1. ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

1.1. Authors' Duties and Ethical Responsibilities

• Articles submitted to the Journal of Environmental Toxicology and Ecology (ETOXEC) must be the original work of the authors.
• All studies submitted to the Journal of Environmental Toxicology and Ecology are subject to a plagiarism check after being pre-checked (iThenticate plagiarism detection service is used). The similarity index in the report created after the plagiarism inspection should be at most 30%. If the similarity rate is above this rate, the work sent for publication is rejected.
• Articles with a similarity index of 30% or less are directed to the field editor. Even if the similarity rate of the article is not higher than 30%, after the similarity report evaluation, the editors may ask the authors to make corrections regarding the relevant sections in their work or remove the work from the publication process. For this reason, authors should not include fully cited paragraphs in their work.
• All responsibility for the works belongs to the author(s). Studies should be prepared in accordance with the stated international scientific ethical rules.
• ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL must be obtained for all scientific research and studies that require an ethics committee decision.

Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Permission

1. All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from the participants by using survey, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment, interview techniques,
2. Research using humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
3. Studies on animals,
4. Retrospective studies using personal data.

Status of studies that do not require ethics committee approval

If the study does not require the approval of the ethics committee, the “Ethics Committee Approval and Research, Publication Ethics Statement Form” that will be requested from the authors at the time of article submission should be uploaded, signed by the responsible author.

Authors should sign the “COPYRIGHT TRANSFER FORM” and upload it through the system when submitting the article to our journal. All authors or only the RESPONSIBLE AUTHOR must sign this form on behalf of all authors.

Submission of the study to the journal should be done by the responsible author, and the information of all authors of the article (author's name, e-mail address, orcid information, etc.) should be added to the system at the stage of article submission.

The contribution rates of all authors of the article to the article process should be stated under the heading "Authors's Contributions" at the end of the article before the References.

All authors should see and approve the final version of the submitted article before submission.

After the article is accepted, authors are recommended to write an acknowledgment at the end of their article, thanking the person(s) or institutions that supported the article's process. The text of thanks written to individuals should be under the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS heading.

Acknowledgment texts given to institutions that receive funding should be written under the heading FUNDING.

If there are conflicts of interest (or community of interests) regarding the submitted article, the “Conflicts of Interest, Common Interest Statement Form” file should be uploaded to the journal while the article is submitted. If there is no conflict of interest, in the same form, "We do not have any conflicts of interest that I know (we) know, or that we (we) have in common with any institution or person. ” section should be marked and the form should be presented in that way.

When an author notices a material error or inaccuracy in his own published work, he should immediately notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to correct the article.

Raw data can be requested from the authors during the evaluation process regarding their articles. In such a case, authors should be present the expected information and documents.

1.2. Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

Environmental Toxicology and Ecology editors and section editors should have the ethical duties and responsibilities specified in the "CODE OF CONDUCT AND BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR JOURNAL EDITORS" and "COPE BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR JOURNAL EDITORS" guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In this context;

• The editor will evaluate articles regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnicity, nationality, or political philosophy of the authors. The decision will be based on the importance of the article, its originality, its clarity, the validity of the study, and its relevance to the scope of the journal.
• Editors should not give any privileges to the authors of the articles submitted to the journal, and should fulfill their duties in a balanced, objective and fair manner.
• The editor should not disclose any information about a submitted article to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers and publisher.
• Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript will not be used by the editor or members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the express written consent of the author.
• Editors should strive to continuously improve ETOXEC and increase its publication quality.
• They are responsible for the determination and implementation of all the policies of the journal.
• If the study was not prepared in line with the purpose and scope of the journal, they should reject the study directly.
• They should take the necessary measures to prevent possible conflicts of interest and evaluate existing statements, if any.
• During the evaluation process, they should appoint arbitrators according to the principle of blind arbitration and respect the principle of confidentiality.
• For the objective evaluation of the studies, the editors should act by checking the compatibility of the subject of the study with the expertise of the referees while determining the referees.
• When publishing issues in the journal, they should include not only articles in certain fields, but also articles in a wide range of fields within the scope of the journal.
• They should ensure the protection of personal data in the evaluated articles; must protect the individual data of the authors, referees and readers.
• Editors should respond as much as possible to questions from authors or reviewers about the process. They should also be open to negative criticism.
• Editors should check the submission files, make sure that the files other than the article file are complete, and then appoint a referee. It should be checked whether the author has uploaded all the additional statements requested by the journal in a signed manner.
• In all processes of the articles, they should act according to the rules in the publication process of the journal.

