Author Responsibilities

Authors must meet the authorship criteria recommended by the ICMJE - Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

The ICMJE recommends that authors meet the following four conditions:

1. Having made a significant contribution to the design of the study or to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data for the study;
2. Having drafted the manuscript or conducted critical reviews of significant conceptual content;
3. Having reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript prior to publication;
4. Accepting responsibility for all aspects of the study to ensure that any questions regarding the validity and accuracy of any part of the study have been properly investigated and resolved.

In addition to taking responsibility for the portions of the study to which they contributed, an author should be able to identify which portions of the study other authors are responsible for. Furthermore, each author should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of others. Acknowledgements may be given in the relevant section of the manuscript to individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but whose contributions are known.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the ICMJE. Randomized studies and clinical research should comply with CONSORT, observational studies with STROBE, diagnostic value studies with STARD, systematic reviews and meta-analyses with PRISMA, experimental animal studies with ARRIVE, behavioral and public health studies with TREND, case reports with CARE, and qualitative research with SRQR guidelines.

Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal's online manuscript submission system. Manuscripts submitted through other channels will not be considered. Submitted manuscripts will first undergo a technical review to ensure compliance with the journal's writing guidelines. Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal's writing guidelines will be returned to the corresponding author with a request for technical corrections.

Title Page

The title page should be prepared separately from the main text. The Title Page Template "📝 Title Page Template.docx " should be used for the title page. This page should include the following:

• Manuscript title and a short title not exceeding 50 characters
• Authors' names, titles, institutions, and ORCID numbers
• Corresponding author's name, address, telephone number (including mobile), and e-mail address
• Declarations:
  • Clinical trial registration (if applicable)
  • Acknowledgments
  • Funding: Example of statement to be used when there is no funding: “No funding was received for conducting this study.”
  • Conflicting interests: Example of statement to be used when authors have nothing to declare: “The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.”
  • Ethics approval: When reporting a study that involved human participants, their data or biological material, authors should include a statement that confirms that the study was approved by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee).
  • Informed consent: Sample statement for consent to participate: “Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
  • Author contributions: Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….
• Word count (excluding abstract, tables, figures, and references)
• Number of tables
• Number of figures

Disclosure Form

The Disclosure Form “📝 Disclosure Form.docx ” completed by the corresponding author must be uploaded to the manuscript system during the initial submission.

Copyright Transfer Form

The Copyright Form “📄 Copyright Form.pdf ,” signed by all authors must be uploaded to the online manuscript system during the initial submission.

Similarity Report

When uploading a manuscript to the system, a similarity report must also be uploaded by the responsible author. Studies with a similarity rate above 25% will be returned. The intihal.net program should be used for the similarity report.

Main Text

The main text uploaded to the manuscript review system for peer review should begin with the title of the manuscript but should not include the names and addresses of the author(s). The names of the institution/organization where the research was conducted should not be included. Depending on the type of manuscript, the main text should include the following headings in order:

• Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Limitations (if any)
• Conclusion and Recommendations
• References

The entire manuscript should be written in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1.5 line spacing. Paragraphs should not be indented. Main headings (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations) should be written in 12-point, bold, and capital letters. Subheadings should also be written in 12-point, bold letters, with only the first letter capitalized. Title numbers should not be used. Figures and tables should be cited where they are referenced in the text.

The manuscript should avoid non-standard or uncommon abbreviations. The International System of Units (SI) should be preferred when using abbreviations, and they should be defined the first time they are mentioned.

All pages of the manuscript should be numbered. The main text file, including the reference list, should not exceed 20 pages. Content limits for different manuscript types are shown below:

*Content limits may vary depending on the type of research, and content exceeding these limits may be accepted by the editorial board.
 

Abstract

For original research, meta-analysis, and systematic review studies, the abstract should be 200-250 words and structured. Literature references should be avoided, and abbreviations should not be used. The abstract should be written in 12-point Times New Roman font. Structured abstracts should include the subheadings “Aim”, “Methods”, “Results”, and “Conclusion”. Paragraphs should not be indented. Case reports and review articles should not include subheadings in their abstract sections.

Keywords

All manuscripts must be submitted with at least 3 and at most 6 keywords. Keywords should be placed immediately below the abstract. Keywords should be written alphabetically, separated by commas, and in all lowercase letters. Abbreviations should not be used as keywords. Keywords should be selected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database prepared by the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Tables and Figures

All tables and figures (graphs, photographs, etc.) should be cited where they are referenced in the text. Each table and figure should be numbered consecutively (e.g., Table 1, Figure 1). Table and figure titles should be short and informative, and written in lowercase. Table titles should be placed above the tables, and figure titles below the figures. The size of tables and figures should fit within the page (maximum 16x20 cm).

Text within tables should be at least 9 points. All horizontal and vertical lines should be included in tables. All symbols, abbreviations, or notes used in tables should be explained below the table in 9-point font. A period should be used instead of a comma as a decimal separator for numerical values in tables.

Figure files should be high resolution. Color or grayscale photographs should be in JPG format with a resolution of 300-600 dpi.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

The use of artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted tools (such as language models, image generators, or data analysis software) is permitted only as a supportive aid during manuscript preparation. AI tools cannot be listed as authors and do not meet authorship criteria. Authors are fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, and ethical compliance of all content, including text, data, analyses, figures, and references generated or assisted by AI tools. Authors must clearly disclose the use of AI tools in the manuscript, specifying the tool name and its purpose (e.g., language editing, data visualization). The use of AI tools to generate or manipulate research data, images, or results in a misleading manner is considered unethical and may result in rejection or retraction, in accordance with publication ethics guidelines.

An example statement: “During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [name of tool / service] in order to [reason]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.”

References

In-text citation and bibliography writing should follow the American Psychological Associaton (7. Baskı) writing guidelines. The list of references should be given alphabetically at the end of the manuscript.

Revisions

Authors should prepare and upload three separate files when submitting revisions to the manuscript.

1. The file containing the authors' detailed responses to the reviewers' comments (Response to Reviewers)
2. The main text file showing the changes made (Revised Manuscript): It is recommended to use the "Track Changes" feature in Microsoft Word. Alternatively, the changes can be highlighted and the relevant explanation can be written in the "Add Explanation" section. It is important not to use the author's name or an identifying computer name when making revisions.
3. The clean file from which the highlighted revision information has been removed after all changes have been completed (Clean Manuscript After Revision)