Manuscript Organization

Language

The language of the journal is both Turkish and British English.

Manuscript Organization and Submission

All correspondence will be sent to the first-named author unless otherwise specified. Manuscpript is to be submitted online via https://dergipark.org.tr/login that can be accessed at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/iujws and it must be accompanied by a Title Page specifying the article category (i.e. research article, review etc.) and including information about the manuscript (see the Submission Checklist) and cover letter to the editor. Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word 2003 and upper versions. In addition, Copyright Agreement Form that has to be signed by all authors must be submitted.

1.       Manuscripts should be prepared using the Article Template. Due to double blind peer review, manuscript file must not include any information about the author. 

2.       The abstract must be between 150–250 words and written as one paragraph. Please ensure that abstract reads well and is grammatically correct.

3.       Underneath the abstract, 3-5 keywords that inform the reader about the content of the study should be specified.

4.       The manuscripts should contain mainly these components: title, abstract and keywords; sections, references, tables and figures.

5.       Article Types

Research Article: Original research articles report substantial and original scientific results within the journal scope. Original research articles are comprised of Abstract, Key Words, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References and Figures, Tables and Graphics. The abstract must be structured as in below. The abstract must be followed by Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.

Abstract:  The abstracts in the language of the article and in English must be between 150- 250 words and structured as follows: aim, method, results, and conclusions.

Aim -the primary purpose of the article;

Method -data sources, design of the study, participants, interventions, and main outcome measures;

Results -key findings;

Conclusions - Conclusions derived from the study should be stated.

      Keywords

Introduction: This section must contain a clear statement of the general and specific objectives as well as the hypotheses which the work is designed to test. It should also give a brief account of the reported literature. The last sentence should clearly state the primary and secondary purposes of the article. Only, the actual references related with the issues have to be indicated and data or findings related with the current study must not be included in this section.

Methods: This section must contain explicit, concise descriptions of all procedures, materials and methods (i.e. data sources, participants, scales, interviews/reviews, basic measurements, applications, statistical methods) used in the investigation to enable the reader to judge their accuracy, reproducibility, etc. This section should include the known findings at the beginning of the study and the findings during the study must be reported in results section.

Results: The results should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. The all the data in the tables or figures should not be repeated in the text; only the most important observations must be emphasized or summarized..

Discussion: The findings of the study, the findings and results which support or do not support the hypothesis of the study should be discussed, results should be compared and contrasted with findings of other studies in the literature and the different findings from other studies should be explained. The new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them should be emphasized. The data or other information given in the Introduction or the Results section should not be repeated in detail.

Conclusions: Conclusions derived from the study should be stated. For experimental studies, it is useful to begin the discussion by summarizing briefly the main findings, then explore possible mechanisms or explanations for these findings, compare and contrast the results with other relevant studies, state the limitations of the study, and explore the implications of the findings for future research and practice. The conclusions should be linked with the goals of the study but unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data should be avoided. New hypotheses should be stated when warranted, but should be labeled clearly as such.

Figures, Tables and Graphics: Figures, Tables and Graphics should be numbered in Arabic numerals in the text. The places of the figures, tables and graphics should be signed in the text.

Review Article: Reviews prepared by authors who have extensive knowledge on a particular field and whose scientific background has been translated into a high volume of publications with a high citation potential are welcomed. These authors may even be invited by the journal. Reviews should describe, discuss, and evaluate the current level of knowledge of practice and should guide future studies. Review article should contain title, abstract and keywords; body text with sections, and references.

6.       A title page including author information must be submitted together with the manuscript. The title page is to include fully descriptive title of the manuscript and, affiliation, title, e-mail address, ORCID, postal address, phone, mobile phone and fax number of the author(s) (see The Submission Checklist).

7.       References should be prepared as APA 7th edition.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and pays regard to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing
The subjects covered in the manuscripts submitted to the Journal for publication must be in accordance with the aim and scope of the Journal. Only those manuscripts approved by every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
Changing the name of an author (omission, addition or order) in papers submitted to the Journal requires written permission of all declared authors.
Plagiarism, duplication, fraud authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, salami slicing/salami publication, breaching of copyrights, prevailing conflict of interest are unethical behaviors. All manuscripts not in accordance with the accepted ethical standards will be removed from the publication. This also contains any possible malpractice discovered after the publication.

Plagiarism
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. If plagiarism/self-plagiarism will be found authors will be informed. Editors may resubmit manuscript for similarity check at any peer-review or production stage if required. High similarity scores may lead to rejection of a manuscript before and even after acceptance. Depending on the type of article and the percentage of similarity score taken from each article, the overall similarity score is generally expected to be less than 15 or 20%.

Double Blind Peer-Review
After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by the editors-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope. The editor provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles and hands over the papers matching the formal rules to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and gives green light for publication upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.

Research Ethics

Istanbul University Journal of Women’s Studies - İstanbul Üniversitesi Kadın Araştırmaları Dergisi adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.

- Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.
- The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.
- The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
- Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.
- Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.
- The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.
- In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.
- If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.
- In studies with human subject, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained.

Author's Responsibilities

It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. And authors must ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.

All the authors of a submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contribution to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analyzing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection or supervision of the research group are not sufficient roles to be accepted as an author. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form. The individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, assisting writing, providing a general support, providing material or financial support are examples to be indicated in acknowledgement section.

All authors must disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers

Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.

Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.

Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.

Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.

Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.

Peer Review Process
• Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
• Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software.
• After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by editor-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope.
• Editor-in-chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors and ensures a fair double-blind peer review of the selected manuscripts.
• The selected manuscripts are sent to at least two national/international external referees for evaluation.
• Publication decision is given by editor-in-chief upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.
• Editor in chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
• Reviewers’ judgments must be objective. Reviewers’ comments on the following aspects are expected while conducting the review.
- Does the manuscript contain new and significant information?
- Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the manuscript?
- Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
- Are the methods described comprehensively?
- Are the interpretations and consclusions justified by the results?
- Is adequate references made to other Works in the field?
- Is the language acceptable?
• Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
• A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
• The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction.
• The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons.
• The anonymity of the referees must be ensured meticulously.