Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) is an international, peer-reviewed, scholarly, and open-access journal committed to the principles of research and publication ethics. The journal’s publication processes are conducted in accordance with the principles of scientific integrity, impartiality, transparency, accountability, editorial independence, academic quality, open access, and the free dissemination of scientific knowledge.
1. International Standards and Fundamental Principles
All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, field editors, members of the Editorial Board, and the publisher, are required to act in accordance with ethical principles.
The journal’s publication ethics and editorial processes are conducted in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), and relevant national and international principles of scholarly publishing.
2. Publication Policy
Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) aims to publish original studies of high academic quality that make a scientific contribution. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been previously published, must not be under consideration by another journal, and must be prepared in accordance with the principles of scientific research and publication ethics.
Manuscripts to be published in the journal must comply with the journal’s aims and scope. Manuscripts that are outside the scope of the journal, are of insufficient scientific quality, provide limited original contribution, contain incomplete ethical declarations, or have not been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines may be rejected or returned to the author by the Editorial Office without being sent for peer review.
The scientific, ethical, legal, and linguistic responsibility for works published in the journal rests with the authors.
Publication decisions are based on the significance, originality, clarity, and scientific validity of the study, its relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, and its contribution to the relevant scientific field. Copyright infringement, plagiarism, and other relevant legal obligations are also taken into consideration during the editorial evaluation process.
3. Peer Review Policy
Research articles and review articles submitted to Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) are evaluated through a double-blind peer-review system. Under this system, the identities of the authors are not disclosed to the reviewers, and the identities of the reviewers are not disclosed to the authors.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are first subjected to a preliminary review by the Editorial Office. At this stage, the manuscript is evaluated in terms of its compliance with the journal’s aims and scope, adherence to the author guidelines, completeness of ethical declarations, similarity rate, citation practices, and scientific quality.
Manuscripts that successfully pass the preliminary review are sent to at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. If one reviewer provides a positive opinion and the other provides a negative opinion, the manuscript may be sent to a third reviewer, or the Editorial Office may make the final decision by taking into account the scientific justification provided in the reviewer reports.
The final publication decision is made by the Editorial Office based on the reviewer reports, the scientific quality of the manuscript, and the editorial evaluation.
The peer-review process is conducted in accordance with the principles of impartiality, confidentiality, scientific competence, and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Reviewers are required to decline a review invitation if they have any conflict of interest concerning the manuscript they have been invited to evaluate.
To the extent possible, reviewers are not selected from among individuals affiliated with the same institution as the authors. The Editorial Office seeks to ensure that there are no institutional, academic, personal, or financial conflicts of interest between authors and reviewers.
Manuscripts authored by an editor, a member of the Editorial Board, or any individual affiliated with the journal are subject to an independent peer-review and editorial evaluation process in which the relevant individual is excluded from all editorial decision-making processes.
4. Research Ethics
All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be prepared in accordance with the principles of research ethics.
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, legal permission, or special permission, the scope of the ethics committee approval, the name of the institution granting the approval, the decision date, and the decision/reference number must be stated in the manuscript at the time of submission.
Research requiring ethics committee approval includes the following:
All qualitative or quantitative studies that require data to be collected from participants through surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, experiments, interviews, or similar techniques,
Research involving the use of humans or animals, including materials and data, for experimental or other scientific purposes,
Clinical research conducted on humans,
Research conducted on animals,
Retrospective studies falling within the scope of legislation concerning the protection of personal data.
In addition:
For case reports, it must be stated that informed consent has been obtained.
Where scales, questionnaires, photographs, images, or similar materials belonging to others are used, the necessary permissions must be obtained and declared.
Copyright regulations must be observed in relation to the intellectual and artistic works used.
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the name of the ethics committee, the decision date, and the decision number must be clearly stated in the manuscript. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, it is also recommended that this be stated in the manuscript.
In research involving participants, informed consent must be obtained, and the privacy, personal data, and identifying information of participants must be protected. Personal data must be used in accordance with applicable legal regulations and ethical principles.
5. Publication Ethics
Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) does not tolerate unethical publishing practices such as plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, salami slicing, duplicate publication, redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, gift/honorary authorship, ghost authorship, unauthorized use of data or materials, concealment of conflicts of interest, and manipulative citation practices.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original. The same manuscript may not be submitted simultaneously to more than one journal. Publication of the same or substantially the same research in more than one journal is considered unethical publishing behavior.
Authors must cite all sources used in their work accurately, completely, and in accordance with appropriate citation rules. Ideas, statements, methods, data, images, tables, figures, or findings belonging to others may not be used without appropriate attribution.
