Important Note: Citations, references and formal elements will be made according to the journal's rules below. For other matters not included in the writing rules, APA 7 will be taken into account.

The authors to submit their papers in Journal of Communication Theory and Research journal are first strictly required to use the template file, the link of which is given in this announcement section. The papers which are not transformed into the template file and do not follow the format will not be taken into account for the editorial process. The manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word format. Authors must use the bibliographic and formatting standards set out by Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, 2010.

Research articles sent to the Journal should not exceed 10.000 words including Bibliography (excluding the Extended Abstract).  Articles should include both Turkish and English abstracts and each of them should not exceed 250 words (The maximum number of words allowed for the total of English and Turkish abstracts is 500). Each Articles should contain both Turkish (Öz) and English (Abstract) summaries with 5 keywords.

All studies must include an Extended Abstract of 750-1,000 words. The articles without Extended Abstract will not be taken into account for the editorial process. The Extended Abstract should contain the purpose, scope, theoretical framework, methodology, findings, and conclusions of the article and represent the whole content of the article. In studies written in Turkish, the Extended Abstract must be in English, and in studies written in English, the Extended Abstract must be in Turkish.

Each article should include a title and abstract, and keywords both in Turkish and English. Introduction, Review of Literature, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusion, References, and Extended Abstract are expected to be written as in the listed order.

Page Layout: The margins of the page to be used in A4 portrait format should be set as follows.

The margin text from the left and right are 3 cm, the margin text from the top is 4 cm, and from the bottom is 3 cm. The manuscript is written in Microsoft Word, single space, Times New Roman 12 pt with 1 cm indention at each paragraph. The block quotations are to be Times New Roman 10 pt with 1 cm indention from the left. If any, the footnote part is to be Times New Roman, 9 pt. Tables and Figures are presented Times New Roman 10 pt and cited in the manuscript before appeared.

Word Limits: Research articles sent to the Journal should not exceed 10.000 words in length including Bibliography (excluding the Extended Abstract). Manuscripts other than research articles are advised not to exceed 2.000 words. Manuscripts should include both Turkish and English abstracts and abstracts should not exceed 500 words in total.

Keywords: Each manuscript should contain 5 keywords written below the abstracts written both in Turkish and English. Commas should be used between the keywords. The initials of keywords should be lowercase.

Article format / general structure: Each manuscript should include Turkish title and abstract with keywords, English title and abstract with keywords, Introduction, Review of Literature, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusion, References, and Extended Abstract as in the listed order.

Extended Abstract should contain the purpose, scope, theoretical framework, methodology, findings, and conclusions of the manuscript and represent the whole content of the article.

Personal information: Journal has a double-blind peer-review system. Hence, the submitted articles and manuscripts should not contain any personal information of the author(s). A title page including personal information of the author must be submitted to the system separately from the article. This title page is to include the title of the study in Turkish and English, name and title of the author, affiliation and contact information (e-mail, phone, postal address), and ORCID number.

Titles: A title should be the fewest possible words that accurately describe the content of the paper (Center, Bold, Times New Roman 14pt). The initials of Turkish and English titles should be in capital letters. The initials of Abstract, Introduction, Review of Literature, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Conclusion, References should be written in capital letters, flush left, 12 pt. and bold type. Subtitles should be written in capital, italic, 12 pt. and bold type. All titles should start in line with the beginning of a new paragraph (indention: 1 cm)

Publications Generated From Dissertations / Proceedings: If the manuscript contains a part of a dissertation, proceedings, or a project or is generated from any of them, this must be stated in the footnote with the related explanation.

Tables and Figures:

Titles of tables and figures should be written over the table/figure in bold. The initials of the title of the table should be written in capital and italic. Single space is used between the columns in the table.

See Sample Article Template for Sample table

References and Citation Rules

Journal of Communication Theory and Research complies with APA (American Psychological Association) system for referencing and citation. Before submitting articles, they should be edited according to APA 7th Edition. Manuscripts not in conformity with the APA 7th edition are returned to the author to fix this problem before the peer-review process.

Detailed information on APA 7th Edition can be accessed via https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples. In quoting and citations, the differences in citing and referencing styles in Turkish and English versions should be considered based on the language of the original text.

