Publication Ethics Principles

Istanbul Kent University Journal of Human and Social Sciences publishes scientific and original studies in the field of human and social sciences. The journal is a peer-reviewed publication operating under the Continuous Publication model; its languages of publication are Turkish, English, and German.

Our journal is committed to upholding the internationally recognized ethical principles of scientific publishing. In this framework, the guidelines, principles, and recommendations published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) serve as the primary reference in our editorial decision-making processes. In the event that a breach of publication ethics is identified, whether detected before or after publication, the course of action to be followed is determined in accordance with the decision flowcharts and guidelines published by COPE.

For COPE's recommendations, guidelines, and policies on publishing and editorial matters, click here. 
For ICMJE's recommendations, guidelines, and policies on publishing and editorial matters, click here.

Submitted manuscripts undergo an editorial pre-review with respect to their suitability for the journal's aim and scope, methodology, and compliance with the writing guidelines, after which they are evaluated through a double-blind peer review process. The Editorial Board holds the authority to decide whether manuscripts will be accepted for publication, based on the assessments of national and international reviewers.

Our Publication Selection Criteria

Manuscripts submitted to our journal are subject to a preliminary evaluation by the editorial board, based on the following criteria, before being forwarded to the review process:

• Originality: The study is expected to offer a new perspective or approach to an issue within the field of human and social sciences.
• Scholarly Contribution: The study is expected to have the potential to make a concrete contribution to the relevant literature and field.
• Methodological Rigor: The method used is expected to be appropriate to the aim of the study, clearly defined, and defensible.
• Coherence of Presentation: The arguments are expected to be presented clearly, with a consistent structure, and in accordance with our journal's writing guidelines.
• Ethical Compliance: The study is expected to have been prepared in full compliance with the ethical principles set out on this page.

Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be rejected at the editorial stage without being sent to peer review. Authors are advised to review these criteria before submitting their manuscripts.

Similarity Rate

The upper limit for the similarity rate has been set by the journal's editorial board at 20%. The filtering options in the similarity detection software are configured as follows: bibliography excluded, quotes excluded, matches of less than five words excluded. Any other filtering options available in the software menu are not included in the reporting.

Full responsibility for the manuscripts rests with their author(s); the views expressed in the manuscripts are those of the author(s) and do not bind the journal. Responsibility for both the scientific accuracy and linguistic correctness of the manuscripts also rests with the authors.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Our journal's ethical responsibilities regarding authorship are determined on the basis of the recommendations and guidelines published by COPE and ICMJE.

Authorship requires a significant intellectual contribution to the conceptual design of the study, or to the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data. Every individual listed as an author is expected to have seen and approved the final version of the study and to have taken responsibility for the integrity of its content. Contributions that do not meet these criteria (such as funding acquisition, data collection, or language editing) should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments or Funding section rather than credited as authorship.

Authors must guarantee the accuracy and originality of the data they present; studies based on falsified or fabricated data are not accepted. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been previously published elsewhere or be under review at another journal.

For studies involving human participants, the necessary permissions must be obtained from participants and ethics committee approval must be secured from the relevant institution; this approval must be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript, and the signed approval document must be uploaded to the system together with the manuscript. Where a study does not require ethics committee approval, this must likewise be explicitly stated in the Methods section.

For any scales, questionnaires, tables, images, or similar materials belonging to third parties and subject to copyright that are used in the study, written permission must be obtained from the relevant rights holders, and this permission must be indicated in the manuscript.

Submitted manuscripts must be written in accordance with the journal's writing guidelines. Manuscripts must be formatted according to the APA referencing system (APA 6th edition) and should be between five and twelve thousand words in length, including the abstract, footnotes, and references.

As manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated through a double-blind peer review system, they must not contain any author information in file form until publication. For this reason, manuscripts must be submitted as two copies, one with and one without author identification.

Authors must agree to make reasonable revisions recommended by reviewers and editors; a submitted manuscript will be rejected if such revisions are not made without valid justification. Should an error be identified after publication, all authors bear the responsibility of correcting the error or, if necessary, retracting the study.

Copyright for manuscripts deemed suitable for publication belongs to the authors; no royalty is paid to authors. Further details regarding copyright and licensing terms are provided in the relevant section of this page.

In multi-authored studies, the order of authorship is determined by the group of authors concerned; the corresponding author bears primary responsibility for communication with the journal throughout the submission and review process.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

All manuscripts submitted to our journal are evaluated through a double-blind peer review process, in which the identity of the author is kept confidential from reviewers and the identity of the reviewer is kept confidential from authors. The ethical responsibilities of reviewers are determined on the basis of the recommendations and guidelines published by COPE and ICMJE.

Reviewers conduct their evaluations solely on the basis of the scientific content of the manuscript, independently of the authors' ethnicity, gender, nationality, religious belief, or political views. A reviewer must not have any competing or conflicting interest with the authors of the manuscript under review or with any supporting institutions; where such a situation exists, the reviewer must inform the editor before accepting the assignment.

A reviewer who determines that a submitted manuscript falls outside their area of expertise, or that they will be unable to complete the review within the required timeframe, must inform the editor and withdraw from the process. Reviewers are obliged to keep all information relating to the review process confidential, to refrain from sharing their reports or any information about the manuscript with third parties, and not to contact the author directly without the editor's permission.

Reviewers must inform the editor of any relevant published works that have not been cited by the author. Potential ethical concerns, including any notable similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and another published work known to the reviewer, must be brought to the editor's attention; any suspicion of copyright infringement or plagiarism must likewise be reported to the editor. Reviews must be conducted objectively, constructively, and courteously, avoiding personal criticism of the author. Reviewers may not use information obtained during the review process for personal gain.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

The Editorial Board is responsible for all content published in our journal. The ethical duties and responsibilities of the Editorial Board are determined on the basis of the recommendations and guidelines published by COPE and ICMJE.

