Current Issue

Volume: 11 Issue: 3, 8/29/24

Year: 2024

Articles

Research Article

6. Secondary metabolites of Santolina africana: chemical profiles and assessment of biological activities

The International Journal of Secondary Metabolite (IJSM) aims at the publication of articles related to secondary metabolites of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens). IJSM is an open-access, international peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly and electronically. The major goal of the journal is to improve the research culture and help spread knowledge rapidly in the academic world by providing a common academic platform in the scope of the journal. 

IJSM publishes 4 issues per year (March, June, September, and December) in English, and accepts manuscripts related to secondary metabolites of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens). IJSM also accepts studies on primary metabolites such as proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates and fats. Research areas covered in the journal are phytochemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, ethnopharmacology, biological and pharmacological activities (Antimicrobial activity, Antioxidant activity, Antiulcer activity, Anti-convulsant activity, Anti-anxiety activity, Antidiabetic activity, Anti-gout activity, Antiprotozoal activity, Anti-inflammatory activity, Antispasmodic activity, Antiparasitic activity, Anti-mutagenic activity, Anticholinesterase activity, Antidepressant activity, Hepatoprotective activity, Anti-anxiety activity, Anti-convulsant activity, Anti-spasmolytic activity, Anticancer activity). IJSM welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Authors are required to frame their research questions and discuss their results in terms of major questions in plant biology. Contribution is open to researchers of all nationalities. The following types of articles will be considered:


1. Research articles: Original research in various fields of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens) will be evaluated as research articles.

2. Research notes: These include articles such as preliminary notes on a study or manuscripts of new records on secondary metabolites and primary metabolites such as proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates and fats.

3. Reviews: Reviews of recent developments, improvements, discoveries, and ideas in various fields of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens).

4. Letters to the editor: These include opinions, comments relating to the publishing policy of the International Journal of Secondary Metabolite, news, letters, and suggestions. Letters are not to exceed one journal page.

DergiPark Guide

Guide for Peer Review System

International Journal of Secondary Metabolite (IJSM) has a fully online submission and online reviewing system. This system offers authors the option of tracking by online based review process of their manuscripts. All manuscripts must be submitted with online from the system by registering. During submission, you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The information below details the section headings that you should include in your manuscript and what information should be within each section.

DETERMINING THE SIMILARITY RATE OF THE ARTICLE
IJSM checks the similarity rate of the article in the article upload step. The similarity rate of your article is done automatically by using intihal.net provided by DergiPark during article upload. When the full text file is uploaded in step 3, it will be forwarded to intihal.net. Preparation of the report may take time. Therefore, an e-mail will be sent to you when the process is completed. In the last step, you can complete the article submission according to the final report or go back to step 3 and repeat the process. When you upload more than one file and receive similarity report, all reports will be forwarded to the editor. Click to get information about intihal.net.

EVALUATION
Technical Control
During the first check, journal administrators may return the articles for the following reasons:
• The manuscript is not prepared in the format provided on the journal’s website,
• The manuscript file is not the same as the manuscript template file given on the journal’s website,
• The order and format of the names of the authors in the manuscript are not consistent with those on the journal system,
• The number of references or pages exceed the specified limits,
• The authors did not perform the requested corrections or provide the necessary documents within the requested time,
• Similarity index (iThenticate result) is higher than the permitted threshold. There is no single number for the similarity percentage since each report is investigated in detail, but submissions exceeding 20% score are generally returned to authors. The resubmission of the same title without reducing the similarity score may cause a ban of the authors from the journal. For the similarity reports with more than 50% scores, the authors’ future submissions are always viewed with suspicion, and may not be considered for publication.

Scientific Evaluation
The peer review process is double blind, i.e. both authors and referees are kept anonymous. Manuscripts may be rejected without peer review by the editor-in-chief if they do not comply with the instructions for authors or if they are beyond the scope of the journal. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, i.e. after referee-recommended revisions are complete, the author will not be permitted to make changes that constitute departures from the manuscript that was accepted by the editor. Before publication, the galley proofs are always sent to the authors for corrections. Mistakes or omissions that occur due to some negligence on our part during final printing will be rectified in an errata section in a later issue. This does not include those errors left uncorrected by the author in the galley proof.

