Ethical Policy and Guidelines

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and  Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

To access The Ethical Guideline please use the link on the text. 

Ethics Policy

Scientific and Ethical Responsibility: The scientific responsibility of the articles belongs to the authors. All authors must actively participate in the study and meet the authorship requirements set by ICJME. In order for the manuscripts to be published in the journal, they should not have been published in another scientific journal before. If the submitted article has been presented before in any meeting; the name of the meeting, the date and the city in which it is organized.

The protocol for clinical trials should be approved by the ethics committee of the institution concerned. In all human studies, the "Method" or "Ethical Aspect of the Study" section at the end of the article should state that the study was approved by the relevant committee or that the study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of Principles (www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm). It should be stated in the text that signed the informed consent form from the patients or all individuals participating in the study.

If the “Animal” element is used in the study, the authors should state in the "Methods" or "Ethical Aspect of the Study"  section of the article that they protect animal rights in their studies and that they are approved by the ethics committees of their institutions in accordance with the principles of Animals (www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html). 

In accordance with the journal's policy, an approval of research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (last updated: October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil), Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011) and/or International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (2012) is required for all experimental, clinical and drug trial studies. For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. The journal may request a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. More details on the ethical principles of the journal may be found at the Instructions to Authors pages.

Journal Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. Self-plagiarism refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quote (https://wame.org/recommendations-on-publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals).

Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University (KOU Sag Bil Derg) does not start manuscript evaluation process if plagiarism/self-plagiarism detected during editorial assessment since 2018. During manuscript submission process, the authors must upload the similarity reports of the manuscript by using an appropriate (iThenticate, Turnitin etc.) plagiarism software. Universities in Turkey are subscribers of a 'plagiarism software', please contact your librarian. Non-Turkish and non-university submissions please contact for information.

Articles that have a similarity rate of more than 25% are considered plagiarized and articles that exceed this rate are examined in detail and returned to the authors for review or revision if considered necessary, publication is rejected if plagiarism or unethical behaviors are detected.

From the January 2019 issue, according to the results of similarity report, one of the following three decisions is given about the article:

• It is sent to the editor for evaluation.

• It is sent back to the author for a correction.

• The rejection process is carried out without being taken to the evaluation stage (Articles that have a similarity rate of more than 25% are considered plagiarized and are rejected).

Articles can be checked with the help those of free plagiarism programs given below.

1. Anti-Plagiarism

http://sourceforge.net/projects/antiplagiarismc/

2. DupliChecker

http://www.duplichecker.com/

3. PaperRater

http://www.paperrater.com/free_paper_grader

4. Plagiarisma.net

http://plagiarisma.net/

5. PlagiarismChecker

http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/

6. Plagium

http://www.plagium.com/

7. PlagTracker

http://www.plagtracker.com

8. Viper

http://www.scanmyessay.com/viperdownload_aca.html

9. SeeSources

http://www.plagscan.com/seesources/analyse.php

Retraction Policy

The journal is shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the COPE Retraction Guidelines. (http://publicationethics.org/files/retraction%20guidelines_0.pdf) 

It contains infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc.

It contains major errors (e.g. miscalculations or experimental errors) or the main conclusion is no longer valid or seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light of which Authors were not aware at the time of publication.

Journal Editors shall determine based on investigation whether a retraction is required and in such cases shall act in accordance with COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. Besides these guidelines, standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies (refer to ICMJE’s recommendations on Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control or the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s policy on Errata, Retractions, and Other Linked Citations in PubMed) and based on these the following best practice for article retraction has been adopted by Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi. 

Conflict of Interest Policy

The Journal Editorial Review Process is accordance with the Good Editorial Practice set by international editorial organizations (WAME, COPE).

WAME indicates that conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor in the publication process (submission of manuscripts, peer review, editorial decisions, and communication between authors, reviewers and editors) has a competing interest that could unduly influence his or her responsibilities (academic honesty, unbiased conduct and reporting of research, and integrity of decisions or judgments) in the publication process.

The Journal requires that each author, reviewer, and editor must disclose to the Editor any conflict of interest related to family, personal, financial, political or religious issues as well as any competing interest outlined above at the WAME's definition.

Whether or not a conflict of interest and financial support exist, they must be declared at the Conflict of Interest Statement as well as at the end of the manuscripts. If a reviewer, an associate editor, or a section editor has a conflict of interest and/or believes that it is not appropriate to be a reviewer, or an editor for a given manuscript, the reviewer or the editor should resign from the assignment.

You will be asked to verify on behalf of all authors the presence or absence of the potential conflicts of interest listed in the ICMJE guidelines (please review them at www.icmje.org). Specifically, you will be asked whether any authors or their institutions have received: grants, consulting fees or honoraria, support for meeting travel, fees for participation in review activities such as data monitoring boards or statistical analysis, payment for writing or reviewing the manuscript, and/or provision of writing assistance, medicines, equipment, or administrative support? All positive responses should also be noted on the title page of the manuscript.

