OUR JOURNAL'S ETHICAL POLICY FOLLOWED WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF COPE PRINCIPLES

1. Publication Ethics

The ethical duties and responsibilities listed below have been prepared based on the recommendations and guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Our journal undertakes to comply with the ethical principles stated below.

2. Ethical Responsibilities of Publishers

The publisher does not seek any financial profit by publishing the journal.

The publisher undertakes that editors make independent decisions regarding the articles submitted to the journal.

The publisher is responsible for taking measures against all kinds of scientific misconduct, citation ganging and plagiarism regarding editors.

Matters such as freedom of thought and property rights of articles submitted to our journal are respected. Publishers protect the intellectual property and copyright of every article published in the journal. The journal management defends the rights of the journal and authors in case of possible violations.

3. Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

3.1. General Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

The editor must ensure that the articles published in the journal comply with the journal's publication policy, the journal's purpose and scope.

The editor must take care to protect personal data in articles sent to the journal and must not publish this personal data without the explicit consent of individuals. The editor must ensure that all information regarding the article sent to the journal is kept confidential until publication.

The editor must carefully consider criticisms regarding the articles published in the journal and must adopt a constructive attitude in this regard.

The editor must keep correspondence, files and other records regarding the articles sent to the journal in electronic or printed form.

The editor must do the necessary work to raise the quality standards of the journal and the publication.

The editor must defend academic diversity of thought and freedom of scientific thought. At the same time, the journal must continue to operate by observing intellectual property rights and ethical standards.

The editor must evaluate the articles sent to the journal in terms of scientific content, regardless of the ethnic origin, gender, nationality, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors.

The editor must prioritize the principle of transparency in all publication processes (in matters requiring correction, change, or explanation for any reason in the publication) as required by the publication policy.

The editor must ensure that human and animal rights are protected in the articles submitted to the journal. The editor must reject the article in question in cases where there is no ethical committee approval regarding the subjects used in the articles or legal permissions regarding experimental research.

The editor must ensure that blind and double-review processes are carried out healthily.

Only the editor and the editorial board have full authority in assigning referees for the articles, and the editor and the editorial board are responsible for the final decision regarding the publication of the articles.

3.2. Relationships of Editors with the Journal Owner and Publisher

There must be a principle of editorial independence between the editor and the publisher.

The relationship between the editor and the publisher must be based on a written contract.

The decisions to be taken by the editor regarding the articles in the journal must be independent and not open to the intervention of the publisher and the journal owner.

3.3. Relationships of Editors with the Editorial Board

The editor must be in communication with the editorial board.

The editor should ensure that the editorial board consists of active members who contribute to the journal and are compatible with the journal's field.

The editor should ensure that the editorial board is objective and impartial in its evaluations.

3.4. Relationships of Editors with the Editorial Board

People on the editorial board of the journal should actively contribute to the development of the journal.

The editor should inform the editorial board about articles and studies related to their fields.

The editor should shape the journal's publication policy by taking into account the opinions and suggestions of the editorial board.

3.5. Relationships of Editors with Authors

The editor should ensure that authors have access to the current version of the journal's publication and writing principles and article template.

Unless there is a very important problem in the articles sent to the journal, the editor should take the articles to the preliminary evaluation stage.

The editor should provide accurate, explanatory and informative notifications and feedback to the authors about all stages of their articles.

The editor should not ignore positive referee suggestions. In case of rejection of positive referee suggestions, the reason for rejection should be evaluated within the framework of scientific, ethical, legal, etc. norms.

The editor should grant the authors the right to respond to criticisms received on the articles.

The editor should immediately forward the correction suggestions requested by the referees to the author.

3.6. Relationships of Editors with Referees

The editor should determine referees suitable for the field and content of the study for the articles sent to the journal.

The editor should send the necessary forms and files regarding the evaluation of the articles to the referees within the deadline.

The editor should remove from the referee pool referees who do not return within the deadline or do not comply with referee ethics.

The editor should review the corrections made by the author in the manuscript files.

The editor should keep the identity of the referees confidential during the publication evaluation process.

The editor should prevent evaluations that do not comply with scientific ethics and are offensive before they reach the author.

The editor should always update the referee pool of the journal and create a wide range.

The editor should make an effort to send the articles to different referees.

The editor should direct the articles sent to the journal to referees who do not have a conflict of interest or common interest.

The editor should encourage the referees to evaluate the articles in an impartial, scientific and objective manner.

3.7. Relations of Editors with Readers

The editor is responsible for taking into account the feedback from readers, researchers and practitioners and providing healthy feedback to the readers, researchers and reviewers regarding this feedback.

4. Ethical Responsibilities of Referees

4.1. Double-Blind Refereeing

Referees should act impartially and confidentially in accordance with the blind evaluation process.

4.2. Confidentiality

Works sent to referees for evaluation must be kept confidential. Works must not be shown to others and their content must not be discussed. The confidentiality rule also covers people who refuse to be referees.

