the necessary investigation in cases of ethical violations (plagiarism, etc.) and act in accordance with COPE guidelines.
• Ensure that all content published in the journal is digitally archived and accessible in the long term.

Responsibilities of Editors
• Make decisions on article acceptance and rejection based on scientific contribution, originality, and referee evaluations.
• Scrupulously protect the confidentiality of authors' and referees' identities.
• Have each article reviewed by at least two independent referees who are competent in the subject area.
• Recuse themselves from decision-making processes involving articles with conflicts of interest.
• Take prompt and appropriate action in cases of retraction, correction, or ethical violations.
• Evaluate authors' appeals and requests for corrections fairly.
• Be responsible for the implementation, monitoring, and updating of ethical policies and principles.
• Adopt the principle of transparency in timing, communication, and decision-making throughout the entire publication process.

Authors' Responsibilities
• Declare that the submitted work is original, scientifically sound, and complies with ethical principles.
• Commit that the article has not been previously published and is not simultaneously submitted to another journal.
• State that all authors have made meaningful contributions to the work and approved its submission.
• To cite sources accurately and completely.
• To clearly state funding sources, institutional support, and potential conflicts of interest.
• To respond to referee and editor feedback on a scientific basis and make the necessary corrections in a timely manner.
• To verify or provide access to research data when required.
• To promptly share any errors discovered after publication with the editor.

Responsibilities of Reviewers
• Fully adhere to the principles of confidentiality and impartiality during the review process.
• Complete the review objectively, constructively, and within the specified timeframe.
• Inform the editor and withdraw from the review if there is any conflict of interest.
• Evaluate the scientific contribution, methodological accuracy, and integrity of citations in the article.
• Notify the editor if ethical issues (plagiarism, etc.) are detected in the article.
• Focus solely on scientific quality, unaffected by factors such as the author's identity, language, nationality, or institution.

Ethics Committee Approval
Articles submitted for publication in the journal must be prepared in accordance with research and publication ethics rules. Studies requiring an ethics committee decision must have obtained ethics committee approval, which must be stated and documented in the article. In studies requiring ethics committee permission, information about the permission (committee name, date and number) should be included in the methods section and also on the first/last page of the article. Manuscripts that require an ethics committee permission document but do not submit this document will not be considered for evaluation and will be rejected. In addition, permission must be obtained from the owner for scales used in data collection, and this should be stated in the manuscript.
Research Requiring Ethics Committee Permission
In our journal, research requiring ethics committee permission includes the following studies:
• All research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches involving data collection from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observation, and 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 these approvals must be clearly stated in the article text.

Use of Artificial Intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence in processes that do not affect the originality of the article, such as literature review or language control, is acceptable in studies submitted to our journal. However, the use of artificial intelligence must be carried out within the framework of ethical rules and must not be used for unethical purposes such as fabricated data or manipulation.
For studies involving the use of artificial intelligence, it is mandatory to inform our journal of this situation during the article submission stage. All responsibility regarding the use of artificial intelligence lies with the authors themselves.

Privacy Statement
All personal data submitted to our journal is protected. Data belonging to authors, referees, and other individuals is not shared with third parties or institutions.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are found in a published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, or conclusions. Editors should consider retracting an article when major errors/violations invalidate the findings and conclusions. COPE guidelines are taken into account regarding corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Our journal is obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of the journal and the author(s) in the event of possible infringements.

Conflicts of Interest
Our journal ensures that the publication process is completed independently and impartially, taking into account conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers, and other editors.

Complaints and Appeals to Our Journal
You may email any complaints or appeals regarding content, procedures, or policies under the responsibility of our journal or its editorial board members to editor@dsjournal.org. Complaints and appeals submitted to our journal are carefully reviewed and evaluated in accordance with COPE principles.

DSJOURNAL is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is open to everyone on all platforms and free of charge. All information may be used provided the source is acknowledged. No fees are charged to authors at any stage of the publication process or to readers after publication.

