1. Introduction and Ethical Vision: The Journal of Nationalism Studies places publication ethics at the heart of all its processes in order to safeguard the accuracy and impartiality of scientific research. These principles reflect our responsibility to both the academic community and society by ensuring the transparent dissemination of knowledge. Throughout the publication process, our journal fully complies with the Press Law, the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works, the Guidelines on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics for Higher Education Institutions, and the decisions of the Turkish Editors’ Workshop. Furthermore, our journal has adopted the international ethical publishing principles established by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and BOAI (Budapest Open Access Initiative). These national and international standards serve as a guide at every stage of scientific production.

2. Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity: The Journal of Nationalism Studies upholds the principles of integrity, accuracy and transparency at every stage of the research process. In this context, submissions for publication must be prepared in accordance with the following criteria:

• Data Integrity: It is essential that the data obtained during the research process and the visuals used are presented faithfully. Fabricating, manipulating or deliberately altering data to support the findings is strictly unacceptable.
• Accuracy of Visual Material: Graphs, photographs or other visual data used in the study must not be subject to digital manipulation in a way that would mislead the reader or alter the context of the study.
• Methodological Transparency: To ensure the reliability of the research, the data collection process, analytical methods and tools used must be reported with sufficient clarity to allow them to be verified and replicated by other researchers.
• Ethics Committee Approval and Documentation: For experimental, applied or participant-focused studies (surveys, interviews, etc.) requiring an ethics committee decision, approval must have been obtained from the ethics committee; this approval must be stated in the study and documented. In case reports, it is mandatory to include in the article information confirming that an informed consent form has been signed.

3. Plagiarism and Publication Ethics Review: The Journal of Nationalism Studies supports original academic work and adheres to a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of academic misconduct. Authors are required to comply with the following guidelines when submitting their work:

• Citation and Referencing Guidelines: When using ideas, data, images or text belonging to others, the source must be cited in full in accordance with the relevant guidelines.
• Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism: It is not only unauthorised quotations from the works of others that are considered ‘self-plagiarism’, but also large-scale reproduction of the author’s own previously published work without citing the source.
• Text Repetition: The repetition by an author of phrases from their own previous works in a new piece is not permitted, as it undermines the originality of the work.
• Plagiarism Report: All articles submitted to our journal are screened using iThenticate or Turnitin software during the preliminary review stage. The manuscript will be rejected if the similarity rate—excluding the references—exceeds 15 per cent, or if blocks of copied text are detected within the text, even if the similarity rate is lower.

4. Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence: The Journal of Nationalism Studies supports the use of technological tools in academic research within ethical boundaries. For information on the use of generative AI tools during the manuscript preparation process, please see: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/madergisi/page/21139

5. Authorship and Levels of Contribution: In accordance with the principles of safeguarding academic integrity and transparency, the Journal of Nationalism Studies requires that the roles of all researchers involved in a study be accurately defined.

• Authorship Criteria: For a person to be listed as an ‘author’ on a paper, they must have made a significant and intellectual contribution to the research design, data collection process, analysis or interpretation; and must have drafted the paper or critically revised it.
• Author Order: The order of authorship should be determined by mutual agreement based on the level of contribution to the research. Any changes to the author order after the process has begun are subject to the written consent of all authors and a valid justification.
• Contributors: Those who have provided only technical assistance to the research, such as data collection, funding, language editing or general administrative support, should be acknowledged in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section at the end of the article rather than listed as ‘authors’.
• Ghost and Gift Authorship: The inclusion of individuals as authors who have made no actual contribution to the work, or the omission of the names of those who have contributed, constitutes a serious ethical breach and is absolutely unacceptable to our journal.

6. Peer Review Process: The Journal of Nationalism Studies applies a ‘double-blind peer review’ system with the aim of safeguarding and enhancing the academic merit of all papers submitted for publication. The following principles underpin this process:

• Impartiality and Objectivity: Reviewers assess manuscripts solely on the basis of scientific merit, methodological soundness and contribution to the literature. The evaluation is conducted objectively, entirely independent of the authors’ religious, political, commercial or personal affiliations.
• Confidentiality: The review process is based on the principle of confidentiality. Reviewers may not share any information regarding the works they are evaluating with third parties, nor may they use unpublished data from these works in their own research.
• Timely Feedback: The aim is to ensure the review process is conducted swiftly and efficiently so that scientific knowledge does not become outdated. Reviewers are expected to submit constructive and detailed reports within the specified timeframes; in the event of a delay, the editor is obliged to expedite the process.
• Declaration of Conflict of Interest: Should reviewers identify any conflict of interest (academic competition, collaboration or other relationships) with the manuscript under review, they must immediately notify the editor of the situation and withdraw from the review process.

