The TR Index Journal Evaluation criteria have been updated to be implemented in 2020, and the articles related to the ethics committee permission required for scientific researches have been detailed.

Article 8 of the criteria

• Ethics committee approval should be obtained separately for studies conducted in all branches of science, including social sciences, and for clinical and experimental studies on humans and animals that require an ethics committee decision, and this approval should be stated and documented in the article.

• Under this heading, information on ethical rules should be given under separate headings for the referee, author and editor.

• A statement that the Research and Publication Ethics is complied with should be included in the articles.

• Ethical principles should be stated under a separate heading in the journal and/or web page, with reference to national and international standards. E.g; In scientific articles sent to journals, the recommendations of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and the International Standards for Editors and Authors of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) should be taken into account.

• In studies that require ethics committee permission, information about the permission (name of the committee, date and number) should be included in the method section and also on the first/last page of the article. In case reports, information about signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the article.

• It is necessary to comply with the copyright regulations for the intellectual and artistic works used.

The process of documents and information requested for studies that require ethics committee approval will be mandatory for publications starting in 2020. It is not possible to publish articles that require ethical committee approval due to their nature.

The above-mentioned issues are not valid for articles published in 2019 and before. Ethics committee permission documents are not required for these articles.