PUBLICATION POLICY

A-General Principles
• DSJOURNAL is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original works in the fields of International Relations, Security, Strategy, and Regional Studies in both Turkish and English. Article submissions that do not comply with DSJOURNAL's publication policy will not be accepted.
• Submitted articles must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
• The authors are responsible for the views expressed in the works published in the journal.
• Articles must be written in Turkish or English (British English). The authors are responsible for the language of the works published in the journal.
• Prior to 2024, articles were screened for plagiarism (articles with a similarity score above 20% were rejected) before being sent to referees. As of 2024, articles are screened for plagiarism (using İntihal.net) when uploaded to the system, and the report is uploaded to the journal system. Articles with a similarity scan result above 20% are returned. In addition, articles that the editorial board believes to be the product of artificial intelligence are scanned using a professional programme called Quillbot AI Detector, and depending on the result, the author is asked to rewrite the article.
• The purpose of the article evaluation process is to ensure the publication of high-quality and original scientific studies. All articles published in DSJOURNAL are peer-reviewed and undergo the evaluation process described below.

B-Article Evaluation Process
Preliminary Evaluation
Works submitted to the Journal after passing through the plagiarism process are first subject to a preliminary evaluation by the Editorial Board and Publication Committee. Articles that are not scientific, do not fall within the scope of the journal, and/or do not comply with the format are rejected without initiating the peer review process. During the preliminary evaluation process conducted by the Editorial Board and/or Publication Board, the author may be notified of the opinions regarding the article and asked to make some revisions.

Peer Review
Following the preliminary assessment, the manuscript is sent to at least two reviewers designated by the Editorial and/or Publication Board. The number of reviewers may be increased if deemed necessary by the Editor or Publication Board. Reviewers are selected from the reviewer pool based on their areas of expertise. The Journal employs a double-blind peer review system, in which the names of the reviewers and authors are kept confidential.

Reviewers evaluate the manuscripts sent to them in terms of originality, methodology, contribution to the literature, presentation of findings, support for conclusions, and use of previous studies. Reviewers may accept, reject, or request authors to make corrections to the form and/or content of the manuscript. For an article to be accepted for publication, at least two referees must give a positive opinion. If one referee report is positive and the other negative, the work is sent to a third referee.

The author(s) are, as a rule, obliged to make the changes requested by the referees. On the other hand, it is also considered important for them to state their own views in response to the referees' opinions. It is believed that the scientific interaction thus achieved will create a synergy of research and learning between the editorial board, authors, and reviewers.

During the revision phase, authors' use of the REVIEWER SUGGESTIONS-AUTHOR RESPONSES file will facilitate the re-examination of the article by reviewers and editors, thereby accelerating the decision-making process. Furthermore, making revisions to the article in coloured font (e.g., the first reviewer's revisions in red, the second reviewer's revisions in blue) will also facilitate re-examination and positively influence the decision-making process.

Opinion pieces and book reviews in DSJOURNAL are not, as a rule, subject to peer review, but in necessary cases, peer review may be conducted under the same conditions as articles. Book reviews and opinion pieces that are not deemed necessary to be sent to referees are reviewed by the editorial board and published based on the editor's decision. (These are not assigned a DOI number.)

Based on the reports received from the reviewers, a decision is made on whether to publish, revise, or reject the article, and this decision is communicated to the author(s) via the DergiPark system.

Final Evaluation
Articles that receive positive reviews from the reviewers are accepted for publication. After receiving positive feedback from the reviewers, the editorial board, publication board, or advisory board may request further development/revision of the article. The main purpose here is to further enhance the scientific level of the article.

NOTE: Articles found to have deficiencies at a later stage will be returned to the author(s) regardless of the stage they are at. The editorial board determines when and in which issue articles that have completed the review process will be published.

C-Open Access and Copyright
Our journal is an open access journal. Based on the principle of dissemination of information, it provides free access to all articles, including the archive. The copyright of the works published in our journal belongs to the authors, and they are published as open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Click here for the Copyright Form.

D-Archive
Articles published in our journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS. In addition, published articles may be made available without an embargo period in the institutional repository of the author's university, subject-specific archives, or any other type of archive. This allows anyone to access this publication immediately and free of charge. Articles published in our journal can be accessed free of charge at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/dsd/archive.

E-Special Issue Policy
The Editorial Board may decide to publish a special issue once a year. The publication and evaluation principles for articles to be published in the special issue are applied in the same manner as in regular issues.

F-Advertising and Sponsorship Policy
Our journal does not accept advertising or sponsorship. All expenses of our journal are covered by the Publisher.