Publication Ethics

The publications published in KNOWSF are a fundamental organization in a popular and respected country and market. The efforts implemented in this direction directly reflect the quality of the authors and the authors they support. These efforts are aimed at embodying and supporting peer-reviewed studies. In this regard, you will not be disregarded for the ethical principles that apply throughout the entire process (authors, readers, researchers, publisher, reviewers, and editors). Our journal's publication ethics include the following ethical responsibilities for all participants.

The ethical duties and responsibilities listed below have been prepared in accordance with the open access guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors' Ethical Responsibilities

Author(s) submitting a manuscript to KNOWSF are expected to adhere to the following ethical responsibilities:

Author(s) are expected to submit original work. If author(s) use or utilize other work, they must provide full and accurate attribution and/or citation.
Individuals who did not contribute intellectually to the content of the manuscript should not be identified as authors.
Any conflicts of interest and relationships that may arise should be disclosed for all manuscripts submitted for publication.
Author(s) may be requested to provide raw data for their manuscripts as part of the peer-review process. In such cases, author(s) must be prepared to submit the requested data and information to the editorial board and scientific committee.

Authors must have documentation demonstrating that they have the rights to use the data used, the necessary permissions for the research/analysis, or that the consent of the experimental subjects has been obtained.

If the author(s) discover an error or mistake in their published, early-view, or evaluation-stage work, they are obligated to notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor in the correction or retraction process.

Authors may not have their work in the submission process for more than one journal simultaneously. Each submission can be initiated following the completion of the previous submission. We cannot submit work already published in another journal.
Changes to author responsibilities (such as adding authors, changing the order of authors, or removing authors) cannot be proposed for a work already under review.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

KNOWSF editors and field editors should have the following ethical duties and responsibilities based on the "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for open access publications:

General Duties and Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for every publication in the journal. Within this responsibility, editors have the following roles and responsibilities:

Striving to meet the information needs of readers and authors,
Ensuring the continuous development of the journal,
Implementing processes to improve the quality of the work published in the journal,
Supporting freedom of thought,
Ensuring academic integrity,
Continuing business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
Displaying openness and transparency in matters requiring correction or clarification.

Relationships with Readers

Editors must make decisions considering the knowledge, skills, and experience expectations of all readers, researchers, and practitioners. They must ensure that published studies contribute to the scientific literature and are original in nature. Furthermore, editors are obligated to consider feedback from readers, researchers, and practitioners and provide descriptive and informative feedback.

Relationships with Authors

Editors' duties and responsibilities towards authors are as follows:

Editors must make decisions, whether positive or negative, based on the importance, originality, validity, clarity of presentation, and the journal's aims and objectives.
Studies that are suitable for publication should be included in the preliminary evaluation phase unless there are serious problems.
Editors should not ignore positive referee recommendations unless there are serious problems with the study.
New editors should not change the decisions made by previous editor(s) regarding the study unless there are serious problems.
The "Blind Review and Evaluation Process" must be published, and editors must prevent any deviations from the defined processes.

Relationships with Reviewers

Editors' duties and responsibilities towards reviewers are as follows:

They should select reviewers appropriate to the subject matter of the study.
They are responsible for providing the information and guidance that reviewers will need during the evaluation phase.
They are responsible for ensuring that there are no conflicts of interest between authors and reviewers.
In the context of blinded reviewing, they should keep the identities of reviewers confidential.
They should encourage reviewers to evaluate the study in an impartial, scientific, and objective manner.
They should evaluate reviewers using criteria such as timely response and performance.
They should establish practices and policies to improve reviewer performance.
They should take the necessary steps to dynamically update the reviewer pool.
They should prevent discourteous and unscientific reviews.
They should take steps to ensure that the reviewer pool consists of a broad spectrum of reviewers.

Relationships with the Editorial Board

Editors should ensure that all editorial board members adhere to editorial policies and guidelines. They should inform editorial board members about editorial policies and keep them informed of developments. They should train new editorial board members on editorial policies and provide them with the information they need.

Furthermore, editors should:

Ensure that editorial board members evaluate the work impartially and independently.
They should identify new editorial board members who are capable of contributing and qualified.
They should submit work that aligns with the editorial board members' areas of expertise for review.
They should maintain regular interaction with the editorial board.
They should hold regular meetings with the editorial board to discuss the development of editorial policies and the journal.

