Hatay Mustafa Kemal University Journal of Social Sciences Institute has adopted the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) regarding ethical duties and responsibilities. Within the scope of publication ethics, it is important for all stakeholders (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, referees and editors) to comply with the standards regarding ethical principles.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Author(s) who submit a study to our journal must comply with the following ethical responsibilities;

• The studies submitted by the author(s) are expected to be original. In cases where the author(s) benefit from or use other studies, they must refer to and/or quote them completely and accurately.

• Individuals who do not make a qualified contribution to the content of the study should not be indicated as authors.

• Any situations and relationships that may constitute a conflict of interest, if any, of all studies submitted for publication must be explained.

• Raw data regarding their articles may be requested from the author(s) within the framework of the evaluation processes; in such a case, the author(s) must be ready to present the expected data and information to the editorial board and scientific board.
• Authors must have a document showing that they have the rights to use the data used, the necessary permissions for the research/analysis or that the consent of the experimental subjects has been obtained.

• In the event that the author(s) notice a mistake or error regarding their published, early appearance or evaluation stage work, they are obliged to inform the journal editor or publisher, and cooperate with the editor in the correction or withdrawal processes.

Authors cannot have their work in the application process of more than one journal at the same time. Each application can be started after the completion of the previous application. Work published in another journal cannot be sent to our journal.

Ethical Responsibilities of Referees
All studies must be evaluated with "Blind Refereeing". Our journal's evaluation process is carried out with the principle of double-blind refereeing. Referees cannot directly contact the authors, evaluations and comments are communicated through the journal management system. During this process, reviewer comments on evaluation forms and full texts are communicated to the author(s) through the field editor. In this context, referees who evaluate studies for our journal are expected to have the following ethical responsibilities:
• They should only accept to evaluate studies related to their field of expertise.

• They should evaluate impartially and confidentially.

• If they think they are faced with a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, they should refuse to review the study and inform the journal editor.

• They should destroy the studies they have reviewed after the evaluation process due to the principle of confidentiality. They can only use the final versions of the studies they have reviewed after they are published.

They should evaluate objectively and only with regard to the content of the study. They should not allow nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns to affect the evaluation.

They should evaluate constructively and with a polite language. They should not make derogatory personal comments that include hostility, slander and insult.

They should evaluate the studies they have accepted on time and in accordance with the above ethical responsibilities.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
Editors and field editors working in our journal should have the following ethical duties and responsibilities based on the "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as open access:

General duties and responsibilities
Editors are responsible for every publication published in our journal. In the context of this responsibility, editors have the following roles and responsibilities:
• Making an effort to meet the information needs of readers and authors,
• Ensuring the continuous development of the journal,
• Carrying out processes to improve the quality of studies published in the journal,
• Supporting freedom of thought,
• Ensuring academic integrity,
• Continuing business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
• Demonstrating openness and transparency in terms of publication on issues requiring correction and explanation.

Relations with readers
Editors should make decisions by taking into account the knowledge, skills and experience expectations of all readers, researchers and practitioners. The published studies should be original and contribute to the readers, researchers, practitioners and scientific literature. In addition, editors are obliged to take into account the feedback from readers, researchers and practitioners and to provide explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with Authors
The duties and responsibilities of editors towards authors are as follows:
•The importance of the work, its original value, its validity, the clarity of the expression and the journal's aims and objectives should be taken into consideration for positive or negative decisions.

• Unless there is a serious problem with the work, studies that are suitable for the scope of publication should be taken to the preliminary evaluation stage.

• Editors should not ignore positive referee suggestions unless there is a serious problem with the work.

• New editors should not change the decisions made by the previous editor(s) regarding the work unless there is a serious problem.

• The blind referee evaluation process should definitely be published and editors should prevent deviations that may occur in the defined processes.

• Editors should publish a writing rules section that includes in detail every issue that the authors will expect from them. These guidelines should be updated at certain intervals.

• Authors should be notified and responded to in an explanatory and informative manner.

Relations with referees
Editors' duties and responsibilities towards referees are as follows:
• They should determine the referees in accordance with the subject of the work.

• They are responsible for providing the information and guidelines that the referees will need during the evaluation phase.
• It must monitor whether there is a conflict of interest between the authors and the reviewers.

• In the context of blind review, the identity of the reviewers must be kept confidential.

• It must encourage reviewers to evaluate the work with an impartial, scientific and objective language.

• It must evaluate reviewers with criteria such as timely response and performance.

• It must determine practices and policies that will increase the performance of reviewers.

• It must take the necessary steps to dynamically update the reviewer pool.

• It must prevent discourteous and unscientific evaluations.

• It must take steps to ensure that the reviewer pool consists of a wide range of reviewers.

Relations with the editorial board
Editors must ensure that all editorial board members proceed in accordance with the publication policies and guidelines. They must inform the editorial board members about the publication policies and keep them informed of the developments. They must train the new editorial board members about the publication policies and provide them with the information they need.

In addition, editors;

• They must ensure that the editorial board members evaluate the work impartially and independently.

• They must determine the new editorial board members as contributing and suitable.
• The editorial board members should send studies that are in line with their areas of expertise for evaluation.

They should interact with the editorial board regularly.

They should hold meetings with the editorial board at regular intervals to develop the publication policies and the journal.

Editorial and blind refereeing processes
Editors are responsible for implementing the "Blind Refereeing and Evaluation Process" policies included in the journal publication policies. In this context, editors ensure that each study is evaluated fairly, impartially and on time.

Quality assurance
Editors are responsible for the publication of each article published in the journal in accordance with the journal publication policies and international standards.

Protection of personal data
Editors are responsible for ensuring the protection of personal data regarding subjects or images included in the evaluated studies. They are responsible for rejecting the study unless the explicit consent of the individuals used in the studies is documented. In addition, editors are responsible for protecting the individual data of the authors, referees and readers.

Ethics committee, human and animal rights
Editors are responsible for ensuring that human and animal rights are protected in the evaluated studies. In cases where there is no ethical committee approval for the subjects used in the studies and no permissions for experimental research, the researcher is responsible for rejecting the study.

Precautions against possible misconduct and abuse of duty
Editors are obliged to take precautions against possible misconduct and abuse of duty. In addition to conducting a meticulous and objective investigation regarding the determination and evaluation of complaints regarding this situation, sharing the findings on the subject is among the responsibilities of the editor.

Ensuring the integrity of academic publications
Editors should ensure that any judgments containing errors, inconsistencies or misdirection in the studies are quickly corrected.

Protection of intellectual property rights
Editors are obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of the journal and the author(s) in case of possible violations. In addition, editors are obliged to take the necessary precautions so that the content in all published articles does not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Constructiveness and openness to discussion
Editors;
• Should take into consideration convincing criticisms regarding the works published in the journal and should exhibit a constructive attitude towards these criticisms.
• The author(s) of the criticized studies should be given the right to reply.

• Studies with negative results should not be ignored or excluded.

Complaints
Editors; author