HIKEM adopts the principle of impartial and respectful development and distribution of scientific knowledge. Therefore, the procedures in this process improve the quality of the studies. Peer-reviewed studies are the ones that support and materialize the scientific method. At this point, it is of utmost importance that all parties included in the publication process (authors, publisher, peer reviewers, and editors) comply with the standards of ethical considerations. HİKEM expects all parties to hold the following ethical responsibilities.
The following ethical duties and responsibilities are written in light of the guidelines and policies made by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in developing a coherent and respected knowledge network. It directly reflects the quality of the authors’ work and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is, therefore, essential to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, and the publisher.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
The editor should consider publishing a correction if minor errors that do not affect the published paper’s results, interpretations, and conclusions are detected. The editor should consider retraction if significant errors and/or misconduct that invalidate results and conclusions are detected. The editor should consider issuing an expression of concern if there is evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors, or if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable, or if the institutions of the authors do not investigate the case, or if any potential investigation appears unfair or insufficient. The guidelines of COPE are considered regarding correction, retractions, or expression of concern.

Plagiarism Action Plan and Journal Precautions
The journal respects intellectual property and aims to protect and promote the original work of its authors. Articles containing plagiarism are against quality, research, and innovation standards. Therefore, all authors submitting articles to the journal must comply with ethical standards and avoid plagiarism. If an author is suspected of plagiarism in a submitted or published article, the journal’s Ethics Editor reviews the work first. The Editorial Board then reviews this work. The Journal then contacts the author(s) to submit their comments within two weeks. If the journal does not receive any response from the author within the specified time, it requests the investigation of the claim by contacting the university to which the author is affiliated. The journal will take the following serious precautions against published articles that are found to contain plagiarism.
The journal will immediately contact the university to which the author(s) are affiliated to take final action against the related author.
The journal will remove the PDF copy of the published article from its website and disable all links to the full-text article. The phrase Plagiarized Article will be added to the published article’s title.
The journal will disable the author’s account and reject all future submissions by the author for three years.
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. If plagiarism/self-plagiarism is found, authors will be informed. If required, editors may resubmit the manuscript for similarity check at any peer-review or production stage. High similarity scores may lead to the rejection of a manuscript before and even after acceptance. The percentage of similarity score taken from each article, the overall similarity score is generally expected to be less than 20% excluding footnotes and bibliography.



Studies Based on Survey and Interview
HİKEM adopts the “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers” of the Publication Ethics Committee (COPE) in order to create ethical assurance in scientific periodicals. The authors are requested to comply with the following issues in the studies submitted to the journal:
Ethics committee approval should be obtained for research conducted in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval. This approval should be stated on the article’s first page, and the ethics approval document should be uploaded to the Dergipark system with the article.
In research that requires ethics committee permission, information about the permission (name of the committee, date, and number) is given in the method section and after the bibliography section of the article; In case reports, information about signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the article.

Special Issue
Our journal can publish a special issue upon the request of the Editorial Board.

Publication Policy
The articles sent to our journal for publication are first subjected to an editorial review and checked to determine whether they have been prepared under the journal’s publication policy and writing principles. It is then subjected to a similarity scan to prevent plagiarism. Articles that pass these stages without any problems are included in the peer review process using the double-blind model.



1. Publication and authorship
List of references and financial support;
No plagiarism, no fraudulent data. As a result of plagiarism control, articles with a similarity rate of 20% or more are directly rejected in accordance with the journal’s publication policy.
Forbidden to publish the same research in more than one journal.

2. Author’s responsibilities
Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process;
All authors have significantly contributed to the research;
Statement that all data in the article are authentic;
All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

3. Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers
Judgments should be objective;
Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors, or the research funders;
Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited;
Reviewed articles should be treated confidentially.

4. Editorial responsibilities
Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article;
Editors should have no conflict of interest concerning articles they reject/accept;
Only accept a paper when reasonably sure;
When errors are found, promote the publication of correction or retraction;
Preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
No plagiarism, no fraudulent data.

5. Publishing ethics issues
Monitoring/safeguarding publishing ethics by the editorial board;
Guidelines for retracting articles;
Maintain the integrity of the academic record;
Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards;
Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Duties of the Publisher
HİKEM is committed to ensuring that commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, CTJ will assist in communications with other journals or publishers where this is useful to editors. Finally, we are working closely with other publishers and industry associations to set standards for best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions–and are prepared to provide specialized legal review and counsel if necessary.

The Peer Review Process
HİKEM uses a double-blind review fulfilled by at least two reviewers. Book reviews, case reports and translated articles are sent to a single referee. The peer review process is at the heart of the success of scientific publishing. As part of our commitment to the protection and enhancement of the peer review process, CTJ has an obligation to assist the scientific community in all aspects of publishing ethics, especially in cases of (suspected) duplicate submission or plagiarism.

When a reader discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a paper published in our journal or has any other complaint about editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate papers, etc.), he/she should make a complaint by e-mail to: hikemdergisi@gmail.com We welcome complaints as they provide an opportunity for improvement and aim to respond quickly and constructively.