EFL follows international publication ethics standards consistent with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) principles. The following provisions bind authors, reviewers, and editors.

1.1 Peer Review Process

The journal applies a strict double-blind peer review system. Each manuscript passes through:

1. Editorial pre-screening (scope, format, language requirements, and length)
2. Similarity (plagiarism) screening
3. Assessment by at least two independent reviewers

Where reviewer reports disagree, a third reviewer is consulted. The final decision is made by editorial assessment in line with the reviewer reports.

1.2 Author Responsibilities

By submitting, authors warrant that:

• The work is original
• The work is not under review elsewhere
• All sources are correctly cited
• The data are accurate and have not been falsified
• Authorship order reflects actual contribution
• Any potential conflicts of interest have been declared

1.3 Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers must:

• Maintain confidentiality
• Provide an objective assessment and avoid personal criticism
• Declare conflicts of interest and withdraw from review where necessary
• Not misuse privileged information obtained through review
• Complete the review within the time given

1.4 Editor Responsibilities

Editors must:

• Decide fairly and impartially
• Base decisions on academic criteria alone
• Protect confidentiality
• Avoid conflicts of interest and withdraw from handling their own submissions

1.5 Research Misconduct

Where plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate submission, salami slicing, or other ethical violations are identified:

• The manuscript may be rejected, or retracted if already published
• The authors' institutions may be notified
• A formal investigation may be initiated

The journal applies a zero-tolerance principle to breaches of research ethics. Academic and legal responsibility for published work rests with the authors.

1.6 Artificial Intelligence Policy

Authors must declare any artificial intelligence tools used in preparing the manuscript.

Permitted use: language editing, grammar correction, and translation support (including rendering the title and abstract into the second language).

Not permitted: AI-generated data; undisclosed AI-based analysis; listing an AI tool as an author.

Authors are responsible for the entire content. Any use of artificial intelligence must be declared on the title page.

1.7 Data Transparency and Reproducibility

The following statements are required for empirical work.

Data Availability Statement. Authors must state whether the data are publicly available, available on request, or restricted (with the reason given).

Code Availability Statement. Authors must state the availability of statistical code (Stata, R, Python, and similar) and replication files.

Manuscripts that do not provide sufficient transparency may be rejected.

1.8 Preprint Policy

The journal accepts submissions that have been posted as preprints on SSRN, arXiv, RePEc, and institutional repositories. Authors must declare preprint information at submission. Once a manuscript is accepted, the preprint version must be updated to cite the journal publication.

1.9 Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal editorial decisions. An appeal requires a written statement of grounds and a point-by-point response. Appeals are assessed by the Editor-in-Chief and, where necessary, by an independent editor. Complaints concerning ethics or misconduct are examined confidentially. Appeals and complaints are submitted to efljournal@aybu.edu.tr.

1.10 Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently of institutional pressure, financial influence, and the title or affiliation of the author. The final decision rests on academic criteria alone.

1.11 Special Issue Policy

Special issues may be prepared by decision of the Editorial Board or on the proposal of a guest editor. Guest editors must follow the double-blind review system, avoid conflicts of interest, and apply the journal's standards. The final acceptance decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief.

1.12 Copyright, Licence, and Fees

On acceptance, authors sign a copyright transfer agreement. The journal makes all published work openly available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) licence. Under this licence, users may share and adapt the work provided they give appropriate credit and do not use it for commercial purposes. Authors may share the published version on personal pages and in institutional repositories with a citation to the journal.

Unless otherwise announced, no submission or publication fee is charged.