1.3. Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of Referees

• The referees are responsible for not evaluating the article in case of conflict of interest and relationship.
• The referees are responsible for evaluating the article by paying attention to the principles of confidentiality and impartiality.
• The referees cannot use the work sent to them for any purpose until the evaluation process is completed and it is published.
• While evaluating the article, the referees are responsible for not allowing the gender, nationality, religious beliefs and political views of the authors to affect the evaluation.
• Reviewers should use a courteous and constructive language while evaluating the article. Insulting, slanderous and hostile comments and expressions should be avoided.
• The referees are responsible for evaluating the article on time and by paying attention to ethical rules.

According to YÖK (Council of Higher Education) Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, it is recommended to consider the following information.

1.4. Actions against scientific research and publication ethics are as follows.

a) Plagiarism: Presenting the original ideas, methods, data or works of others as one's own work, in whole or in part, without citing them in accordance with scientific rules,
b) Fraud: Using data that does not actually exist or has been falsified in scientific research,
c) Distortion: Falsifying research records or data obtained, presenting devices or materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, falsifying or shaping the research results in line with the interests of the individuals and organizations receiving support,
d) Re-publication: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
d) Slicing: Dividing the results of a research into pieces in a way that violates the integrity of the research and publishing them in more than one issue, and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
e) Unfair authorship: Including people who do not have an active contribution among the authors or not including people who do, changing the author order in an unjustified and inappropriate way, removing the names of those who have an active contribution from the work in subsequent editions, using their influence to include their names among the authors even though they do not have an active contribution,

1.5. Other types of ethical violations include:

a) Not mentioning the supporting persons, institutions or organizations and their contributions in the publications made as a result of research carried out with support,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been presented or defended and accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Not complying with ethical rules in research conducted on humans and animals, and not respecting patient rights in their publications,
c) Acting contrary to the relevant legislation in biomedical research and other clinical research on humans,
d) Sharing the information contained in a work that he is assigned to review with others before it is published without the express permission of the owner of the work,
e) Using the resources, spaces, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research for purposes other than their intended purpose,
f) Making unfounded, unfounded and intentional allegations of ethical violations,
g) To publish the data obtained in surveys and attitude research conducted within the scope of a scientific study without obtaining the explicit consent of the participants or, if the research will be carried out in an institution, without obtaining the permission of the institution,
h) Harming animal health and ecological balance in research and experiments,
i) Not obtaining written permissions from authorized units before starting research and experiments.
i) Conducting research and experiments contrary to the provisions of the legislation or international agreements to which Turkey is a party regarding relevant research and experiments.
j) Failure to comply with the obligation of researchers and authorities to inform and warn those concerned about possible harmful practices regarding the scientific research carried out,
k) Not using data and information obtained from other persons and institutions in scientific studies to the extent and in the manner permitted, not respecting the confidentiality of this information and not ensuring its protection,
l) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions,
Situations That Cannot Be Considered Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics

The use of anonymous information, basic knowledge of scientific fields, and propositions such as mathematical theorems and proofs in studies cannot be considered an ethical violation, provided that the original style and expression of someone else is not used verbatim.

2. PUBLICATION POLICY

Any manuscript that is considered to be published in ETOXEC must meet the following criteria:
• Originality
• Not containing ethical violations
• Having clear messages for the scientific community
• Expressing the extent of the article's contributions to researchers in the field and its relevance to related sciences
• Current fields and topics drawing the interest of researchers in the field of related sciences
• Having structural and logical integrity
• Research results that are based on scientific evidence
• Coherence of the scientific method


2.1. Review of the Articles
Articles can be submitted to the ETOXEC by registering in the "Article Management System" on https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/etoxec. Articles sent by e-mail will not be taken into consideration.

