In articles to be published in journals, whether ethics committee permission and/or legal/special permission is required should be stated in the article. If it is necessary to obtain these permissions, it should be clearly presented from which institution, on what date and with what decision or issue number.

Furthermore it must be indicated in the article whether ethical committee approval and/or legal/specific permissions are required for the publication of the article. If these permissions are necessary, the institution, the date, and the decision or reference number of the approval should be clearly stated.

If the study involves the use of human and animal subjects, the study must be declared to have been conducted in accordance with relevant international declarations, guidelines, etc.

Dear Author(s),
As is known, the TR Index Journal Evaluation Criteria were updated for implementation in 2020, and the articles regarding the ethics committee approval required for scientific research were elaborated in detail. Under the title of ethical rules, it has been stated that **"the documents and information requested for studies requiring ethics committee approval will be mandatory for publications starting in 2020. It is not possible to publish articles that require ethics committee approval by their nature without obtaining such approval."**

Explanation and Information Regarding TR Index Ethical Rules
The articles related to Ethical Rules, which were already included in previous years' criteria, were detailed with explanations in 2020. The assumption that permissions for studies requiring ethics committee approval in the field of research had been obtained was made, and **"including information about these permissions in the article"** was added to the criteria.

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QUESTION: Is ethics committee approval necessary for all articles?**
No. As specified in the criteria, this applies to articles **"requiring ethics committee approval."**
The studies requiring ethics committee approval include:
- All kinds of research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants using survey, interview, focus group study, observation, experiment, or interview techniques,
- Studies involving the use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
- Clinical studies conducted on humans,
- Studies conducted on animals,
- Retrospective studies in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Law.

Additionally:
- Indicating that **an informed consent form** was obtained in case studies,
- Obtaining and mentioning permission for the use of scales, surveys, photographs belonging to others,
- Stating compliance with copyright regulations for the use of intellectual and artistic works.

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QUESTION: Is retrospective ethics committee approval required for publications derived from studies and theses completed in previous years?**
Retrospective ethics committee approval is not required for studies that use research data from before 2020, are derived from master's/doctoral theses (this must be specified in the article), have been submitted to a journal in the previous year, accepted but not yet published.

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QUESTION: Do these rules of the TR Index impose restrictions on publications conducted outside universities?**
No. Researchers who are not affiliated with a university can also apply to Ethics Committees in their regions.

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ADDITIONALLY:
For articles to be published in journals, it must be stated in the article whether ethics committee approval and/or legal/special permission is required. If such permissions are required, the institution granting the permission, the date, and the decision or number must be explicitly stated.

If the study involves the use of human and animal subjects, it must be declared that the study has been conducted in accordance with international declarations, guidelines, etc.