Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Journal of Music and Folklore Studies (JMFS) constitute the basis for the development and distribution of knowledge in an impartial and reputable manner. The processes followed in this direction are directly reflected in the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions that support the authors. Peer-reviewed studies are studies that embody and support the scientific method. At this point, it is important that all stakeholders of the process (authors, readers, researchers, publishers, referees, editors) comply with the standards for ethical principles.
Journal of Music and Folklore Studies (JMFS) adheres to national and international standards on research and publication ethics. It complies with the Press Law, the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works and the Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics of Higher Education Institutions. JMFS has adopted the International Code of Ethical Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors.
Journal of Music and Folklore Studies (JMFS) expects all stakeholders to carry the following ethical responsibilities within the scope of publication ethics.
The following ethical duties and responsibilities have been prepared in open access, taking into account the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 
The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is essential in the development of a coherent and respected knowledge network. Peer-reviewed articles support and shape the scientific method. It is therefore important for all parties involved in publishing - authors, journal editors, reviewers and publishing organizations - to agree on standards of expected ethical behavior.

1. Ethical Principles
1. Authorship of the paper:
Authorship should be restricted to individuals who made significant contributions to the design, conduct or interpretation of the reported work. All those who made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. If there are others who have participated in certain important aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included and that there are no ineligible co-authors, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission for publication.

2. Conflicts of Interest:
Authors: All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that could be construed to influence the conclusions or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
ReviewersReviewers should inform the journal editorial office about the review process if they suspect any conflict of interest in the manuscript they are reviewing and, if necessary, refuse to review the manuscript. In order to prevent conflict of interest, people from the institutions where the authors of the article work cannot serve as referees for the article.
Editors: Editors should have no personal or financial conflict of interest with the manuscript.

3. Data Access and Storage:
Authors are asked to provide raw data in connection with an article for editorial review and, where possible, should be prepared to provide public access to such data and, in any event, should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable period after publication.

4. Fabricated Data Production and Forgery:
Fabricated and/or falsified experimental results, including images must not be used.

5. Duplicate / Multiple Article Submissions:
Articles found to have been submitted elsewhere or published elsewhere. If authors have used their own previously submitted or published work as the basis for a submitted paper, they must cite the previous work. They should also indicate how new contributions in addition to previous work are presented in their submitted manuscripts.

6. Intellectual Property Rights
• Authors confirm that the submitted manuscript (and any supporting material) is their intellectual property and that copyright has not been transferred to others.
• Authors confirm that the manuscript is free of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, manipulated citations, and that the manuscript complies with JSS authorship policies.
• All manuscripts, revisions, drafts and typescripts remain the intellectual property of the author(s). Except as provided in the agreed license, the author(s) retains copyright to their work.
• Authors, reviewers and editors agree to keep confidential all communications, comments or reports from reviewers or editors.
• Reviewers and editors agree to keep confidential all manuscripts, revisions, and drafts except the final published typescript(s).

7. Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
* If the editors find minor errors in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations and conclusions, they may make corrections.
* Editors may retract the manuscript if there are major errors/omissions that invalidate the findings and conclusions.
* Editors may issue a statement of concern if there is a possibility of research or publication misconduct by the authors; if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and the authors' institutions have not investigated the incident; or if the potential investigation seems unfair or inconclusive.  COPE and ICJME guidelines for correction, retraction or expression of concern are followed.

8. Publication of Studies Based on Surveys and Interviews
The Journal of Music and Folklore Studies adopts the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers" in order to provide ethical assurance in scientific periodical publishing. In this context, the following points should be followed in the studies submitted to the journal:
- Ethics committee approval must be obtained for research in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval, and this approval must be stated and documented in the article.
- In studies that require ethics committee approval, information about the approval (name of the committee, date and number) can be included in the method section. However, in case presentations in the article information form at the end of the article, information on the signature of the informed consent form should be included in the article.

