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.
IJSM’s Current Policies on Generative AI
When a generative AI model is used in the drafting of a manuscript for an IJSM publication, the use of AI must be disclosed in the methods section and cited. AI cannot be named as an author on an IJSM scholarly publication.
When AI is cited in an IJSM scholarly publication, the author must employ the software citation template, which includes specifying in the methods section how, when, and to what extent AI was used.
IJSM follows APA and COPE recommendations on issues related to AI.
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.
September 4, 2025
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