Journal of Media and Religion Studies

Medya ve Din Araştırmaları Dergisi (MEDIAD) - Journal of Media and Religion Studies which has been an official publication of Erciyes University, the Center for Media and Religion Studies since June 2018 is international, open access, peer-reviewed, and scholarly journal published two times a year in June and December.

Article submission dates for the Journal of Media and Religion Studies: For June issue January 15 - May 1; for December issue July 15 - Nov 1.

Its mission is to concretize initiatives concerning the relationship between the media and religion in our country, thereby making these initiatives more precise as a field of inquiry, laying the groundwork for the new methodological design of the field, to bring international academic knowledge accumulation to the attention of national academia, and to reflect authentic local, regional and global perspectives in the field.

1. Medya ve Din Araştırmaları Dergisi (MEDIAD) - Journal of Media and Religion Studies which has been an official publication of Erciyes University, The Center for Media and Religion Studies since June 2018 is international, open access, peer-reviewed, and scholarly journal published two times a year in June and December.

Article submission dates for the Journal of Media and Religion Studies: For June issue January 15 - May 1; for December issue July 15 - Nov 1.

As of 14.10.2022, some adjustments have been made in the writing rules. Existing regulations will be effective as of June 2023 issue.

2. It includes articles, translations, and book reviews carried out with various scientific methods in the fields of Social Theory, Religious Sciences, Communication Sciences, Media Studies, Psychology, Law, Philosophy, Literature etc., focusing on different implications of the relationship between media and religion.

3. In order for the admittance of articles sent for evaluation, it is required that they have not been published anywhere else before.

4. The publishing languages of the journal are Turkish and English.

5. The submitted articles are first reviewed by editors. If an article meets the necessary requirements in terms of content and style, then it will be assessed in terms of appropriateness for publication.

6. In the refereeing process, the double-blind refereeing system is applied and all the articles are evaluated by two referees. If deemed necessary, it is sent to a third referee. The publication of a journal is subject to the approval of the referees and the authors are obliged to make the necessary corrections required by the referees.

7. While preparing the articles, national and international ethic rules should be observed.

8. When submitting an article to the Journal of Media and Religion Studies, it is obligatory to send a file containing

a) Author identification information,

b) Copyright and scientific ethics compliance form,

c) Ethics committee report (depending on the nature of the study),

d) Similarity report,

e) Contribution rate and conflict of interest declaration form

9. The studies submitted to the journal are evaluated within the framework of the similarity report declared at the application stage. Articles that do not comply with research and publication ethics or that have a risk of plagiarism are not evaluated. In this framework, if the similarity rate detected by the screening programs is above 15%, the relevant study cannot be published even if it receives the approval of the referee. If the study was published without noticing the situation, access to the relevant study is blocked and the study is removed from the publication list and the full issue when the situation is noticed. Journal management accepts the results of self-employed plagiarism/similarity programs as a corporate standard, not as a violation of ethics. For detailed information about the plagiarism policy, you can visit the Plagiarism Policy page.

10. The studies should include the following parts:

o Title: A clear and understandable title in bold and capital letters that reflects the content and does not exceed 15 words, must be put at the very beginning of the study.

o Abstract: Under the title page, an abstract that is consistent with the general framework of the study between 150-200 words should be added.

o Key Words: Under the abstract, maximum 5 key words should be added.

o Turkish Title: After the key words, the Turkish title of the study should be added.

o Abstract in Turkish: Under the title in Turkish, a Turkish abstract of at least 150-200 words should be added.

o Turkish Key Words: Under the abstract, maximum 5 key words should be added.

o Introduction: The study should start with the Introduction section. This section should include the problem, the purpose, the method, limitations etc.

o Text: The part of the text that forms the main body of the study, headings and subheadings including the method should be numbered according to the example given below, headings should be written in bold and the first letters of their words should be capitalized.

o Turkish Extended Summary: It should be in the range of 1000-1250 words, including all the main headings in the study. If the study is written in English, the Turkish abstract should be included here.

11. The articles should be at least 4000, at most 12000 words and the article draft file should be used.

12. The studies that should be prepared in the form of A4 size are to be arranged as follows: Paper Size: A4 Vertical, Top Margin: 5 cm, Bottom Margin: 5 cm, Left Margin: 4.5 cm, Right Margin: 4.5 cm, Font: Candara, Font Style: Normal, Font and Space Size (Text): 11 Point, Summary: 9 Point, Footnote: 9 Point, Paragraph Interval: Before 0 pt - After 6 pts, Paragraph Entry: 1 cm Line Spacing: Multiple / Value: 1.15 pts

13. Tables, figures, pictures and charts should be appropriate for the page size of the journal. If necessary, they can be written in smaller point and in single line spacing. Tables and charts should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their order in your text. Footnotes of the table should be placed immediately below the table body, and these should be indicated by lower case descriptive letters. The articles should not include details such as page number, header, and footer.

14. In Turkish articles the spelling and punctuation of the articles should be based on the Spelling Guide of the Turkish Language Institution (Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK).

15. As of the January 2022 issue, APA (American Psychological Association) Style 7th Edition should be used for reference. Both in citations and in the bibliography, authors should follow the spelling rules and format specified in the American Psychological Association Publication Guide published by the American Psychological Association. APA 7 rules and examples are available at the links below.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/student-paper-setup-guide.pdf

16. Manuscripts submitted without using Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote will not be considered.

17. More than one article of an author cannot be published in the same issue.

18. Due to the 2018 Ulakbim (TR Index) criteria, researchers who wish to publish articles in our journal should have the ORCID number. This number can be obtained free of charge from http://www.orcid.org.