6. Similarity and Plagiarism Policy
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are checked using similarity detection software.
Authors may be required to upload a similarity report to the system in PDF format at the time of manuscript submission. Similarity reports may be generated using iThenticate, Academic Paradigms/Check For Plagiarism, Grammarly Plagiarism Checker, or other comparable similarity detection software.
Similarity reports are not evaluated solely on the basis of a numerical percentage. The nature of the similarity, citation practices, appropriateness of direct quotations, and principles of academic writing are also taken into consideration.
The overall similarity rate must not exceed 20%. The similarity rate from any single source is expected not to exceed 3%. The reference list may be excluded when calculating the similarity rate.
Manuscripts in which plagiarism, self-plagiarism, inappropriate quotation, unattributed use, or manipulation of data or text is identified may be rejected. If an ethical violation is identified after publication, correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction procedures may be initiated.
7. Authors’ Responsibilities
Authors acknowledge that the manuscript they submit to the journal is original, scholarly, and prepared in accordance with ethical principles. Authors are required to declare that the manuscript has not been previously published and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
Authors of original research articles must provide an accurate account of the work performed and discuss its scientific significance objectively. The data underlying the research must be presented accurately in the manuscript. The study must contain sufficient methodological detail and references to enable other researchers, where appropriate, to reproduce the research. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
The principal responsibilities of authors are as follows:
To prepare the manuscript in accordance with the principles of scientific research and publication ethics,
To ensure the originality of the manuscript,
To cite all sources used accurately and completely,
To obtain all required ethics committee approvals, participant consents, and legal permissions,
To disclose conflicts of interest clearly,
To disclose funding and project support,
To report author contributions accurately,
To take responsibility for the accuracy and reliability of the data used in the study,
To respond to reviewer and editor comments in a scientific and constructive manner,
To notify the Editorial Office promptly if a significant error or inaccuracy is identified in the manuscript,
Not to submit the manuscript to another journal before the evaluation process has been completed.
If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, the author must promptly notify the journal Editorial Office or publisher and cooperate with the Editorial Office in carrying out any necessary correction or retraction procedures.
8. Authorship and Contribution Statement
Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made a meaningful academic contribution to the conception, design, conduct, data collection or analysis, interpretation of results, writing, critical revision, or final approval of the reported study.
All individuals who have made a meaningful contribution to the study must be listed as co-authors, while individuals who have not contributed to the study must not be included in the author list.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all contributing co-authors are included in the author list and that individuals who have not contributed are not included. The corresponding author must also confirm that all co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.
Gift authorship, honorary authorship, and ghost authorship are not accepted. Individuals who have contributed to the study but do not meet the criteria for authorship may be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.
For multi-authored manuscripts, the type or proportion of each author’s contribution may be stated in the manuscript. All authors share responsibility for the published version of the article and its ethical obligations.
Requests to add or remove authors or to change the order of authors after manuscript submission may be considered only with the written approval of all authors and the approval of the Editorial Office.
9. Conflict of Interest Policy
Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose all existing or potential conflicts of interest that could affect the evaluation, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript.
Conflicts of interest may be financial, institutional, academic, personal, professional, or of another nature.
Authors must include a statement disclosing any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the results or interpretation of the manuscript. Where no conflict of interest exists, this must also be explicitly stated.
Reviewers must withdraw from the review process if they believe they have a conflict of interest concerning the manuscript. Editors must not participate in decision-making processes concerning manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.
10. Funding and Support Statement
Authors must clearly disclose in the manuscript all financial support received for their study, project numbers, and the institutions or organizations providing such support.
If no financial support has been received, this must also be stated in the manuscript.
If the funding institution or organization has had any role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, or decision to publish, this role must be clearly disclosed.
11. Ethics Committee Approval and Other Permissions
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, approval information must be included in the manuscript. This information must include, at a minimum:
Name of the ethics committee,
Date of the decision/approval,
Decision or approval number.
Studies requiring ethics committee approval but lacking the necessary approval information may not be considered for evaluation or may be returned to the author.
Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions for the use of scales, questionnaires, photographs, images, tables, figures, software, datasets, or other copyrighted materials belonging to third parties.
For case reports, informed consent must be obtained and this must be stated in the manuscript.
12. Data Sharing, Data Retention, and Research Integrity
Authors are responsible for the accuracy and reliability of the data used in their studies and for ensuring that such data have been obtained in accordance with ethical principles.
Where deemed necessary during editorial evaluation, authors may be asked to provide the Editorial Office with the raw data of the research, analysis files, permission documents, or additional information.
