ARTICLE WRITING RULES

Articles to be submitted to our journal should be prepared according to the “Article Template”. Click here to access the article template.

1. Title
Articles submitted for publication in Al Farabi International Journal of Social Sciences must have both Turkish and English titles. The title should be concise, clear and adequately reflect the content of the work. The Turkish title should be written in capital letters and bold, and should preferably not exceed twenty words. The English title should be written with only the first letter of each word capitalised and in italics. 12 point font, centred.

2. Author Name(s) and Address(es)
The author's surname should be written in full, in capital letters, centred and in 12 point font, in the middle of the title. The author's title, institution, email address and ORCID number should be indicated below the author's name and surname. The font size should be 10 points.

3. Abstract and Keywords
The Turkish and English abstracts should reflect the purpose, scope, method and results of the study. Articles written in a foreign language should also include a Turkish and English abstract and keywords. Care should be taken to ensure that there are no language errors in the foreign language abstracts. The abstract should be at least 200 and at most 300 words long, and at least 3 and at most 5 Turkish and English keywords should be written on a line below the abstract. The abstract should be a single paragraph and justified. The font should be Times New Roman, size 10, with single line spacing. The first letter of each keyword should be capitalised, with the rest in lower case (except for proper nouns and abbreviations in capital letters), and concepts should be listed from specific to general. Keywords should consist of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 words.

4. Main Text
Articles should preferably be written using Microsoft Word software and should not exceed twenty pages. The page size should be A4, with margins set to ‘custom margins’ – 1 cm top and bottom, and 3 cm left and right. Texts should be justified and written with 6 pt spacing before and after paragraphs. The Times New Roman font should be used in the article, and the font size should be 11 pt. Paragraphs should be indented by 1.25 cm. Line spacing should be ‘SINGLE’. Punctuation marks should be written adjacent to the words preceding them. A single space should be left after the punctuation marks. The work should comply with grammar rules. The latest TDK Spelling Guide should be used as a basis for the use of punctuation marks and the spelling of words and abbreviations in the article. A clear and straightforward style of expression should be followed, and unnecessary information that goes beyond the scope and purpose should not be included. Valid scientific methods should be followed in preparing the article, and information such as the subject, purpose, scope, and rationale for the study should be provided in sufficient detail and in a specific order.
An article should contain, in order, an abstract, sections of the main text, a bibliography and (if applicable) appendices. The use of headings such as ‘Introduction’ and “Conclusion” depends on the type of study and the requirements of the subject. However, the article must have a concluding paragraph. The ‘Conclusion’ should be appropriate to the purpose and scope of the research and should be presented in outline form and in essence. Points not mentioned in the text should not be included in the ‘conclusion’. Main, intermediate and subheadings may be used to ensure a clear structure.

Main Headings
ALL LETTERS SHOULD BE CAPITALISED. Font type Times New Roman, font size 12 point, alignment justified, paragraph spacing 12 nk before, 6 nk after, no paragraph indentation, single line spacing.

Subheadings
Subheadings should be formatted as follows:
Under the main heading (INTRODUCTION, METHOD, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, etc.)
First-level headings: Bold, left-aligned, all words capitalised, font size 12 pt, paragraph spacing 12 pt before, 6 pt after, single line spacing, no indentation.
Second-level headings: Bold, left-aligned, with only the first letter of each word capitalised, font size 11 pt, paragraph spacing 12 pt before, 6 pt after, single line spacing, no indentation.
Third-level headings: should be bold, left-aligned, with only the first letter of the first word capitalised, font size 11 pt, paragraph spacing 12 pt before, 6 pt after, line spacing single, no indentation.
Headings should not be used beyond the third level where possible.

