1. Publication Ethics

The Journal of the Turkish Chemical Society Section A: Chemistry (JOTCSA) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and follows the principles and best practice guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the publication process—including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher—are expected to adhere to these ethical standards.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, or any other form of research or publication misconduct. Suspected ethical violations are handled in accordance with COPE guidelines.

2. Editorial Responsibilities

The Editor-in-Chief has overall responsibility for the editorial management of the journal. Manuscripts are assigned to Section Editors (please see the Editorial Board page for details), who oversee the peer-review process and make recommendations based solely on scientific merit.

Editors evaluate submissions objectively without discrimination based on race, gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, or personal beliefs. Editorial decisions are based on originality, scientific quality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal's scope.

Editors maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and avoid handling manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest.

3. Author Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for submitting original research that has not been published previously and is not under consideration elsewhere.

All listed authors must have made substantial scientific contributions to the work and approve the final version of the manuscript before submission.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the data presented and must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest. Any errors identified after publication should be reported promptly to the editorial office.

4. Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers provide independent, objective, and constructive evaluations of submitted manuscripts.

Reviewers should accept review invitations only when they have the appropriate expertise and can complete the review within the requested timeframe. Manuscripts under review must be treated as confidential documents.

Reviewers should disclose any potential conflicts of interest and decline the review if such conflicts could affect their impartiality.

5. Peer Review Process

JOTCSA operates a double-blind external peer-review system.

Following an initial editorial screening, each manuscript is assigned by the Editor-in-Chief to a Section Editor, who manages the peer-review process.

The Section Editor invites at least two independent external reviewers with expertise in the manuscript's subject areas. Reviewers are selected based on their scientific expertise and must have no conflicts of interest with the authors. Reviewers are not selected from the same institution as the corresponding author whenever possible.

The Section Editor oversees the review process but does not normally act as a reviewer. Editorial decisions are based on reviewers' reports, the editor's evaluation, and the scientific quality of the manuscript.

Possible editorial decisions include:

• Accept
• Minor Revision
• Major Revision
• Reject

6. Research Ethics (Human & Animal Studies)

Research involving human participants or animals must comply with internationally accepted ethical standards and applicable national regulations.

Studies involving human participants must have received approval from an appropriate ethics committee and be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent must be obtained where applicable.

Studies involving animals must have received approval from the relevant institutional animal ethics committee and comply with internationally recognized guidelines for animal welfare.

Authors should provide ethics approval information within the manuscript.

7. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any financial, professional, or personal relationships that could influence the objectivity of the publication process.

Authors should include a Conflict of Interest Statement in their manuscripts. If no conflicts exist, authors should state:

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Editors and reviewers with conflicts of interest will not participate in the editorial or peer-review process for the affected manuscript.

8. Plagiarism and Similarity Checks

All submitted manuscripts undergo similarity screening using plagiarism detection software before peer review.

Similarity reports are evaluated by the editorial team. A similarity score alone does not determine editorial decisions; editors assess the nature, extent, and context of any textual overlap.

Manuscripts containing plagiarism, duplicate publication, manipulated images, or other forms of publication misconduct will be rejected or, if already published, handled according to COPE recommendations.

9. Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern

The journal follows COPE recommendations for post-publication corrections.

Corrections may be published when errors affecting the accuracy or clarity of a published article are identified.

Retractions are issued when findings are shown to be unreliable due to major errors or research misconduct, including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or unethical research.

Expressions of Concern may be published when serious concerns arise regarding a published article but conclusive evidence is not yet available.

All corrections, retractions, and editorial notices are permanently linked to the original article to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

10. Copyright & Licensing

Authors retain copyright of their published work.

Articles published in JOTCSA are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

This license permits users to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes, provided appropriate credit is given to the original authors and source, no modifications are made, and the license terms are respected.