Harran Educational Journal applies the publication principles prescribed and accepted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) organizations. In addition, Harran Educational Journal applies the publication principles determined by DergiPark under the umbrella of TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM, where it is located.
Ethics Committee Approval and Participant Rights
For all research involving surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observations, and other qualitative-quantitative data collection methods, it is mandatory to obtain Ethics Committee Approval and to submit a declaration stating that the study protocol was conducted in accordance with international ethical standards. However, since data is not collected directly from human or animal subjects in studies such as meta-synthesis, meta-analysis, and literature reviews, ethics committee approval is not required. It is sufficient to state this situation in the "Materials and Methods" section of your article.
In the Materials and Methods (or Method) section of the study, the institution granting the Ethics Committee approval, the date, and the decision number must be clearly stated. In addition, a statement indicating that an "Informed Consent Form" was obtained from the individuals participating in the research must be included. The confidentiality of all personal data that could reveal the identities of the participants must be ensured, and the principles of the Personal Data Protection Law must be meticulously followed.
Plagiarism and Other Infractions
The quality of the presented data and analysis are important issues for Harran Educational Journal. Authors are required to provide data sets upon review requests from editors. Journal editors check text content for plagiarism and duplication using the relevant software. By submitting their articles to this journal, authors are deemed to have accepted that the article may be screened for plagiarism against previously published works. If plagiarism is detected prior to publication, the article will be rejected and the authors will be subject to institutional recognition. This information may be sent to the authors' institutions and other relevant organizations. Harran Educational Journal does not accept articles that have been previously submitted to another journal for evaluation and/or previously published. Therefore, authors must be certain and declare in the cover letter that the article has not been simultaneously submitted to any other journal. The exception to this rule is oral presentations or posters presented as abstracts at scientific congresses. It must be stated if your article was previously presented as an oral presentation or poster at a scientific congress. This information must be added to the cover page or the relevant field in the online article submission system, and details such as the name, date, and location of the congress where the abstract was published must be specified. All ethical, scientific, and legal responsibility for published works belongs to the authors. Articles whose total similarity rate exceeds 20% in the screening performed with the plagiarism detection program will be sent back to the author for correction without being evaluated. An article in the process cannot be submitted to or published in another journal.
Declaration and Conflicts of Interest
All sources of financial support must be disclosed. All authors must declare whether there is any conflict of interest in the process of creating their work. Any financial grants or other support received from individuals or institutions for a study must be disclosed to the Editorial Board of the Harran Educational Journal. The Journal's Editorial Board identifies potential conflict of interest situations for editors, authors, or reviewers within the scope of COPE guidelines.
Circumstances that provide financial or personal gain lead to a conflict of interest. The reliability of the scientific process and published articles is directly related to the objective consideration of conflicts of interest during the planning, implementation, writing, evaluation, editing, and publication of scientific studies.
Financial relationships are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and inevitably affect the reputation of the journal, the authors, and science. These conflicts can stem from personal relationships, academic competition, or intellectual approaches. Authors should, as much as possible, avoid making agreements with sponsors aiming to gain profit or any other advantage that restricts their ability to access all data of the study or to analyze, interpret, prepare, and publish their articles. Editors making the final decision on articles must not have any personal, professional, or financial ties to any of the matters they will decide upon. Authors must inform the editorial board about potential conflicts of interest to ensure that their articles are evaluated within the framework of ethical principles through an independent review process.
If any of the editors is an author in any article, the respective editor is excluded from the article evaluation process. To prevent any conflict of interest, the article evaluation process is conducted as a double-blind review. Due to the double-blind review process, with the exception of the Editor-in-Chief, none of the editorial board members, international advisory board members, or reviewers are informed about the authors of the article or the authors' institutions.
Considering all these situations, our publishing team works with dedication to ensure that the evaluation process is conducted impartially.
Authorship and Declaration
For articles with two or more authors, each author must meet the necessary requirements for authorship by actively and sufficiently participating in the conducted and reported study. The inclusion of each author in the author list of an article is strictly based on the following criteria:
(1) contributing to the concept and design of the study or the analysis and interpretation of data, (2) making significant contributions to drafting the article or critically revising it for important intellectual content, (3) approving the final version of the article to be submitted.
All three conditions above must be met. Other individuals who contributed to the study should be acknowledged separately in the Acknowledgments section. In the cover letter accompanying the submitted manuscripts, it must be confirmed that all authors fulfill these requirements.
The responsibility for compliance with international ethical principles in manuscripts submitted to our journal—regarding issues such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, salamization (data slicing), unfair signature (gift authorship), ghost authorship, and multiple publication of a single study (duplication)—belongs entirely to the authors. If any such situation is detected in a study either before or after publication, the manuscript will be withdrawn from the journal.
Editors' Authorship
The peer review process of the Harran Educational Journal is conducted confidentially for all parties involved. Editors cannot submit their own articles to the journal, except for editorial pieces, as confidentiality cannot be guaranteed during the review process. Section editors, however, may submit their own manuscripts to the Harran Educational Journal. The manuscripts of section editors are subjected to blind peer review just like the articles of other authors. Editor-in-chiefs and section editors are obliged to notify the Journal management in the event of any conflict of interest among themselves. Managers cannot make recommendations and/or exert pressure on editors regarding manuscripts submitted to the Harran Educational Journal.
Manuscripts should only be submitted for evaluation after obtaining the written consent of all contributing authors. The author list must include all individuals eligible for authorship, in compliance with COPE's authorship policies.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Policy for Authors
In line with the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Harran Educational Journal acknowledges the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in academic writing and research. However, to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity, the use of AI must comply with ethical publishing standards.
