PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
The Journal of General Turkish History Research (GTTAD) follows the codes of conduct and best practice guidelines for editors and publishers issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The ethical responsibilities of editors, reviewers, authors and the publisher are set out below. Further details are available in the COPE guidance.
Duties of Editors
1. Impartiality and independence
Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts solely on the basis of their academic merit (contribution to the field, originality, validity of methods and findings, clarity of language) and their relevance to the journal’s scope. The authors’ gender, ethnic origin, religious belief, political views or institutional affiliation play no part in the evaluation, nor do government policies or the views of external organisations. Editors have full authority over the content of the journal and the timing of publication.
2. Confidentiality
Editors and editorial staff do not disclose any information about a manuscript under review to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers, the responsible section editors and the publisher.
3. Conflicts of interest
Editors and editorial board members may not use unpublished information from a submitted manuscript in their own research without the authors’ explicit consent. Where an editor has a conflict of interest arising from a competitive, collaborative or other relationship with the authors, institutions or the work, the handling of the manuscript is delegated to another member of the editorial board.
4. Publication decisions
Every manuscript that passes the initial assessment is sent to at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the field. The section editor makes a decision based on the reviewer reports, which becomes final once reviewed and approved by the editor. Decisions take into account the scholarly validity and significance of the work, the reviewer reports and legal considerations such as plagiarism, copyright infringement and libel. The process is described in detail on the Article Evaluation Process page.
5. Safeguarding the integrity of the record
Together with the publisher, the editors ensure that every reported case of possible misconduct is investigated, even years after publication. COPE flowcharts are followed in such cases, and where misconduct is confirmed a correction, expression of concern or retraction notice is published.
Duties of Reviewers
1. Contribution to editorial decisions
Peer review assists editors in making decisions and gives authors the opportunity to improve their work. The journal operates a double-blind peer review model: reviewers and authors do not know each other’s identities and do not communicate directly; review forms and reports are transmitted through DergiPark via the editor.
2. Promptness
Invited reviewers indicate within 7 days whether they can undertake the review and complete their evaluation within 15 days. The editor may extend this period where necessary.
3. Confidentiality
Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents; they must not be shared with others, discussed, or uploaded to generative AI tools. In exceptional cases, and only with the editor’s permission, a reviewer may seek the opinion of a colleague. The duty of confidentiality also applies to those who decline the invitation.
4. Objectivity
Reviews should be objective and constructive and should help to improve the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors is inappropriate.
5. Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers inform the editor of any unattributed quotations and of any substantial similarity to previously published work.
6. Conflicts of interest
Reviewers who have a conflict of interest arising from a competitive, collaborative or other relationship with the authors, institutions or the work decline the invitation and inform the editor. Information and ideas obtained during review are kept confidential and are not used for personal advantage.
Duties of Authors
1. Reporting standards
Authors describe clearly how the research was conducted and why it matters, present their findings objectively and cite their sources in full. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.
2. Data access and retention
Authors should be able to provide the editors, on request, with the data and documents underlying their research and should retain them for a reasonable period after publication, while respecting the privacy of individuals and the legal rights relating to personal data.
3. Originality and plagiarism
Authors submit only original work and acknowledge the work, ideas and data of others through proper citation. Presenting another person’s work as one’s own, copying without attribution or claiming the results of another study constitutes plagiarism and is unacceptable in any form. Every submission is screened for similarity; the acceptable similarity thresholds and the actions taken are set out in the Plagiarism Policy.
4. Redundant and concurrent publication
A manuscript reporting essentially the same research may not be published in more than one journal, and work that has been published elsewhere or is under review elsewhere may not be submitted. In exceptional cases such as translations, secondary publication is possible with the agreement of the editors concerned and a clear citation of the original publication.
5. Authorship
Only those who (I) have made a substantial contribution to the design, data collection or analysis and interpretation of the work, (II) have contributed intellectually to drafting or critically revising the text and (III) have approved the final version and agreed to its publication are listed as authors. Contributors who do not meet these criteria are acknowledged, with their permission, in the Acknowledgements section. The corresponding author ensures that all contributing authors are listed and have approved the final version.
6. Conflicts of interest and funding
Authors disclose at submission any financial or non-financial conflict of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of the work. All sources of support are stated, including project or grant numbers.
7. Acknowledgement of sources and permissions
Information obtained privately, such as in correspondence or conversation, may not be used without written permission from the source. Authors obtain the necessary permissions for copyrighted images and documents.
8. Human participants
For studies involving human participants, such as oral history interviews or surveys, ethics committee approval and the informed consent of participants are obtained in accordance with the relevant legislation and institutional rules, and this is stated in the article. The privacy of participants is protected.
9. Participation in peer review
Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and to respond promptly to editors’ requests for data, clarifications, ethics approval and copyright permissions. When revisions are requested, authors make the required changes systematically and resubmit within the stated period, together with a point-by-point response to the reviewers.
10. Errors in published works
When authors discover a significant error in their published work, they promptly notify the editor and cooperate in correcting or retracting the article. If the error is reported by a third party, the authors are obliged to correct or retract the article or to demonstrate its accuracy.
Duties of the Publisher
1. Handling of misconduct
In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, together with the editors, takes the necessary measures, including publishing a correction or clarification and, in serious cases, retracting the article.