Research requiring Ethics Committee approval is as follows:
• All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using survey, interview, focus group study, observation, experiment, interview techniques,
• Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on the protection of personal data,
Also;
• Obtaining and indicating permission from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires and photographs belonging to others is necessary.
• Stating that copyright regulations are complied with for the intellectual and artistic works used is necessary.

9. Policy on Publishing Supplementary or Special Issues
Special issues can be published once a year upon the request of the Editorial Board. All processes for articles submitted for inclusion in the special issue are the same as the standard article process.

- Supplement or Special Issue: These are issues published in addition to the regular issues of a journal published at regular intervals. It consists of congress/symposium etc. event proceedings or articles on a specific topic.
- The page numbers in Supplementary or Special issues are numbered differently from the regular issues during the year.
- The number of Supplementary or Special issues cannot be more than 1/3 of the regular period. Special issues containing abstracts of congress proceedings are not included in this scope.
- Ratios of case reports, review and research articles (excluding congress abstracts) published in Supplementary or Special issues will be included in the ratios of articles published in other issues.
- Gift issues are not accepted as special or supplementary issues. They are numbered and uploaded as regular issues.

10. Journal Policies on Data Sharing and Reproducibility
Journal of Music and Folklore Studies (JMFS) encourages authors to submit additional materials and data that illustrate the results of their articles. If there is any restriction by the authors, this restriction should be shared with the editorial board at the time of manuscript submission.
JMFS encourages data to be shared and made publicly available if they do not violate authors, human rights or other privacy issues. Cited data, whether created by the authors or not, should be included in the reference lists of articles. Authors are also encouraged to include a data availability statement.
JMFS recommends that all authors make all of their data publicly available.

Actions against scientific research and publication ethics include:
(YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, Article 4)

Plagiarism: Representing the original ideas, methods, data or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citation in accordance with scientific rules,
Forgery: Using non-existent or falsified data in scientific research,
Distortion: Falsifying research records or data, falsifying devices or materials that were not used in the research, falsifying or shaping the results of the research in line with the interests of the persons and organizations receiving support,
Republishing: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
Slicing: Inappropriately and inappropriately dividing the results of a research into parts in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and publishing them in more than one issue and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
Unfair authorship: Including or excluding people who have not actively contributed, changing the order of authors in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of active contributors from the work in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has not actively contributed,

Other types of ethical violations:
a) Failure to specify the persons, institutions or organizations providing support and their contributions in publications made as a result of research conducted with support,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or defended and accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Failure to comply with ethical rules in research on humans and failure to respect patient rights in publications,
ç) Violating the provisions of the relevant legislation in human biomedical research and other clinical research,
d) Sharing the information contained in a work that he/she has been assigned to examine with others before publication without the express permission of the author,
e) To misuse the resources, spaces, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research,
f) Making baseless, unwarranted and intentional allegations of ethical violations,
g) Publishing data obtained in surveys and attitude surveys conducted within the scope of a scientific study without obtaining the explicit consent of the participants or, if the research is to be conducted in an institution, without obtaining the permission of the institution,
h) To harm ecological balance in research and experiments,
ı) Failure to obtain the necessary permissions in writing from the authorized units in research and experiments before starting the studies.
i) Conducting research and experiments in violation of the provisions of the legislation or international conventions to which Turkey is a party regarding the relevant research and experiments.
j) Failure to comply with the obligation to inform and warn those concerned about possible harmful practices related to the scientific research conducted by researchers and authorities,
k) Not using the data and information obtained from other persons and institutions in scientific studies to the extent and in the manner permitted, not respecting the confidentiality of this information and not ensuring its protection,
l) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions.