Plagiarism
The use of someone else’s ideas or words in their original form or slightly changed without a proper citation is considered plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Even if a citation is given, if quotation marks are not placed around words taken directly from other authors’ work, the author is still guilty of plagiarism. Reuse of the authors’ own previously published words, with or without a citation, is regarded as self-plagiarism. All manuscripts received are submitted to iThenticate®, a sophisticated plagiarism checking system, which compares the content of the manuscript with a vast database of web pages and academic publications. Manuscripts judged to be plagiarized or self-plagiarized, based on the iThenticate® report or any other source of information, will not be considered for publication. Open-access theses are considered as published works and they are included in the similarity checks.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Author information
Full names and email addresses of all co-authors on your manuscript.

Cover letter
A cover letter that includes the following information, as well as any additional information requested in the instructions for your specific article type:
• An explanation of why your manuscript should be published in IJSM
• An explanation of any issues relating to journal policies
• A declaration of any potential competing interests
• Confirmation that all authors have approved the manuscript for submission
• Confirmation that the content of the manuscript has not been published, or submitted for publication elsewhere (see our Duplicate publication policy)
• If you are submitting a manuscript to a particular special issue, please refer to its specific name in your covering letter

Peer reviewers
You may suggest potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. If you wish to do so, please provide institutional email addresses where possible, or information which will help the Editor to verify the identity of the reviewer (for example an ORCID or Scopus ID). Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in rejection of your manuscript and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.

Excluding peer reviewers
During submission you may enter details of anyone who you would prefer not to review your manuscript.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT
IJSM has a fully online submission and online reviewing system. This system offers authors the option of tracking by online based review process of their manuscripts. All manuscripts must be submitted with online from the system by registering.
When the articles are uploaded, a plagiarism report must be taken from the plagiarism program (Ithenticate, Turnitin etc.) and added to the IJSM system after uploaded article. Articles with a plagiarism rate of 20% or more will not be accepted.
For a study to be accepted for publication, approval of at least two referees is required. When referees ask certain changes within the study and if the author(s) disagree(s), s/he may withdraw the manuscript. Communication with referees will be carried out directly electronically and the coordination will be carried out by the Editor and/or subject editor.

MANUSCRIPT TYPES
Original research articles, review articles, and letters to the editor are welcome. The editor may invite survey reviews concerning recent developments in particular areas of interest. Please note that the journal no longer accepts submission of rapid communications and short communications. The editor-in-chief can change the manuscript type after manuscript submission.

Research Articles
A research article reports the results of original research and assesses its contribution to the body of knowledge in a given area with the relevant data and findings in an orderly, logical manner. Research articles should be no longer than 25 pages, should have an abstract of 250 words at most, should contain a limit of 40 references, and should have no more than 8 figures and tables combined.

Review Articles
A review article is written to summarize the recent developments, improvements, discoveries, and ideas in various subjects. Review articles should present an unbiased summary of the current understanding of the topic. Review articles should cover subjects that fall within the scope of the journal and are of active, current interest. Review articles should be no longer than 50 pages, should have an abstract of 250 words at most, should contain a limit of 100 references, and should have no more than 12 figures and tables combined. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively (1. Introduction, 2. Historical background, etc.), and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc. All reviews should contain an introduction section and a conclusion section, with relevant section headings in between. The introduction should explain the importance of the subject, the text should be comprehensive and detailed, and the references should be exhaustive. Review articles should be written with the support of original published studies of the author(s).

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the editor reflect the opinions of other researchers on articles in previously published issues of the same journal. Typically, letters address the contents of an original journal article for one or more of the following reasons: to identify errors and make a correction, provide an alternate theory, provide additional information, offer additional evidence, or provide a counterpoint. The letter should be brief and concise. Letters to the editor should not exceed a single printed page (approximately 600 words and 4-5 references). Letters are always written to the editor; they are never addressed to the authors of the article in question. While writing a letter, one should avoid assuming a personal and biased attitude or the use of aggressive language. All suggestions should be supported by scientific data. General comments not reinforced by logical arguments are not acceptable (e.g., “I think that this is a very important article” or “I think that this article is worthless”). The writer should not repeat the original article at length in his/her letter. The letter authors’ names and affiliations should be written clearly at the top of the letter, and the title of the article about which the letter is written should be clearly stated in the introduction of the letter.

MANUSCRIPT CONTENT
All research articles should be divided into clearly defined and numbered sections as appropriate. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively (1. Introduction, 2. Materials and methods, etc.) and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc.
You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review (see a template on https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ijsm/page/3708 for submission manuscript).

