Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

In light of the principles that knowledge should be respected, impartial, and open to sharing, the Journal of Spatial Research has determined its publication policy and principles. It is important for the scientific respectability of the journal that all stakeholders involved in the evaluation and publication process of the submitted articles act within the framework of the determined ethical principles. The publication ethics statement presented by our journal covers editors, referees, and authors. The publication ethics statement was prepared by taking into account the guides and policies openly offered by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org). The publication ethics process is implemented for all articles submitted to the Journal of Spatial Research for publication.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Persons who make significant contributions to the design, acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data, prepare the draft of the article, or critically review it in terms of content are accepted as authors for a study. Persons are defined as authors who are responsible for finalizing the work and approving the version to be published (Albert and Wager, 2003).

According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the responsibilities of authors are listed as follows (Wager and Kleinert, 2011, pp: 309-316):
  • The submitted work should be carried out in accordance with ethical responsibilities.
  • Authors should present the results of their work in an unbiased, clear, and understandable manner, without making any changes or manipulations.
  • Authors should explain the method of their research in a clear and sufficient way so that the results of their work can be verified and evaluated by readers.
  • By submitting their work to the journal, authors should declare that their work is original, does not contain plagiarism, has not been published elsewhere before, and is not under review for publication by another journal at the same time.
  • Each of the authors is responsible for the submitted and published work.
  • The contribution of the authors in the work should be stated.
  • The institutions and sources that support the work, as well as any relevant conflicts of interest, should be stated.

About Ethics Committee Approval
For articles to be published in our journal that involve the use of certain research data, Ethics Committee Approval must be obtained. When submitting your study for evaluation, please also include your Ethics Committee Approval Document along with the article file.

If the study does not fall under the scope of the work requiring Ethics Committee Approval, please fill out the Ethics Declaration FormIn studies requiring ethical approval, it should be stated that Research and Publication Ethics were adhered to. For studies requiring Ethics Committee Approval, information about the approval (committee name, date, and reference number) should be provided in the methodology section and also at the end of the article.

In-text citation example in the article:
"This study has been granted ethical approval by the Cukurova University Social and Human Sciences Ethics Committee under decision number 1-XX-50-XX, dated 07/06/2023."

Research Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
  • All types of research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve data collection from participants through surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, experiments, and interview techniques,
  • Use of humans and animals (including materials/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
  • Clinical trials involving humans,
  • Research involving humans,
  • Retrospective studies as per the Personal Data Protection Law.

Additionally

  • The compliance with copyright regulations for intellectual and artistic works used should be indicated,
  • Permission should be obtained and credited from owners for the use of others' scales, surveys, and photographs,
  • In the case of case reports, it should be stated that the "Informed Consent Form" has been obtained.
  • For research that does not require Ethics Committee Approval, please submit the signed declaration form of the author(s) related to it along with your article. All authors must sign the declaration form stating that Ethics Committee approval is not required.

To access the Ethics Declaration Form stating that the study does not require Ethics Committee Approval, please click here.

Ethical Responsibilities of Referees
The COPE report (2017) lists the ethical responsibilities of referees as follows:
  • Referees are obliged to evaluate the work impartially and fairly, away from any biased perspective.
  • The suitability of the referees’ field of expertise is important for effective evaluation. Referees should indicate any mismatch between their field of expertise and the invitation to evaluate when accepting it.
  • Referees should consider possible conflicts of interest in the evaluation. Conflicts of interest should be stated if they exist, and referees should withdraw from the evaluation if necessary.
  • Referees should respond to the invitation to evaluate and comply with the time constraints given in the evaluation process.
  • Referees evaluate the entire material submitted. They are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the evaluation. Referees cannot communicate with authors or exchange information about the evaluation without the knowledge of the journal.
  • Referees should report any ethical violations they suspect to the journal management.
  • Referees prepare their opinions in a clear and understandable manner, without leaving room for discussion, expressing the positive and negative aspects of the work and making suggestions to improve the quality of the research.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
According to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the duties and responsibilities of editors are listed as follows (Kleinert and Wager, 2011, pp: 317-328):
  • Editors are responsible for the content of the journal and the material published within it as stated below.
  • Editors should make independent, sensible and impartial decisions, free from commercial considerations, and provide a fair and appropriate peer review process.
  • Editors should adopt editorial policies that encourage transparent, complete, honest reporting.
  • Editors should follow up on suspicions or allegations of research and publication misconduct related to an article published in the journal and protect the integrity of the work published in the journal.
  • Editors should prevent abuses arising from the peer review process or the editorial process.
  • Editors should take into account the ethical compliance of studies involving humans and animals.
  • Referees and authors should be informed of what is expected of them within the process.
  • Editors should have appropriate policies to resolve possible editorial conflicts of interest.

Plagiarism Evaluation Process
Authors are responsible for the content of the submitted article and for preparing it in accordance with the publication ethics principles given under the ethical responsibilities of the authors. Articles are checked for plagiarism purposes with Turnitin (Plagiarism Detection Software) program. Articles with a similarity rate of more than 20%, excluding sources, are rejected directly.

Open Access Policy and Archiving
Journal of Spatial Research is an open-access journal. The full texts of the articles are freely accessible on the journal’s web pages. Within the scope of the open access definition of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), individuals can read, download, copy, distribute, or use the full texts of the articles for other legal purposes without the permission of the publisher or author(s), provided that they cite the source.

In Case of Encountering an Unethical Situation
If you think that you have encountered inappropriate behavior or content within the scope of the ethical responsibilities mentioned above, taking into account the publications of the Journal of Spatial Research, please report it by e-mail to maddergi@cu.edu.tr

References
COPE Council (2017). COPE Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers. Retrieved January 5, 2023, from COPE: https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers-cope.pdf
ŞİŞMAN, M. (2005). Kitap eleştirisi, Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi, (41), 133-140.
WAGER, E. & ALBERT, T. (2003). How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers, COPE Report 2003. Retrieved January 5, 2023, from COPE: https://publicationethics.org/files/2003pdf12_0.pdf
WAGER, E. & KLEINERT, S. (2011). Responsible research publication: international standards for authors, T. MAYER, N. STENECK içinde, Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment (s.309-328), Singapore: Imperial College PressWorld Scientific Publishing.

Last Update Time: 1/20/25, 8:29:32 PM

downloadThe manuscripts accepted for publication by the Journal of Spatial Research are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.