The decision as to whether a submission will be published is made independently of the race, gender, belief, nationality, or political views of the author(s), and is based on the submission's compliance with the journal's publication policy, its originality, and its scientific significance. The Editorial Board is obliged to support authors' freedom of expression and to contribute to the continued development of the journal's quality.

The Editorial Board is obliged to provide authors with the publication and writing guidelines outlining what is expected of them, together with a sample template where appropriate.

The Editorial Board is responsible for directing submitted manuscripts to reviewers whose knowledge and expertise are appropriate to the subject matter; reviewers are required to declare the absence of any conflict of interest before beginning their evaluation. Reviewers are provided with all necessary information regarding the review process and what is expected of them. Ensuring that the peer review process is conducted in accordance with the double-blind principle, and that reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors nor author identities to reviewers, is the responsibility of the Editorial Board.

The Editorial Board monitors reviewers' timeliness and performance, and removes from the reviewer list any reviewer who provides discourteous or substandard comments or who consistently submits reviews late. A database of reviewers is maintained and continuously updated and expanded according to reviewers' areas of expertise and performance.

Editors, reviewers, and Editorial Board members may not use information or documents relating to rejected or under-review submissions in their own research without the written consent of the author.

In cases where a manuscript is rejected at the initial evaluation stage, the reason for rejection is communicated to the author clearly and impartially. Where it is determined that a manuscript requires further revision with respect to the writing guidelines or formatting, the author is informed accordingly and given time to make the necessary corrections. Requests from authors regarding the status of their manuscripts are answered in a manner that does not compromise the integrity of the double-blind review process.

Publication Policy

Publisher

The publisher of the Istanbul Kent University Journal of Human and Social Sciences is the University Rectorate on behalf of Istanbul Kent University, and the Dean's Office on behalf of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences. The publisher undertakes to ensure that the journal's publication ethics principles are applied by all relevant stakeholders, that open access to the journal's content is provided free of charge and without interruption, and that publications are archived and preserved over the long term. In the event of suspected breaches of scientific publication ethics, such as misconduct, plagiarism, conflict of interest, copyright infringement, or text recycling/self-plagiarism, it is the publisher's responsibility to take the necessary steps to clarify the situation.

Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

The Editorial Board adopts the journal's publication ethics principles and publication policy and bases its decisions on this framework. Accordingly, Board members:

• Inform the editorial team in order to clarify the situation whenever a suspected ethical breach arises.
• Provide recommendations aimed at increasing the journal's national and international recognition.
• Propose candidates for the Advisory Board and offer opinions regarding the indexes in which the journal should be included, with a view to enhancing its academic quality.

Evaluation Process

Manuscripts uploaded to the system first undergo an editorial pre-review with respect to their suitability for the journal's scope, compliance with the writing guidelines, and adequacy relative to publication standards. Manuscripts that pass this stage are forwarded to at least two independent reviewers with expertise in the relevant field; throughout the process, the identities of both authors and reviewers are kept mutually confidential. Where the opinions of two reviewers conflict, a third reviewer is consulted; the final decision to accept or reject rests with the Editorial Board. Submissions are welcomed not only from academics but also from researchers and practitioners.

Self-Submission by Board Members

Members of the Editorial Board may submit their own scholarly work to the journal. In such cases, the entire editorial and peer review process for the manuscript in question is conducted by other members of the Board, in accordance with the journal's standard procedures and in an impartial manner, in order to prevent any conflict of interest.

Artificial Intelligence Use Policy

Authors are expected to act in accordance with the principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) when using artificial intelligence tools. Chatbots and similar artificial intelligence tools cannot, under any circumstances, be listed as authors, as they are unable to approve the final version of a study or take accountability for the integrity of its content; authorship credit belongs solely to individuals capable of assuming these responsibilities.

Where artificial intelligence has been used in the preparation of a study, this use must be clearly disclosed in accordance with the principle of transparency: use for the purposes of writing, language editing, or improving expression should be disclosed in the Acknowledgments section, while use for data collection, analysis, or the generation of figures/tables should be disclosed in the Methods section. Full responsibility for the scientific content of the study, its findings, and any portions generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence, including their accuracy and originality, rests entirely with the author(s).

Post-Publication Corrections and Retractions

In the event that an error is identified in a published manuscript, the Editorial Board makes every effort to correct the error as soon as possible. Correction requests are handled in a manner appropriate to the nature and scope of the error and are reviewed and approved by the editor prior to publication.

In cases of serious scientific misconduct, such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or falsification, the manuscript in question will be retracted. The retraction decision is reviewed and approved by the editor; a retraction notice is published and linked to the original manuscript.

Open Access

All content published in the Istanbul Kent University Journal of Human and Social Sciences is freely accessible to all, without any registration or fee, from the moment of publication; no embargo period is applied to access. Readers may read, download, copy, search, and link to the content.

Licensing

The works published in our journal are made available under an open license; the terms of this license will be specified separately on this page.

Copyright

Copyright for manuscripts deemed suitable for publication belongs to the author(s); no royalty is paid to authors. Author(s) declare, by means of the copyright agreement uploaded at the time of submission, that they permit their work to be used in accordance with the journal's open access and licensing policy; this agreement, which must bear the signature of the sole author in single-authored studies or of all authors in multi-authored studies, must be uploaded to the system together with the manuscript.

Archiving

All issues and articles of the journal are archived on a long-term basis via the DergiPark system.