Publication Ethics of the Journal

As an open-access journal, the Journal of Women Studies provides immediate and free online access to all published articles for the public. Authors of accepted articles are not subject to any fees for publication.

The Journal of Women Studies adheres to high ethical standards to ensure the delivery of dependable and enhanced research findings to its readers. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has adopted principles and methods to identify best practices in scientific publication ethics and assist editors and publishers in this endeavor.

To obtain comprehensive information regarding conflict of interest, established practices, and publishing ethics of the journal, we strongly recommend that authors and readers consult the informative document titled "Code of Conduct and Guidelines for Good Publishing"

Authors who submit articles to the journal can be confident that their submissions will undergo objective evaluation. Consequently, every article is examined without considering the author's ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender, political beliefs, age, or place of employment.

The primary principles of our Research and Publication Ethics policy, which have been formulated for this specific objective, can be outlined as follows:

Human Experiments: Authors must consider the ethical norms governing research carried out on human subjects. Research should be conducted only after obtaining the participants' consent. Special consideration should be given when conducting research involving children, patients, prisoners, or other vulnerable populations.


Data Collection and Analysis: It is imperative for authors to guarantee that data is gathered and handled in a manner that adheres to ethical and legal standards. Data manipulation or deceptive data presentation is strictly forbidden. Researchers are required to adhere to scientific integrity and objectively analyze the data.

Publication: Authors are required to present their research findings with accuracy and honesty. When publishing the findings of the study, it is necessary to acknowledge the contributions of another researcher. Any potential conflicts of interest, such as financial subsidies, need to be addressed.

Ethical Review: Authors must ensure that their research findings undergo evaluation by the ethical review committee, if deemed necessary, prior to submission, in order to ascertain compliance with ethical norms. When conducting work that necessitates the approval of the ethics committee, it is essential to incorporate details regarding the authorization (such as the name of the committee, date, and number) in both the method section and on the initial/ultimate page of the article.

Our journal’s ethics of scientific research and publication adheres to universally established principles. The principles of honesty and morality are indispensable at all stages of scientific research. Our journal’s policy includes the right to seek legal recourse in response to scientific misrepresentation.

Articles intended for submission to the journal should not have been previously published or simultaneously sent for publication elsewhere. Research that is resubmitted, contains plagiarism, or infringes upon the rights of others will not be published. If any violations are identified during the review period, the review is promptly terminated and handed back to the author(s). Authors are permitted to resubmit rejected articles after incorporating the perspectives and recommendations of the referee(s). Applications that the Editorial Board deems to have not adequately addressed the concerns raised by the referees are declined for publication. The rest are being considered for the evaluation process.

Scientific meeting submissions may be eligible for publication, as long as they have not been previously published in another journal or submission booklet, provided that the event details are mentioned in a footnote. The authors bear sole ethical responsibility in this matter.

For research papers to be submitted, it is necessary to obtain the ethics committee approval for clinical-experimental studies involving humans and animals that require an ethics committee decision. The footnote to the title of the article should include details about the institution and the date of ethical approval obtained.
For human studies, researchers must obtain informed consent from participants about any procedures to be implemented. The required explanation about that participants have been provided with informed consent regarding the details of the study should be indicated in the method section of the article.

All qualitative and quantitative research requiring data collection from participants through surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observations, experiments, interview techniques, etc. and retrospective studies conducted in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act require the approval of the ethics committee. This includes works completed in accordance with the law. As copyright restrictions apply to works of art and philosophical thought, it is also important to emphasize that they are permitted by the copyright holders and specified in the paper.

The studies involving human experiments in the context of the research are OBLIGED to submit a certificate of approval from the ethics committee.

Studies lacking approval from the ethics committee will be INELIGIBLE for evaluation.

Publication Policy

The evaluation processes in The KADEM Journal of Women Studies aim to identify several fundamental criteria.

    • The KADEM Journal of Women Studies will present current studies employing advanced research and statistical methodologies. Along with the competency of studies regarding methodology, offering authentic and novel contributions to the field is the fundamental criteria for         publication.

Evaluation Processes

The following about the papers to be submitted to the KADEM Journal of Woman Studies for publication is taken into consideration: Papers should include “quantitative, qualitative, single-subject or complex research patterns on women studies”; “literary analysis, meta-analysis or meta-synthetic studies that comprehensively evaluate recent papers on women studies”; and “model proposals that can be applied practically” or papers are “required to be written in similar authentic quality”.

Along with the scientific papers and articles on women studies, the journal may publish book reviews, judicial decisions, legislative evaluations, and analyses of contemporary occurrences. The editorial board determines whether to accept or reject such articles.

The papers submitted for publication first undergo an examination by the Editor-in-Chief, who assesses their purpose, topic, content, style of presentation, and adherence to writing guidelines. The prevailing patterns in editorial pre-evaluation can be summarized as follows: in research conducted on master's and doctoral theses, the entirety of the thesis is anticipated, encompassing all the data employed in the dissertation, without any sections being omitted. Updated data is highly valued for all forms of research. If the research data was collected five years ago or longer, it is considered outdated. The evaluation of a submitted paper is finalized within a period of 40 days. The studies conducted during the peer-review process are submitted to two referees who are experts in the respective field. If there is a discrepancy in the reports provided by the referees regarding the study, the perspective of a third referee will be sought. The duration of the peer-review process typically spans from 3 to 4 months, due to referees’ being busy. The duration of this period may be prolonged as a result of heavy workload of referees in the relevant field.