In the bibliography, the references only quoted/cited in the article should be included, any references that are not used in the text should not be included in the bibliography and references should be listed in an alphabetical order regarding the surnames of the authors.

Short quotations should be written in quotation marks. Quotations longer than 4 lines should be written as a separate paragraph, at an indent of 1 cm with 10 pt. Quotation marks should not be used for such cases.

If more than one article of an author published on the same issue is used, the letters "a, b, c, ..." should be used respectively to distinguish the publications and this usage should be included both in text and in the references part.

Orthography and punctuation of manuscripts should be based on the Turkish Language Association Orthography Guide: https://www.tdk.gov.tr/tdk/kurumsal/yazim-kilavuzu. 


Citations in the Text:

Single author: In Turkish: (Creswell, 2014) - (Creswell, 2014, s. 126), In English: (American Heart Association, 2018, p. 4).
Two authors: (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013) - (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013, s. 23, ss.23-27), In English: (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013, p. 23, pp. 23-27)
Three or more authors: (Narin et al., 2019) – (Martin et al., 2020)
Incorrect usage: Ruxton, 2016: 34
Correct usage: Ruxton, 2016, p. 34
In cases where the directly quoted source does not have a page number, distinguishing elements such as paragraph number, section number, etc. can be used instead of page number. (Freeman, 2019, para. 3)

Note: Page numbers are required for direct quotes.

Affiliation names:

First citation in the text: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020)

Recurring citations: (WHO, 2020).

Usage samples in-text citations:

Creswell (2014), Yıldırım and Şimşek (2013), Narin et al. (2019)

For cases more than one author is cited in parenthesis, the manuscripts should be separated with “;” (semicolon): (Creswell, 2014; Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2013; Narin et al. 2019).


Reference types:


Book:

Book with a single author:

Creswell, J. W. (104). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach (4. ed.). Sage Publications.

Narin, B. (2017). Gazetecilik 2.0: İnternet gazeteciliğinde hipermetinsellik. Gece Kitaplığı.


If the same author has published more than one article in same year:
Carlson, N. R. (2007a). Foundations of physiology and psychology. (7th edition). Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Carlson, N. R. (2007b). Physiology of behaviour. Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Books with two authors:
Yıldırım, A., & Şimşek, H. (2013). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri (9. bs.). Seçkin Yayıncılık.

Çaylı, E. & Depeli, G. (2012). İfade özgürlüğünün on yılı 2001-2012. IPS İletişim Vakfı Yayınları.

Books with more than three authors:
Telli Aydemir, A., Doğu B., Özçetin, B., İslamoğlu, G., Bayraktutan, G., Binark, M., Çomu, T., (2014). Siyasetin yeni hali: Vaka-i sosyal medya - seçimden seçime, gezi direnişi'nden hükümet cemaat çatışmasına. Kalkedon.

Books without an author:
Atlas of Anatomy. (2002). Cobham, Taj Books.

Note: In APA 7th edition, there is no “publication place” information in book tags. If there is a DOI number, it should be added to the bottom as “http…”. In APA 7th edition, instead of writing “Doi:…” the web address starting with “http” is to be added.

Translated Books:
Castro, F. (2008). My life (A. Hurley, Trans.). Dover. (Original work published 2006).

Fiske, J. (2003). İletişim çalışmalarına giriş (S. İrvan, Çev.). Bilim ve Sanat. (Original publication date 1990).

Books with Editors:
Mansell, R., Avgerou, C., Quah, D., & Silverstone R. (Eds.). (2007). The Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies. Oxford University Press.

Hülür, H., & Yaşın, C. (Eds.). (2017). Yeni medya geleceğin gazeteciliği. Ütopya.

Note: In books with a single editor, the term (Ed.), and in books with multiple editors the term (Eds.) is used. In APA 7th edition, usage of “Doi:…” format while writing Doi number is replaced by the rule of writing the whole web address starting with "http".

Chapter in an Edited Book:
Kayıhan, B. (2019). Toplumsal hareketlerin Twitter’a yansımaları ve hashtag aktivizm ile ilgili çalışmalar. İçinde H. Hülür & C. Yaşın (Eds.), Bilgi doğruluk ve Twitter. (ss. 140-157). Ütopya Yayınevi.

