AIM AND SCOPE
Istanbul Law Review is a quarterly, academic, peer reviewed journal which publishes articles in Turkish and English. Istanbul Law Review publishes articles, judicial reviews, legislation analysis’, publication criticism, translations which involves in law and law related subjects, and are based on genuine theoretical and practical academic research and suitable for national and international scale.
Istanbul Law Review involves in publications which are (i) capable of expanding theory and enhancing theoretical basis, (ii) analyzing either academic or judicial methodology, (iii) scrutinizing legal theory, practice, process, symbols etc. effecting society on private or public levels, (iv) exploring the subject in legal, sociological, political, psychological, philosophical, ethical, geographical and historical manner.
In this frame, primary fields of interest are listed as follows:
• Human rights law,
• Criminal law,
• Financial and fiscal law,
• Civil law,
• Commercial law,
• Obligations law,
• Execution and bankruptcy law
EDITORIAL POLICIES AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS
Publication Policy
The subjects covered in the manuscripts submitted to the Journal for publication must be in accordance with the aim and scope of the journal. The journal gives priority to original research papers submitted for publication.
General Principles
Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by editor-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope.
Short presentations that took place in scientific meetings can be referred if indicated in the article. The editor hands over the papers matching the formal rules to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and gives green light for publication upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims. Changing the name of an author (omission, addition or order) in papers submitted to the Journal requires written permission of all declared authors. Refused manuscripts and graphics are not returned to the author.
Open Access Statement
The journal is an open access journal and all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Except for commercial purposes, users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
The open access articles in the journal are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en )
Article Processing Charge
All expenses of the journal are covered by the Istanbul University. Processing and publication are free of charge with the journal. There is no article processing charges or submission fees for any submitted or accepted articles.
Peer Review Process
Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by Editor-in-Chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope. Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors and ensures a fair double-blind peer review of the selected manuscripts.
The selected manuscripts are sent to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and publication decision is given by Editor-in-Chief upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
Reviewers’ judgments must be objective. Reviewers’ comments on the following aspects are expected while conducting the review.
- Does the manuscript contain new and significant information?
- Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the manuscript?
- Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
- Are the methods described comprehensively?
- Are the interpretations and consclusions justified by the results?
- Is adequate references made to other Works in the field?
- Is the language acceptable?
Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees is important.
PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Istanbul Law Review is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and pays regard to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing
All parties involved in the publishing process (Editors, Reviewers, Authors and Publishers) are expected to agree on the following ethical principles.
All submissions must be original, unpublished (including as full text in conference proceedings), and not under the review of any other publication synchronously. Each manuscript is reviewed by one of the editors and at least two referees under double-blind peer review process. Plagiarism, duplication, fraud authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, salami slicing/salami publication, breaching of copyrights, prevailing conflict of interest are unnethical behaviors.
All manuscripts not in accordance with the accepted ethical standards will be removed from the publication. This also contains any possible malpractice discovered after the publication. In accordance with the code of conduct we will report any cases of suspected plagiarism or duplicate publishing.
Research Ethics
The journal adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.
- Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.
- The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.
- The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
- Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.
- Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.
- The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.
- In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.
- If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.
- In studies with human subject, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained.
Author Responsibilities
It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. And authors must ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.
All the authors of a submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contribution to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analyzing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection or supervision of the research group are not sufficient roles to be accepted as an author. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form. The individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, assisting writing, providing a general support, providing material or financial support are examples to be indicated in acknowledgement section.
All authors must disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment.
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.
Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.
Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.
MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION
PUBLICATION PRINCIPLES OF ISTANBUL LAW REVIEW
REFERENCES
Although references to review articles can be an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature, review articles do not always reflect original work accurately. Readers should therefore be provided with direct references to original research sources whenever possible. On the other hand, extensive lists of references to original work on a topic can use excessive space on the printed page. Small numbers of references to key original papers often serve as well as more exhaustive lists, particularly since references can now be added to the electronic version of published papers, and since electronic literature searching allows readers to retrieve published literature efficiently. Papers accepted but not yet included in the issue are published online in the Early View section and they should be cited as “advance online publication”. Citing a “personal communication” should be avoided unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication must be obtained.
Reference Style and Format
Istanbul Law Review offers referencing style OSCOLA. OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) is published by the University of Oxford and detail and examples about the style can be found at https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/publications/oscola
OSCOLA Reference Examples
Primary Sources
Do not use full stops in abbreviations. Separate citations with a semi-colon.
