Göbeklitepe Eğitim ve Spor Bilimleri Dergisi Sciences (GESD) (e-ISSN: 2980-3071) is the official, peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal of Harran University. Established in 2004, the journal has been published as a free and open-access publication for the public. Beginning with Volume 1, Issue 1 of 2026, all published articles have also been licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The journal is published twice a year, in June and December, in Turkish or English.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original and must not have been published elsewhere. The exception to this rule is oral presentations or posters presented as abstracts at scientific congresses. If a manuscript has previously been presented as an oral presentation or poster at a scientific congress, this must be stated. This information must be included on the title page or in the relevant field of the online manuscript submission system. Details such as the name, date, and location of the congress at which the abstract was published must be provided. If the manuscript is derived from a postgraduate thesis, the thesis date and thesis number (National Thesis Center) must be specified. Authors bear full ethical, scientific, and legal responsibility for their published work.

General Guidelines

All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be prepared in Microsoft Word format. The manuscript text, together with all figures, graphs, and tables, must be submitted electronically in a single file or in accordance with the journal's instructions. The full title and running title must be provided on the title page. Both titles must be written in Turkish and English. The full title must not exceed 100 characters, and the running title must not exceed 50 characters. The names, surnames, institutional affiliations, email addresses, and ORCID IDs of all authors who contributed to the study must be clearly stated.

For manuscripts written in English, a certificate of professional language editing may be requested, if deemed necessary, to verify the linguistic quality of the manuscript.

As the journal uses a double-blind peer-review process, no information that may reveal the identities of the author(s), including names, institutional affiliations, or acknowledgments, must be included in any section other than the title page.

The journal accepts manuscripts in the following categories.

General Submission Requirements

• Studies previously presented as papers at congresses, symposia, meetings, or other scientific platforms must be submitted to GESD with details of the location and date of presentation.
• Author and institutional information must not be included in the manuscript file at the initial submission stage.
• The publication languages are Turkish and English. A short English abstract must follow the Turkish abstract.
• Both Turkish and English abstracts must contain 150–200 words.
• Three to five keywords must be provided.
• Authors must prepare their manuscripts in accordance with APA 7 (American Psychological Association) standards before submitting them to GESD.
• Manuscripts must be submitted with an originality report generated by an academic plagiarism detection program, such as Turnitin, iThenticate, or intihal.net. The similarity index must not exceed 20%.
• Manuscripts must be prepared in Microsoft Word format on A4-sized pages.
• Margins must be set to 2.50 cm on the top, bottom, left, and right.
• The main text must be written in Calibri, 12-point font, fully justified, with 1.15 line spacing.
• Abstracts, keywords, and footnotes must be written in 10-point font.
• The manuscript title must be bold and 14-point. Other headings must be bold and 12-point.
• In all headings, only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized, with the remaining letters in lowercase. First-level headings must be centered; second-level headings must be left-aligned; and third-level headings must be left-aligned and italicized. Fourth-level headings must begin on the same line as the text, while fifth-level headings must be italicized and continue on the same line as the text.
• Paragraph indentation must be 1.25 cm, with 12 pt spacing before and 6 pt spacing after each paragraph.
• Text in tables and charts must be in 10-point font.
• Table, figure, and chart numbers must be in 11-point bold font and left-aligned.
• Table titles must appear below the table number, in 11-point italic font, left-aligned, with the first letter of each word capitalized.
• Table, figure, and chart numbers and titles must have single line spacing, with 0 pt spacing before and after.
• Tables, images, and charts should be presented as single units whenever possible.
• The reference list must be in 11-point font.
• Page numbers must appear in the bottom-right corner of every page except the title page.

Authorship Criteria

Authors should be included based on their contributions to the following:

1. Making substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study, or to data analysis and interpretation.
2. Making substantial contributions to drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
3. Approving the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication.

All authors must meet all three criteria listed above. Individuals who contributed to the study but do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged separately. The cover letter must confirm that all listed authors meet these authorship requirements.