Therefore, authors are required to adhere to the following rules:
1. Artificial Intelligence Tools Cannot Be Listed as Authors The journal follows COPE's position that AI tools cannot fulfill the role of an author and therefore cannot be listed as an author on any submission. Only individuals who meet the authorship criteria (e.g., significant contribution, accountability, and approval of the final version) should be named as authors.
2. Disclosure of AI Use Is Mandatory "Authors who use AI tools in writing a manuscript, creating images or graphical elements for the article, or collecting and analyzing data must transparently disclose which tool was used and how it was used in the Methods section and the cover letter of the article." The following format can be used for the declaration:
"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, summarizing background literature]. After using this tool, the authors reviewed and edited the content as necessary and took full responsibility for the content of the publication."
The undisclosed or unethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) may lead to the rejection of the manuscript or the retraction of the published article.
This policy will be periodically reviewed and updated in line 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.
Guidelines for Section Editors and Reviewers
Artificial intelligence provides ethical and procedural guidance for Section Editors and Reviewers.
This document aims to protect the integrity, confidentiality, and fairness of the editorial and peer review process; define the appropriate and transparent use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in editorial and review workflows; and promote accountability, transparency, and trust in academic publishing.
Section Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair and timely peer review process. Final decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts must always be made by a human editor. No AI tool can autonomously determine manuscript outcomes. Editors must critically evaluate AI-generated recommendations and ensure human oversight at every step of the decision-making process.
Editors may use AI-assisted tools only for supportive functions, such as reviewer matching, plagiarism detection, or language checks. AI tools must not be used to make final editorial decisions, generate decision letters, or assess originality and validity without human judgment.
Editors must not upload manuscripts or reviewer comments into public or unsecure AI systems.
Editors remain responsible for all outcomes of AI-assisted decisions. Any use of AI in editorial workflows must be disclosed internally and must be traceable. Editors must justify all decisions, including AI-assisted analyses.
Reviewers may use AI only for language or grammar assistance and must disclose any such use in their reviews.
If an ethical violation is suspected, reviewers must report this confidentially to the Section Editor, without making public accusations.
Reviewers must provide objective, constructive, and respectful feedback, focusing solely on scientific merit.
Manuscripts under review are confidential; they must not be shared or uploaded to AI tools.
If a reviewer or editor suspects that AI tools have been misused during the manuscript preparation, review, or decision-making processes, they must report the situation confidentially to the Editor-in-Chief. The Harran Educational Journal will maintain records of AI-related incidents and update its policies accordingly.
Authors have the right to know whether AI-assisted systems are involved in manuscript processing (e.g., plagiarism checks, reviewer matching). Any use of AI in decision support must be transparently disclosed in the journal’s editorial policies.
Advertising Policy
The Harran Educational Journal is the periodical, peer-reviewed, open-access, official scientific publication organ of Harran University. To maintain its academic independence, the journal conducts its publishing activities free from any commercial advertising or sponsorship agreements.
All editorial decisions are made solely based on academic standards, scientific merit, and a rigorous peer-review process, without any commercial or financial influence. The journal operates in accordance with the financial and publishing policies of Harran University, with a commitment to serving the public interest and advancing scientific knowledge.
In line with these principles, the journal does not publish commercial advertisements or sponsored content; it is dedicated exclusively to the dissemination of academic and scientific materials. Ethical publishing practices and editorial independence are upheld at all stages of the publication process.
Appeals and Complaints
Appeals and complaints are handled by the journal's Editorial Board within the scope of COPE guidelines. Appeals must be based on the scientific content of the manuscript. The final decision on appeals and complaints is made by the Editor-in-Chief. Depending on the situation, a mediator or an external ethics editor may be appointed to resolve issues that cannot be settled internally. Authors should contact the editor-in-chief regarding their appeals and complaints via email.
Handling Unethical Publication Behavior
In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent data, or plagiarism, the publisher, in close cooperation with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and amend the article in question. In the most severe cases, this includes the prompt publication of a correction, clarification, or retraction of the affected work. The publisher, together with the editors, will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of articles where research misconduct has occurred, and will under no circumstances encourage or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.
Digital Archiving and Preservation Policy
Digital preservation is a series of processes and activities that guarantee the access and distribution of information in digital format to ensure its long-term and continuous accessibility. The preservation policy includes the following measures:
Website Archiving
All electronic content (website, manuscripts, etc.) is stored in different sources. The content on one server is online and accessible to readers. A duplicate copy of the same content is kept as a backup. In the event of a server failure, the archive is retrieved from these alternative sources.
Abstracting/Indexing Services
Our journal's abstracting/indexing services store essential information about the articles. Additionally, some abstracting/indexing services archive the metadata and electronic versions of the articles. In this way, copies of the articles are made available to the scientific community through these systems as an alternative to the journal.
Cessation of Publication
In the event that the publication of this journal is discontinued, the articles will remain online and accessible to readers through third parties and archiving processes as described above. Readers will still be able to reach the journal editors to access the contents in specific situations, such as the cessation of publication.
Authors' Archiving Policy
Abstract and Citation Information
Authors may reuse the abstract and citation information of their articles (e.g., title, author name, publication dates), including on social media platforms; however, a backlink must be provided as a citation to the article on the Harran Educational Journal website.
Accepted Manuscript
The "accepted manuscript" is the final draft of the author's manuscript accepted for publication by a journal, including changes made in line with the reviewers' suggestions, prior to copyediting and typesetting.
Authors of open-access articles have the freedom to publish and share links to their articles anywhere they wish immediately after publication. However, a backlink must be provided as a citation to the article on the Harran Educational Journal website.