Title page
The title page should:
• present a title that includes, if appropriate, the study design
• list the full names and institutional addresses for all authors. I
• f a collaboration group should be listed as an author, please list the Group name as an author.
• indicate the corresponding author
• The title of the article should begin with capital letter; the following words will not be capitilized except proper names.

Abstract
The abstract should be a total of about 250 words maximum. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts, but without headings: 1) Background: Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study; 2) Methods: Describe briefly the main methods or treatments applied. 3) Results: Summarize the article's main findings; and 4) Conclusion: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article: it must not contain results which are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

In-text Citation
If more than one reference is to be given to the same sentence, the references should be given in a chronological order (from past to present).

Introduction
The introduction should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important. It should define the purpose of the work and its significance, including specific hypotheses being tested. The current state of the research field should be reviewed carefully and key publications cited. Please highlight controversial and diverging hypotheses when necessary. Finally, briefly mention the main aim of the work and highlight the main conclusions. Keep the introduction comprehensible to scientists working outside the topic of the paper.

Materials and Methods
The methods section should include:
• the aim, design and setting of the study
• the characteristics of participants or description of materials
• a clear description of all processes, interventions and comparisons. Generic names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses
• the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate

Results
This should include the findings of the study including, if appropriate, results of statistical analysis which must be included either in the text or as tables and figures.

Discussion
For research articles this section should discuss the implications of the findings in context of existing research and highlight limitations of the study. For study protocols and methodology manuscripts this section should include a discussion of any practical or operational issues involved in performing the study and any issues not covered in other sections.

Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions and provide an explanation of the importance and relevance of the study to the field.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the References. If the work has been presented at a conference or scholarly meeting, it should be mentioned here.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests and Ethics
The authors declare no conflict of interest. This research study complies with research and publishing ethics. The scientific and legal responsibility for manuscripts published in IJSM belongs to the author(s). Ethics Committee Approval and its number should be given by stating the institution name which gave the ethical approval.

Authors'  Contributions
The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.

Orcid
The author (s) must provide their ORCID numbers.

References
References should be listed in alphabetical order according to the order of occurrence in the text and separately at the end of the article. IJSM has been using APA7 Reference Styles. Please read the APA7 Reference Style files for details. For detailed information, check out the recently published articles in IJSM.
References should be described as follows, listed in letter order according to APA style and depending on the type of work:

Journal Articles:
Author, A. A. (Date of Publication). Title of article: Capital letter to start subtitle. Journal title, Volume(issue), page range. https://doi.org/#######

Please do not use acronyms in journal names. E.g. Second Language Acquisition Journal; not SLA Journal.

Book format:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter to start subtitle. Publisher.

Edition number? If the edition is known, include it in the reference - but not the first edition. APA Style Blog: Citing an Edition of a Book in APA Style

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter to start subtitle (edition# ed.). Publisher.

Conference Proceedings:
Author 1 Surname, A. (Names’ first capital letter), Author 2 Surname, B. (Names’ first capital letter). (Year). Title of Presentation. In Title of the Collected Work (if available), Proceedings of the Name of the Conference, Location of Conference, Country, Date of Conference; Editor 1, Editor 2, Eds. (if available); Publisher: City, Country, Year (if available); Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).

Thesis:
Citing a dissertation published elsewhere:
Author last name, Initials. (Year). Dissertation title [Type of dissertation/thesis, University Name]. Archive Name. URL

Citing an unpublished dissertation in APA Style:

Author last name, Initials. (Year). Dissertation title [Unpublished type of dissertation/thesis]. University Name.

Websites:

Unlike published works, websites may change over time or disappear, so we encourage you to create an archive of the cited website using a service such as WebCite. Please do not use like .net, or .com sites and use .edu, .org or websites accepted by institutions. Archived websites should be cited using the link provided as follows:


Title of Site. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).

Examples

Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M., Babaç, M.T. (2012). Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi - Damarlı Bitkiler. Nezahat Gökyiğit Vakfı Yayınları, İstanbul.

Topal, Y. (2013). Investigation of Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Effects of Phenolic Compounds of Some Species of Alchemilla L. (Rosaceae) genus [Master Thesis]. Bingöl University.

