Journal of Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation ensures that all articles published within its scope meet high ethical and scientific standards. There are ethical guidelines that editors, reviewers, and authors must adhere to throughout the review process of articles submitted for publication in our journal.

These guidelines and required standards are based on the "Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org) (http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf) and the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org).

All submissions to our journal must comply with the following ethical considerations:

- For all studies requiring ethical committee approval involving humans or animals, approval must be obtained, and this approval must be stated in the methods section of the article with the name of the ethics committee, decision number, and date. This approval must also be documented during the article submission process. Detailed explanations of studies requiring ethical committee approval are listed below.
- In all research involving humans, informed consent must be obtained, and information about this consent must be included in the methods section of the article.
- There must be a statement in the article indicating compliance with Research and Publication Ethics during the planning and conduct of the study.

All the following types of studies require ethical committee approval:

- All kinds of research conducted using qualitative or quantitative methods requiring data collection from participants through surveys, interviews, focus group work, observation, experiments, and interview techniques.
- Research involving the use of humans and animals for scientific purposes in any context and scope.
- Clinical research on humans.
- Clinical research on animals.
- Retrospective studies using human data (e.g., file scanning) in accordance with the Law on Protection of Personal Data.

Editors' Responsibilities

Decisions regarding all articles submitted for publication are made jointly by the editor and area editors. These decisions must not be influenced by the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origins, nationalities, or political views. The decision regarding an article is solely based on its scientific importance, relevance to the journal's scope, originality, use of valid and reliable methods, and clarity of content. The chief editor, area editors, and technical editors must not share information about the submitted articles with anyone other than the other editors, reviewers, and authors. During information sharing with reviewers, the authors' identities must not be disclosed under any circumstances. No information or material (e.g., visual, figure, schema) obtained from the content of an article under review can be used elsewhere without the explicit written permission of the authors, which must be shared where the material is used.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

The purpose of the peer review process is to assist the editor and associate editors in making decisions regarding the article, not to ensure its publication. To facilitate this decision-making, reviewers may provide improvement suggestions for the article. Reviewers must handle all articles and related documents with absolute confidentiality. They cannot share any part of the article or its content with anyone other than those authorized by the editor. In our journal, double-blind peer review is implemented, so authors and reviewers cannot know each other's identities. If a reviewer discovers or infers the author's identity, they must immediately notify the editor, and the reviewer will be replaced.

Reviewers must identify any problems related to referencing in the article. If a referenced publication is not cited in the bibliography, the reviewer must note this. Additionally, if the reviewer detects significant similarities between the reviewed article and other known publications, they must inform the editor. All reviews should be conducted impartially. Even if a reviewer has a specific opinion on a scientific concept, they must review an article on the same or a similar concept without bias. All evaluations and improvement suggestions must be based on objective criteria and not influenced by personal opinions.

Individuals invited to review must promptly inform the editor whether they can perform the review. If a reviewer who has accepted an invitation later finds they cannot complete the review promptly and effectively due to a new situation, they must inform the editor without delay.

Authors' Responsibilities

Authors of original research articles must include sufficient detail and references in the "methods" section to allow others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. In some cases, raw data may be requested from authors. When appropriate, data should be shared by the corresponding author with absolute anonymization.

Authors are responsible for producing entirely original works. If a submitted work is found to be not entirely original, the article will be rejected. Therefore, authors must create their articles originally and properly cite any expressions or sections taken from other publications. Submitting the same or substantially similar work for review in another journal while it is under review in our journal is unethical.

Authorship should be limited to those who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All significant contributors should be listed as co-authors. Conversely, those who have not made significant contributions should not be listed as authors. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.

All authors must disclose any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence their results or interpretations.

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, they must promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to correct the paper or retract it.

Open Access Publication Policy

The Journal of Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation provides immediate and uninterrupted open access to all articles within its content.

Open Access Licenses

The Journal of Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit the link.