2.2. Pre-Review and Plagiarism Checking
The journal's compliance with the writing rules is examined and a similarity check is made to prevent plagiarism. A similarity software is used in the checking process. The overall similarity rate should be less than 30% and the similarity rate from a single source should be maximum 3%. If the similarity rate is more than 30%, the study is either rejected or sent back to the author to reduce the similarity rate. The pre-review is completed within a maximum of 10 days.

2.3. Editor/Field Editor Review
After the study passes the stages of pre-review and similarity checking, it is reviewed by the relevant editor/field editor in terms of subject, scope, language use and academic competence. This review is completed within a maximum of 15 days.

2.4. Peer Review Process (Double-Blind Peer Review)
Studies that pass the pre-review and editorial review undergo a confidential double-blind peer review process. Within the double-blind strategy, the identity of the peer reviewer is concealed from the author submitting publications to the journal. Similarly, the peer reviewers do not know who wrote the article they are reviewing. In other words, the peer review process is conducted by keeping both authors and peer reviewers anonymous to each other. The reports are also stored in the Article Management System.

2.5. Author's Revision
Authors take into account the feedback, criticisms and recommendations of the reviewer and the Editorial Board. In case of any disagreement, they have the right to appeal with their justifications. Authors edit the article as per the reports and upload the final version of the article to the system.

2.6. Field Editor Review
The field editor checks whether the author has made the requested corrections in the text. If there is a “Major Revision” requirement in the peer review reports, they send the article to the relevant peer reviewer. If there is "Acceptance" or "Minor Revision" requirement and the revisions are completed, they can submit the article for language checks (The checking process is completed within a maximum of 7 days.). If they detect that the corrections have not been made, they re-send the article to the author. They may reject the article if the author does not make the corrections again. Articles that are not accepted for publication are not deleted from the system. Their processes and files are stored in the system.

2.7. English Language Checks
Studies are reviewed by the English Language Editor and if necessary, corrections are requested from the author. The checking process is completed within a maximum of 15 days.

2.8. Editorial Board Review
The articles that pass technical, academic and linguistic reviews are examined by the Editorial Board and the final publication status is determined. In case of any objection from the members, the Board decides by majority of votes.

2.9. Typesetting and Layout Process
The journal undertakes the typesetting and layout processes of the studies decided to be published by the Editorial Board.

2.10. Language
ETOXEC publishes articles written in English and Turkish.

2.11. Change of Authorship
ETOXEC accepts article authors according to the statement on the Title Page of the article. Therefore, it is the responsibility of authors to submit the final version of the full author list. Requests for any change of authorship after the submission of the article (e.g removal/addition of authors, change of order, etc.) are subject to editorial approval. The Editorial Board will investigate such cases and act according to the COPE flowcharts.

Requests for a change of authorship should be conveyed to the Editor with an official letter stating the reasons for the change. The letter should be signed by all the authors and include their confirmation of the change of authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, the authors are required to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final author list.

2.12. Objections and Appeals
The Editorial Board of the journal deals with objections and appeals within the scope of COPE guidelines. Authors can contact the Editorial Office directly for their objections and appeals. When needed, an impartial representative will be appointed for issues that cannot be resolved by the Editorial Board. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision in the decision-making processes regarding objections and appeals.

2.13. Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in the articles published in the journal are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the ETOXEC and its Editor-In-Chief, Editors, Editorial Board or Publisher. The Editor-in-Chief, Editors, Editorial Board and Publisher assume no responsibility or liability for such cases. The sole responsibility for the published content lies with the authors.

Manuscript Process

The average time during which the preliminary assessment of manuscripts is conducted: 7 days

The average time during which the reviews of manuscripts are conducted: 50 days

The average time in which the article is published: 70-80 days