Wong, C.C., Li, H.B., Cheng, K.W., Chen, F. (2006). A Systematic Survey of Antioxidant Activity of 30 Chinese Medicinal Plants Using the Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power Assay. Food Chem., 97, 705-711. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2005.05.049


Preparing Tables
When preparing tables, please follow the formatting instructions below.
• Tables should be numbered and cited in the text in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, Table 2 etc.).
• Tables less than one A4 or Letter page in length can be placed in the appropriate location within the manuscript.
• Tables larger than one A4 or Letter page in length can be placed at the end of the document text file. Please cite and indicate where the table should appear at the relevant location in the text file so that the table can be added to the correct place during production.
• Larger datasets or tables too wide for A4 or Letter landscape page can be uploaded as additional files. Please see [below] for more information.
• Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls ) or comma-separated values (.csv). Please use the standard file extensions.
• Table titles (max 15 words) should be included above the table, and legends (max 300 words) should be included underneath the table.
• Tables should not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files but should be formatted using ‘Table object’ function in your word processing program.
• Color and shading may not be used. Parts of the table can be highlighted using superscript, numbering, lettering, symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend.
• Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values.
If you have any questions or are experiencing a problem with tables, please contact the IJSM team at ijsm.info@gmail.com.


Preparing Figures
When preparing figures, please follow the formatting instructions below.
• Figures should be numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the text, and uploaded in this order. Multi-panel figures (those with parts a, b, c, d etc.) should be submitted as a single composite file that contains all parts of the figure.
• Figures should be uploaded in the correct orientation.
• Figure titles (max 15 words) and legends (max 300 words) should be provided in the main manuscript, not in the graphic file.
• Figure keys should be incorporated into the graphic, not into the legend of the figure.
• Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space surrounding the illustration. Cropping figures improves accuracy when placing the figure in combination with other elements when the accepted manuscript is prepared for publication on our site. For more information on individual figure file formats, see our detailed instructions.
• Individual figure files should not exceed 10 MB. If a suitable format is chosen, this file size is adequate for extremely high-quality figures.
• Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures (or tables) that have previously been published elsewhere. For all figures to be open access, authors must have permission from the rights holder if they wish to include images that have been published elsewhere in non-open access journals. Permission should be indicated in the figure legend, and the original source included in the reference list.

Documents To Download

Cover LetterArticle Template

File Formats
The file format must be Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX) for the main manuscript document.

PUBLICATION POLICY

International Journal of Secondary Metabolite (IJSM) is an open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal published electronically and quarterly. The journal aims to improve the research culture and help knowledge spread rapidly in the academic world by providing a common academic platform. All responsibility for the scientific content and statements in an article published in the journal belongs to the authors.

IJSM is available online for free at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ijsm. All manuscripts published in the journal are licensed under CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons license).

IJSM follows strict ethical standards for publication to ensure high-quality scientific publications and trust in research findings. Our publication ethics policy is mainly based on the "Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

IJSM also adheres to the "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing" jointly published by COPE, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

Ethical standards summarized below provide guidelines for editors, reviewers, and authors who contribute to IJSM. For more detailed information on ethical issues, please see the COPE's guidelines.

• IJSM invites the submission of manuscripts that fulfil the broad requirements of relevance and scholarly excellence. Authors must formulate their research questions and present their findings in terms of key plant biology issues.

• Every year, the IJSM publishes four issues (March, June, September, and December).

• Articles must have an English title, an abstract (at least 170 words), keywords (at least three concepts), and an APA-style bibliography.

• The goal of the IJSM is to offer an open-access academic platform for scholars studying secondary metabolites in plants and allied organisms.

• Research articles, review articles, theoretical articles, letters to the editor, case studies, and short communications are all published in the IJSM.

• Authors are accountable for their published articles' scientific, intellectual, and stylistic content.

• The IJSM has the right to make changes and to publish or reject articles.

• IJSM uses a double-sided blind review system. Submissions that are deemed eligible are forwarded to two or three referees who operate in related fields. The referees' names are kept private, and the referee reports are archived. If one of the referee reports is favourable and the other is critical, the article may be sent to a third referee for further review, or the Editorial Board may come to a decision depending on the three reports' nature. The authors are accountable for amending their articles in light of the referees' and Editorial Board's comments and suggestions. If they feel uncomfortable with any points, they may object by stating their reasoning properly.

• The publication language of the journal is English.

• A similarity report (not exceeding 20) is requested from the publications submitted to the journal,

• IJSM is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal (CC BY).

• The citation style in the article should be APA 7. A bibliography must be included at the end of the article.


ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

We expect all authors to read and understand our publication policy before submitting to our journal. This is by our commitment to the prevention of ethical misconduct, which we recognize to be a growing problem in academic and professional publications. It is important to note that most incidents of plagiarism, redundant publication, copyright infringement or similar occur because of a lack of understanding, and not through fraudulent intent. Our policy is one of prevention and not persecution. If you have any questions, please contact the editorial office.