Greenstein, S., & Prince, J. (2007). Internet diffusion and geography of the digital divide in the United States. In E. Mansell, C. Avgerou, D. Quah & R. Silverstone R. (Eds.), The Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies (pp.168-195). Oxford University Press.

Note: DOI numbers must be added if available. In APA 7th edition, usage of “Doi:…” format while writing Doi number is replaced by the rule of writing the whole web address with “http”.


Article:
Yetkin, B. (2020). Siyasal iletişimde bilişimsel propaganda: Türkiye’de 23 Haziran 2019 İstanbul Yerel Seçimleri ve botlar, cyborglar, troller. İletişim Kuram ve Araştırma Dergisi, 2020(52), 24-45.

Gallacher, J. D., Heerdink, M. W., & Hewstone, M. (2021). Online engagement between opposing political protest groups via social media is linked to the physical violence of offline encounters. Social Media + Society, 7(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120984445 

Note: In APA 7th edition, the usage of the “Doi:…” format while writing the Doi number is replaced by the rule of writing the whole web address with “http”. DOI numbers must be added if available. In articles, the name of the article should be written in lower case in a plain font, and the name of the Journal should be written in italic with capital initials. Journal volume number should be italic, issue number should be in the parentheses and plain font.

Dissertation / thesis:
Çiçek, T. (2020). Dijital gazetelerde hayvanların ideolojik temsili [Unpublished postgraduate thesis]. Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi.

Proceedings:
Turancı, E. (2020, 21-23 October). Public Relations and advertising students’ attitude of Moodle: Open-source learning platform. [Conference presentation abstract]. 7th International Communication Days Communications Education In The Digital Age Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey.

Kayıhan, B. (2020, 4-6 Kasım). Fail ile Yapı Arasında İlişkisel Haber Okuma Süreci. [Conference presentation abstract]. IV. İlişkisel Sosyal Bilimler Kongresi, Ankara, Türkiye.

Electronic Sources:

World Health Organization. (2018, May 24). The top 10 causes of death. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death 

Citation of the news on a web page:
Toner, K. (2020, September 24). When Covid-19 hit, he turned his newspaper route into a lifeline for senior citizens. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/us/coronavirus-newspaper-deliveryman-groceries-senior-citizens-cnnheroes-trnd/index.html 

Newspaper:
Exploration of the Coast (1987, November 24). The Guardian.

Movie:
Ledoux, P. (Producer) and Besson, L. (Director). (1994). Léon [Movie]. ABD: Columbia Pictures & Gaumont.
Ledoux, P. (Yapımcı) ve Besson, L. (Yönetmen). (1994). Léon [Film]. ABD: Columbia Pictures & Gaumont.

Facebook post:
News From Science. (2019, June 21). Are you a fan of astronomy? Enjoy reading about what scientists have discovered in our solar system—and beyond? This [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ScienceNOW/photos/a.117532185107/10156268057260108/?type=3&theater 

In the text: (News From Science, 2019)

Instagram post:
Philadelphia Museum of Art [@philamuseum]. (2019, December 3). “It’s always wonderful to walk in and see my work in a collection where it’s loved, and where people are [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5oDnnNhOt4/ 

In the text: (Philadephia Museum of Art, 2019)

X post:
APA Databases [@APA_Databases]. (2020, September 2). We have curated a collection of Journal articles from APA PsycArticles on #COVID19. View: https://bit.ly/2QrWj76 for recent coverage [Image attached] [Tweet].Twitter. https://twitter.com/APA_Databases/status/1301175576703664128. 

Gates, B. [@BillGates]. (2019, September 7). Today, it's difficult for researchers to diagnose #Alzheimers patients early enough to intervene. A reliable, easy, and accurate diagnostic would [Thumbnails with a link attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1170305718425137152. 

In the text: (APA Databases, 2020; Gates, 2019)


For more citation examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/ 

Journal of Communication Theory and Research has been published since 1983 by the Communication Faculty of Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University. It is a professional double-blind peer-reviewed academic electronic Journal that publishes theoretical and practical studies on all areas where social sciences and communication discipline intersect.

