INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS (pdf)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Scope

MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES is a multidisciplinary platform for the related scientific areas of agriculture and life sciences. Therefore, the journal primarily publishes original research articles and accepts a limited number of invited reviews in agricultural biotechnology, agricultural economics, agricultural machinery, animal husbandry, bioenergy, biostatistics and genetics, farm structure and irrigation, field crops, food science and technology, horticulture, landscape and nature conservation, natural resources, plant protection, soil science and plant nutrition.

General rules

Manuscripts within the scope of MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES can be submitted. The submitted manuscript must be unpublished, must not be simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere, nor can the copyright be transferred somewhere else. Responsibility for the work published in this journal remains with the author(s). Moreover, the author(s) must comply with the ethical rules of science and scientific publications (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Committee on Publication Ethics). The journal is not responsible for these issues.

Manuscript submission

The manuscripts should be submitted to the journal by using online system: www.dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean. A copy of the "Copyright Transfer Agreement" signed by all authors who contributed to the manuscript should be submitted by the corresponding author. Those manuscripts requiring an Ethics Committee Report should be supplied a copy of the report by the Ethics Committee. Ethics Committee Report which is the name of the board, date and number of approval, etc. information should be specified in the manuscript (on the Manuscript Cover Page and Material-Method). A plagiarism document is requested from the authors during the first submission.

Review process, proof and publishing

The manuscript submitted to the journal is subject to preliminary assessment by the Editorial Board. The Board has the right to decline the manuscript without initiating the peer review process in the event the manuscript does not meet the journal’s criteria.
Manuscripts that meet the basic requirements of the journal are sent to three referees for review by experts in the particular field of science.
If all or a majority of the reviewers do not find the manuscript suitable for publication, the author is informed and documents are not returned.
Should the manuscript as is be found suitable for publication by reviewers; the author is informed of the final decision.
Should the manuscript is found publishable but requires revision as suggested by the review team; the areas where revisions are required are sent to the author with the referee's suggestions. The author is expected to return the corrected manuscript, or a letter of rebuttal within thirty days, including the last revised version of the manuscript and correction list sent to Editor. Should the author(s) do not accept the reasons for the revision, they are required to present scientific evidence and record the sources giving reason for this rejection in the letter of rebuttal. The Editorial Board takes the final decision by taking the referee reports into account and the compliance with the requirements for correction and the authors are notified of the final decision for publication.
Before publishing, the proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for a final check. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected final proof within 10 days. All authors can access their article on the web page of the journal (www.dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean).

MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCESis free of charge.

Manuscript preparation guidelines

Manuscript submitted to the journal should consist of main two parts: the coverpage and the manuscript.
1.The coverpage: Should contain the title, names of the author(s) and addresses including the corresponding author’s name and full contact details in addition the author(s) must contain the ORCID number(s), as well as declarations.
2. Manuscript: Manuscripts should be prepared on A4-size paper in 12 point, Times New Roman font, double line spaced, leaving 3 cm blank spaces on all four margins of each page. Each page of the manuscript and each line on page should be numbered.
Copyright Transfer Agreement: Should also be sent after being signed by all the authors during the first submission.
The manuscript should not be longer than 16 pages, double line spaced, including the "References" section (excluding any figures and tables). The information (name and title) of the author(s) should not be given in the article. A total of Tables or Figures should not be more than 8 in the manuscript, and must have the following sections:
Title: Must be short and inclusive, not to exceed 15 words, and the first letter of the first word to be written in uppercase and rest in lowercase letters, in bold.
Abstract: The abstract should not exceed 250 words, and it should summarize the objective of the study, the methods employed and the results.
Keywords: A maximum of 5 keywords, directly related to the subject matter and not employed in the title, should be recorded directly below the abstract.
Introduction: In this section, the subject of the study should be summarized, previous studies directly related to the study should be evaluated with the current knowledge of the subject, and the issues associated with production of the information needed are highlighted. Finally, the objective of the study should be clearly and explicitly stated. Section titles within the manuscript: except for the "References" all the main and sub-titles should be numbered. The first letters of the first words in the titles should be written in capital letters. Main titles should be written in bold and the sub-titles in italics.
Material and methods: In this section, all the materials employed in the study, the methods used, criteria evaluated, sampling methods applied, experimental design with statistical analysis and the confidence limits should be clearly explained. In addition, information regarding the permit (name of the board, date and number no of approval) of the studies requiring Ethics Committee permit should be provided in this section (Method).
Results: In this section the findings of the study should be presented clearly and explicitly with the help of figures, tables, and statistical analysis. Duplication of data presented in the Figures and Tables should be avoided, and the most appropriate tool should be employed.
Discussion and Conclusion: The findings of the study should be discussed with the results of previous studies, in terms of their similarity and contrast, and information gap filled by the study should be emphasized. Finally, conclusions and recommendations should be given. The manuscript layout of this section can be entitled "Results and Discussion" and / or "Conclusions" depending on author(s) preference.
For the reviews, the author(s) can make appropriate title arrangements.
Acknowledgement: People who contribute to the manuscript and/or the study and the funding agency (project numbers, if any) must be specified.
References: In the text, "the author's surname and the year" method should be used for identification of references. A reference identified by means of an author’s surname should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. For identification of references provided by two authors, “and” should be used between the surnames of authors. When there are more than two authors, only the first author’s surname should be mentioned, followed by ‘et al.’. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published in the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ‘a’ and ‘b’ after the date to distinguish between the works. When more than one reference is given at the end of a sentence, the references should be chronologically ordered, those of same date in alphabetical order.
The Endnote file for reference citation format for our journal can be found here.
Examples:

Burton (1947), Sayan and Karaguzel (2010), Keeve et al. (2000), (van Harten 2002), (Karaguzel and Altan 1995), (Burton 1947; Keeve et al. 2000; Yilmaz 2004a, b; Karaguzel 2005, 2006; Gulsen et al. 2010; Sayan ve Karaguzel 2010).
References should be listed at the end of the manuscript in alphabetical order in the References section. The original language of reference should be employed and journal’s name should not be abbreviated. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references they provide.
Examples:
Journal:
Karagüzel O (2003) Farklı tuz kaynak ve konsantrasyonlarının Güney Anadolu doğal Lupinusvarius’larının çimlenme özelliklerine etkisi. Akdeniz Üniversitesi Ziraat Fakültesi Dergisi 16: 211-220.
Keeve R, Loupser HL, Kruger GHJ (2000) Effect of temperature and photoperiod on days to flowering, yield and yield components of Lupinusalbus (L.) under field conditions. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 184: 187-196.
Book:
Taiz L, Zeiger E (2002) Plant Physiology. 3rd Edition, Sinauer Associates, Massachusetts.
Book chapter:
Van HartenAM (2002) Mutation breeding of vegetatively propagated ornamentals. In: Vainstein A (Ed), Breeding for ornamentals: Classical and Molecular Approaches. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 105-127.
Institution publications with unknown author name(s):
TSI (2005) Agricultural Structure.T.C. Prime Ministry State Institute of Statistics, Publication No. 1579, Ankara.
DOI and received information from the internet:
Gulsen O, Kaymak S, Ozongun S, Uzun A (2010) Genetic analysis of Turkish apple germplasm using peroxidase gene-based markers. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2010.04.023.
FAO (2010) Statistical database.http://faostat.fao.org/site/339/default.aspx. Accessed 27 July, 2010.
Theses:
Sever Mutlu S (2009) Warm-season turfgrass species: Adaptation, drought resistance and response to trinexapac-ethyl application. PhD Thesis, The University of Nebraska, Nebraska.
Girmen B (2004) Gazipaşa yöresinde doğal yayılış gösteren hayıtların (Vitexagnus-castus L.) seleksiyonu ve çoğaltılabilme olanakları. Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Akdeniz Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Antalya.
Full-text congress/symposium book:
Hawkes JG (1998) Current status of genetic diversity in the world. In: Zencirci N, Kaya Z, Anikster Y, Adams WT (Eds), The Proceedings of International Symposium on In Stu Conservation of Plant Genetic Diversity. CRIFC, Ankara, Turkey, pp. 1-4.
Kesik T (2000) Weed infestation and yield of onion and carrot under no-tillage cultivation using four crops. In: 11th International Conference on Weed Biology. Dijon, France, pp. 437–444.
Figures and tables: In submitted manuscripts all photographs, graphics, figures, diagrams and the like must be named as "Figure", and lists of numerical values as "Table". All figures and tables should be numbered and placed at the end of the manuscript. The font of the letters within Figures and Tables used should be no larger than 8 points. Figure and table widths should be 8 cm or 17 cm and, if necessary, dimensions of up to 17x23 cm. The images should be in JPG format with 600 dpi resolution and should be informative in explaining the results. The authors must check the printing quality of the figures and should use high quality figures suitable for printing. Use of vertical lines in the tables is unacceptable, statistical significance should be stated using P values as much as possible, or using the "*" symbols for which description should be given. Small case lettering should be used for statistical groupings, and the statistical comparison method and significance level specified. Table and figure captions and descriptions should be short, concise, and descriptive. Abbreviations should be explained immediately if used within the Figures and tables. Those images composed of pieces should be grouped and converted into high-quality TIF format.
Units: For manuscripts SI (System International d'Units) unit system is used. In units, "/" should not be used and there should be a space between the units (for example: 5.6 kg ha-1, instead of 5.6 kg/ha; 18.9 g cm-3, instead of 18.9 g/cm3; 1.8 µmol s-1 m-2, instead of 1.8 µmol/s/m2).
Abbreviations and symbols: Abbreviations should not be used in the manuscript title or in the subtitles. The necessary abbreviations at their first mention should be given in parentheses. Universal rules must be followed in the use of abbreviations and symbols.
Latin names and chemicals: The authority should not be used in the manuscript title when Latin names are used. The authority should be given when the Latin names are first used in the abstract and the text. For example: "Lupinusvarius (L.) is ....", "L. varius ... grown in the.. " Latin names should be written in italics. The trade mark of chemicals used in the studies should not be given unless it is absolutely necessary to do so.
Formulas: In manuscripts, formulas should be called "Equation", numbered as necessary, the numbers next to the formulas leaning right shown in brackets and the equations should be fitted in a single line (double-column, 8 cm), if possible.
The author (s) is encouraged to visit the web site (www.dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean) to see the latest issue of the journal.