Relationships with the Journal Owner and Publisher

The relationship between editors and publishers is based on the principle of editorial independence. According to the written agreement between the editors and publisher, all decisions made by the editors are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.

Editorial and blind peer-review processes

Editors are responsible for implementing the "Blind Peer Review and Review Process" policies outlined in the journal's publication policies. In this context, editors ensure that the review process for each manuscript is completed fairly, impartially, and in a timely manner.

Quality Assurance

Editors are responsible for ensuring that every article published in the journal complies with the journal's publication policies and international standards.

Personal Data Protection

Editors are responsible for ensuring the protection of personal data regarding subjects or images included in reviewed studies. They are responsible for rejecting studies unless the explicit consent of the individuals used in studies is documented. Furthermore, editors are responsible for protecting the personal data of authors, reviewers, and readers.

Ethics Committee, Human and Animal Rights

Editors are responsible for ensuring the protection of human and animal rights in reviewed studies. They are responsible for rejecting studies in cases where ethics committee approval for subjects used in studies and permissions for experimental research are not obtained.

Precautions against potential misconduct and abuse of power

Editors are responsible for taking precautions against potential misconduct and abuse of power. In addition to conducting a rigorous and objective investigation into complaints regarding these situations, the editor's responsibilities include identifying and evaluating them, as well as sharing relevant findings.

Ensuring the integrity of academic publications

Editors must ensure that errors, inconsistencies, or misleading judgments in their work are promptly corrected.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all published articles and defending the rights of the journal and the author(s) in the event of potential violations. Furthermore, editors are obligated to take the necessary precautions to ensure that the content of all published articles does not infringe the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Constructiveness and Openness to Discussion

Editors should:

take into account persuasive criticism of published works and adopt a constructive approach to these criticisms.
They should provide the author(s) of the criticized works with the right to reply.
They should not ignore or exclude studies that contain negative results.

Complaints

Editors are obligated to carefully review complaints from authors, reviewers, or readers and respond to them in an informative and descriptive manner.

Political and Commercial Concerns

The journal owner, publisher, and any other political or commercial factors do not influence the editors' independent decision-making.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors ensure that the publication process is completed independently and impartially, taking into account any conflicts of interest among the author(s), reviewers, and other editors.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

The "blind peer review" method of evaluating all studies directly impacts the quality of publications. This process ensures trust through objective and independent evaluation of the publication. The KNOWSF review process is conducted using the principle of double-blind peer review. Reviewers cannot directly contact authors; evaluations and comments are communicated through the journal management system. During this process, reviewer comments on evaluation forms and full texts are communicated to the author(s) via the editor. In this context, reviewers who evaluate studies for our journal are expected to have the following ethical responsibilities:

-Only studies related to their field of expertise should be accepted for review.
-They should conduct evaluations with impartiality and confidentiality.
-If they believe they face a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, they should decline to review the study and inform the journal editor.
-Due to the principle of confidentiality, they should destroy the reviewed studies after the evaluation process. They may use only the final versions of the reviewed studies only after publication.
-They should conduct the evaluation objectively and solely on the content of the study. They should not allow nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or commercial concerns to influence the evaluation.
-They should conduct the evaluations constructively and politely. They should not make derogatory personal comments that contain hostility, slander, or insults.
-They should complete the accepted studies on time and in accordance with the ethical responsibilities mentioned above.

Publisher's Ethical Responsibilities

The Journal's Board of Directors acts with the awareness of the following ethical responsibilities:

-Editors are responsible for all processes related to manuscripts submitted to the journal. Within this framework, editors are the decision-makers, regardless of economic or political gain.
-It is committed to making independent editorial decisions.
-KNOWSF protects the ownership and copyright of every published article and undertakes to maintain a record of every published copy.
-It is the responsibility of editors to take measures against all forms of scientific misconduct, citation fraud, and plagiarism.

If You Encounter an Unethical Situation

If you encounter any unethical behavior or content in our journal, beyond the ethical responsibilities outlined above, please report it to knowsf@bayburt.edu.tr.