Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Gazi University Journal of Science Part A: Engineering and Innovation is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. The journal follows internationally recognized principles of publication ethics and relevant guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

All authors, reviewers, editors, and other parties involved in the publication process are expected to act with integrity, fairness, confidentiality, transparency, and accountability.

A. Ethical Principles

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record. All submitted manuscripts undergo editorial assessment, similarity screening, and double-blind peer review to ensure fair, independent, and confidential evaluation. The identities of both authors and reviewers remain strictly confidential throughout the process.

Editorial and Peer Review Workflow:

1.Initial Screening: Submitted manuscripts undergo a preliminary technical and editorial review to check format, language, layout, and compliance with the journal’s scope. This administrative check does not replace scientific peer review.

2.Double-Blind Peer Review: Manuscripts passing the initial technical screening are evaluated through a double-blind peer review process, wherein the identities of both authors and reviewers remain strictly confidential. Each manuscript is assigned to at least two independent external expert reviewers. In the event of a split decision (e.g., one acceptance and one rejection), the manuscript is submitted to a third independent external reviewer for further evaluation.

Duties of Reviewers: Reviewers evaluate manuscripts objectively and confidentially. They must disclose any potential conflicts of interest, refrain from reviewing papers in cases of competitive or collaborative relationships, and ensure that all unpublished materials remain confidential. Reviewer evaluations must be based strictly on the intellectual content, originality, and scientific rigor of the submission without regard to the authors' race, gender, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, or citizenship.

3.Editorial Decision: Reviewer recommendations inform the editorial outcome; however, the final decision regarding acceptance, revision, or rejection rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor. A positive reviewer recommendation does not automatically guarantee publication.

4.Revisions: Authors may be requested to revise their manuscripts based on editorial and reviewer feedback. Revised manuscripts may undergo additional review rounds or be re-evaluated by the original reviewers when necessary.

Publication Fees and Transparency: No Publication Fees: The journal does not charge any submission, processing, page, or publication fees.; Article History: Submission, revision, acceptance, and publication dates are explicitly displayed on each published article page.

B. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

1. Originality and Exclusive Submission

Authors must submit original work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal.

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is not permitted.

Authors must properly acknowledge and cite all sources, ideas, data, methods, and other materials used in their work.

If duplicate submission, duplicate publication, plagiarism, or another significant ethical concern is identified, the journal may suspend or terminate the editorial process and may take further action in accordance with this policy.

2. Authorship

Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, or interpretation of the research and who have participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript.

All listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the work.

Individuals who do not meet appropriate authorship criteria should not be listed as authors.

Any change in authorship after submission must be justified, agreed upon by all authors, and approved by the journal.

3. Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

The journal uses similarity-screening tools, including iThenticate, as part of its editorial quality-control process.

The journal applies the following similarity thresholds as screening criteria:

• Total similarity: Max 20%
• Single source: Max 4%
• Overall similarity (including references, captions, and template): Max 30%

Similarity scores are screening indicators and are not, by themselves, evidence of plagiarism. The editorial team evaluates the nature, source, extent, and context of detected overlap before making an editorial decision.

Where plagiarism, inappropriate copying, or other forms of unattributed reuse are identified, the journal may request clarification or correction, reject the manuscript, or take other appropriate action in accordance with its publication ethics procedures.

4. Research Integrity, Data, and Reproducibility

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the research presented in their manuscripts.

Authors should retain sufficient research data, analytical materials, and supporting information to permit verification of the reported findings.

Where reasonably necessary and subject to applicable ethical, legal, confidentiality, and intellectual-property restrictions, the journal may request supporting data, research materials, or other information necessary to assess the integrity of the reported work.

Fabrication, falsification, inappropriate manipulation of data or images, and misleading presentation of research findings constitute serious breaches of publication ethics.

5. Research Ethics

Where research involves human participants, animals, identifiable personal information, or other activities requiring ethical approval, authors must obtain the appropriate ethical approval or authorization before conducting the research and provide the relevant information in the manuscript.