4.3. Promptness

A referee who is invited to conduct a peer review must notify the editor within 15 days whether he/she will be a referee for the relevant study. The peer review process must be completed within 15 days, and authors must complete the changes notified to the responsible author within 15 days.

4.4. Citation

Referees must notify the journal editorial board if they become aware of uncited published publications, copyright infringement by the author, and plagiarism.

4.5. Impartiality

Referees must evaluate the study in an impartial, scientific, and objective manner. Referees must avoid insults and personal comments, and must conduct evaluations in accordance with minimum rules of courtesy. Referees must evaluate the relevant article by taking scientific criteria into consideration.

4.6. Courtesy

Referees should avoid unfounded evaluations that are not scientific or may have legal consequences.

4.7. Expertise

Referees should accept studies related to their field of expertise and reject studies outside their field of expertise.

4.8. Conflict of Interest - Conflict of Interest

Referees should refuse to be a referee if they notice a conflict of interest or conflict of interest regarding the study they are evaluating and report this to the journal editor.

5. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Author(s) accept that all publication rights of the study published in the journal belong to the journal they submitted. Author(s) cannot request copyright for the articles they submit to our journal.

Author(s) should upload the articles they submit to the journal to the system in accordance with the journal's publication and writing rules and article template.

Author(s) must confirm that the article submitted to the journal for publication has not been previously published anywhere, in any language, has not been sent to another journal for publication, or has not been evaluated for publication; If the article is published in its entirety or in part, it must declare and undertake that all necessary permissions have been obtained for its publication in our journal and that it has been sent to the journal editorship together with the original copyright transfer form.

Authors should not submit more than one article to be published in the same issue.

Authors should not add the names of people who did not contribute to the article as authors.

Authors should ensure the originality of the articles they submit to the journal

Authors should assume full responsibility for all copyrighted materials (tables, figures, contributing citations, etc.) in our journal.

Authors should make appropriate references to other authors, contributors or sources and the relevant sources must be indicated.

Authors should declare any financial relationships or conflicts of interest or competing interests that should be known about the study submitted to our journal and that could potentially affect the findings or scientific results of the study; and should state in writing all financial contributions, sponsorships or project supports made to the study.

Authors should indicate the qualifications of the articles submitted to the journal if they are studies that have been presented at national or international congresses or symposiums and whose abstracts have been published.

Authors should contact the editor immediately when they detect a significant scientific error or inappropriateness in their articles published in our journal in order to withdraw their articles or correct the error in the articles.

Authors should ensure that the studies submitted to our journal comply with scientific research and publication ethics. In this regard, they should meticulously comply with the rules specified in the YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive.

Authors should be informed about the ethical status of the article by the journal editor during the preliminary control, evaluation and editing process of an article.

Authors must not change their responsibilities regarding a publication that has started the evaluation process. (adding/removing authors, changing the order)

Authors must prioritize respect for fundamental human rights and animal rights in the articles they submit to the journal for publication. In this context, they must definitely obtain ethics committee approval regarding the subjects to be used in the articles.

The journal management, editor and editorial board assume that authors who submit articles to our journal for publication agree to comply with the conditions stated above.

6. Compliance with the YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive

The YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive is as follows in Article 8, "Actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics". Authors must seriously avoid the issues detailed below:

a) Plagiarism: Presenting others' ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures or works as one's own work, in whole or in part, without citing their authors in accordance with scientific rules.

b) Forgery: Producing data that is not based on research, editing or changing a presented or published work based on false data, reporting or publishing these, presenting a research that has not been conducted as if it was conducted.

c) Distortion: Falsifying research records and obtained data, presenting methods, devices and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that is not in accordance with the research hypothesis, manipulating data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, distorting or shaping research results in line with the interests of persons and institutions from which support is received.

ç) Re-publication: Presenting more than one work containing the same results of a research as separate works in associate professorship exam evaluations and academic promotions.

d) Slicing: Presenting the results of a study as separate works in evaluations for associate professorship exams and academic promotions by inappropriately separating them into pieces and publishing numerous publications without citing each other in a way that will disrupt the integrity of the study.

e) Unfair authorship: Including people who have no active contribution among the authors, not including people who have active contribution among the authors, changing the author order in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have active contribution from the work during publication or in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has no active contribution.

f) Other types of ethical violations: Not clearly stating the supporting persons, institutions or organizations and their contributions to the research in the publications of research conducted with support. Not complying with ethical rules in research conducted on humans and animals, not respecting patient rights in publications, sharing information in a work that one has been assigned to review as a referee with others before publication, using resources, places, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research for purposes other than intended, making completely unfounded, unfounded and intentional accusations of ethical violations.

Reporting a Situation That Does Not Comply with Ethical Principles to the Editor

If an unethical behavior is encountered regarding editors, referees, authors, or an unethical situation regarding an article in the evaluation process, early view, or published, it should be reported to sosbilder@igdir.edu.tr.