Articles submitted to Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies go through a three-stage process: Preliminary Examination, Scientific Evaluation and Preparation for Publication. These processes are planned and implemented by the Editors.

1. Preliminary Review Process

Initial Review

The suitability of the content of the article, the suitability of the originality report, ethical statement & copyright release form, the approval of the ethics committee, the suitability of the article to the Journal Article Template, the appropriateness and currency of the citations are examined by the assistant editors. Authors are informed with a pre-examination report.

Studies that do not comply with the journal's spelling rules and template will not be evaluated and returned to the author (s) within 15 days for re-editing. Accordingly, the writing rules should be examined beforehand and a sample template file should be used in order to prepare the studies in accordance with the journal's writing rules.

As a result of the figure examination, articles that are not found sufficient (appropriate) may be rejected or a correction may be requested. For the candidate articles that are not found sufficient in the figure review, if they are not rejected due to their scope, the authors can apply again.

Articles that are suitable in terms of spelling and format are subjected to similarity check at the next stage. The similarity check is made in line with the similarity report obtained from the iThenticate software by the relevant editor. The maximum accepted similarity rate in our journal is 15%. In this process, the matches that occur through the software of each work are examined in-depth and the matches that are correct for reference and citation are removed. As a result of sorting, the remaining matches are examined, errors are detected and reported to the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board shares this report and decision with the author (s) when necessary, after making its final decision on the study in the light of the similarity screening report of each study. The errors in the report may be requested to be corrected by the author (s) or the study may be returned to the authors.

Submitted articles are examined whether be prepared using the reference management software (Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, Citavi). Articles whose citations and bibliography are created without using the aforementioned programs do not proceed to the scientific evaluation process.

Language Review

The articles are reviewed by Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies's Language Editors for academic writing in English and Turkish. The language review result of the article is communicated to the authors with the Language Review Report. Candidate articles that are not found sufficient as a result of the language examination may be "Rejected" or "Correction" may be requested.

Editorial Pre-Evaluation

Articles with similar rates of similarity to the publication and writing rules of the journal are taken into editorial pre-evaluation. In this process, the introduction, method, findings and discussion parts of the articles are evaluated by the editorial team in terms of the scope and objectives of the journal, as well as compliance with the research reporting processes. As a result of the preliminary evaluation, the journal publishing and spelling rules are also rejected without being accepted for the referee evaluation with the Article Pre-evaluation Form.

As a result of the preliminary examination;
• Similarity rate of the similarity screening report is examined by the editor and its suitability is approved.
• It is checked whether the article has been edited according to the journal's writing guide.
• The compliance of the article with the scope and subject areas of the journal is evaluated.
• In the article proposal, the compliance of the citations and bibliography with the ISNAD Citation Style is evaluated.
• It is evaluated whether the reference management program (Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, or Citavi) is used.
• It is evaluated whether the required files of the articles (Ethical Statement & Copyright Release Form, Title Page, and Main Document by using the Template) are uploaded in a complete and correct format.

2. Peer Review Process

• Studies that pass the pre-evaluation stage are forwarded to 2 referees who are experts in their field, determined by the editors or field editors, depending on the nature of the study. The referees inform the editorial board whether they can evaluate the work within 15 days at the latest after the article is sent to them. If the referee does not make notification within the specified time, a new referee is appointed for the study. The appointed referees cannot share any documents or details about the article they have reviewed with anyone. Referees participating in Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies's referee pool are considered to have given a guarantee on this matter.

• "Double-blind peer-review method" is applied in the evaluation process in Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies. The double-blind peer-review method is essential for the objective review of scientific studies and is preferred by many scientific journals to ensure that scientific publications are produced at the highest quality. Referee opinions are the main determinant of the publication quality of Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies. All articles submitted to Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies and found sufficient in the Preliminary Review are reviewed by the double-blind peer review method. Double-blind refereeing means hiding both the identities of the referees from the authors and the identities of the authors from the referees.

• The period given to the referees for the referee evaluation process is 15 days. Referees can examine the revisions of work and decide whether it is appropriate or, if necessary, request corrections more than once. When a correction is requested by the referees, the authors make corrections within 15 days at the latest and submit their work to the journal via the same system. The edited work is re-evaluated by the referees who request changes or corrections when necessary. The editorial board decides on the publication of the studies in line with the referee's opinions. In case of discrepancy in the referee's opinions, the Editorial Board may send the study to another referee if it deems necessary. During the manuscript acceptance process, if the two referees' views differ, the decision is made by taking the opinion of the editor or a third referee.

Referee Reports

Referees evaluate the work using the online "Article Evaluation Form". In addition, if the referees deem it necessary, they can also forward the notes on the full text to the field editor.

The referees can express their views on the studies in 4 ways:
• Accept Submission
• Can be published after revisions (Minor)
• I want to see it again after corrections (Major)
• Decline Submission (Reject)

Evaluation Result

Comments from referees are reviewed by the editor(s) within 15 days at the latest. As a result of this review, it conveys its final decision to the author(s).

Objection to the Evaluation Result

The right to object to the evaluation results of the author(s) is reserved in Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies. The author(s) should send an e-mail to editormarife@gmail.com within 15 days after the decision is sent to them by referring to the opinions and comments within the scope of the evaluation results. Objections are reviewed by the editorial board within one month at the latest. Regarding the objections made by the author(s), a field expert referee is appointed. The study is first reviewed by the referee, then a final evaluation is made with the other referee's opinions and the result is reported to the author(s).

3. Publication Preparation Process

Peer Review Process Evaluation Forms