Manuscripts may be submitted for evaluation only after written approval has been obtained from all contributing authors.

Editorial Authorship

The peer-review process at our journal is confidential for all parties. Manuscripts submitted by section editors are subject to the same anonymous peer-review process as manuscripts submitted by other authors.

Editors-in-Chief and section editors are required to inform the journal management in writing of any conflicts of interest.

Journal administrators must not make recommendations to editors or exert pressure on them regarding manuscripts submitted to the journal.

Conflicts of Interest

Corresponding authors must declare any conflicts of interest or competing interests. All financial and other contributions, support, and funding received for the study reported in the submitted manuscript must be disclosed, including explanations of how and at which stage of the study the support was provided. The absence of such support must also be declared.

Authors, editors, and reviewers must notify the Editor-in-Chief in writing if they have any conflicts of interest that could influence the decision-making process.

Plagiarism and Other Misconduct

The quality of submitted data and analyses is of great importance to our journal. Authors must provide their datasets if requested by the editors for review. All submissions are screened for plagiarism and duplication using appropriate software. By submitting a manuscript, authors acknowledge that it may be screened for plagiarism by comparison with previously published works.

If plagiarism is detected before publication, the manuscript will be rejected, and the authors' institutions may be notified.

Manuscripts that are under review by another journal or have already been published elsewhere will not be accepted. Therefore, authors must confirm in their cover letter that the manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Policy for Authors

In accordance with the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), GESD recognizes the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in academic writing and research. However, the use of AI must comply with ethical publishing standards to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity.

Authors are therefore required to comply with the following rules.

1. AI Tools Cannot Be Listed as Authors

GESD follows COPE's position that AI tools cannot fulfill the role of an author and therefore cannot be listed as authors on any submission. Only individuals who meet the authorship criteria, including substantial contribution, accountability, and approval of the final version, may be credited as authors.

2. Disclosure of AI Use Is Mandatory

Authors who use AI tools in preparing a manuscript, generating images or graphical elements for an article, or collecting and analyzing data must transparently disclose which AI tool was used and how it was used in the Methods section and in the cover letter.

The following format may be used in the cover letter:

"During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [Tool Name, e.g., ChatGPT, OpenAI] for [specific purpose, e.g., language editing, drafting parts of the Introduction, or summarizing background literature]. After using this tool, the authors reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the content of the publication."

Undisclosed or unethical use of AI may result in the rejection of a manuscript or the retraction of a published article.

This policy will be reviewed and updated periodically in accordance with COPE guidance and evolving best practices.

If you have any questions regarding the use of AI tools, please contact the editorial office before submission.

Publication Ethics

GESD adopts the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and evaluates all submitted manuscripts in accordance with its publication ethics principles.

For detailed policies and case examples, please visit:

• https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines
• https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts
• https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Case

Ethical Approval

Research involving human participants, their data, or biological materials must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have obtained ethics committee approval and informed consent from study participants. If ethical approval is not required, the exemption and the relevant review board must be specified. Authors must provide supporting documentation upon request. The Editor may reject studies that have not been conducted within an appropriate ethical framework and may contact the relevant ethics committee for further information.

For experimental, clinical, and drug-related studies involving humans, a statement confirming ethics committee approval and compliance of the study protocol with international agreements is required. This must include compliance with the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki, Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, as amended in October 2013.

For experimental animal studies, authors must state that the procedures followed comply with animal welfare standards, in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and must obtain approval from an animal ethics committee.

The ethics committee approval document must be uploaded together with the manuscript to DergiPark, GESD's online manuscript submission system.

For research requiring ethics committee approval, the Methods section must explicitly state that the relevant international guidelines were followed, ethics committee approval was obtained (including the committee name, approval date, and approval number), and written informed consent was obtained from the participants.

For individuals under 18 years of age, a consent form bearing the signatures of both parents or the individual's legal guardian or representative must be provided. These requirements also apply to case reports when the data or media used may reveal the patient's identity.