Where practicable, authors are encouraged to make their research data available to the scientific community. Provided that participant confidentiality can be protected and that legal rights relating to proprietary or sensitive data do not prevent disclosure, research data are expected to remain accessible to other qualified researchers for at least ten years following publication. It is recommended that this be achieved, preferably, through an institutional or subject-based data repository or another reliable data center.
Fabrication, alteration, falsification, selective reporting, or use of data in a manner that misleadingly represents research findings is considered an ethical violation.
Personal data, sensitive information, and data concerning the privacy of third parties must be protected in accordance with applicable legislation and ethical principles.
13. Reviewers’ Responsibilities
The peer-review process assists editors and the Editorial Board in making scientific publication decisions and contributes to the improvement of manuscripts by authors.
Reviewers must:
Accept for review only manuscripts that fall within their areas of scientific expertise.
Inform the editor and withdraw from the review process if they believe they do not have sufficient expertise to evaluate a manuscript or cannot complete the review within the required timeframe.
Treat manuscripts received for review as confidential documents.
Not disclose or discuss manuscript content with third parties without the editor’s permission.
Conduct their evaluations objectively and according to scientific criteria.
Avoid personal, derogatory, or offensive remarks directed at authors.
Express their views clearly and provide appropriate justification.
Inform the editor of significant missing references, inappropriate citations, or possible instances of plagiarism identified in the manuscript.
Notify the editor if they identify substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published works.
Not use confidential information obtained during the peer-review process for personal or academic advantage.
Not review manuscripts where conflicts of interest arise from competitive, collaborative, personal, institutional, financial, or other relationships.
Submit their review reports in a timely manner and provide scientific justification for their assessments.
14. Editors’ Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for maintaining the scientific quality of the journal and ensuring that publication processes are conducted in accordance with the principles of impartiality, confidentiality, and transparency.
Editors evaluate manuscripts according to scientific criteria irrespective of the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, political views, institutional affiliation, academic title, or other personal characteristics.
The principal responsibilities of editors are as follows:
To evaluate submitted manuscripts in terms of the journal’s aims and scope, originality, scientific quality, and ethical compliance,
To select appropriate and independent reviewers,
To conduct the peer-review process impartially,
To make the final publication decision by taking into account reviewer reports and editorial evaluations,
To manage conflicts of interest,
To safeguard editorial independence,
To carefully investigate allegations of ethical misconduct,
To initiate correction, expression of concern, or retraction procedures where necessary,
To evaluate complaints from authors, reviewers, and readers fairly.
Editors and editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to any third party other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, necessary editorial advisers, and the publisher.
Materials contained in a submitted but unpublished manuscript may not be used by editors or members of the Editorial Board for their own research without the author’s explicit written consent.
15. Editorial Board and Field Editors
The Editorial Board and field editors contribute to the development of the journal’s academic quality. Board members support scientific evaluation processes in accordance with the journal’s aims and scope, may recommend reviewers, and may contribute to the development of publication policies.
Members of the Editorial Board may submit manuscripts for publication in the journal. However, such manuscripts are subject to an independent evaluation process in which the relevant Editorial Board member is excluded from all editorial decision-making processes.
16. Editorial Independence
Publication decisions at Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) are based solely on the scientific quality, originality, ethical compliance, contribution to the journal’s aims and scope, and peer-review evaluations of the manuscript.
The publisher, institutional administrators, sponsors, or other third parties may not interfere with scientific or editorial decision-making processes.
The Editorial Office has independent decision-making authority in accordance with the principles of scholarly publishing and research ethics.
17. Correction, Retraction, and Expression of Concern Policy
Where a significant error affecting the scientific content, accuracy of data, author information, ethical declarations, or bibliographic information of a published article is identified, a correction (correction/erratum) may be published.
Where serious ethical misconduct, plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, unauthorized use, duplicate publication, or another circumstance that undermines the scientific reliability of the article is identified, the article may be retracted (retraction).
Where an investigation into an allegation of ethical misconduct has not reached a definitive conclusion but serious concerns remain regarding the reliability of the published article, an expression of concern may be issued.
These processes are conducted in accordance with COPE principles.
18. Complaints and Appeals Process
Authors, reviewers, readers, or other interested parties may submit written complaints or appeals to the journal Editorial Office concerning the publication process, editorial decisions, allegations of ethical misconduct, or published content.
Complaints and appeals are evaluated impartially. Where necessary, opinions may be sought from the Editorial Board, independent subject experts, or other relevant parties.