The submissions to Journal of Communication Theory and Research are free of charge, and the journal provides immediate open access to its content on the Dergipark system. The language of articles submitted to the Journal should be either in Turkish or English.

All copyrights of accepted manuscripts belong to Journal of Communication Theory and Research. Authors are deemed to have transferred their copyright forms. Authors are not paid for copyrights. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) by Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in Journal of Communication Theory and Research.

Problems such as plagiarism, duplication, fraud authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, breaching of copyrights, prevailing conflict of interest is unethical behaviors. In any possible malpractice discovered after the publication, the article will be removed from the system.

Submitted manuscripts must not have been published elsewhere or have not been accepted for publication; must not be under the review process elsewhere. After submitting manuscripts via Article Tracking System at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ikad, the peer review process can be followed from the same page.

In submitted articles, there should not be any information that clarifies the author’s identity. Besides, while submitting articles, Copyright Transfer Agreement Form has to be signed by all authors through the Dergipark application system, and a digital copy must be uploaded to the system.

After the first evaluation by the Journal editor, the manuscripts are sent to at least two referees through a blind peer review system. If the reviewers request a revision in their evaluation reports, the author should only make changes within the framework of specified revisions. If one reviewer rejects the article, it is sent to a third reviewer. Unpublished articles will not be returned to the author. To make the required revisions asked by reviewers, the author should wait until all reviewers’ reports are uploaded on the system.

In addition to the original articles, the Journal also accepts short promotional and critical reviews of communication products such as forums, books, films, television programs, and national/international event reviews.

Submitted manuscripts may be produced from a dissertation, or presented in a congress, symposium, etc. For these kinds of article submissions, the editor should give information about the activity from which the work was derived. This must be indicated below the article as a footnote.

In the works produced by the author(s) from their thesis studies;

- A note should be given on the abstract page of the article stating the title and date of the thesis on which the study was produced (This information will be concealed during peer review),

The articles submitted to the Journal must have been edited according to the Journal rules. Manuscripts that are not edited based on guidelines are rejected before the editorial evaluation and reviewer process. In this case, the author must resubmit the manuscript after the required revisions.

Manuscripts must not contain any author information. Authors need to use Manuscript Template to format their manuscript. Submissions without the template are not accepted.

It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that published articles in the Journal are following scientific, contextual, linguistic, and legal standards and rules.

The final decision regarding the publication of the article belongs to the editorial board.

Open Access Statement

Journal of Communication Theory and Research is an open-access journal, and the articles in the journal are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Journal of Communication Theory and Research’s all content is available without any charge to its users. Except for commercial purposes, users are allowed to access the full text of all studies in the Journal. However, whole or a part of the Journal or works cannot be reproduced and quoted without giving reference or written permission.

Research Ethics

Journal of Communication Theory and Research adheres to the international standards of research ethics and the authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with ethical rules.

• In studies with human subjects (surveys, interviews, experiments, etc.) Ethics Committee Approval from the institutions must be obtained. Studies without Ethics Committee Approval are not accepted to Journal. In these studies, the Ethics Committee Document should be uploaded to the system along with the study.

• In studies with human subjects, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants has been obtained.

• In studies with human subjects, participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, and risks, if any, of the research. Participation should not be compulsory in the studies, and volunteerism should be adopted.

• If the studies are to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization and must be documented when necessary.

• In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, a legal custodian’s assent must be obtained and must be documented when necessary.

Artificial Intelligence Policy
The utilization of productive artificial intelligence tools in studies submitted to the Journal of Communication Theory and Research is subject to certain guidelines. First, the names and the intended purposes of these tools must be declared in the notes section at the end of the article. Second, in instances where this declaration is absent, studies employing such tools will be rejected directly and subjected to an evaluation for ethical violations. It is a fundamental principle that the content of a study must not be created solely by artificial intelligence. The following principles must be observed for possible uses of AI tools:
1. In cases where authors utilize generative artificial intelligence tools, the tools should not be included as authors.
2. Generative AI tools can be used to translate limited parts of a text, such as abstracts, extended abstracts, or to proofread. However, translation of an entire text with generative AI tools is not accepted.
For editors and reviewers, it is imperative to note that the practice of uploading authors' works to artificial intelligence applications and platforms by referees during the peer review process constitutes a violation of the principles of peer review and ethical conduct. This practice also poses significant challenges with respect to intellectual property rights.

