Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Lectio Socialis fully adheres to the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Code of Conduct, ensuring that all parties involved in the publication process—editors, authors, and reviewers—uphold the highest standards of ethical behavior. This statement outlines the journal's commitment to ethical publishing and its policy on malpractice.

Editorial Responsibilities
The journal maintains complete editorial independence from all authorities, institutions, and business interests to ensure impartial decision-making. The journal does not accept any advertisements.
The Editor-in-Chief oversees the unbiased peer-review process and ensures that all submitted manuscripts are reviewed based on their academic merit without discrimination of any kind.
Editors must avoid conflicts of interest. Manuscripts from authors with conflicts of interest or from the same institution as the editor are assigned to other editorial staff to maintain independence. Based on the reviewer recommendations, the editor assigned to the submitted manuscript makes the final decision.
Readers and authors are encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief with any concerns, which will be addressed transparently.
If research requires ethics approval, the editor ensures authors provide documented evidence of ethics committee approval, which is explicitly mentioned in the manuscript.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for handling complaints, allowing authors whose work has been criticized the right of reply, and managing appeals regarding editorial decisions. The Editor-in-Chief has the duty to correct, clarify, retract, or apologize when necessary and will publish corrections or retractions as required.
Editors must base their decision to accept or reject a manuscript on its academic value, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope.
Editors and editorial staff are prohibited from using unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for personal research purposes without the author’s explicit written consent.
The confidentiality of submitted manuscripts must be maintained. Editors cannot disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone except the corresponding author, reviewers, and potential reviewers.

Reviewers' Responsibilities
Peer review plays a crucial role in the editorial decision-making process and in improving manuscript quality. Reviewers invited to evaluate submitted manuscripts must be independent of the editorial board and the authors' affiliations. Reviewers must provide timely, objective, and constructive feedback.
Reviewers must decline to review a manuscript if they feel unqualified or if they have a conflict of interest, including competitive or collaborative relationships with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the paper.
Manuscripts under review are confidential documents and should not be shared or discussed with anyone without the Editor-in-Chief’s permission.
Reviewers must point out pertinent published works that the authors have not cited and should alert the editor to any significant similarities between the manuscript and any other published works.
Reviewers must not use any information obtained through peer review for personal gain and must treat any privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review as confidential.

Authors' Responsibilities
Authors must ensure that their work is original and has not been submitted to or published in another journal.
The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have made significant contributions to the work and that all have agreed to the final manuscript before submission.
Authors are required to provide accurate and detailed accounts of the research conducted. Raw data must be provided upon request, and authors should be willing to make their data publicly available whenever possible.
Any ethical concerns related to research involving human or animal subjects must be properly addressed in the manuscript, and authors must provide documented evidence of ethics committee approval.
Authors are expected to disclose all sources of financial support and any potential conflicts of interest.
If a significant error is discovered in a published work, authors must promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief and cooperate in the retraction or correction of the article.
Authors are required to include an Author Contribution section, following the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) system, detailing the contributions of each co-author.
Example:

Conceptualization: Ahmet Kul, Fatma Yüksel (equal)
Formal Analysis: Ahmet Kul
Funding Acquisition: Fatma Yüksel
Writing – Review and Editing: Ahmet Kul
Writing – Original Draft: Fatma Yüksel

Authors retain rights to their published materials under a CC-BY license, which allows others to copy, distribute, and adapt the work, including for commercial purposes, provided proper credit is given.

Malpractice Policy
Lectio Socialis is committed to preventing publication malpractice and upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. The journal has strict procedures in place to address any unethical behavior, including informing the authors’ affiliated institutions about any confirmed breaches.

1. Plagiarism and Misrepresentation
All submitted manuscripts must be original works by the authors. Plagiarism, including direct copying, paraphrasing without proper citation, or using another’s ideas without acknowledgment, is strictly prohibited.
Self-plagiarism: Authors must not submit previously published work as new or submit the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously.
Data Misrepresentation: Authors must provide accurate research descriptions, and any falsification or fabrication of data is forbidden.
2. Conflicts of Interest
All parties—authors, reviewers, and editors—must disclose any conflicts of interest that could influence the manuscript's review or publication process. This includes financial, personal, or professional affiliations that may introduce bias.
3. Ethical Oversight
Research involving human participants or animals must follow ethical guidelines, and authors must provide documented evidence of approval by an ethics committee. Corrections or retractions will be issued in cases of ethical violations.
4. Multiple Submissions
Concurrent submissions to multiple journals are considered unethical and will result in the manuscript being rejected, and authors may be blacklisted from future submissions.
5. Citation Manipulation
Citation manipulation is prohibited. Reviewers must not suggest irrelevant citations to boost personal citation metrics unless they are academically necessary.
6. Retractions and Corrections
Retractions: Papers will be retracted if significant ethical breaches or errors are identified post-publication.
Corrections: Minor errors will be addressed through errata or corrections.
7. Response to Allegations of Malpractice
Allegations of unethical behavior will be thoroughly investigated. Authors will be allowed to respond to the claims, and appropriate corrective action will be taken if malpractice is confirmed. This may include rejection, retraction, or banning future submissions. Authors’ affiliations will also be notified in cases of confirmed breaches to ensure accountability beyond the journal’s scope.