PUBLICATION POLICY
The Journal of Turkish World Studies adheres to the highest standards of publication ethics and fully embraces the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, as jointly 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), accessible at https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing.
Manuscripts submitted for consideration must be aligned with the stated aims and scope of the Journal of Turkish World Studies. Only those submissions that have been approved by all listed authors, have not been previously published, and are not currently under review by another journal will be considered for peer review.
Any request to amend the authorship of a submitted manuscript, including the addition, removal, or reordering of authors, must be supported by a signed written consent from all previously listed authors.

The Journal of Turkish World Studies assigns a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all published articles. DOIs are provided through the DergiPark platform to ensure permanent and reliable digital accessibility of articles. Each article receives a unique DOI number upon publication, which is clearly indicated on the article page.
Acts such as plagiarism, duplicate publication, false authorship or denial of rightful authorship, fabrication or falsification of data, “salami slicing” or redundant publication, infringement of copyright, and failure to disclose conflicts of interest are deemed unethical. Manuscripts found to violate ethical standards will be retracted or withdrawn from the publication process. This policy also applies to any form of misconduct identified after the article has been published.

All submissions that pass preliminary editorial screening are subject to plagiarism detection through the iThenticate software. In cases where plagiarism or self-plagiarism is identified, the authors will be duly notified. Editors reserve the right to resubmit the manuscript for plagiarism review at any stage of peer review or production if deemed necessary. Manuscripts exhibiting high similarity indices may be rejected, regardless of whether such similarity is detected before or after acceptance. Generally, depending on the article type and the distribution of similarity across sources, the total similarity score should not exceed 20%.
Double-Blind Peer Review
Following the plagiarism screening, manuscripts that meet the journal’s formal requirements are evaluated by the editors-in-chief in terms of originality, methodological rigor, scholarly significance, and alignment with the journal’s scope. Submissions deemed suitable are subjected to a double-blind peer-review process involving at least two national or international experts in the relevant field. Manuscripts may be accepted for publication upon necessary revisions made in accordance with the reviewers’ recommendations.
Please note: The Journal of Turkish World Studies exclusively accepts submissions from doctoral candidates and Ph.D. graduates. Submissions from undergraduate or master’s level students, as well as those who have completed these programs, are not considered for publication.
Authors may submit a subsequent article only after a period of two years (four issues) following the publication of their first article in the Journal.
Open Access Statement
The Journal of Turkish World Studies is an open access publication, and all content is made available to users and their affiliated institutions free of charge. In accordance with the principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), users are permitted to read, download, copy, print, search, or provide links to the full texts of articles published in the Journal without seeking prior authorization from either the publisher or the authors, provided such use is not for commercial purposes.

Each article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through the DergiPark platform to ensure the permanent accessibility of articles in the journal and compliance with international standards. DOI numbers enable articles to be easily found and cited in the digital environment.
All open access articles published in the Journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.
Article Processing Charge
All financial expenses associated with the Journal are fully covered by Ege University. Accordingly, no fees are charged to authors at any stage of the publication process. The Journal does not impose any article processing charges (APCs) or submission fees for manuscripts submitted, accepted, or published.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with the Journal retain the copyright to their work, which is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). By submitting their work, authors grant the Publisher a non-exclusive right to publish the work for non-commercial purposes. The CC BY-NC 4.0 license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the use is non-commercial in nature and the original work is properly cited.
Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
The Editor may issue a correction if minor errors are identified in a published article, provided such errors do not affect the study’s results, interpretations, or conclusions. In cases where major errors or misconduct that compromise the validity of the findings are detected, the Editor may consider retracting the article.
An expression of concern may be issued when there is credible evidence of potential research or publication misconduct; where the reliability of the findings is in question; and when the authors’ affiliated institutions fail to conduct an investigation, or the outcome of such an investigation appears to be inconclusive, biased, or unfair.
The Journal adheres to the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) concerning corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern.

In cases requiring retraction, the Journal follows the Retraction Guidelines issued by COPE.
The Editor reserves the right to retract a published article under the following circumstances:

In the event of a retraction, the following procedures will be followed:

Article Removal for Legal Reasons
In exceptional circumstances, where legal risks are involved, the full text of an article may be removed and replaced with a statement of removal. In such cases, only the article’s metadata (title and authorship) will be retained.
Article removal may occur under the following conditions:

Archiving Policy
To ensure the long-term preservation and permanent accessibility of all articles published in the Journal, all content is archived on DergiPark, which functions as a national digital repository. Additionally, DergiPark supports the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system, enabling the distributed collection, preservation, and dissemination of the Journal’s content.
Authors are also encouraged to self-archive the final published PDF version of their articles in open-access digital repositories that comply with the standards of the Open Archives Initiative (https://www.openarchives.org/). When depositing their work, authors are expected to include a link directing readers to the official version of the article on the journal website.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE POLICY
In light of recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and evolving practices in scholarly publishing, the Artificial Intelligence Policy establishes the editorial and ethical standards that authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to uphold when utilizing such technologies.
The formulation of this policy has taken into account the following authoritative sources:

AI-assisted technologies—including but not limited to large language models (LLMs), chatbots, image generators, and synthetic data generators—are capable of producing diverse forms of content such as text, images, audio, and data. When applied ethically and under human supervision, these tools can enhance productivity and foster scholarly innovation. However, their unsupervised use presents substantial risks, including the generation of inaccurate or biased content, citation errors or omissions, potential breaches of privacy and intellectual property rights, and violations of authorship and publishing rights.
In order to mitigate these risks, the Journal adopts the following core principles regarding the use of AI in scholarly work:

Notwithstanding the above, the use of AI tools aimed at improving readability, language clarity, and grammatical correctness is permitted, provided such tools are employed under the supervision of authors and/or editors and do not compromise academic rigor or ethical standards.

For Peer Reviewers
The confidentiality of the peer review process must be strictly upheld. Reviewers are prohibited from disclosing, sharing, or utilizing the content of manuscripts under review outside the context of the review process itself, in accordance with the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

For Editors
Editors are duty-bound to preserve the confidentiality of all manuscripts submitted to the journal throughout the editorial and peer review process. Under no circumstances should peer-reviewed content be shared, disclosed, or utilized beyond those individuals directly involved in the evaluation process. This obligation is in accordance with the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
The Journal of Turkish World Studies is firmly committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and adheres to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing as outlined 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), available at: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing
Manuscripts submitted for consideration must be original works that have not been previously published in any format, including full-text conference proceedings, and must not be under review by any other journal or publication concurrently.
All submissions undergo an initial editorial review followed by a rigorous double-blind peer review process conducted by at least two independent referees.
The journal considers the following acts to constitute unethical behavior: plagiarism, duplication, fraudulent authorship or denial of authorship, fabrication or falsification of research data, “salami slicing” (i.e., segmenting research to publish multiple papers), copyright infringement, and failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
Manuscripts found to be in violation of these ethical standards, whether before or after publication, will be subject to withdrawal or retraction. In accordance with COPE guidelines, any suspected cases of plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other forms of academic misconduct will be formally investigated and reported to the relevant authorities where appropriate.
Research Ethics
The Journal of Turkish World Studies adopts the aforementioned highest standards of research ethics, is based on compliance with internationally recognized ethical research principles and is in full compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki published by the World Medical Association. All responsibility for the compliance of the articles submitted to the journal with ethical rules belongs to the authors.
The following core principles must be observed in all research submitted to the journal:

Author’s Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that their submitted manuscript complies with established scientific and ethical standards. Authors must guarantee that their submission is original, has not been previously published in any form, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in any language. All applicable copyright laws and conventions must be observed. Any copyrighted material—such as tables, figures, or extensive quotations—may only be used with proper authorization and must be appropriately cited. All sources, including the ideas, data, and text of others, must be fully credited and referenced in accordance with academic conventions.
Each listed author must have made a direct and substantial academic contribution to the manuscript. Authorship credit should be based on all of the following criteria:

Tasks such as securing funding, data collection, or general supervision of the research team, while important, are not sufficient to qualify for authorship.
The sequence of authors in the byline should reflect a joint decision of all co-authors and must be clearly stated in the Copyright Agreement and Corresponding Author Statement Form. Individuals who have contributed to the research but do not meet the authorship criteria—such as those providing technical support, editorial assistance, or financial/material resources—should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.
All authors are required to disclose any financial relationships, conflicts of interest, or competing interests that could in any way influence the research outcomes or the interpretation of findings.
If an author identifies a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is their duty to promptly inform the Editor-in-Chief and to cooperate in issuing a correction or retraction as appropriate.
Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
The Editor-in-Chief evaluates all submitted manuscripts based solely on their scholarly merit, without regard to the authors’ ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious beliefs, or political views. The Editor-in-Chief ensures the implementation of a fair and impartial double-blind peer review process and guarantees that all information regarding submitted manuscripts is treated with strict confidentiality prior to publication.
The Editor-in-Chief holds full responsibility for the content and overall academic quality of the journal. When necessary, errata will be published and corrections made to preserve the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.
To avoid conflicts of interest, the Editor-in-Chief must ensure that no such conflicts arise among authors, reviewers, or editorial board members. The authority to assign reviewers and to make final publication decisions lies solely with the Editor-in-Chief.
Peer reviewers are expected to be free of any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript’s subject, its authors, or its sources of funding. They must conduct their reviews objectively and constructively, providing academic evaluations grounded in expertise and scholarly standards.
Reviewers are obligated to maintain the confidentiality of all information contained in the manuscripts they review. They must not share or use the content in any form prior to publication. Any suspected instances of plagiarism or copyright infringement must be reported immediately to the Editor-in-Chief.
If a reviewer feels unqualified to evaluate a manuscript or cannot provide a timely review, they must inform the Editor-in-Chief and withdraw from the review process.
The Editor-in-Chief shall remind reviewers that all manuscripts are confidential documents and that reviewing them is a privileged interaction. Reviewers and members of the editorial board are prohibited from discussing manuscripts with any third parties. The anonymity of reviewers will be strictly maintained. In exceptional cases, the Editor-in-Chief may share one reviewer’s comments with another reviewer to clarify specific points—always with care to preserve anonymity.
PEER REVIEW
Peer Review Policies
Only manuscripts that are approved by all listed authors and have not been previously published or submitted for review elsewhere will be considered for evaluation by the The Journal of Turkish World Studies.
All submissions that pass the initial screening are subjected to a plagiarism check using the iThenticate software. Manuscripts found to contain unoriginal content or significant overlap with previous publications will be rejected or returned to the authors for clarification.
Following the plagiarism check, eligible manuscripts are assessed by the Editor-in-Chief based on the following criteria:

Manuscripts that meet these criteria are then forwarded to at least two national or international reviewers for evaluation under a double-blind peer review process.
The final decision to publish is made by the Editor-in-Chief, taking into account the reviewers’ recommendations. Authors are required to revise their manuscripts in accordance with the reviewers’ feedback before the article can be accepted for publication.
Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
The Editor-in-Chief assesses all submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their scientific merit, without regard to the authors’ ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religious beliefs, or political views. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for ensuring a fair and impartial double-blind peer review process and guarantees the confidentiality of all information pertaining to submitted manuscripts prior to publication.
The Editor-in-Chief bears full responsibility for the content and overall quality of the journal. When necessary, he or she is obligated to issue corrections or publish errata to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the publication.
The Editor-in-Chief shall prevent any actual or potential conflicts of interest among authors, reviewers, and editorial members. He or she retains exclusive authority to appoint reviewers and holds final responsibility for decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts submitted to the journal.
Reviewers must be free of any conflicts of interest relating to the research under review, the authors, or the funding bodies. Their evaluations must be objective and based solely on scholarly merit.
Reviewers are required to maintain strict confidentiality regarding all aspects of submitted manuscripts. If they become aware of any instances of copyright infringement or plagiarism, they must promptly report such concerns to the Editor-in-Chief.
A reviewer who does not possess the necessary expertise to evaluate a manuscript, or who is unable to provide a timely review, must immediately inform the Editor-in-Chief and withdraw from the review process.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for informing reviewers that all manuscripts are confidential documents and that the review process constitutes a privileged form of communication. Reviewers and members of the editorial board must refrain from discussing manuscripts with any third party. The anonymity of reviewers must be rigorously protected. In exceptional circumstances, the Editor-in-Chief may disclose the content of one review to other reviewers for the purpose of clarifying specific issues.
Peer Review Process
Only those manuscripts that have been approved by all contributing authors and that have neither been previously published nor concurrently submitted to another journal shall be considered for evaluation.
Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial screening are subjected to plagiarism detection using the iThenticate software. Following this assessment, those that meet the criteria are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief for their originality, methodological rigor, the significance of the subject matter, and alignment with the scope of the journal.
The Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts solely based on their scientific merit, without consideration of the authors’ ethnic background, gender, nationality, religious affiliation, or political beliefs. A fair and impartial double-blind peer review process is ensured for all qualifying manuscripts.
Selected manuscripts are submitted to at least two external referees, either national or international, for independent evaluation. The final decision regarding publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief, contingent upon the authors' revision of the manuscript in accordance with the reviewers’ recommendations.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for ensuring the absence of any conflicts of interest among authors, editors, and reviewers, and retains ultimate authority over the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts for publication in the journal.
Reviewers are required to maintain objectivity in their evaluations. In the course of their review, they are expected to comment on the following criteria:

Reviewers must treat all information contained in submitted manuscripts as strictly confidential. They are obliged to notify the Editor-in-Chief should they become aware of any instance of copyright violation or plagiarism on the part of the authors.
Any reviewer who feels unqualified to assess the subject matter of a manuscript, or who anticipates being unable to complete the review in a timely manner, must promptly inform the Editor-in-Chief and withdraw from the review process.
The Editor-in-Chief informs all reviewers that manuscripts under evaluation constitute confidential material and that the review process is a privileged communication. Reviewers and members of the editorial board are strictly prohibited from discussing the content of the manuscripts with any third parties. The anonymity of reviewers must be preserved at all times.