Submission of a manuscript to IJSM implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

Ethics approval

Human participants, human material, or human data must have been used in conformity with the Declaration of Helsinki, and an appropriate ethics committee must have authorized the study. All articles reporting such research must include a statement clarifying this, including the name of the ethical commission and, when applicable, the reference number, after the article. If a study has been excluded from the need for ethics approval, this should be noted in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). On request, additional material and documentation should be made accessible to the Editor. If the Editor believes the research was conducted outside of an appropriate ethical context, the manuscript may be rejected. In exceptional cases, the Editor may contact the ethics committee for further information.

Retrospective ethics approval

If an ethics committee has not approved a study before it begins, retrospective ethics approval is usually impossible to get, and the article may not be considered for peer review. In such circumstances, the Editor has the final say on whether to proceed to peer review.


RESEARCH INVOLVING PLANTS

Experimental research and field studies on plants (cultivated or wild), as well as plant material collecting, must adhere to relevant institutional, national, and international norms and legislation. A statement specifying the required authorization and/or licenses for the extraction of plant or seed specimens should be included in manuscripts. The IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora are recommended for writers to follow.

Voucher specimens for all wild plants reported in a manuscript must be stored in a public seed bank or other public repository that allows access to deposited material to encourage reproducibility. The manuscript must include information about the voucher specimen and who identified it.


RESEARCH INVOLVING ANIMALS

Experimental study on vertebrates or any other controlled invertebrates must adhere to institutional, national, or international regulations, and should have been licensed by a relevant ethics council if applicable. The Basel Declaration lays out basic principles to follow while implementing animal research, and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) also published ethical guidelines.

The manuscript must include a statement notifying conformity regulations (e.g., the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the United Kingdom and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or ethical approval (along with the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where applicable). If a study has been exempted from the need for ethics approval, this should be noted in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons for the exemption). The Editor will consider animal welfare issues and maintain the right to turn down a manuscript if the research contains techniques that are not in accordance with commonly accepted animal research standards.

Field studies and other non-experimental animal research must follow institutional, national, or international criteria, and should have been reviewed and authorized by an appropriate ethical committee where possible. The manuscript must include a declaration detailing compliance with relevant regulations and/or proper permits or licenses. The IUCN - Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora are recommended for writers to follow.


COMPETING INTERESTS

All competing interests regarding an author's work must be declared to the IJSM. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The Editor may ask for further information relating to competing interests.

Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

What constitutes a competing interest?

Financial or non-financial competing interests may exist. When the authors' discussion of the findings or dissemination of knowledge is influenced by, or believed to be affected by their personal or financial relationship with other individuals or organizations, there is a competing interest. Authors should declare not just any financial conflicting interests, but also any non-financial competing interests that could cause humiliation if they became known after the manuscript was published.

Financial competing interests

Among the competing financial interests, there are (but are not limited to):

• Getting reimbursements, fees, funds, or a salary from an organization that stands to profit or lose money by the manuscript's publication, now or in the future.

• Owning stock or shares in an organization that stands to profit or lose money as a result of the manuscript's publication, either now or in the future.

• Having, or currently filing for, patents related to the manuscript's content.

• Getting reimbursements, fees, funds, or a salary from a company that owns or has filed for patents related to the manuscript's content.

Non-financial competing interests

Political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests are examples of non-financial competing interests. After reading these criteria, if you are uncertain as to whether you have a competing interest, please contact ijsm.editor@gmail.com


DUPLICATE PUBLICATION

The manuscript, or substantial portions of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal when it is submitted to IJSM. We need transparency from authors in any scenario where there is the possibility of overlap or duplication. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to the Editor’s and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editor. IJSM reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis. In essence, the manuscript should not have been previously published in any journal or in any other form that can be cited.

All instances of publication malpractice are taken seriously by the IJSM. Any suspected cases of covert duplicate manuscript submission will be dealt with in accordance with the COPE rules, and the Editor may notify the authors' institution (see Misconduct policy for more information). The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) policies against overlapping publications are adopted by the IJSM.


EDITORS' RESPONSIBILITIES

Publication decisions

The editor is in charge of determining which of the submitted papers will be published in the journal. The editor will consider manuscripts regardless of the writers' color, gender, sexual preference, religious beliefs, ethnicity, nationality, or political ideology. The significance, novelty, and transparency of the manuscript, as well as the study's validity and relevance to the journal's scope, will be considered in making the decision. Current constitutional standards for libel, copyright laws, and plagiarism should be taken into account as well.