Figures, Tables and Photographs
Figures, tables and photographs should not extend beyond the text area; if necessary, each should be placed on a separate page. Figures and tables should be numbered and labelled in both Turkish and English according to the language of the text. Table titles should be placed at the top, with the first letter capitalised and the font size set to 11 points. If there is a reference, it should be written below the table with a 1.25 cm indent and a font size of 10 points. The names of figures, photographs and graphs should be written below, with the first letters capitalised, a font size of 11 points and, if there is a reference, in brackets after the name, with a font size of 10 points. Tables should be created using the table command in the ‘WORD’ programme. In exceptional circumstances, ‘EXCEL’ tables may be used. Where necessary, explanatory footnotes or abbreviations should be provided immediately below the figures and tables. In addition, the rules specified for figures should be followed. It is preferable that figures, tables and images do not exceed ten pages. Figures, tables, and images should be placed within the text in such a way that they can be printed exactly as they appear.

Citation (References)
Citations and references in articles submitted to the AL FARABI International Journal of Social Sciences should be made according to the latest version of APA. Therefore, articles submitted must comply with the citation system. The page number of the source being cited must be provided in the text.
Example: ………………………(Alsu, 2017, p. 28).
When citing multiple sources, they should be listed in the same parentheses, from oldest to newest, separated by semicolons.
Example: ………………..(Alsu, 2017, p.12; Emek,2016, p.28)
For sources with two authors, a hyphen (&) is used. For sources with more than two authors, the abbreviation ‘et al.’ should be used after the surname of the first author.
Examples:………………………(Alsu & Emek. 2003, p. 15), (Alsu et al. 2017, p. 25)
Two works by the same author published in the same year are distinguished by adding a letter to the publication year.
Examples:…………(İlhan, 2003a, p. 25), (İlhan, 2003b, p. 58)
Works published in the same year by two authors with the same surname are indicated by adding the first letters of their names.
Examples: (Demir, A., 2003, p. 46), (Demir, H., 2003, p. 27)
When referring to an inaccessible publication within the text, the source and the work from which the quotation is taken should be indicated as follows:
Example: (Quoted from Köprülü 1911: 75; Çelik, 1998, p. 25)
When citing a manuscript work, the abbreviation [yz.] should be added after the author or translator's name, the folio number should be indicated as in the example, and the full bibliographic details should be provided in the bibliography.
Example: (Ahmedî, [yz.] 1410: 7b)
When citing archival documents, the abbreviation in the text should be as in the example, and the full name should be given in the bibliography.
Example: (BCA, Mühimme 15, p. 25).

Footnotes
Footnotes are used only for mandatory explanations and are automatically generated with the ‘FOOTNOTE’ command.

Quotations
Direct quotations in the article should be enclosed in quotation marks, and the source should be indicated in parentheses at the end of the quotation. Quotations of fewer than five lines should be italicised within the sentence, while quotations of more than five lines should be indented 1 cm from the right and left margins of the page and presented in italics as a block. For non-direct quotations, the source should only be indicated in parentheses at the end.

References
All sources used in the article should be included in the ‘References’ section. Documents and works not mentioned in the text, even if they are related to the subject of the article, should not be included in the references. References should be listed alphabetically at the end of the main text according to the author's surname (for those prior to the Surname Law, the author's name is used). Work titles should be italicised and only the first letter of each word should be capitalised, except for proper nouns. If multiple works by the same author are included in the references, they should be listed in chronological order from oldest to newest. For works published in the same year, the labels ‘a, b, c...’ should be used as previously indicated. A 1.25 hanging indent format should be used for the bibliography (in MS Office Word, go to Paragraph-Indents and Spacing-Indent-Special-Hanging Paragraph). The DOI number should be provided as a direct link and should NOT have a full stop (.) at the end.
Example: Ergün, A. (2023). A bibliometric analysis of the research on geographic information systems in the field of education. e-International Journal of Educational Research, 14(5), 23-40. https://doi.org/10.19160/e-ijer.1322121 
According to APA 7, the practice of writing the publisher's location (city/state/country) in the bibliography of books or theses has been discontinued.