The Editorial Board members of Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University may also submit their own manuscripts to the journal. However, they cannot take place at any stage on the editorial decision of their manuscripts. They will be treated like any other author, and if any, final acceptance of such manuscripts can only be made by the positive recommendation of at least two external reviewers.

Authors should not contact any of the section editors during the review process. All necessary information regarding the process of a manuscript can be obtained from the editorial office. However, the names of the handling editor and the reviewers are not given to the author(s). Due to the Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University double-blinded review principles, the names of authors and reviewers are not known to the other.

You will be asked to verify on behalf of all authors the presence or absence of any financial relationships in the past 36 months with entities in the bio-medical arena that could be perceived to influence, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing, what you wrote in the submitted work. Examples include, but are not limited to: board membership, consultancy, employment, expert testimony, grants/grants pending, payment for lectures including service on speaker’s bureaus, payment for manuscript preparation, patents (planned, pending, or issued), royalties, payment for development of educational presentations, stock/stock options, other travel/accommodations/meeting expenses. All responses, positive or negative, should also be noted on the title page of the manuscript (and will be published with the manuscript if accepted).

Open Access Policy

Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is sponsored by Kocaeli University and all manuscripts are totally free to publish, download and read via DergiPark network.

Other Publishing Policies

Original Content:  Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University prefers publishing original researches as they provide higher level of evidence. All articles containing original information and data must not have been published or simultaneously submitted for publication in another scientific journal. This restriction does not apply to an abstract presented in scientific meetings and congresses.

Multiple Authors

All authors share the responsibilities of the content and duties in the preparation of the submitted material.

Statistical Consultant: All articles containing statistical analysis must be prepared in consultation with an individual experienced in statistical analysis in the given subject. One of the authors or a person other than the author(s) who experienced in statistical analysis should claim responsibility for the correctness of the statistical information.

Permissions

Written consent for reproduction should accompany any submitted material, such as the tables and figures that have appeared in another journal or a book. Approval from the appropriate ethics board should be obtained for original research and written consent should be obtained from the patients referred to in case reports, images and case series.

Prior or similar publications

You will be asked whether a prior version of this manuscript or study has been submitted to Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University under a different submission sequence and/or manuscript number. You will be asked whether any data used in this study have been included as part of another manuscript (whether published, submitted, or in preparation).

Access to Data

Editors of the Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University may request the author(s) to submit the original data during the peer-review process in order to better assess the manuscripts. It is, therefore, vital to submit a full address and other contact information on the title page of the manuscript.

Responsibility for Published Information

The authors are responsible for all the information contained in the text. Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University is not responsible for statements made by the author(s).

Material Disclaimer

All opinions and reports within the articles that are published in the Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi-Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University are the personal opinions of the authors. The Editors, the publisher and the owner of the Kocaeli Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi do not accept any responsibility for these articles. Advertisements are not allowed within articles.

KOU Sag Bil Derg mainly concerns the promotion of health sciences in Turkey (see: Aim & Scope for the details). The intended population is mainly those involved in the health sciences profession, including researchers, physcians, health care providers, medical doctors from various diciplines and students.

• This journal does not charge any money under article processing or submission.

• The journal provides article download statistics for the published articles in their relevant metadata pages.

• The journal has been indexed by "Turkish Citation Index", "Turkish Medline National Health Sciences Periodical Publications Database", "Google Scholar”, "Academic Resource Index (ResearchBib)", "Sobiad Citation Index", "Scientific Indexing Services (SIS)" and "Scientific World Index (SCIWIN)", "ASOS Index", "Eurasian Scientific Journal Index", "Directory of Research Journals Indexing (DRJI)", "OpenAIRE", "Arastirmax", "CrossRef", and "Rootindexing".  Additionally, our journal is under the Index Copernicus, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Scopemed, ULAKBIM Tr indexing evaluation process.

Review Process

Provided that manuscripts comply with the manuscript preparation guidelines, they go through a reviewing process:

To access journal reviewer guide

The manuscript is first seen by the Editor-in-Chief and/or the Associate Editors. If the content or the quality of the manuscript is not suitable for this journal, the manuscript may be rejected at this stage immediately.

Depending on the topic, the manuscript may be consulted to an Editorial Board member for eligibility and consideration for further scientific evaluation (the list is provided in the Journal Cover and on the Journal website).

If the manuscript is not recommended for review by the consulted Editorial Board member, the reasons why the manuscript was rejected are passed on to the author.

If the manuscript is recommended for review by the consulted Editorial Board member, first, it is checked by the Statistical Editor for the approriateness of the statistical anayses (3), then by the Technical Editor for the technical standardization (4). Afterwards, an editor is assigned to carry out the scientific evaluation process (Editor-in-Chief or Editor or Associate-Editor).

At this stage, the manuscript is sent to at least two blinded-peer-reviewers chosen by the assigned editor (5). The reviewers give recommendations to the editor as ‘accept the article as it is’, ‘minor or major revisions required’, or ‘reject’. In case there is disagreement between reviewers, the manuscript may be sent to (an) extra reviewer(s). The article can be published only after the required revisions are fulfilled by the author. However, taking into consideration the recommendations of the reviewers, the final decision belongs to the editor.