Authors are responsible for complying with applicable legal, institutional, and ethical requirements governing their research.

6. Funding

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research and publication.

Where no external funding was received, this should be stated explicitly.

7. Conflict of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflict of interest that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, its interpretation, or its publication.

Failure to disclose a relevant conflict of interest may constitute a publication-ethics concern.

8. Third-Party Materials and Copyright

Authors are responsible for ensuring that third-party materials included in their manuscripts are used lawfully.

Where third-party material is not owned by the authors and is not covered by an applicable copyright exception, authors must obtain the necessary permission or licence.

Third-party materials subject to different licensing or copyright conditions must be clearly identified where appropriate.

The use of third-party material does not automatically place that material under the Creative Commons licence applied to the article as a whole.

9. Licensing and Copyright

Authors retain copyright in their published work.

The journal does not require authors to assign or surrender copyright ownership to the journal. Authors retain full copyright and publishing rights of their work without restrictions. By signing the Licensing and Open Access Declaration Form, authors grant Gazi University Journal of Science Part A: Engineering and Innovation (published by Gazi University Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences) a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, distribute, and make the article available under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

The copyright and licensing terms must be interpreted consistently with the journal's open access policy. All published content and associated metadata are permanently accessible via their assigned DOI (e.g., https://doi.org/10.54287/gujsa.xxxxxx). 

10. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI Policy

Authorship Eligibility: Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, language models, or machine learning algorithms do not meet the criteria for authorship and cannot be listed or cited as authors or independent scholarly sources. Human authors bear full responsibility for the integrity, validity, and entire content of the research.

Permitted Use and Oversight: Generative AI tools and automated technologies may be utilized in research and manuscript preparation, provided they remain subject to appropriate human oversight, verification, and disclosure. Straightforward language correction, editing, or formatting generally does not require formal disclosure.

Mandatory Disclosure: The use of generative AI in data curation, content synthesis, substantive analysis, interpretation, experimental design, or other material aspects of manuscript preparation must be explicitly disclosed in a dedicated "AI Disclosure" section prior to the references (or within the Acknowledgements). Authors must specify which tool was used and for what purpose.

Transparency in Visual Assets: Figures, images, or graphical elements generated, enhanced, or modified by AI tools must be transparently and explicitly labeled as "AI-generated" within their respective captions.

Accountability and Verification: Authors remain fully and exclusively responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, appropriate attribution, and legal status of all content, data, references, calculations, and AI-assisted outputs included in the manuscript, ensuring the prevention of plagiarism.

C. Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal publications.

Reviewers must:

• evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly, and within their area of expertise;
• provide constructive, evidence-based, and sufficiently detailed comments;
• maintain strict confidentiality regarding manuscripts and all associated information;
• disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest;
• decline a review when they do not have the appropriate expertise or cannot complete the review within the required timeframe;
• identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited where necessary;
• alert the editors to possible plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, or other ethical concerns.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage or for any purpose unrelated to the review process.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, data, figures, supplementary files, reviewer reports, or other confidential review materials to generative AI tools or external automated systems in a manner that could compromise confidentiality.

Reviewers must not use generative AI to generate or substantially assist in producing their peer-review assessment. Any permitted use of automated tools must preserve confidentiality and comply with the journal's applicable policies.

D. Responsibilities of Editors

The Editor-in-Chief and editorial team are responsible for maintaining the academic quality, fairness, integrity, and transparency of the journal's editorial process.

Editors must:

• make editorial decisions based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, and methodological soundness of manuscripts;
• ensure that manuscripts are evaluated according to the journal's stated double-blind peer-review process;
• ensure that each research manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers;
• select reviewers with appropriate expertise and without relevant conflicts of interest;
• protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;
• avoid discrimination based on characteristics unrelated to the scholarly merits of the manuscript;
• disclose and appropriately manage their own conflicts of interest;
• ensure that manuscripts authored by editors or editorial board members are handled through an independent and appropriately managed review process;
• respond appropriately to allegations of research or publication misconduct;
• take reasonable steps to maintain the integrity of the published scholarly record.