Book:
Öztürk, S. (2004). Macroeconomics. Science and Art Publications.

Book chapter:
Muecke, M. A. (1994). On the evaluation of ethnographies. In J. M. Morse (Ed.), Critical issues in qualitative research (pp. 187-209). Sage.

Journal:
Alsu, E. and Öztürk, S. (2009). Economic Outlook: Basic economic outlook for the Southeast Anatolia Region. Economic Outlook: Journal of Economic Research, 45 (2): 15–20.

E-journal:
Drichoutis, A. C., Lazaridis, P., & Nayga, R. M. Jr. (2006). Consumers’ use of nutritional labels: A review of research studies and issues. Academy of Marketing Science Review (e-journal), 2006 (9): http://www.amsreview.org/articles/drichoutis09-2006.pdf, (02.09.2011).

Thesis:
Alsu, E. (2007). The effect of capital structure on profitability and sustainability. An Application on BIST 100. [Unpublished Doctoral Thesis]. Hasan Kalyoncu University, Institute of Social Sciences.

Symposium and Conference Presentation:
Alsu, E. and Taşdemir, A. (2009). Foreign direct investment and export in Turkey: The period of 1991-2008. Presented at Econ Anadolu 2009: Anadolu International Economics Congress. Eskişehir, Turkey.

Symposium and Conference Paper:
Gül, O. K. & Ergün, A. (2025). Migration and culinary culture: The formation of a new gastronomic map in Western Anatolia after the population exchange (1923-1950). International Şanlıurfa Gastronomy Culture and Tourism Conference Proceedings, 1-10. Access Address: https://tr.discoveranatolia.org/_files/ugd/614b1f_0f7b1377b51f47939a6683fcf893c8a2.pdf 

Internet address:
University of Georgia (publication year, if available). “Points of pride”, http://www.uga.edu/profile/pride.html, (access date).

Reports:
TCMB (1995). Annual Report. www.tcmb.gov.tr, (01.05.2011).
Bikmen, F. and Meydanoğlu, Z. (2006). Civil society in Turkey: a process of change. International Civil Society Index Project Turkey Country Report. Istanbul: Tüsev Publications No: 39.

Electronic Sources:
MEB (2024). Teaching programmes. Retrieved on 01.04.2026 from https://tymm.meb.gov.tr/ogretim-programlari/ders/cografya-dersi.
Detailed information on other types of sources can be found at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/.

ETHICS COMMITTEE DECISION
This is mandatory for studies/articles that require data collection from individuals using scales, questionnaires, interviews, and other data collection tools.
The author must have obtained approval from the Ethics Committee of the university to which they are affiliated or the institution where the study was conducted.
The committee's approval must be indicated on the first page of the article with the name of the committee, date, and number.
The start and end dates of data collection must be stated in the methods section of the article.
The approval document must be added as an additional file to DergiPark.
For studies that do not require an Ethics Committee decision, the author must upload a wet-signed statement declaring that an Ethics Committee decision is not required.
For TR Dizin's opinion on Ethics Committee approval, see
https://trdizin.gov.tr/about#applicationAndCriterias 

Ethical Principles
Our journal has adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics (Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive)
a) Plagiarism: Representing the original ideas, methods, data or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citation in accordance with scientific rules,
b) Forgery: Using non-existent or falsified data in scientific research,
c) Distortion: Falsifying research records or data obtained, falsifying devices or materials not used in the research, falsifying or shaping the results of the research in line with the interests of the persons and organizations receiving support,
ç) Republishing: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
d) Slicing: Dividing the results of a research into parts in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and inappropriately and publishing them in more than one number and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
e) Unfair authorship: Including or excluding people who have not made active contributions, changing the order of authors in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have made active contributions from the work in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has not made active contributions,

