Institutional Framework
The Journal of Banking and Financial Research (BAFAD) is published in accordance with international standards of publication ethics. BAFAD adheres to the following international standards in its publication processes:
• Principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): publicationethics.org
• Standards of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Principles of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
• Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing)
BAFAD is obliged to comply with the principles and rules set out in the Document on Academic Publishing Standards and Ethical Principles, adopted in November 2025 by the Co-ordination Unit for the Promotion of International Publications and Scientific Journals at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, with effect from January 2026. This document serves to complement the journal’s institutional and normative framework regarding editorial processes, peer review principles, publication ethics, transparency and academic integrity.
Authors’ Ethical Responsibilities
• Articles submitted to BAFAD must be original, previously unpublished works in the fields of banking, finance, economics, business administration and insurance.
• Authors must cite all sources used in the preparation of the article in accordance with the journal’s referencing system.
• Individuals who have not contributed intellectually or scientifically to the article should not be listed as authors. The order of authorship reflects the joint decision of all authors.
• Authors may not submit their work to more than one journal at the same time. The Copyright and Licence Form must be completed and uploaded to the system at the time of submission.
• If the article is derived from a master’s or doctoral thesis or a funded project, this must be clearly stated.
• Any conflicts of interest relating to the submitted article must be declared and the reasons explained (see the Conflict of Interest Declaration tab).
• If authors identify an error in a published article, they must notify the editor immediately and cooperate in the correction or retraction process.
• Authors are obliged to retain raw data for at least five years from the date of publication.
• A second article by an author whose work has been published in the journal may be published no earlier than four issues after the issue in which the first article appeared.
Unethical conduct: Plagiarism, duplication (submission of the same work to more than one journal), ghost authorship/disclaimed authorship, fabrication or falsification of research or data, article splitting, copyright infringement and concealment of a conflict of interest are considered unethical conduct; if such conduct is detected, the article will be excluded from the peer-review process or, if already published, will be retracted.
Ethics Committee Approval
For research involving human and/or animal participants (surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, etc.), approval from an authorised ethics committee is mandatory. Information regarding ethics committee approval (committee name, decision date and decision number) must be clearly stated in the Methods section of the article and in the ethics statement section on the final page.
In case reports, the article must include information confirming that an informed consent form has been signed. For studies not requiring ethical committee approval (theoretical studies, secondary data analysis, meta-analyses, etc.), this must also be clearly stated in the ethical statements section of the article.
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
All articles submitted to BAFAD are evaluated using a double-blind peer review process. In this process, the authors’ identities are kept confidential from the reviewers, and the reviewers’ identities are kept confidential from the authors.
• Reviewers should only evaluate articles within their areas of expertise.
• Reviewers must immediately inform the editor if there is any conflict of interest regarding the articles they are reviewing and must decline to review that article (see the ‘Conflict of Interest Policy’ tab).
• Reviews must be impartial, objective and scientifically grounded. Comments that are aggressive, disrespectful or of a personal nature must be avoided.
• Reviewers are obliged to keep all information regarding the articles they review confidential. The content of articles must not be shared with third parties.
• Reviews must be completed within the specified timeframe; the editor must be notified if a delay is anticipated.
The Editor’s Ethical Responsibilities
The Editor bears the ethical responsibilities set out in COPE’s ‘Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors’.
• The Editor bears ultimate responsibility for all articles published in the journal.
• The Editor makes decisions on articles solely on the basis of scientific criteria; the authors’ ethnic origin, gender, institutional affiliation or political views do not influence any decision.
• The Editor takes the necessary measures to prevent conflicts of interest between authors and reviewers.
• The Editor ensures that the peer review process is conducted using a double-blind method.
• The Editor keeps all information regarding submitted articles confidential.
• The Editor may publish an erratum or issue a correction where necessary.
The Publisher’s Ethical Responsibilities
Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, the publisher of BAFAD:
• Acknowledges that the decision-making authority and the peer-review process during the article publication process are the responsibility of the Editor.
• Provides open, electronic and free access via the journal’s website.
• Does not interfere with publication decisions.
Correction, Statement of Concern and Retraction Policy
BAFAD addresses errors or ethical breaches identified in published articles in a transparent manner, in accordance with COPE guidelines.
Correction / Erratum: An official correction notice, linking back to the original article, is published for typographical, numerical or reference errors that do not affect the substance of the article.
Expression of Concern: Where serious concerns have arisen but an investigation is still ongoing, a provisional editorial notice may be published to inform readers.
Retraction: An article is retracted in accordance with COPE retraction guidelines in the following circumstances:
• Detection of plagiarism
• Fabrication or falsification of data
• Duplicate publication (the same article having been published in another journal)
• Serious ethical violations
• Serious errors that invalidate the article’s key findings
Withdrawn articles remain accessible to safeguard the integrity of the academic record and are marked with the label ‘Withdrawn’. The reason for withdrawal is made public. Should an author wish to withdraw a manuscript that has not yet been published from the review process at their own request, the reason for the request must be communicated to the editorial team in writing; for manuscripts where the peer-review process has already begun, withdrawal is finalised with the editor’s approval.
Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools
Artificial intelligence (AI)-supported language tools (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.) may be used as auxiliary resources; however, compliance with the following principles is mandatory:
• As AI tools cannot assume ultimate academic and ethical responsibility for the research, they may not be listed as authors or credited.
• If AI tools have been utilised, this must be clearly stated in the article’s author declaration section; it must be specified which tool(s) were used and for what purpose (e.g. language editing, literature review, data analysis, etc.).
• Text generated by AI cannot be presented in its entirety as the content of the article; the author’s original intellectual contribution must form the basis of the work.
• The use of AI does not absolve the author of their responsibility under the plagiarism policy.
Plagiarism and Similarity Checks
All articles submitted to BAFAD are subjected to a similarity check using iThenticate/intihal.net software prior to publication. The criteria for similarity, the assessment process and sanctions are set out in detail in the Plagiarism Policy section.