Confidentiality

Other than the corresponding author, reviewers, possible reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate, the editor and any editorial staff must not reveal details about a submitted manuscript to anyone.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Without the author's clear written authorization, the editor or members of the editorial board will not utilize unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research objectives.


PEER REVIEW

All research articles and other article categories, published in IJSM, are subjected to rigorous peer review. This usually involves a review by two independent peer reviewers.

Peer review policy

The editor evaluates all submissions to the IJSM journal and determines whether they are acceptable for peer review. In cases when the editor is on the author list or has a conflicting interest in a submission, another member of the Editorial Board will be appointed to oversee peer review. Submissions that the Handling Editor believes are worthy of consideration are sent to independent scientists for peer review. The reviewers' reports will be forwarded to the authors simultaneously with the editorial decision on their manuscript. Authors should be aware that even if one reviewer's assessment is good, another reviewer's objections may fundamentally undermine the study and lead to the manuscript being rejected.

Contribution to editorial decisions

The peer-reviewing process helps the editor and editorial board make editorial judgments, and it can also help the author improve their manuscript.

Promptness

Any referee feeling inadequate to examine the research described in a paper or understanding that prompt review will be impossible should inform the editor and pull back from the review process.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts submitted to IJSM will be treated with confidentiality by the editors. COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers are followed by IJSM. Reviewers must therefore maintain the peer review process's confidentiality and not disclose information about a manuscript or its review, either during or after the peer review process, beyond what the journal has released. Reviewers should first get permission from the journal before involving a colleague in the review process. When the report is returned, the Editor should be notified of any people who contributed to the review process.

Except in circumstances of suspected misbehaviour, the IJSM will not share manuscripts with third parties.

Acknowledgement of sources

Reviewers should look for instances where relevant published work cited in the manuscript is not cited in the reference section. They should specify if insights or findings borrowed from other publications are accompanied by a reference to the original source. Any significant resemblance or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published material about which the reviewers have personal information will be reported to the editor.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Confidential information or ideas received through peer review must be kept private and not exploited for personal gain. Reviewers should not examine manuscripts in which they have competing, collaborating, or other relationships or affiliations with any of the authors, companies, or institutions involved in the articles.


AUTHORS' DUTIES

Reporting standards

Authors of original research papers should give an accurate overview of the work done as well as a critical analysis of its importance. The paper should appropriately portray the underlying data. A paper should include adequate information and references to allow others to duplicate the work. False or willfully inaccurate statements are unethical and must be avoided at all costs.

Data access and retention

Authors may be required to submit their study's raw data along with their publication for editorial review, and they should be willing to make the data publicly available if possible. In any case, authors should make such data accessible to other qualified professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably through an organisational or subject-based data repository or other database servers), assuming that the participants' confidentiality can be guarded and that constitutional rights to proprietary data do not inhibit their release.

Originality, plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources

All papers submitted to the International Journal of Secondary Metabolite (IJSM) should fulfil the expectations regarding the authenticity of the paper. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed. There is a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) in our journal. Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism before, during, and after publication, and if found they will be rejected at any stage. After the review process has been completed and the manuscript has been accepted as a possible publication in IJSM, authors will be asked to submit a similarity report in PDF format by using plagiarism software which determines the similarity rates such as iThenticate/Academic Paradigms, LLC-Check for Plagiarism/Grammarly-Plagiarism Checker. The Plagiarism-Similarity report must be in a PDF format for the entire text including tables, and figures (excluding references). The plagiarism rate of the accepted manuscript must not exceed the rate of 20%.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

Papers that describe substantially the same study should not be published in more than one publication in general. Submitting the same work to many journals is unethical and improper publication behaviour. Manuscripts that have been previously published as copyrighted content are not acceptable for submission. Furthermore, papers that are currently being reviewed by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted journals. 

Authorship of the paper

Only individuals who made a major contribution to the study's concept, organization, implementation, or analysis should be listed as authors. Co-authors can be anyone who has made a substantial contribution. The corresponding author assures that the author list includes all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved individuals. The corresponding author will also ensure that all co-authors have signed off on the final version of the work and approved its publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

All authors should provide a declaration revealing any financial or other substantial conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing their manuscript's results or interpretation. All kinds of funding for the project should be made public.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author identifies a serious error or inconsistency in his or her own published work, it is the author's responsibility to contact the journal editor or publisher as soon as possible and to collaborate with the editor in having the manuscript withdrawn or updated in the form of an erratum.