Note that a double-blind peer review system is adopted in this journal; the reviewers and the author remain anonymous to each other.

Appeals

Authors may submit a formal appeal for rejected submissions (e.g. if they believe that a technical error was made during review, or a pertinent point was misunderstood/overlooked by the reviewers, etc). Appeal letters must be electronically sent to: yy.kosbildergi@gmail.com. Editorial office is the only address for the appeals, and no means of communication other than e-mail is allowed. Authors must provide detailed reasons for the appeal and point-by-point responses to the reviewers' and/or Editor's comments. At this point, a revised manuscript must not be sent.

Decisions on appeals are final without exception. Priority is given to new submissions, so the appeal process may take longer than the original submission process.

Inquiries

Any inquiry regarding the editorial process should be directed in written form to the Editorial Board through e-mail: yy.kosbildergi@gmail.com.

Publication Ethics Policy

• Kocaeli University Journal of Health Sciences follows the guidelines of the International Board of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which sets various standards for writing and evaluating biomedical publications.

• We encourage the best standards of publication ethics and take all possible measures against publication malpractices.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1. Publication and Authorship

a) The sources used in this article; resources used in the text should be numbered, including the first one to be numbered as 1. In the resources section of the article, it should be presented with this enumeration.

b) If there are institutions or organizations providing support to the subject of research article, superscript asterisk should be placed to the end of the article title, and the necessary explanations should be made in the footnote of the first page of the article.

c) Articles submitted to the journal for publication are controlled by a suitable program in terms of similarities with articles published in various journals and numerous Internet resources. As a result of controls, articles showing 25% or greater similarity are rejected.

d) Articles identified as false data used in any way will be rejected.

e). Articles previously published in another journal shall not be taken into consideration.

 2. Responsibilities of Authors

a) Authors are obliged to participate in peer review process of the manuscripts submitted.

b) The contribution given to the article by authors whose names appear on the manuscript has to be notified to the editor.

c) Authors should send their articles prepared in accordance with the instructions for authors of the journal.

d) The authors whose names are taking part in any article submitted to the journal for publication are deemed to have declared that data of all kinds presented in this article are real and original.

e) The authors cannot send the article submitted to the journal to another journal to be published simultaneously.

f) The authors are obliged to make all kinds of the corrections about to the articles subjected to peer review by related referees and fulfilling requests of the editor.

g) In scientific studies based on experimental animals and sent for the purpose of publication in the Journal of Health Sciences of Kocaeli University; the statements of "The approval of Local Ethics Committee was obtained" or "The principles of Board of Ethics have been adhered to" should take place in Materials and Methods section of the article. If the approval of a Local Ethics Committee has been obtained beforehand, the Author(s) should indicate the name of authority issuing the approval of ethics committee and the confirmation number. However, the decision of Ethics Committee is not required for articles summarized from the thesis.

h) The authors are obliged to comply with the copyright conditions relating to the material used or those from other sources and sign a contract stating the transfer of copyright to the Journal.

i) Any liability that may arise from the article included in the journal belongs to the author(s).

3. Responsibilities of Referees

a) The referees considering the article should make an objective and impartial assessment.

b) The referees declaring any conflicts of interest with article authors or institutions and organizations supporting the article should inform the editorship about the situation and not involve in the article evaluation.

c) Referees cannot share the data of articles sent to them for consideration with anyone.

d) The referees recommending that the article can be published after corrections have the right to re-examine the article after the necessary corrections have been made.

4. Editorial Board Responsibilities

a) Preliminary assessments of the papers are made by the Editorial Board.

b) Articles to be evaluated are sent to at least two referees by the Editorial Board. Editorial Board decides the acceptance, rejection or modification of articles depending on referees’ reports.

c) The Editorial Board may not use the data of unpublished article for their personal affairs in any way and not share this data in any way.

d) When the evaluation process of articles is completed, the editor forwards the decision to the author.

e) The Editor, when deciding on the rejection or acceptance of an article, should not to be affected by the conflict of interest of the person or persons taking part among the authors.

5. Responsibilities of Advisory Board

a) Advisory Board members should keep the data of articles sent to them for evaluation secret and cannot share them in any way.

b) If referees determine that data in the article being evaluated are similar to those published in another article previously, they should report the situation immediately to the Journal Editorship.

c) Referees should assess the articles sent to them in an objective way and express their views in clear and understandable language.

d) If a referee had concluded that the article sent to be evaluated it is not appropriate for the assessment in person, it should be notified the Editorship as soon as possible.

6. Publishing Ethics Issues

a) The integrity of academic records should be created and maintained.

b) If necessary, sufficient correction, explanation, or apology should be published.

7. ICJME Recommendations

Please access the website via inserted link into the figure in order to visit International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals. 

8. COPE Guidelines

 Please access the website via inserted link into the figure.