The appeals process is conducted within the framework of the scientific justification underlying peer-review decisions and the principles governing editorial evaluation.
19. Artificial Intelligence Use Policy
Authors may use generative artificial intelligence tools in a limited and responsible manner that does not eliminate or diminish their scientific responsibility.
Generative artificial intelligence systems may not be listed as authors because authorship entails scientific responsibility, ethical accountability, and copyright-related obligations.
Where artificial intelligence tools have been used, the scope and purpose of such use must, where appropriate, be clearly disclosed in the manuscript.
Authors are fully responsible for the:
Scientific accuracy,
Originality,
Accuracy of sources and references,
Compliance with copyright,
Ethical and legal compliance
of all content generated or edited with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
The author(s)/corresponding author(s) assume responsibility for any issues that may arise from the use of artificial intelligence or from violations of ethical, moral, or legal principles before, during, or after the publication process.
Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscript content, peer-review reports, or editorial correspondence under evaluation to third-party generative artificial intelligence systems that do not provide appropriate confidentiality safeguards.
20. Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing Policy
Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) is an open-access journal. All articles published in the journal are freely accessible to all readers from the moment of publication, without any subscription, access fee, registration requirement, or embargo period.
Users may freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing purposes, and use them for other lawful purposes in accordance with the applicable license terms.
Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) regards open access as a fundamental component of scientific and academic activity and supports the permanent and free dissemination of published scholarly content to the global academic community.
Articles published in the journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This license permits the work to be shared, copied, distributed, adapted, and transformed for non-commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source in which the work was first published.
Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights to their published works. By submitting their work to Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS), authors grant the journal only the right of first publication and a non-exclusive right to publish the published version, archive it, preserve it, index it, and distribute it in accordance with open-access principles.
This permission does not constitute a transfer of copyright to the journal or the publisher.
21. Fee Policy
Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) does not charge authors or readers any fees.
The journal does not charge:
Submission fees,
Editorial processing fees,
Peer-review fees,
Article Processing Charges (APCs),
Publication fees,
Page charges,
Color figure charges,
DOI fees,
Language editing fees,
Withdrawal fees,
or any other fees under any name.
All publication processes of the journal are free of charge. The absence of fees does not affect the scientific independence of the editorial and peer-review processes.
22. Archiving and Preservation Policy
Articles published in Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) are made available through the DergiPark platform and are digitally archived.
The journal supports the long-term accessibility and preservation of its published scholarly content and the maintenance of the integrity of the scholarly record.
For the long-term digital preservation of online content, the journal utilizes the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system through the DergiPark infrastructure.
Authors may share the published version of their articles on personal websites, institutional repositories, academic networks, and other open-access platforms, provided that appropriate bibliographic citation and a link are included indicating that the work was first published in Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS).
23. Privacy Statement
Names, email addresses, institutional information, and other personal information entered into the journal system are used exclusively for the purposes of the journal’s scholarly publication processes. Such information is not disclosed to third parties except where required by law.
Manuscripts under evaluation, peer-review reports, and editorial correspondence are considered confidential.
Editors, reviewers, Editorial Board members, and other individuals involved in the publication process must not disclose such information to unauthorized third parties.
Privileged information or ideas obtained through the peer-review process must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal, commercial, or academic advantage.
24. Reporting Ethical Misconduct
The Editorial Office may be notified where there is suspicion of ethical misconduct concerning a manuscript that has been published or is under evaluation by the journal.
Reports of ethical misconduct are evaluated by the Editorial Office in accordance with the principles of impartiality, confidentiality, and fair investigation.
Where necessary:
Authors may be asked to provide explanations or supporting documentation,
Opinions may be sought from reviewers or independent subject experts,
The relevant university, research institution, or ethics committee may be contacted,
A correction may be issued,
An expression of concern may be published,
The article may be retracted.
Relevant COPE principles are taken into consideration when allegations of ethical misconduct are evaluated.
25. Final Provisions
Authors who submit manuscripts to Journal of Smart Systems (JOSS) are deemed to have accepted the journal’s ethical principles, publication policy, peer-review policy, open-access policy, copyright provisions, and licensing terms.
Authors assume scientific, ethical, and legal responsibility for the manuscripts they submit.
The Editorial Office reserves the right to update these Ethical Principles and Publication Policy in response to developments in national and international standards of scholarly publishing and principles of research and publication ethics.
Updated policies become effective from the date on which they are published on the journal’s website.
If a significant error, inaccuracy, ethical violation, or conduct inconsistent with the responsibilities set out above is identified in a published manuscript or a manuscript under evaluation, the journal Editorial Office may be notified.