2. Open access and fee policy
The journal is fully open access; all published content is permanently available free of charge. No fees are charged to authors at any stage. Details are given in the Licensing and Open Access Policy.
3. Archiving
Published content is hosted on DergiPark (TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM) servers and permanently archived through LOCKSS.
Declaration of Assurance for Double-Blind Peer Review
The Journal of General Turkish History Research is committed to adhering to COPE principles at every stage of the publication process. In line with the principles of academic impartiality and scientific integrity, the journal operates a double-blind peer review system; the identities of reviewers and authors are kept mutually confidential, and safeguarding this anonymity is one of our core principles.
We sincerely thank the reviewers who contribute to the evaluation of our articles. Although their names are not disclosed in accordance with the principle of anonymity, we express our gratitude for their dedicated contribution to the quality and reliability of the scholarly publication process and look forward to continuing our collaboration.
Editorial Board, Journal of General Turkish History Research
ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL POLICIES
Peer Review Model
GTTAD operates a double-blind peer review model. Author identities are removed from the manuscript before review, and reviewer identities are never disclosed to authors. Every research article and review is evaluated by at least two external reviewers affiliated with institutions other than the authors'. Members of the editorial board are not assigned as reviewers of manuscripts by colleagues from their own institution.
Complaints and Appeals
Authors may appeal an editorial decision within 30 days by writing to the Editor-in-Chief (mustafagokce@mu.edu.tr) with a point-by-point justification. The appeal is assessed by an editorial board member who was not involved in the original decision, and may be sent to an additional independent reviewer. The outcome is communicated within 45 days and is final. Complaints about the journal's processes, staff or published content are sent to ozgurturker@sdu.edu.tr and acknowledged within 7 days. Complaints involving the Editor-in-Chief are handled by the Publisher. All cases are processed following COPE guidance.
Ethical Oversight
Studies involving human participants (oral history, interviews, surveys, ethnographic fieldwork) must report ethics committee approval (committee name, date, number) and informed consent in the manuscript. Archival research must comply with the access and reproduction rules of the holding archive, and authors must cite archival shelfmarks precisely. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce images, maps and photographs held by third parties. Research that may cause harm to cultural heritage, or that involves illicitly obtained artefacts, will not be considered.
Ethics Editor: The journal’s publication ethics procedures (investigation of suspected plagiarism and misconduct, corrections, expressions of concern and retractions) are coordinated by the Ethics Editor together with the Editor-in-Chief in accordance with the COPE guidelines.
National Legislation
In addition to the COPE guidelines, GTTAD’s ethical principles comply with the Turkish Council of Higher Education’s Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics. Actions defined in the Directive as contrary to research and publication ethics (plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, salami slicing, unjustified authorship, etc.) are also regarded as ethical violations by the journal. The procedure for plagiarism cases is set out in detail in the Plagiarism Policy.
Authorship, Contribution and Funding Statements
In multi-authored articles, each author’s contribution (conception, design, data and source collection, analysis, writing, critical review, etc.) is stated in the Declarations section of the article. Contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria are acknowledged. Financial support for the research (institution and project number), a conflict-of-interest statement and, where required, ethics committee approval (committee name, date and number) are included in the article.
Special Issues
Articles published in special issues are subject to the same double-blind review and ethical standards as regular issues; guest editors take no part in the review of their own manuscripts. See the Special Issue Publication Policy for details.
Intellectual Property and Licensing
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant GTTAD the right of first publication. Articles are published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0); articles published before 20.07.2023 remain under the licence in force on their publication date (see the Licensing and Open Access Policy). The journal does not charge submission, processing or publication fees.
Post-Publication Corrections
Errors that do not affect the article's conclusions are corrected through a published Correction notice linked to the original article. Articles found to involve plagiarism, fabrication, duplicate publication or serious error are retracted following the COPE Retraction Guidelines; the retraction notice is published and the article remains online, clearly marked "Retracted". Where an investigation is ongoing, an Expression of Concern may be issued.
Archiving and Preservation
All content is hosted on DergiPark (TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM) servers and permanently archived through LOCKSS (LOCKSS manifest). Every article receives a Crossref DOI (prefix 10.53718). Should the journal cease publication, all content will remain freely accessible on DergiPark.
Editorial Board Submissions
Members of the editorial team may submit manuscripts to GTTAD; such submissions undergo the same double-blind review, and the submitting member is excluded from all handling, reviewer selection and decision steps. The Editor-in-Chief and the Publisher do not publish research articles in the journal while in office. Articles by editorial team members may not exceed 10% of the research articles in any volume; this limit applies from Volume 9 (2027) onwards. The number and share of articles by board members are published for each volume on the Publication and Peer Review Indicators page.
Ownership, Funding and Advertising
GTTAD is owned and published by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Türker (Süleyman Demirel University) on a non-profit basis. Hosting is provided free of charge by DergiPark. The journal has no income; any costs that arise are covered voluntarily by the editors (see Licensing and Open Access Policy, section 5). The journal carries no advertising and has no commercial sponsors. Editorial decisions are taken independently of the Publisher.
Citation Manipulation
Editors and reviewers never ask authors to cite GTTAD or the editors' own work unless the citation is scientifically necessary. Coercive citation, citation stacking and excessive self-citation are treated as misconduct under COPE guidance. Authors should cite only works relevant to their argument.