Cases
Give the party names, followed by the neutral citation, followed by the Law Reports citation (eg AC, Ch, QB). If there is no neutral citation, give the Law Reports citation followed by the court in brackets. If the case is not reported in the Law Reports, cite the All ER or the WLR, or failing that a specialist report.
Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884.
R (Roberts) v Parole Board [2004] EWCA Civ 1031, [2005] QB 410.
Page v Smith [1996] AC 155 (HL).
When pinpointing, give paragraph numbers in square brackets at the end of the citation. If the judgment has no paragraph numbers, provide the page number pinpoint after the court.
Callery v Gray [2001] EWCA Civ 1117, [2001] 1 WLR 2112 [42], [45].
Bunt v Tilley [2006] EWHC 407 (QB), [2006] 3 All ER 336 [1]–[37].
R v Leeds County Court, ex p Morris [1990] QB 523 (QB) 530–31.
If citing a particular judge:
Arscott v The Coal Authority [2004] EWCA Civ 892, [2005] Env LR 6 [27] (Laws LJ).
Statutes and statutory instruments
Act of Supremacy 1558.
Human Rights Act 1998, s 15(1)(b).
Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI
2004/3166.
EU legislation and cases
Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13.
Council Regulation (EC) 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings
(EC Merger Regulation) [2004] OJ L24/1, art 5.
Case C–176/03 Commission v Council [2005] ECR I–7879, paras 47–48.
European Court of Human Rights
Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10.
Osman v UK ECHR 1998–VIII 3124.
Balogh v Hungary App no 47940/99 (ECHR, 20 July 2004).
Simpson v UK (1989) 64 DR 188.
Secondary Sources
Books
Give the author’s name in the same form as in the publication, except in bibliographies, where you should give only the surname followed by the initial(s). Give relevant information about editions, translators and so forth before the publisher, and give page numbers at the end of the citation, after the brackets.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (first published 1651, Penguin 1985) 268.
Gareth Jones, Goff and Jones: The Law of Restitution (1st supp, 7th edn, Sweet &
Maxwell 2009).
K Zweigert and H Kötz, An Introduction to Comparative Law (Tony Weir tr, 3rd edn,
OUP 1998).
Contributions to edited books
Francis Rose, ‘The Evolution of the Species’ in Andrew Burrows and Alan Rodger (eds),
Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks (OUP 2006).
Encyclopedias
Halsbury’s Laws (5th edn, 2010) vol 57, para 53.
Journal articles
Paul Craig, ‘Theory, “Pure Theory” and Values in Public Law’ [2005] PL 440.
When pinpointing, put a comma between the first page of the article and the page pinpoint.
JAG Griffith, ‘The Common Law and the Political Constitution’(2001) 117 LQR 42, 64.
Online journals
Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information’ (2010)
1(1) EJLT < http://ejlt.org//article/view/17 > accessed 27 July 2010.
Command papers and Law Commission reports
Department for International Development, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our
Common Future (White Paper, Cm 7656, 2009) ch 5.
Law Commission, Reforming Bribery (Law Com No 313, 2008) paras 3.12–3.17.
Websites and blogs
Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May 2009)
<www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 19 November 2009.
Newspaper articles
Jane Croft, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Quality’ Financial Times (London, 1 July 2010) 3.
SUBMISSION CHECKLIST
Ensure that the following items are present:
● Cover letter to the editor
ü The category of the manuscript
ü Confirming that “the paper is not under consideration for publication in another journal”.
ü Including disclosure of any commercial or financial involvement.
ü Confirming that the statistical design of the research article is reviewed.
ü Confirming that last control for fluent English was done.
ü Confirming that journal policies detailed in Information for Authors have been reviewed.
ü Confirming that the references cited in the text and listed in the references section are in line with APA 6.
● Permission of previously published copyrighted material if used in the present manuscript
ü The category of the manuscript
ü The title of the manuscript
ü All authors’ names and affiliations (institution, faculty/department, city, country), e-mail addresses
ü Corresponding author’s email address, full postal address, telephone and fax number
ü ORCIDs of all authors.
● Main Manuscript Document
ü The title of the manuscript
ü Abstract (250-300 words)
ü Extended Summary (600-800 words) in English for the articles which are not in English
ü Keywords: 5-15 words
ü Main article sections
ü Grant support (if exists)
ü Conflict of interest (if exists)
ü Acknowledgement (if exists)
ü References
ü All tables, illustrations (figures) (including title, description, footnotes)