SEX AND GENDER POLICY

IJSM encourage disaggregation of data by sex as a matter of routine and inclusion of gender analysis, when appropriate. Authors are strongly recommended to use the terms sex (for reporting biological factors) and gender (for reporting identity, psychosocial, or cultural factors) correctly. Wherever possible, the sex and/or gender of the study participants should be reported and the methods used to determine sex and/or gender should be explained. Regardless of whether the result is favourable or not, routine sex- and gender-separated data should be presented at the appropriate instances. In addition to data limitations, the potential implications of sex and gender on study results/analyses should be discussed.

Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines*

Section
Recommendation
Title and Abstract
If only one sex is included in the study, or if the results of the study are to be applied to only one sex and gender, the title as well as the abstract should specify the sex of animals or any cells, tissues, and other material derived from these, and the sex/gender of human participants.
Introduction
Authors should report, where relevant, whether sex and/or gender differences may be expected.
Methods
Authors should report how sex and gender were taken into account in the design of the study, whether they ensured adequate representation of males and females, and justify the reasons for any exclusion of males or females.
Results
Where appropriate, data should be routinely presented and disaggregated by sex and gender-based analyses should be reported regardless of positive or negative outcomes. In clinical trials, data on withdrawals and dropouts should also be reported disaggregated by sex.
Discussion
The potential implications of sex and gender on the study results/analyses should be discussed. If a gender analysis was not conducted; the rationale should be explained. Authors should further discuss the implications of the lack of such analysis on the interpretation of the results.

*Heidari S. et al. Sex and Gender Equity in Research: rationale for the SAGER guidelines and recommended use. Res Integr Peer Rev. 2016;1:2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6

MISCONDUCT

All claims of potential misbehaviour are taken seriously by the IJSM. The IJSM will adopt the COPE principles for dealing with allegations of misconduct.

It may be required for the Editor to share manuscripts with third parties in cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, such as the author(s)' institution(s) and ethics committee (s).

A notice of alleged ethical standards violations in the peer review system may be put in the bibliographic record of the author and article.

Research misconduct

All human research (including human data and human material) and animals must follow a set of ethical guidelines. The Editor may decline a manuscript and notify third parties, such as the author(s)' institution(s) and ethics committee, if there is a suspicion that research was conducted outside of an adequate ethical framework (s).

Publications may be withdrawn in circumstances of confirmed research misconduct regarding published articles, or when the scientific credibility of the article is seriously harmed.

Data falsification and fabrication

Manipulation of research data with the goal of creating a false impression is referred to as data falsification. Image manipulation, deleting anomalies or "bothersome" results, modifying, inserting, or deleting data points, and so on are all examples. The term "data fabrication" refers to the fakery of study findings.

Any queries about data quality that arise during or after peer review will be directed to the Editor. The Editor may ask the author(s) for (anonymized) underlying study data for examination or confirmation. The manuscript may be refused or, in the instance of a published article, withdrawn if the original data cannot be produced. Any suspected misbehaviour will be reported to the institution(s) of the author(s).

Publication misconduct

IJSM will follow the COPE guidelines outlining how to deal with cases of potential publication misconduct.


CORRECTIONS and RETRACTIONS

Corrections or retractions of works published in IJSM may be essential on rare occasions in order to maintain the academic record's integrity.

Corrections or retractions of published articles shall be made by publishing a bi-directionally linked Correction or Retraction note to the original article. The note will detail any changes made to the original article. The original article will stay in the public domain, and the Correction or Retraction that follows will be widely indexed. If anything is found to infringe on intellectual property rights or to be defamatory, we may be forced to delete it from our site and archive sites.

Authors, readers, or organizations who become cognizant of inaccuracies or ethical issues in a published paper should notify the journal directly using the contact information provided on the journal's website. The Editors will review all reports, and further expert opinions may be asked before deciding on the best course of action.

Corrections

Amendments to published articles that impact the interpretation and conclusion of the article but do not completely invalidate it will be rectified at the Editors' discretion by publishing a Correction that is indexed and bidirectionally connected to the original article.

Retractions

Occasionally, when an article's interpretation or conclusion is seriously questioned, it may be essential to retract published papers. In such instances, the IJSM will adhere to the COPE guidelines. Retraction notices are indexed and connected to the original article bidirectionally. The title is altered to include the prefix "Retracted article:" and the original article is watermarked as retracted.