(2) Other types of ethical violations are as follows
a) Failing to specify the persons, institutions or organizations providing support and their contributions in the publications made as a result of the researches conducted with support,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or defended and accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Failure to comply with ethical rules in research on humans and animals, and failure to respect patient rights in publications,
ç) Violating the provisions of the relevant legislation in human biomedical research and other clinical research,
d) Sharing the information contained in a work that he/she has been assigned to examine with others before publication without the express permission of the author,
e) To misuse the resources, spaces, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research,
f) Making baseless, unwarranted and intentional allegations of ethical violations,
g) Publishing data obtained in surveys and attitude surveys conducted within the scope of a scientific study without obtaining the explicit consent of the participants or, if the research is to be conducted in an institution, without obtaining the permission of the institution,
h) To harm animal health and ecological balance in research and experiments,
ı) Failure to obtain the necessary permissions in writing from the authorized units in research and experiments before starting the studies.
i) Conducting research and experiments contrary to the provisions of the legislation or international conventions to which Turkey is a party regarding the relevant research and experiments.
j) Failure by researchers and authorities to comply with the obligation to inform and warn those concerned about possible harmful practices related to the scientific research conducted,
k) Not using the 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,

Principles of Research Ethics
• Our journal adheres to national and international ethical standards in scientific research and publication processes. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the works submitted to the journal comply with these ethical principles.
• The principles of scientific integrity, academic integrity, transparency, and impartiality must be observed in the planning, conduct, data analysis, and reporting of research.
• Individuals participating in research must be informed in a clear and understandable manner about the study’s purpose, method, scope, and potential benefits and risks; informed consent must be obtained when necessary.
• Personal information and research data pertaining to participants must be protected in accordance with the principle of confidentiality; respect must be shown for individuals’ privacy, human rights, and personal rights.
• The principle of voluntariness must be upheld in research; no participant should be subjected to pressure, coercion, or manipulation.
• Practices that could cause physical, psychological, social, or legal harm to participants during the research process must be avoided; necessary precautions must be taken to minimize potential risks.
• If the study is conducted within an institution or organization, the necessary official permits and approval documents must be obtained from the relevant institution.
• The independence of the research must be safeguarded; financial support, sponsorship, or potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed in an open and transparent manner.
• Data must not be falsified; ethical violations such as fabricating data, manipulating data, and intentionally distorting results must be avoided.
• Plagiarism, salami slicing, duplicate publication, improper authorship, and quoting without proper citation are considered unacceptable ethical violations.
• Authors are required to properly and fully cite all sources used in their work.
• Submissions to the review process must avoid information and statements that could compromise the confidentiality of the peer review process.

Protection of Personal Data of Participants
Our journal 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.
Ethical Violation Notifications
Readers can send an e-mail to contact.alfarabi@iksad.org.tr if they notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in our journal or if they have any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.). We welcome submissions and respond quickly and constructively, as they provide an opportunity for improvement.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are identified in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations and conclusions. In the case of major errors/violations that invalidate findings and conclusions, editors should consider retracting the article. COPE guidelines regarding correction, retraction or expression of concern are taken into account.

Plagiarism Check
Our journal scans all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. Studies submitted for review are checked for plagiarism using the software Intihal.net. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 20%. The main measure of similarity is the author's compliance with the citation and citation rules. If the similarity rate appears to be 1%, but the citation and quotation are not properly cited and quoted, plagiarism may still be in question.

Conflict of Interest
Authors should clearly declare any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that may influence their findings or interpretations in their manuscript.

Financial Support
Authors should clearly declare the financial support provided by any organization within the scope of their work in the text of the article.

ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL
Our journal requires that the relevant ethics committee decision must be obtained for all studies in all disciplines that require ethics committee permission. In this context, information about the ethics committee approval (name of the committee, date and decision number) should be clearly stated in the text of the article. In case reports, the information that the informed consent form has been obtained must be included in the article.
In line with the regulations implemented by Ulakbim TR Index since 2020, studies that do not have ethics committee permission are not evaluated in our journal.

Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
In our journal, researches that require ethics committee permission include the following studies:
• All research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, experiments and interview techniques,
• Studies in which humans and animals (including materials or data) are used for experimental or other scientific purposes,
• Clinical trials conducted on humans,
• Scientific research on animals,
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
In order for such studies to be included in the evaluation, the relevant ethics committee permissions must be obtained and these permissions must be clearly stated in the text of the article.

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

1- Responsibilities of the Publisher
• Ensure transparency and impartiality in the publication process.
• Take necessary measures to prevent fraudulent, misleading or unethical publications.
• Ensure the correct functioning of the double blind review system (the identities of authors and reviewers should be kept confidential from each other).
• Supervising the reviewers to ensure that the evaluation process is objective and fair.
•To check plagiarism and prevent ethical violations.
• Storing all issues of the journal with accessible and long-term archiving systems.

2- Responsibilities of Editors
• Managing an impartial and fair editorial process.
• Preventing conflicts of interest and taking independent decisions.
• Pre-evaluating manuscripts for scientific relevance and scope.
• Appointing expert and impartial referees and ensuring the healthy progress of the refereeing process.
• Reviewing referee reports meticulously and ensuring academic dialog between authors and referees.
• Detecting and preventing ethical problems such as plagiarism, data manipulation, and unfair authorship.
• Managing retraction and correction processes.
• Impartially reviewing complaints and appeals and making corrections when necessary.

3- Responsibilities of Authors
• Presenting original and authentic work and not plagiarizing.
• Give proper attribution when citing other works (to avoid ethical violations and plagiarism).
• Avoid falsifying, manipulating or distorting data.
• Not adding people who did not contribute to the article as authors (avoiding unfair authorship).
• To acknowledge the authorship of everyone who contributed to the study.
• Clearly indicate conflicts of interest.
• Not submitting the same article to more than one journal (no multiple submission violation).
• Not to re-publish a previously published work.
• Responding to referee evaluations in a timely and academic manner.
• To consider revision requests from referees or editors and make the necessary corrections.
• Informing the editor when an error is noticed in the article and publishing a correction if necessary.
• In case of significant ethical violations, initiate the process of retracting the article.

4- Responsibilities of Referees
• To be impartial, objective and fair in the evaluation process.
• To comply with confidentiality regarding the refereeing process and not to share the content of the article with third parties.
• To evaluate the articles within the framework of scientific competence, originality and ethical rules.
• Accepting or declining the referee invitation on time and not delaying the evaluation process.
• If there is any academic or personal relationship with the author(s), to inform the editor and withdraw from the evaluation.

Publication Policy
1. Al Farabi International Journal of Social Sciences is a peer-reviewed international academic journal published twice a year (June-December). Al Farabi-Injosos is published by the Institute of Economic Development and Social Research.
2. The aim of the journal is to promote theoretical and research-oriented studies and to encourage the exchange of academic research nationally and internationally. Our journal is an open access journal for the free flow and dissemination of knowledge.
3. The journal accepts manuscripts in English, Turkish, Chinese, Russian and Kazakh.
4. Manuscripts submitted to Al Farabi should not have been published in any other medium before and should not be in the publication evaluation process of another publication organ when added to the system.
5. Those who wish to submit manuscripts for publication in Al Farabi must register their manuscripts through the Online Manuscript Submission button and submit them through the system.
6. All processes from the submission of the application to the publication of the manuscript are carried out electronically.
7. The copyrights of the published works belong to the authors. Authors give permission for the intellectual work they submit to be published by our journal under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
8. Our journal believes that for open access to work effectively, user rights and copyright ownership through licensing must be clear. The journal's open access articles are licensed as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
9. Articles published in our journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS. Articles published in our journal can be accessed free of charge at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/farabi/archive. 
10. Any legal, juridical, economic and ethical responsibility that may arise from the articles submitted to Al Farabi belongs to the authors, even if the article in question is published. The journal does not accept any liability.