Our journal applies a double-blind peer-review procedure. The authors are unaware of the identity of the referees responsible for evaluating their paper. The referees are unaware of the identity of the author/authors of the paper they are evaluating. A similarity report is produced for every article that is submitted to the journal. If the similarity report surpasses 20%, excluding references (sources), the article will be returned to the author.

The author(s) must consider the critiques, recommendations, and revision requests provided by the referees and editors. Author(s) should provide a clear rationale for their disagreement towards criticisms and suggestions. The papers submitted to the journal are held in strict confidence until they are published by the editorial board and the journal editors, unless there are suspicions of plagiarism or simultaneous submissions. In the case that an article is declined by the Editorial Board, it is necessary for the editors and the board to ensure that the article is not utilized for any other intention or shared with anyone other than the author(s). The journal evaluates each submission utilizing a double-blind system. The editorial staff and/or the Editorial Board have the authority to ask for an external evaluation if they identify any irregularities or inadequacies in the referees’ reports. The main function of the referees is to offer editorial critique of the submitted article for publication. Referees have a duty to maintain the confidentiality of submitted papers during the evaluation process and are prohibited from utilizing any information acquired through the peer-reviewing system for personal gain. If any of the referees has a conflict of interest with any author, company, or institution affiliated with the paper, the submission should be disregarded. The referees are obligated to assess the paper in an impartial and analytical manner, and they are prohibited from providing any subjective remarks regarding the author(s). To obtain information and guidelines regarding referee evaluation procedures, please refer to the Notes to Referees section in the Journal of Women Studies.

Even though the articles have undergone the peer review, it does not mean that the article will be accepted and published. If the editorial board deems necessary, the board may send the article to a new referee, sent back to the author or reject it. The Journal Committees collaborate to make publication decisions after the examination of the referees' reports. Once an article has fulfilled all the evaluation criteria, the editorial board determines whether to publish it or not. The journal is under no obligation to notify the authors when their paper is rejected for publication.

The procedures for the papers that have been approved for publication are outlined below. The result of an approved publication is conveyed to the Authorized Author. Editor-in-Chief reviews the paper edited by the Authorized Author, which is based on the relevant reports. Paper that has been approved is subjected to the process of proofreading and editing. Editing notes pertaining to the paper are sent to the authorized author. The papers of which editing process is finalized are sent to be designed. The papers of which layout and design is finalized is examined by the Authorized Author for last time. The papers that complete these processes are included in the publication process and subsequently printed in the corresponding issue. If, after the initial editorial evaluation, a paper fails to meet the overall or specific criteria, the Authorized Author will be informed of the reason and the decision that the paper will not proceed to the peer review process.

Summary of the editorial process

- The author submits the article and receives an email.
- The editorial staff performs an initial quality check to ensure that the manuscript is formatted correctly.
- Articles that do not comply with the format are sent to the Editor with a note and the editor returns the article to the author for editing.
- An Editor-in-Chief is assigned to the formatted manuscript and decides whether to send the manuscript to a Field Editor for review. If it is decided not to send the manuscript for review, the Field Editor will contact the author to inform them of the decision.
- If the Field Editor decides that the manuscript is within the scope of the journal and may be eligible for review, the manuscript is proceeded. 
- The Senior Editor then evaluates the manuscript for quality and perceived progress and either recommends rejection or assigns reviewers. This may take some time, depending on the responsiveness and suitability of the reviewers selected.
- Reviewers have 18 days from acceptance to submit their reports. Once the required reports have been submitted, the Field Editor will recommend a decision to the Editor-in-Chief based on the ranking and comments received.
- The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision.
- Authors can track the status of their paper throughout the peer review process in the Dergipark System.

The author/authors bear the responsibility. The journal or the Association of Women and Democracy (KADEM) have no accountability or responsibility for the content of the published articles regarding thoughts authored. The Association of Women and Democracy (KADEM) holds the exclusive rights to publish the content.

The journal aims to uphold standards of scientific rigour and integrity and to foster a respectful academic environment. We welcome scientific criticism and objections to the content that we publish. Any requests received by our journal in this context process through the stages of "Editorial Review", "Ethical Evaluation", "Confidentiality" and "Editorial Decision". This flow and policy underline our commitment to maintaining the highest quality and ethical standards in the published content, while providing a transparent and accountable process for addressing the appeals and complaints.

Our commitment to dissemination is reflected in our approach to access for materials. The archives are stored both physically at the journal's headquarters and electronically in an open access format. This dual system ensures that our research is accessible to a variety of audiences, including researchers, students and the general public. To encourage open access and knowledge sharing, all content published in the journal is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence. Authors are expected to comply with the terms of this licence when submitting their work.

KADEM Journal of Women's Studies does not accept advertisements to protect the integrity of its content. Publication decisions are based solely on the quality and contribution of the research, without any commercial influence.

If you encounter any content and behaviour other than the responsibilities and behaviours stated here under the title of ethics and publication policy of our journal, please notify us via makale@kadinarastirmalari.com e-mail address.