ETHICAL POLICY

If you encounter an unethical situation or content in the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences, please report it to ijnls@yahoo.com, ugurcakilcioglu@munzur.edu.tr 

Effective studies are studies that embody and support the scientific method. All stakeholders (writers, publishers, referees, and editors) at this point must comply with the standards for ethical principles. Within the framework of the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences publication, all stakeholders are expected to carry out the following ethical responsibilities.

1. The International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences follows the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, 

 2. Refereed articles are studies that require scientific methods and they provide objectivity. All components of the publication process (publisher, editors, authors, reviewers, and readers) should obey ethical rules for scientific production. Within this context, the policies of ‘publication ethics’ and 'open  access’ also require all components of the publication process to obey the ethical principles, in the direction of guides and policies of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.The authors are expected to fulfill the criteria proposed by McNutt et al., (2018)

3. The editorial and publication processes of the journal are managed according to the regulations of the SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS GUIDELINE.

General rules
1. The journal publishes original research articles, reviews, case reports, and short communications covering all areas of the natural and life sciences. Studies must not have been published in full or in part elsewhere before. Only abstracts not exceeding 300 words are accepted as exceptions.
2. All submitted manuscripts are scanned using the intihal.net software after the sources are extracted. Articles with a similarity rate below 20% are subject to peer review.
3. The article copyright transfer form must be signed by all authors.
4. The International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences employs a double-blind peer review system. During this process, the identities of both authors and reviewers are kept confidential. Authors are deemed to have agreed to submit their work in accordance with this policy.
5. The authors are responsible for the articles published in the journal.
6. Studies comparing products bearing trademarked names are not within the scope of the journal.
7. The brand names of materials or products used in the studies must not be mentioned. 8. In research based on animal experiments, a statement regarding ethics committee approval should be included in the “Materials and Methods” section.

Please take into consideration the recommendations for following ethical codes:
1.Authorship
2.Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism)
3.Data fabrication/data falsification
4.Duplicate submission
5.Corrections and retractions
6.Human and Animal Rights
7.Conflicts of interest / Competing interests
8.Intellectual property

The Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors

For Authors; as journal's policy, approval of research protocols by an ethics committee by international agreements “WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (last updated: October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil)” ,“Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011)” and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (2012)” is required for all research studies. If the submitted manuscript does not include ethics committee approval, it will not be processed for evaluation.
It is expected that the author (s) who submit the study to the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences complies with the following ethical responsibilities:

1. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original and unpublished elsewhere.
2. If the author(s) utilize other research, they must fully and accurately cite these sources.
3. Individuals who have not contributed intellectually to the study should not be cited as authors.
4. If there are circumstances in the manuscript that could lead to a conflict of interest, these should be clearly stated.
5. During the review process, the editor or scientific committee may request the raw data; in such cases, the author(s) should be prepared to provide the necessary information and data.
6. If the author(s) discover an error in a published, early access, or under review study, they must inform the editor or publisher and cooperate in the correction or retraction process.
7. The same manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for review at the same time.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of the Editors
The Editorial Board and Reviewers of the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences adhere to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the World Medical Association (WMA), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO).

Making efforts to meet the information needs of readers and authors,
Continuous development of the journal,
Carrying out processes to improve the quality of the works published in the journal,
Ensuring academic integrity,
Continuing business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
Show clarity and transparency in terms of publication on issues requiring correction and explanation.
Editors should make a positive or negative decision based on the importance of the work including the originality, validity, clarity of expression, and the goals and objectives of the journal.
Unless there is a serious problem for the studies that are suitable for publication, they should take the preliminary evaluation stage.
The editors should not ignore the positive reviews of the referees unless there is a serious problem with the work.
New editors should not change the decisions made by the previous editor (s) for the work unless there is a serious problem.
The editor must determine the referees by the subject of the study.
It is obliged to provide the information and guides that the referees will need during the evaluation phase.

Ethical Responsibilities of Referees
The process of evaluating the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences is carried out with the principle of double-sided blind refereeing. Reviewers cannot communicate directly with the authors, and the reviews and comments are shared through the journal management system. In this process, the review forms and the referee comments on the full texts are sent to the author (s) through the editor. In this context, the reviewers who evaluate the study for the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences are expected to have the following ethical responsibilities:

1. The reviewer must agree to review only papers within their area of expertise.
2. The review process must be conducted impartially and confidentiality must be maintained.
3. If the reviewer discovers a conflict of interest during the review, they must reject the review and inform the journal editor.
4. Comments should be solely about the content of the paper; the author's nationality, gender, religion, political views, or commercial interests should not influence the review.
5. Feedback should be presented in a constructive and courteous manner.
6. The reviewer must complete the review within the specified timeframe.
If you encounter an unethical situation or content in the International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences, please report it to ijnls@yahoo.com

Publication Policy and Peer review Policy

International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences (IJNLS) is an international peer-reviewed, open-access journal. The journal accepts English language manuscripts two times a year including in June and December regularly. The journal publishes original articles, reviews, and short communications that are prepared by the ethical guidelines. The review process will take in generally 5-20 days. Printed in Turkey (2017 to date).

International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences is an open-access, international, and double-blind peer-reviewed e-journal. IJNLS uses a double-blind review procedure, in which both the reviewer's and author's identities are concealed from each other throughout the process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Two positive decisions are required for a manuscript to be considered for publication. In case one of the referees reviews the articles positively and the other negatively, the Editorial Board examines the referees' reviews and may decide to send the article to a third referee to review or return it to its author. If any of the referees accept the article with revisions required, the Editorial Board makes the final decision and reserves the right to reject it in case revisions are not made. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles. The final decision will be made within 20 days at the latest.
- For the publication of articles, two positive reports are required.
-The accepted article is published as an early view in the journal.
- No correction can be made in a published article.

Advertising Policy

The IJNLS does not publish promotional articles, images, or advertisements from any institution or organization in exchange for payment.

Open Access Policy

The content in our journal is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license permits sharing and reuse with proper attribution, but limits commercial use.
Users have the following rights under this license:
1. Sharing: You may copy and distribute the work in different media and formats.
2. Adaptation: You may remix, transform, and add new content to the work.
These rights are subject to the following conditions:
3. Attribution: You must properly cite the original work and the journal, include the license link, and indicate any changes made. Meeting these conditions does not imply that the licensee endorses you or your use.
4. Non-Commercial Use: This content may not be used for commercial purposes.

Publisher Commitment
At IJNLS, we believe that an effective open access model is possible through a system that prioritizes user rights, copyright ownership, and transparent licensing. By adopting the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, we aim to ensure that research outputs are freely available to the public, while also protecting the intellectual rights of our authors and encouraging the dissemination of knowledge for non-commercial purposes.

Global Commitment
As a demonstration of its commitment to open access principles, IJNLS subscribes to the Budapest Open Access Initiative declaration, considered one of the foundational texts in the field. This initiative supports the vision of making scholarly research freely available online and reinforces our journal's commitment to this universal goal.