Reviewer recommendations are advisory. The final editorial decision is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief or the designated editor.

The duration of the editorial and peer-review process may vary depending on reviewer availability, manuscript complexity, revisions, and the need for additional review rounds. The journal does not guarantee a fixed review or acceptance period.

The editorial and peer-review process is entirely free of charge.

Editorial Use of Artificial Intelligence

Editors must protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not use generative AI tools to generate peer-review assessments or editorial decisions.

Editors must not use generative AI to process confidential manuscript content or select reviewers where such use could compromise confidentiality, fairness, or editorial independence.

The journal may use appropriately tested automated tools for routine integrity screening when necessary. Such use must be subject to human oversight, and automated results must not be treated as a substitute for editorial judgment.

Potentially significant findings identified by automated tools must be verified by an editor or other qualified member of the journal's editorial staff before editorial action is taken.

E. Editorial Misconduct and Publication Ethics Concerns

The journal considers the following to be potential forms of research or publication misconduct:

• plagiarism or substantial unattributed copying;
• fabrication or falsification of data;
• inappropriate manipulation or presentation of images or research results;
• duplicate or redundant publication;
• simultaneous submission to multiple journals;
• inappropriate authorship or authorship manipulation;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• undisclosed sources of funding where disclosure is required;
• citation manipulation;
• unethical research involving human participants, animals, or identifiable personal information;
• manipulation or interference with the peer-review process;
• other conduct that materially compromises the integrity of the scholarly record.

When a potential ethical violation is identified, the journal may request explanations, supporting documentation, corrections, or other information from the authors or relevant parties.

Where appropriate, the journal may contact the authors' institution or another relevant authority and may take editorial action based on the available evidence and applicable publication-ethics guidance.

F. Complaints and Appeals

Authors may raise concerns or appeal an editorial decision by contacting the journal through its official editorial contact channel.

An appeal should provide specific reasons and relevant evidence supporting the request for reconsideration.

Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or an appropriate independent editor who was not responsible for the original decision whenever practicable.

An appeal does not guarantee reversal of the original decision. Editorial decisions remain based on scholarly and ethical considerations.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, or publication ethics are considered seriously and handled confidentially and fairly.

G. Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Issues

The journal is committed to maintaining an accurate and reliable scholarly record.

If a significant error is identified after publication, the journal may publish an appropriate correction or other post-publication notice.

If an article is found to contain serious errors, research misconduct, fabricated or falsified information, unethical research practices, or other circumstances that materially undermine the reliability of the published record, the journal may consider retraction or another appropriate editorial action.

Post-publication concerns are assessed individually, and the journal may consult authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other relevant parties where necessary.

Corrections, retractions, and other post-publication notices should be linked to the affected article and should clearly identify the nature of the action taken.

H. Special Issues and Guest-Edited Content

Special issues and other content curated by guest editors must remain within the scope of the journal and must be subject to the same standards of editorial oversight and external peer review as regular journal content.

The Editor-in-Chief retains overall responsibility for the content of the journal, including special issues.

Guest editors' academic qualifications and expertise must be appropriately assessed and approved by the journal.

The Editor-in-Chief or designated editorial board members must provide appropriate oversight of guest editors and special-issue content.

Manuscripts submitted by guest editors or individuals with a relevant conflict of interest must be handled through an independent review process.

Papers submitted to a special issue by guest editors must not constitute more than 25% of the issue's total content.

I. Transparency and Accountability

The journal is committed to providing transparent and accessible information concerning its editorial process, peer review, publication ethics, licensing, copyright, author rights, and publication charges.

The journal's policies may be updated when necessary to reflect developments in scholarly publishing, research-integrity standards, and relevant publication-ethics guidance.

The journal reserves the right to take appropriate editorial and ethical action when information becomes available that calls into question the integrity, originality, legality, or reliability of a submitted or published work.