Removal of published content

IJSM retains the authority to withdraw an article from its web platforms in exceptional situations. Such measures may be taken if I IJSM has been informed that content is false and misleading, infringes on a third party's intellectual property right, privacy rights, or other constitutional right, or is otherwise illegal; (ii) a court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, mandating the removal of such content; or (iii) content poses an immediate and severe risk to health if operated. The removal may be temporary or permanent. Bibliographic metadata (for example, title and authors) will be kept, along with a statement clarifying why the item was removed.


APPEALS and COMPLAINTS

Appeal against a rejection

If you would like the Editor or the Editorial Board to review a manuscript rejection, you should first get in touch with the Editor via the guidelines on the journal's website. These are termed as appeals, and they must take a backseat compared to the normal workload, according to policy. This implies that appeal judgments are frequently delayed for many weeks. Each manuscript only allows for one appeal. The Editor or the Editorial Board Member in charge of the paper shall make the final judgment on appeals. An appeal against a manuscript rejection decision will generally be accepted only if:

• If the authors can show that during the review, a referee or the Editors made an error influencing the final judgment

• or if important supplementary data can be given

• or if a persuasive case of bias in the process can be proven

Authors who want to appeal an editorial decision should contact the journal editorial office and send a proper letter of appeal that includes the manuscript reference number in the email subject line and the appeal letter.

Authors will be provided advice on how to proceed if their appeals are approved. If the Editor believes that an appeal is worthy of further consideration, the Editor may send the authors' reply as well as the revised manuscript out for peer review.

Complaints

Complaints about our procedures or publication ethics will be addressed first to the journal's editor. If you have a complaint about the Editor, please contact the editing and publication management team at ikara@pau.edu.tr

When it comes to complaints about processes, such as the length of time it takes for a review to be completed, the Editor will investigate and react to the complainant's worries. This information will be shared with key stakeholders to foster improvements in processes and procedures.

The Editor shall follow COPE guidelines for complaints concerning publishing ethics or scientific content. On difficult or sophisticated matters, the Editor may seek advice from the Editorial Board. The Editor then decides on a plan of action and informs the complainant of his or her decision.

If the complainant is still unhappy with how their complaint was handled, it will be reported to the journal's editorial and publishing management staff for further inquiry. If no publication contact is provided, send the query to ikara@pau.edu.tr


OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT

The International Journal of Secondary Metabolite (IJSM) adheres to the Budapest Open Access Initiative and defines its Open Access policy according to the definition developed in the original BOAI:

By “open access” to [peer-reviewed research literature], we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited. [See, http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai-10-recommendations]

IJSM views open access to academic publications and research as an immutable part of academic endeavour. The publisher recognizes the essence of public good provided by the journal and hence accepts its responsibility as a public service to academic and intellectual betterment.

The publisher is committed to open access to all academic endeavours and as such, accepts its duty to make published content permanently available and freely accessible by all sections of the worldwide academic community. The publisher does not charge any pecuniary fees for the processing, submission, and publication of manuscripts. The publisher commits to free and universal access to its published content in perpetuity.

The publisher via its host-providing institution Dergipark uses Lockss for the archiving and preservation of its online content.

All articles published on IJSM are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license and the journal does not require a transfer of copyright.


COPYRIGHT

In addition to being available on IJSM, authors are encouraged to post any version of their manuscript in their institutional repositories or on their websites at any stage of the pre- and post-publication process. As an open-access journal, we do not require authors to transfer copyright to IJSM to publish in the journal. Authors retain full control of their intellectual property and we use the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license for all works published in the journal. This means that anyone is free to share this material in any medium or format and that anyone can remix, transform, and build upon the content, as long as they provide attribution to the content creator.


ARCHIVING POLICY

IJSM is accessed via the Dergipark platform which utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.


REFERENCES

Our publication ethics and publication misconduct statement is mainly based on the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011). Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf


PUBLICATION LANGUAGE

International Journal of Secondary Metabolite publishes articles written only in English.


PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

The International Journal of Secondary Metabolite is published "online" four times a year (quarterly) in March, June, September and December. If the Editorial Board finds it appropriate, a Special Issue can also be published.


International Journal of Secondary Metabolite does not charge a fee under any procedure for submitting or publishing articles.

International Journal of Secondary Metabolite

e-ISSN: 2148-6905