Authors' Responsibilities and Ethical Principles to Follow
• Studies must be original and research-based.
• It should be ensured that other authors whose names will be written in the article have contributed to the research. It is against scientific ethics to list people who have no academic contributions as additional authors or to rank authors based on non-scientific criteria such as title, age and gender, regardless of the order of their contributions.
• In multi-author articles, it should be clearly stated that the authors contributed to which phase of the article and to what extent.
• The article should not be sent to different journals at the same time and should not have been sent to another journal before. If it is sent, the publication process will be cancelled.
• Authors who submit articles to the journal are assumed to have read and accepted the publishing and writing principles of the journal, and the authors are deemed to have undertaken what is expected of them in these principles.
• Citation display and Bibliography list must be complete.
• Plagiarism should not be committed and fake data should not be included.
• As a result of the similarity scan, the similarity rate should not exceed 20% in order to initiate the referee process of the article.
• An article is included in a maximum of 2 PRELIMINARY CHECK processes, and if the issues communicated to the author are not corrected during this process, the article will be rejected.
• Previously rejected studies in our journal should not be resubmitted in the same way. In such a case, the studies will be rejected.
• The corresponding author must inform the journal editor in case of any conflict of interest.

Responsibilities of Referees and Ethical Principles They Must Follow
• Referees should act with the awareness that they are the main determinant of the academic quality of the article to be published in the journal and should make evaluations with the responsibility of increasing the academic quality.
• Referees should only agree to referee articles for which they have the expertise necessary to make an appropriate evaluation, can respect blind peer review confidentiality, and can keep details of the article confidential in every way.
• After the article review process, any information about the article reviewed should not be shared with others in any way.
•Referees should only evaluate the accuracy of the content of the articles and their compliance with academic criteria. The fact that the ideas expressed in the article differ from the referee's thoughts should not affect the evaluation.
• Referee reports must be objective and measured. Insulting, derogatory and accusatory expressions should be strictly avoided.
•Referees should avoid superficial and vague expressions in their evaluation reports. In evaluations with negative results, the deficiencies and flaws on which the result is based must be shown concretely.
• Referees must evaluate the articles within the time allotted to them. If they are not going to evaluate, they should notify the journal within a reasonable time.

Responsibilities of Editors and Ethical Principles They Must Follow
• Editors must accept into the evaluation process articles that will contribute to the relevant fields specified in the journal policy.
• Editors should not have any conflict of interest/relationship with the accepted or rejected articles.
• Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article.
• It is the editors' responsibility to keep the names of the referees and authors mutually confidential.
• Only articles that contribute to the field should be accepted.
• It should support the release or retraction of corrections when errors are found.
• It is the duty of the editors to complete the preliminary review, refereeing, editing and publishing processes of the articles sent to the journal in a timely and sound manner.
• Editors should not list people who have not contributed to the journal as editorial board members or assistant editors.

2. Publication Policy

Any manuscript considered for publication in JMFS must meet the following criteria:
• Originality
• No ethical violations
• Containing clear messages to be conveyed to the scientific community
• To what extent it will contribute to researchers in the field and its importance in terms of social sciences
•Current areas and topics that researchers in the field of music are interested in
• Structural and logical integrity
• Research results are based on scientific evidence
• Appropriateness of the scientific method

Evaluation of Articles
Articles are submitted to JMFS by registering to the "Article Management System" at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/jmfs. Articles sent by e-mail will not be evaluated.

Pre-Review and Plagiarism Screening
Articles are examined for compliance with the journal's spelling rules and similarity scanning is performed to prevent plagiarism. Articles are scanned for similarity using the iThenticate plagiarism scanning program. The similarity rate is required to be less than 20%. If the similarity rate is more than 20%, the study is either rejected or sent back to the author to reduce the similarity rate. The pre-review is completed within a maximum of 20 days.

Editor/Field Editor Review
Studies which go through the pre-review and similarity screening phase, are examined by the relevant editor / field editor in terms of subject, scope, language and academic competence. This review is completed within a maximum of 20 days.

Referee Process (Double-Blind Referee)
Studies which go through the pre-review and editorial review undergo a confidential double-blind peer review process. According to the double-blind strategy, authors who submit publications to the journal cannot know who the peer reviewers are. Likewise, peer reviewers who evaluate an article cannot know whose article they are evaluating. In other words, the peer review process is conducted by keeping both authors and peer reviewers anonymous to each other. Articles are sent to at least two referees for evaluation. Additionally, reports are stored in the Article Management System. For detailed information, visit the Referee Guide page.

