Publication Ethics Principles

Publication Ethics can be defined as a self-regulatory mechanism that insists on integrity on behalf of authors, reviewers and publishers to establish higher standards of editorial processing. Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and respect for people's opinions.

Peer-reviewed studies are studies that support and actualize the scientific method. At this point, it is of great importance that all parties involved in the publication process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, referees and editors) comply with ethical principles. ETÜT journal adheres to national and international standards on research and publication ethics. It complies with the Press Law, the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works and the Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics of Higher Education Institutions. ETÜT journal has adopted the International Code of Ethical Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Repeated Article Publication

Republishing is the publication of the same article or substantially similar articles in more than one journal. The editor sends such an article back without review. Thereafter, the editor may embargo the attempted republication for a certain period of time, publicize it in the journal in which the author has previously published (perhaps in a simultaneous announcement with the editor of the journal that published the previous article), or take all of these measures together.

Simultaneous Submission of the Same Work to More Than One Journal

Authors may not submit the same article to more than one journal at the same time. If the editor learns of possible simultaneous submission, he/she reserves the right to consult with the other editor(s) receiving the manuscript. In addition, the editor may return the manuscript without review or reject the manuscript without considering the reviews, or take this decision in discussion with the other editor(s) involved, and may decide not to accept submissions from authors for a certain period of time. It may also write to the authors' employers or take all of these measures together.

Control to Prevent Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures or works of others as one's own work, in whole or in part, without citing their owners in accordance with scientific rules.

In order to prevent ethical violations, articles submitted to the journal are scanned by the plagiarism program (iThenticate). The similarity report is reviewed by the editor to check whether the "citation-citation discrepancy" has been observed. If unethical situations that are not suitable for academic writing are detected in the text, the work is returned to the author(s). In addition, in articles made from theses, the editor compares the similarity rates of the thesis and the article.

Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/confessed authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, sliced publication, copyright infringement and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviors. All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from publication. This includes articles that contain possible irregularities or improprieties detected after publication.

Forgery

Producing data that is not based on research, editing or modifying a submitted or published work on the basis of untrue data, reporting or publishing them, and presenting a research that has not been conducted as if it has been conducted.

Falsifying research records and data obtained, showing methods, devices and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that do not comply with the research hypothesis, manipulating data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, falsifying or shaping the research results in line with the interests of the persons and organizations supported.

Protection of Participants' Personal Data

The journal ETÜT requires that all research involving personal or sensitive data or materials relating to human participants that are not legally publicly available be subject to formal ethical review.

Addressing Allegations of Research Misconduct

ETÜT journal adheres to COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. ETÜT journal editors will take measures to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct has occurred. In no case will ETÜT journal editors knowingly allow such misconduct to occur. If the editors of ETÜT are aware of any allegations of research misconduct related to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines regarding allegations.

Ethical Violation Notifications

When readers notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in ETÜT journal or have any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.), they can send an e-mail to the address of one of the editors of ETÜT journal. We welcome applications as it will provide an opportunity for us to improve, and we will respond quickly and constructively.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern

Editors may consider publishing a correction if the published article contains minor errors that do not affect the findings, interpretations and conclusions. Editors should consider retracting the manuscript if there are major errors/omissions that invalidate the findings and conclusions. Editors should consider issuing a statement of concern if there is a possibility of research or publication misconduct by the authors; there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and that the authors' institutions have not investigated the incident; or the potential investigation appears unfair or inconclusive. COPE and ICJME guidelines for correction, retraction or expression of concern are followed.

Publication of Studies Based on Surveys and Interviews

ETÜT journal adopts the "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "Code of Conduct for Journals" principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in order to provide ethical assurance for scientific research. In this context, the following points should be followed in the studies submitted to the journal:

1) Ethics committee approval must be obtained for research in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval, and this approval must be stated and documented in the article.

2) In studies requiring ethics committee approval, information about the permission (name of the committee, date and number no.) should be included in the method section and on one of the first/last pages of the article; in case reports, information on the signature of the informed consent form should be included in the article.

Editorial Confidentiality Obligation

The editors of ETÜT treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents, which means that they will not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone without the authors' permission. During the manuscript review process, the following people have access to the manuscripts: Editors, Reviewers, Editorial Board Members. The only situation in which details about a manuscript may be passed to a third party without the authors' permission is if the editor suspects serious research misconduct.

Complaint Procedure

This procedure applies to complaints about content, procedures or policies that are the responsibility of ETÜT magazine or our editorial staff. Complaints can provide an opportunity and incentive for improvement and we aim to respond quickly, courteously and constructively.

Complaints should be sent directly to the editors' email address and will be treated confidentially. The editor will respond to complaints promptly. The editor follows the procedure outlined in the COPE flowchart regarding complaints.

Appeal Process

ETÜT welcomes serious objections to the evaluations made by the editors and referees. If it is thought that the article has been rejected due to a misunderstanding of the scientific content, an appeal message can be sent to the editorial team. At this stage, the revised version of the article should not be sent. After the letter of objection is included in the agenda of the Editorial Board, if it is decided that the objection is justified, the revised version of the article is requested from the author. Thus, the manuscript is resubmitted to the external referee process.

The letter of objection should be as detailed as possible. Only one objection will be considered for each article. For this reason, it is important to present the objection in a clear and understandable way. As a result of our experience and convictions, we do not process more than one objection for the same manuscript, as we have observed that prolonged discussions on rejected manuscripts are unsatisfactory for both authors and editors.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest arises when professional judgment about a primary interest may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal competition). In order to make the best decision about how to handle an article, the competing interests of the authors should be known and, if the article is published, this information should be made available to readers.

A conflict of interest is any financial or other interest that may conflict with one's work, significantly impair one's objectivity, or give an unfair advantage to any person or organization. All sources of financial support received during the conduct of the research and preparation of the manuscript and the role of sponsors in the study should be disclosed. If there is no source of funding, this should also be indicated. Examples of potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include consultancies, salaries, grants. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.

ETÜT has a set process for handling submissions from editors, staff or editorial board members to ensure impartial review. Such submissions are first referred to other journals. If this is not possible, the submitter's position in the journal is suspended. These submissions are reviewed in a double-blind process.

The editor should not be involved in decisions about manuscripts written by him/herself or family members. Furthermore, such a paper should be subject to all the usual procedures of the journal. The editor should follow ICMJE guidelines on disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers.