Ethical Principles
The publication process in the Hitit Movement Science Journal (HITMSJ) was created to develop and present information objectively. For this reason, the processes applied to reflect the quality of the authors and the quality of the institutional work that supports the authors. The articles reviewed embody and encourage the scientific method. In this respect, it is important that all stakeholders of the process (authors, readers and researchers, publishers, referees and editors) comply with the standards regarding ethical principles.
HITMSJ expects all stakeholders to bear the ethical responsibilities described below within the scope of publication ethics.
The ethical duties and responsibilities adopted by the HITMSJ have been prepared by taking into account the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and policies.

Actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics:
Plagiarism: Presenting others’ ideas, methods, data, practices, writing, forms or studies partly or wholly without referencing to the owners according to scientific rules,
Forgery: Producing data that is not based on research, editing or changing the presented or published study by basing it on fictitious data, reporting or publishing these, claiming research has been done while actually it has not,
Distortion: Falsifying the obtained data and the research records, showing the methods, devices and materials that were not used in the study as if they had been used, not taking the data that is not suitable to the research hypothesis into consideration, changing the data and/or results to make them be appropriate to the related theory and presuppositions, falsifying or manipulating the research results in accordance with the advantages of the people and the institutions that support the researcher,
Re-publishing: To present more than one work containing the same results of a research separately in evaluations for associate professorship exams and academic promotions,
Dissection: Dissecting the results of a study in a way that would destroy the integrity of the study and inappropriately, publishing them separately without referencing each study, thus increasing the number of publications to present them in associate professorship exam evaluations and academic promotions,
Undeserved Authorship: Including those who don’t have an active contribution among authors, not including those who have an active contribution among authors, changing the ranking of authors without a reason and inappropriately, excluding the names of those with active contribution from the study during publication or in next publications, making one’s name included – by exerting influence – in authors despite having no active contribution,
Other Types of Violation of Ethics: Not naming the people, institutions and organizations and their contributions to the study openly in the publication of the research made by the support of those, not following the ethical rules in studies done on humans or animals, not respecting the rights of patients in the publications, sharing the contents of a study appointed as referee before its publication, using the sources, places, opportunities and devices provided for scientific researches out of their purposes, accusing someone of violation of ethics in a baseless, injudicious and malicious way.
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Ethical Statement
• Ethical rules must be complied with in the studies conducted on humans and animals.
• It should be stated that the copyright regulations are complied with for the intellectual and artistic works used.
• Necessary permissions must be obtained to use others' scale, questionnaires, photographs, etc. and stated.
• In the case of studies, an "informed consent form" should be obtained and stated.
• If the research has been conducted in the fields listed below, it is mandatory to upload an “Ethics Committee Approval” in the annex of the study.

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Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
• All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using questionnaires, interviews, focus group work, observation, experimentation,
• Use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
• Clinical studies on humans
• Clinical studies on animals,
• Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on the protection of personal data.

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Publication of research that involve human subjects (i.e., surveys and interviews)
HITMSJ 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. In this context, the following points should be followed in the manuscripts submitted to the journal:
1) For research conducted in all branches of science that requires ethics committee approval (ethics committee approval should be obtained, this approval should be stated and documented in the article.
2) In research that requires ethics committee permission, information about the permission (name of the committee, date, and number) is in the method section, and also on one of the first/last pages of the article; In case of reports, information about signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the article.

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Responsibilities of Writers
• Article Writing
All authors cited as research writers must contribute to the research substantially. Other contributors should be listed as co-authors. Contributors to the research should be mentioned as 'contributors'. The corresponding author should take the consent of other authors before sending the study to the journal. Those who do not have a direct contribution to the research should not be listed as authors.

• Originality and Authenticity
All data in the study must be true and original. The author should present an objective discussion of the importance of his work based on accurate data. Intentionally presenting false information is unacceptable and unethical behavior.

• Multiple, Unnecessary and Simultaneous Publishing
The author should not attempt to publish the same research in more than one journal, or attempt to republish a previously published article, and should comply with scientific research and publication ethics. Such attempts are unacceptable unethical behaviors.

• Resources
It is mandatory to show / cite all sources used in the study.

• Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
All authors must clearly state any potential financial and interest conflicts that may affect the results of the study. If financial support has been received for the study, its sources should be indicated.

• Publishing Fee
No fee is charged from the authors for any research published in our journal.

• Correction of Published Studies
It is the author's responsibility to inform the editor if any significant deficit or mistake is detected in the published work. The author should cooperate with the editorial team of our journal in order to take the necessary actions to correct the situation.

• Withdrawal of the Article
The author can only withdraw the work evaluated in the publishing processes at the pre-check stage. Works cannot be withdrawn at other stages of the publishing process.

• Originality and Plagiarism
Authors should aim to make original research and report. The mentioned literature should be appropriately cited. Uncited mentions from other publications, including the author's own work, are an important moral issue and a crime. If plagiarism is detected in the articles submitted to our journal, they are removed from the publication processes immediately. If it detected after publication, immediate action is going to be taken about the author and the article.

• Double-Blind Refereeing
As double-blind refereeing is applied in our journal, author information should not be written in the article file.

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Responsibilities of Referees
• Contribution to the Editorial Decision
The referee is obliged to consult the "Referee Evaluation Criteria" in the evaluation process from the moment they are appointed and accepted the task through the system. The referee assists editors with their editorial decisions and assists authors in improving their articles through editorial communication. The referee should point out the completion of other articles, works, references, citations, rules and similar shortcomings related to the article.


• Abiding by the Schedule
Any referee who does not feel qualified to review the article proposal or knows that the article review cannot take place on time should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review, thereby ensuring that the new referee assignment is made.

• Confidentiality
Articles reviewed should be kept confidential before publication.
Referees acknowledge that the work submitted for their review is the private property of the authors. This also applies to referees who decline their invitation to review.
The names of the referees are not disclosed / published.

• Objectivity
Referees should be objective in the decision to publish the text they examine.
Comments on the text should be made impartially and recommendations should be made in a way that the authors can use to improve the text.
Personal criticism of the authors is not appropriate.

• Resources
The referee should identify relevant published work that is not cited by the authors. The referee should also inform the editor of any significant similarities between the article reviewed and any other article(published or unpublished).

• Conflict of Interest
Conflicts of interest should be reported to the editor. There should be no conflict of interest between the referees and the stakeholders of the article under review. In case of any conflict of interest and an appointment outside of the field of expertise, it is recommended to present the situation to the editor and withdraw from the referee process if necessary.

• Ethics
Should the referees notice any ethical violation, plagiarism, etc. they should inform the editor. Referees acknowledge that the work submitted for review is the private property of the authors.

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Editorial Responsibilities
• The Editorial Board have all the responsibility and authority to accept or decline an article.
• The Editorial Board should not be in a conflict of interest about the articles they accepted or declined.
• In the publication process, studies are selected and evaluated according to scientific and academic criteria such as contribution to the field and originality.
• The Editorial Board ensures publication of a correction or withdrawal in case of a mistake or an incompleteness detected in a published article.
• Since double-blind refereeing is adopted in the journal, the names of the referees are kept confidential and not published.
• The refereeing process is at the center of the success of scientific publishing. It is part of our commitment to maintain and improve the referee process.
• HITMSJ takes the necessary precautions carefully in cases of violation of publishing ethics.
• All kinds of complaints and suggestions regarding the studies published in HITMSJ, publication processes and editorial team can be sent to the address sbf@hitit.edu.tr.
• Any feedback from stakeholders is considered an important contribution to R&D studies.

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Publication Language
• The publication language of HITMSJ is English.
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Publication Principles
• All control and evaluation processes of the texts are reported and archived in Dergipark.

• The texts that are not adjusted according to the Writing Rules are returned to the author without being taken into the evaluation process.
• HITMSJ publishes texts that was not previously published elsewhere.
• Texts that are in the evaluation process for another journal are returned to the author.
• HITMSJ publishes texts related to the field of divinity. The interdisciplinary texts related to the field of divinity can also be taken into the evaluation process by taking their contributions to the field into account.
• No more than one (1) study of an author can be published in the same issue regardless of the text type.
• Up to two (2) studies can be published in the same volume, provided that the publication type is different.
• Those who are in the editorial board of the journal can send text to the journal, but they cannot work in the journal at the time the text is evaluated.