7. Handling Allegations of Misconduct and Ethical Breaches: The Editorial Board of the Journal of Nationalism Studies takes allegations of misconduct, whether arising before or after publication, very seriously. It follows the procedures set out below to ensure transparency at every stage of the scientific publication process:

• Reports and Notifications: All concerns raised by authors, reviewers or readers—such as plagiarism, data manipulation, lack of ethics committee approval or infringement of authors’ rights—are investigated thoroughly. The identity of those making the allegations may be kept confidential.
• Review Process: The Editorial Board uses the COPE Flowcharts as a guide when assessing allegations. If a suspicious situation is identified, the first step is to request a statement from the author. If deemed necessary, the author’s affiliated institution may be contacted.
• Pre-publication Detection: If any irregularities are detected in a manuscript during the review process, the article will be rejected immediately and the author or their institution will be notified, stating the reasons.
• Post-publication findings: If a serious error or ethical breach is identified in a published study, one of the following options will be applied, depending on the severity of the error: a ‘Correction’, an ‘Editor’s Note’ or the complete ‘Withdrawal’ of the article.
• Transparency: All processes are documented, and decisions are based on evidence in accordance with the principle of impartiality.

8. Data Management, Storage and Confidentiality: The Journal of Nationalism Studies attaches great importance to the responsible collection, recording and protection of scientific data. Authors are required to adhere to the following principles in the data management process:

• Data Collection and Recording: Research data must be collected using objective methods, and the analysis processes must be meticulously recorded in a manner that allows for verification.
• Confidentiality and Anonymisation: Participants’ personal data (name, address, organisation, etc.) must be protected in research studies. Data must be anonymised during the analysis and reporting stages in such a way as to prevent individuals from being identified.
• Data Retention: Authors are expected to retain the raw data on which their published works are based for at least one year from the date of publication and to make it available upon request by the Editorial Board or the referees.
• Data Sharing and Transparency: In order to promote scientific transparency, our journal encourages authors to share their data in open-access data repositories (subject to ethical and legal constraints).

9. Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections Policy: The Journal of Nationalism Studies attaches great importance to the continuation of scholarly debate after publication and provides a transparent mechanism to safeguard the accuracy of published works.

• Scientific Debate and Criticism: Readers and researchers may submit their evidence-based criticisms or contributions regarding published studies to our journal via ‘Letters to the Editor’. The Editorial Board will assess these submissions and, where deemed appropriate, grant the author the right of reply or publish the debate.
• Correction of Errors: If an honest error (such as a calculation error or a technical omission) is identified in a published article, our journal will publish a ‘Correction Note’ to rectify the situation. This note is linked to the original article and entered into the records.
• Editor’s Statement of Concern: Where an investigation is ongoing or where there are serious but as yet unproven allegations regarding the reliability of an article, the editor may publish a ‘Statement of Concern’ to inform readers.
• Retraction: In the event that scientific misconduct (fabrication of data, serious plagiarism, unethical research, etc.) is detected, or if fundamental errors are identified that invalidate the article’s main findings, the article will be retracted in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines. A retracted article remains in the system but is marked with the label ‘RETRACTED’.

10. Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosure: The Journal of Nationalism Studies requires the transparent disclosure of any relationships that could compromise scientific impartiality. A conflict of interest arises when a researcher, reviewer or editor has secondary interests (financial, personal or academic) that could influence their objective judgement regarding the research.

• Authors’ Declaration: Authors are required to declare, at the time of submission, any financial support (project funding, grants, sponsorship, etc.) and personal or institutional relationships that could influence the results or interpretation of the study. If there is no conflict of interest, this must be explicitly stated.
• Referees’ Responsibilities: Referees must withdraw from the review process, stating that they cannot remain impartial, if they have had, or currently have, a collaborative relationship, a competitive relationship or a personal connection with the authors of the work they are asked to review.
• Editorial Impartiality: Editors do not oversee work in which they are personally involved or which presents a potential conflict of interest; in such cases, the review process is carried out by another member of the editorial board.
• Transparency: All declared conflicts of interest are listed at the end of the published article to enable readers to assess the research in the correct context.