Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

The Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Sports Sciences is committed to maintaining the highest standards of research ethics, publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency, editorial independence, and responsible scholarly communication. The journal expects authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members to comply with internationally recognised ethical principles throughout all stages of the publication process.

Ethics Committee Approval

In accordance with the ethical standards determined by the Turkish Higher Education Council (YÖK) and internationally recognised research ethics principles, ethics committee approval is mandatory for all research articles submitted to the journal that involve human participants, animals, personal data, surveys, interviews, experiments, observations, intervention procedures, or any form of direct data collection from individuals or groups.

For studies requiring ethics committee approval, authors must include an ethical approval statement in the manuscript. This statement should clearly indicate:

• The name of the ethics committee;
• Approval date;
• Approval number;
• Confirmation that informed consent was obtained from participants where applicable.

Studies involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with principles of voluntary participation, informed consent, confidentiality, privacy, and protection of personal data.

The following study types are generally exempt from ethics committee approval, provided that they do not involve direct data collection from human or animal subjects and do not use identifiable personal data:

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
• Narrative or traditional review articles;
• Bibliometric and scientometric studies;
• Studies based entirely on publicly available non-identifiable secondary data.

For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, authors must clearly state the reason for exemption in the Methodology or Declarations section of the manuscript.

Journal Ethics Principles and Responsibilities

The journal adopts internationally accepted publication ethics standards and expects authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members to comply with these principles in all stages of the publication process.

All submitted manuscripts must be original, scientifically sound, ethically prepared, and not under consideration by another journal at the time of submission.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal are responsible for ensuring that:

• The submitted manuscript is original, has not been previously published, and is not under consideration elsewhere;
• All authors have made a meaningful scientific contribution to the study;
• Individuals who did not contribute to the study are not listed as authors;
• All sources are properly cited and accurately listed in the references;
• The manuscript is free from plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, redundant publication, fabricated references, and other forms of academic misconduct;
• Ethical approval information is accurately reported where required;
• Informed consent has been obtained where applicable;
• Any financial support, sponsorship, institutional funding, or potential conflict of interest is clearly disclosed;
• The use of artificial intelligence tools, if any, is disclosed where appropriate;
• Research data are stored securely and made available upon reasonable request where ethically and legally possible.

Authors are fully responsible for the scientific, ethical, and legal content of their manuscripts.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to:

• Evaluate manuscripts objectively, impartially, confidentially, and constructively;
• Decline the review invitation and inform the editor if any conflict of interest exists;
• Provide clear, respectful, detailed, and scientifically grounded feedback;
• Evaluate the manuscript in terms of originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, clarity, contribution to the field, and relevance to the journal’s scope;
• Avoid using any information obtained during the review process for personal, academic, financial, or professional advantage.

Reviewers must treat all manuscripts and related materials as confidential documents. They must not share, copy, distribute, discuss, or use unpublished manuscript content outside the peer-review process. Reviewers must not upload unpublished manuscript files, data, figures, tables, or confidential editorial correspondence to artificial intelligence tools or third-party platforms.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for:

• Evaluating manuscripts solely on the basis of scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal’s scope;
• Ensuring a fair, impartial, confidential, and transparent double-blind peer-review process;
• Protecting editorial independence and preventing conflicts of interest;
• Assigning manuscripts to independent reviewers with appropriate expertise;
• Declaring any potential conflict of interest and assigning the manuscript to another editor where necessary;
• Making final publication decisions based on reviewers’ reports, editorial assessment, journal policies, and academic standards;
• Taking appropriate action in cases of suspected ethical misconduct.

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, journal staff, reviewers, or institutional authors are handled by an independent editor who has no conflict of interest with the author(s). The submitting editor, board member, reviewer, or journal staff member is excluded from reviewer selection, editorial correspondence, evaluation, and final decision-making processes.

Ethical Violations and Sanctions

The journal does not tolerate publication misconduct. Ethical violations include, but are not limited to:

• Plagiarism;
• Self-plagiarism;
• Data fabrication or falsification;
• Duplicate or redundant publication;
• Inappropriate authorship;
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• Ethical approval misrepresentation;
• Manipulation of the peer-review process;
• Fabricated, false, or unverifiable references;
• Misleading use of artificial intelligence tools;
• Use of copyrighted material without permission where required.

If ethical misconduct is identified at any stage of the submission, review, or publication process, the Editorial Board may take one or more of the following actions:

• Return the manuscript to the authors for correction;
• Reject the manuscript;
• Withdraw the manuscript from the review process;
• Publish a correction or expression of concern;
• Retract the published article;
• Notify the authors’ institution, ethics committee, funding body, or relevant authority where necessary;
• Restrict future submissions from the author(s) for a defined period.

The action taken depends on the severity, nature, and extent of the ethical violation.

Suspected ethical violations should be reported to the journal via e-mail:

sporbilimleridergisi@mehmetakif.edu.tr

All reported cases are reviewed confidentially and objectively by the journal’s editorial management, and necessary actions are taken in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics policies.

Journal Publication Principles

The journal follows the publication principles listed below:

• Manuscripts must be scientific, original, methodologically sound, and ethically prepared;
• Submissions must comply with internationally recognised research and publication ethics principles;
• Manuscripts must not have been previously published or submitted elsewhere;
• The journal is published biannually, in June and December;
• Articles may be assigned to an issue based on editorial scheduling;
• The journal publishes manuscripts in English;
• Author names, affiliations, ORCID IDs, and contact information must be accurately provided in the designated submission fields;
• Initial manuscript files must be anonymised in accordance with the double-blind peer-review process;
• Submission and acceptance dates are stated on the first page of published articles;
• A similarity report obtained from Turnitin or iThenticate must be submitted where required;
• The acceptable similarity rate is a maximum of 20%, excluding references, template elements, and standard methodological expressions;
• Similarity reports are evaluated not only by percentage but also by the nature, source, and ethical significance of the similarity;
• All manuscripts are evaluated through a double-blind peer-review process;
• All submission, revision, and correction procedures are conducted through the journal’s online submission system;
• Authors are normally given one month to complete requested revisions. Failure to submit revisions within the specified period may result in rejection or withdrawal of the manuscript from the review process.

Final Statement

The Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Sports Sciences is committed to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record and ensuring a transparent, fair, ethical, and academically rigorous publication process. All authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are expected to comply with this Ethical Principles and Publication Policy.

Editorial Board
Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Sports Sciences