Author Edit
Authors take into account the feedback, criticisms, and recommendations of the reviewer and the Editorial Board. In case of any disagreement, they have the right to appeal with their justifications. Authors edit the article as per the reports and upload the final version of the article to the system.

Field Editor Review
The field editor checks whether the author has made the requested corrections in the text. If there is a "Major Revision" in the referee reports, the article is sent to the relevant referee. If there is "Acceptance" or "Minor Revision" and the edits have been made, the article can be directed to the language control stage (The checking process is completed within a maximum of 20 days). If it is detected that the corrections have not been made, the editor re-sends the article to the author. If the author does not make the corrections again, the article may be rejected. Articles that are not accepted for publication are not deleted from the system. The process phases and all the files are stored in the system.

Turkish Language Check
Studies which go through the peer-review process are reviewed by the Turkish Language Editor, and if necessary, corrections are requested from the author. The checking process is completed within a maximum of 20 days.

English Language Check
Studies which go through the Turkish language check are reviewed by the English Language Editor, and if necessary, corrections are requested from the author. The checking process is completed within a maximum of 20 days.

Editorial Board Review
Studies which go through technical, academic and linguistic reviews are reviewed by the Editorial Board and their final publication status is decided. In case of objection from the members, the Board decides by majority vote.

Typesetting and Layout Stage
The journal undertakes the typesetting and layout processes of the studies accepted for publication by the Editorial Board.

Language
Turkish and English articles are published in JMFS. Articles published in Turkish also include English abstracts. Articles published in English do not have to include a Turkish abstract. If the article is written in a language other than English, an extended English summary should be added after the bibliography. The extended abstract must have the same writing rules as the article and must be 750-1000 words.

Author Change
JMFS Journal accepts article authors according to the declaration on the Title Page of the article. Therefore, it is the authors' responsibility to submit the final version of the full author ranking. Requests for changes in authorship after article submission (e.g. removal/addition of authors, changing the order, etc.) are subject to editor approval. The Editorial Board will investigate such cases and act according to COPE flow charts.

Requests for changes in authorship must be submitted to the Editor with an official letter stating the reasons for the change. The letter must be signed by all authors and include their confirmation of the change of authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, authors are required to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final rank list.

Complaints and Objections
JMFS handles complaints and appeals following the procedure below. Complaints are not limited to long delays in reviewing studies and publication ethics; all complaints are first addressed by JMFS's editor-in-chief. The editor-in-chief may review complaints and objections together with the Editorial Board when necessary. In case of any complaints or objections, please contact jmfs@sakarya.edu.tr

Complaints About the Content of an Article
The editor-in-chief reviews the authors' complaints and the reviewers' reports and makes a decision:
• Confirmation that the article has been rejected,
• Considering the author's objection,
• A new opinion is required from an independent referee.
The editor-in-chief's final decision is notified to the authors. The explanation regarding the results of the objection is shared with the authors when deemed necessary. This is the final decision of JMFS.

Complaints About Processes
Complaints about the processes are handled by the editor-in-chief. Long delays in the processing of studies are examined by JMFS editors, and any problems deemed necessary are shared with the editor-in-chief. The editor-in-chief evaluates the complaints, and when deemed necessary, information is shared with the authors.

Complaints About Ethical Principles
The editor-in-chief takes into account the author's or referee's complaints about publication ethics. The editor-in-chief follows editorial ethics as published on the JMFS website. JMFS's editorial board reviews the concerns of complainants or reviewers. Details and progress of the investigation are openly shared with complainants. The editor-in-chief or associate editors provide feedback to complainants about the course of action and final decision.

Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in the articles published in the journal reflect the perspectives of the author(s) and not of the JMFS Journal, the Editor-in-Chief, the Editors and the Publisher. The Editor-in-Chief, Editors, Editorial Board and Publisher accept no responsibility or liability for such situations. All responsibility for the published content belongs to the authors.

Average time for preliminary evaluation of articles: 20 days
Average time articles are reviewed: 60 days
Average publication time of the article: 90 days
Updated Date: 03.01.2024