Dear Scholars, Scientists, Authors,

Being carried out since the year 2020, TR Index Journal Evaluation Criteria have been updated to be valid from the year 2020; and articles related to the ethics committee approval have been detailed. As mentioned under the ethical rules heading, “The process of “required information and documents for academic works that require Ethical Board approval/authorization” is mandatory for publications initiated in 2020.”It is therefore no longer possible for those articles that require an ethics committee approval as part of their subject-matter to be published without the approval.

EXPLANATIONON TR INDEX ETHICAL RULES
The pre-existing articles related to ethical rules were detailed by further explanations declared in the year 2020; with the assumption that studies requiring an ethics committee approval due to their subject matter have already obtained this approval, a new article was added in this regard, which necessitates those types of studies to mention all related permissions within the scientific text itself.
QUESTION: Is ethics committee approval obligatory for every article?
No. The criteria refer to those articles which seem to require an ethics committee approval.
These types of studies are as follows:
• Each research which requires to collect data participants and therefore utilisessuch quantitative and qualitative data collection methods as survey, interview, focus group study, observation and experiment,
• Each research which utilises human beings and animals as materials or data material or with a scientific or any other purpose,
• Each research which conducts clinical trial upon humans,
• Each research based on a study upon animals,
• Retrospective studies, due to law on personal data protection

FURTHERMORE;
• It must be mentioned that informed consent form has been obtained while presenting data,
• Permission must be obtained to use any scope, survey and photograph belonging to others; this permission also must be mentioned within the article,
• It must be stated that copyright regulations for the ideas and works of art have beenconsidered andconformed.

QUESTION: Is it necessary to obtain an ethics committee approval in a retrospective manner for studies completed in the previous years or publications extracted from thesis?
Retrospective ethics committee approval is not necessary for those articles which utilise research data preceding the year 2020 and are extracted from master/doctoral studies (this situation must be mentioned within the article though). Those articles submitted to the journal a year ago, approved, but yet to be published do not need an ethics committee approval in a retrospective manner either.

QUESTION: Do these TR Index rules impose any restriction on publications submitted by non-university community members?
No. Those researchers who are not a member of academic staff can still apply to the Ethical Committees located in their region.

FURTHERMORE; 
In terms of articles that are to be published in journals, it should be stated in the article whether an ethics committee approval and/or licence/dispensation isrequired or not. If necessitated, the article then should clarify and provide information about the approval granting institution, together with the approval’s date, sentence and serial number.
If the study requires human and/or animal trials, it should be declared that the study is compliant with international declarations, guidelines etc.

DECLERATION FORM FOR STUDIES THAT DO NOT REQUIRE AN ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL
If you do not require to apply for an Ethics Committee Approval;
Then please scan and upload the filled version of the document in the link below and state that “The article does not require an Ethics Committee Approval” in the footnote of your article’s first page.
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/journal/2549/file/4245/download