19. The Journal of Media and Religion Studies does not charge any application or publication fees from the authors.

20. In case of possible disagreement or if the journal authorities deem it necessary, they have rights for stopping the evaluation of the studies sent to the journal for evaluation without explanation, removing them from the publication process or removing the published work from publication.

21. The authorities of Journal of Media and Religion Studies have the right to make changes in the determined rules, to put additional rules and to request that the works sent for evaluation be rearranged according to the new rules, at any time they deem necessary, without informing them.

Ethical values are one of the most important elements of all scientific study processes. For this reason, studies submitted to the journal are subjected to a completely confidential evaluation process. The information and ideas acquired during the evaluation are kept confidential; they cannot be used to gain an advantage in any way.

Considerations Regarding Research Ethics

The journal adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.

• Principles of integrity, quality, and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design, and conducting the research.

• The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses, and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.

• The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.

• Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.

• Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.

• The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.

• In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, a legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.

• If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.

• In studies with a human subject, it must be noted in the method section of the manuscript that the “informed consent of the participants and “ethics committee approval” from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained. Ethics committee approval should be uploaded to the journal system for related articles.

Plagiarism Policy

The studies submitted to the journal are evaluated within the framework of the similarity report declared at the application stage. Articles that do not comply with research and publication ethics or that have a risk of plagiarism are not evaluated. In this framework, if the similarity rate detected by the screening programs is above 15%, the relevant study cannot be published even if it receives the approval of the referee. If the study was published without noticing the situation, access to the relevant study is blocked and the study is removed from the publication list and the full issue when the situation is noticed. Journal management accepts the results of self-employed plagiarism/similarity programs as a corporate standard, not as a violation of ethics. For detailed information about the plagiarism policy, you can visit the Plagiarism Policy page. The ethical and legal responsibility of the studies belongs primarily to the authors.

The editorial board of Journal of Media and Religion Studies complies with the following rules for plagiarism policy:

The articles with an overall similarity index of greater than 20% are rejected without proceeding for the formal peer review. In such cases, the author(s) will be asked to re-revise the article within three weeks. The similarity index for a single source must be equal to or lower than 5%. Editors may also choose to run a similarity report at any other point during the review process or post-publication.

Evaluation Process, Duration and Peer Review Policy

Preliminary Control

• When a manuscript is submitted to the Journal, it is first pre-checked for compliance with the ethical principles and publication policy and author guidelines.

• The time required for the relevant secretary to process the article is maximum 10 days. Within the pre-control process, the time given to the secretary is maximum 10 days.

Editorial Pre-Control

• The manuscripts that are determined to meet the necessary prerequisites are assigned to the editor/field editor and the editor decides whether the manuscript should be taken to the peer review stage within 5 days.

• At this stage, the editor(s) may reject the article as a result of the editorial evaluation. Or they may make editorial editing suggestions to the author.

• English articles are forwarded to the foreign language editor at this stage and their linguistic appropriateness is checked.

Peer Review

• After the editorial evaluation, the manuscripts are sent to two referees in accordance with the double-blind refereeing process, and at this stage, it is ensured that the referees are from different institutions from the author.

• The response time to the invitation sent to the referee for evaluation is 7 days. The evaluation period is 15 days.

• This period(s) can be extended by the editor and/or field editors. If the process is prolonged, the editor and/or field editors may appoint new referees.

• As a result of their evaluation, referees can directly accept, suggest minor corrections, suggest major corrections, or directly reject the manuscript.

• If both referees give an opinion in favor of acceptance, the article is accepted. If both referees give an opinion for rejection, the article is rejected.

• If the referees give a positive opinion about the publication of the article, it is decided to send the article to the author(s) to make the necessary corrections in line with the referees' revisions. After the revisions, the publication process begins.

• In the event that one of the referees expresses a positive opinion on the publication of the article and the other one expresses a negative opinion, a third referee will be determined and the editor and/or the editorial board will decide to publish or reject the article in line with the decision of the third referee.

• Authors can make justified objections to the evaluation result in a scientific way and by referencing the grounds. The objections are reviewed by the editorial board as soon as possible. Opinions may be requested from the relevant referees about the objections. Authors are notified positively or negatively about the results. If the authors' objections to the evaluation result are found to be positive, the editorial board appoints new referees appropriate to the field of the study, and in this case, the peer review process is restarted.

• Authors must implement the referee revisions within 14 days. Otherwise, the manuscript will be rejected and removed from the system. In very special cases, authors may request additional time from the editor.

• Upon completion of the peer review, manuscripts are assigned to a foreign language editor to check the English abstracts and extended abstracts before acceptance.

Editorial Final Control and Preparation for Publication

• At this stage, the manuscripts whose referee evaluations have been completed are checked by the final editor and, if deemed necessary, may be forwarded to the author for editing. The process is expected to be completed within a maximum of 5 days.

• At this stage, the manuscripts are included in the final reading, DOI identification, and design processes. The maximum processing time is 10 days.

Candidate manuscripts are normally expected to complete the publication review process within 3 months.

Processing and publication are free of charge with the journal.

There is no article processing charges or submission fees for any submitted or accepted articles.