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Publication Policies
• HITMSJ, besides publishing qualified scientific research, has made it a mission to contribute to the author and academic journalism besides publishing qualified scientific research.
• The Publishing Processes carried out by the Editorial team, experts in their fields, have been determined in line with this mission.
• HITMSJ is the publication organ of Hitit University.
• HITMSJ is an international peer-reviewed journal.
• HITMSJ is published in print and electronic media.
• HITMSJ is published twice a year, as one volume two issues, March and September.
• In HITMSJ, all policies and processes are decided by the editorial board.
• Special issues can be published with the decision of the editorial board.
• Changes to journal publishing policies and processes are announced on the journal's official website.
• HITMSJ has an original 6-step Publishing Process. Each stage in the publishing process is carried out according to specific evaluation criteria within the framework of defined job descriptions and workflows.
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Evaluation Policies
Articles and translations are subjected to two types of evaluation:

Structural Evaluation
• Writing Control: The texts are examined in terms of shape, writing rules and compliance with the ISNAD-2 Citation System. Authors should make the corrections within 11 days.
• Plagiarism/Similarity Control: Texts are examined in terms of plagiarism/similarity rate. The plagiarism/similarity rate determined by the Editorial Board is 15%. Articles exceeding this rate are rejected without being included in the referee process.
• Language Control: For Turkish texts, the Abstract section, and for texts written in other languages, the Abstract, and Öz sections are grammatically checked.
• Revision and Proofreading: In order to ensure the unity in linguistic expression and writing style, necessary corrections are made to the language and style of the text without interfering with the content and within the knowledge of the author. After this stage, no correction is requested from the author, but the text is sent to the author for the final reading.
Academic Evaluation
• Editorial Board Evaluation
• Taking the field of the text into account, each article is sent to two editorial board members by the editor.
• Editorial Board members examine and evaluate the studies according to the Editorial Board Evaluation Criteria within the framework of a double-blind evaluation system and make referee recommendations.
• The articles reviewed and evaluated by the Editorial Board are subjected to a score ranking, and the first 25 articles are included in the evaluation process.
For the Book and Symposium Reviews, the evaluation is made by the editor of the field assigned by the editor.

• Referee Evaluation:
• The texts are subjected to academic evaluation by the referees determined by the editorial board. In the referee evaluation process, the text is sent to the author for corrections if the referee requests it. The author must fill in the Author Correction Form along with the corrected text.
• If the texts receive positive reports from both referees, they are submitted to the Editorial Board is submitted to its final decision.
Texts with a negative report by one referee are returned to the author, even if the other is positive.
• It is important that the authors do not exceed the dates given for corrections in order for the journal publishing process to function properly. The texts of the authors who do not make corrections within the specified dates are removed from the evaluation process.


Referee Policy
• In HITMSJ double-sided blind refereeing system is applied.
• Confidentiality is essential in the referee reports; therefore, referee names are not mentioned in the journal.
• Multiple articles can be sent to a referee.

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Archive Policy• The journal is sent to the domestic and foreign libraries determined by the Editorial Board and to international index institutions within one month from the date of publication.
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Copyright Policy
• From the date of its submission to the Journal of Divinity Faculty Hitit University until the end of the evaluation process and if it is published from the publication date, the translation cannot be published entirely or partially in any form of visual, auditory and printed media without the consent of the Editorial Board of HITMSJ; it can be quoted by referring to HITMSJ.
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Plagiarism Policy
• The plagiarism/similarity rate determined by the Editorial Board is 15%. Articles exceeding this rate are rejected without being included in the referee process.
• During the plagiarism check, the field editor uses Turnitin produced for plagiarism/similarity control and presents the results to the editor in a report.
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Fiscal Policy
• HITMSJ is an open-access journal; no fee is charged for access.
• The authors are not paid any fees for their published works.
• The editorial board and referees are not paid any fees.
• All financial and legal copyright transactions of the translations are done by the translator.
• No financial support is provided to the translator for copyright and any other charges.
• The author is deemed to have accepted all financial, legal and scientific responsibility since the date the translated text is submitted to the HITMSJ.