Author’s Responsibility

• It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the article is following the scientific and ethical standards and rules. The authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or in any language and is not currently being evaluated or in any language. The authors must ensure that the submitted study is original.

• Citation and reference rules should be paid attention to, and the author should know that he/she is responsible for any legal liabilities that may arise in this regard. Necessary permissions should be obtained for the materials based on text such as tables, figures, and images to be used in the study and references should be given in the text.

• The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Author Agreement Form by all authors. Any conflicts on this are the responsibility of the authors.

• If there are some financial support or/and conflict of interest that may influence the research, it must be indicated in the study.

• When an author discovers a mistake in his/her paper, it's the author’s right to retract it. In this case, for retraction requests, the author must apply to the Journal with a written application.

Responsibility of the Editor

• All studies submitted to Journal are objectively evaluated.

• Studies submitted for evaluation are under a double-blind peer-review. In this process, it’s the Journal team’s responsibility not to reveal any information that would disclose the identity of the author(s) in reviewing process.

• Editors and assistant editors are responsible for the continuity of the evaluation process. They are obliged to meticulously manage the entire process starting from the submission of a manuscript.

• Editors do not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors, and reviewers and they have the full authority to assign a reviewer. In other respects, the final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal is the editorial board's responsibility.

Responsibility of the Reviewers

• Reviewers must objectively evaluate the submitted studies.

• Reviewers must accept or reject the studies in the evaluation process in accordance with their research areas, and inform the editors of these decisions as earliest as possible for the continuity of the Journal.

• Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of information on studies they have accepted to evaluate and inform the editorial board with justifications if they know copyright infringement and plagiarism in the study and keep a report on this situation.

• When the reviewers accept to evaluate a study, they declare that they will evaluate the study within the period defined for them. In any other cases, they are expected to inform the editors.

• Reviewers are expected to report their decisions with justification. This is important in terms of both development of academic studies and informing the authors’ studies about the reasons for the final decision.

• Reviewers must write his/her decisions about the study in detail in the section titled “note to the author” on the evaluation form.

Information for Authors

• The manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be in accordance with the Journal. It is the editorial board's decision to reject the studies without being evaluated that are following the publication policy and the Journal’s aim.

• Only one study of each author can be published in a single issue.

• The author himself/herself is responsible for the originality of the study. In studies where plagiarism or similar problems are encountered, the final decision about the study is the editorial board's responsibility.

• Abstract papers presented at scientific meetings or articles generated from dissertations are accepted for the evaluation process, provided that they are specified. Even if the studies generated from postgraduate’s or doctorate degrees are accepted, the review system is also operated for these studies.

• After the article is submitted for evaluation, the names of any authors cannot be removed without the written consent of all authors, a new author cannot be added and the name order of authors cannot be changed.

• A similarity report (taken from intihal.net or Ithenticate) should be provided in the submission stage for each article.

Peer Review Process

Submitted manuscripts are scanned for plagiarism. In studies with a similarity of 20% or more, the editorial board has the right to revise or reject them according to the similarity of the content. Article similarity rate should not exceed 20%. Studies with plagiarism are returned. It is the author’s responsibility in this matter.

After a plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by the editors in terms of criteria such as content, methodology, and subject. It is the editor's right to revise or reject a manuscript in this process if deemed necessary. The blind peer review process is commenced for eligible studies for evaluation.

Selected articles are sent to reviewers from Turkey and abroad who have expertise in the article's subject matter and hold at least a doctoral degree. In cases where reviewers make different decisions, the manuscripts are sent to a third reviewer and the final decision is evaluated accordingly. After reviewer evaluations, it is possible that a study will be directly accepted, rejected, or revision requested.

The studies for which revision is requested can be re-evaluated by the reviewer in line with the requests of the reviewers, or it is checked by the editor when the reviewer does not request to review it again. With the approval of the revisions, the final decision on the publication of the article is made.