The author(s) must comply with the ethical rules of science and scientific publications (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Committee on Publication Ethics). The journal is not responsible for these issues.

Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as ‘submitting as one’s own work, irrespective of intent to deceive, that which derives in part or in its entirety from the work of others without due acknowledgement. It is both poor scholarship and a breach of academic integrity.
Examples of plagiarism include copying (using another person’s language and/or ideas as if they are one’s own), by:
• quoting verbatim another person’s work without due acknowledgement of the source;
• paraphrasing another person’s work by changing some of the words, or the order of the words, without due acknowledgement of the source; • using ideas taken from someone else without reference to the originator;
• cutting and pasting from the Internet to make a pastiche of online sources;
• submitting someone else’s work as part of one’s own without identifying clearly who did the work. For example, not attributing research contributed by others to a joint project.
Plagiarism might also arise from colluding with another person who has not been declared or acknowledged (i.e. where collaboration is concealed or has been forbidden). Work should include a general acknowledgement where it has received substantial help, for example with the language and style of a piece of written work.
Plagiarism can occur in respect to all types of sources and media, including:
• text, illustrations, musical quotations, mathematical derivations, computer code, etc.;
• material downloaded from websites or drawn from manuscripts or other media;
• published and unpublished material, including lectures, presentations and grey literature.
Mediterr Agric Sci do not tolerate plagiarism in any of submitted manuscripts. Although a plagiarism document is requested from the authors during the first submission, we reserve the right to check all submissions through appropriate plagiarism checking tools. Submissions containing suspected plagiarism, in whole or part, will be rejected. If plagiarism is discovered post publication, we will follow our guidance outlined in the Retractions, Corrections and Expressions of Concern section of these guidelines. We expect our readers, reviewers and editors to raise any suspicions of plagiarism, either by contacting the relevant editor or by emailing masjournal@akdeniz.edu.tr

Research with Humans or Animals
Research involving humans or animals should be approved by relevant ethics committee(s) and should conform to international ethical and legal standards for research. We also expect authors to respect human participants’ right to privacy, and to gain any necessary consent to publish before submitting to us. For information on whether authors are required to submit or include evidence regarding the above, please consult journal submission guidelines or contact the journal editorial board.

Studies that require the approval of the Ethics Committee are as follows.
All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from the participants by using survey, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment and interview techniques.
Use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
Clinical studies on humans,
Studies on animals,
Retrospective studies in accordance with the personal data protection law,
In addition;
Stating that an “informed consent form” was taken in case reports,
Obtaining and specifying permission from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires, photographs belonging to others,
Statement that copyright regulations are complied with for the intellectual and artistic works used

Conflicts of Interest and Funding
Mediterr Agric Sci asks authors to declare any potential conflicts of interest that could interfere with the objectivity or integrity of a publication in the declaration section. Conflicts of interest are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the presentation, review and publication of a piece of work. These may be financial, non-financial, professional, contractual or personal in nature. We also expect that anyone who suspects an undisclosed conflict of interest regarding a work published or under consideration by Mediterr Agric Sci should inform the relevant editor email masjournal@akdeniz.edu.tr. In addition to a conflicts of interest declaration, a funding declaration is required for the authors in the declaration section in the title page.

Retractions, Corrections and Expressions of Concern
Mediterr Agric Sci’s editors will consider retractions, corrections or expressions of concern in line with Retraction Guidelines of The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). If an author is found to have made an error, the journal will issue a corrigendum. If the journal is found to have made an error, they will issue an erratum. Retractions are usually reserved for articles that are so seriously flawed that their findings or conclusions should not be relied upon. Journals that publish Accepted Manuscripts may make minor changes such as those which would likely occur during typesetting or proofreading, but any substantive corrections will be carried out in line with COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. If someone raises a legal, ethical or security concern about a paper published in Mediterr Agric Sci, we would inform the author(s) and editor(s) involved. Our next step would be to investigate the concern and, if appropriate, address it through dialogue or negotiation with any third parties involved or by referring it to a relevant institution for investigation. If the concern relates to the integrity or accuracy of the content itself, we would consider issuing a correction, or a retraction and withdrawal from sale. Where any content is retracted, we would do so in a way that still preserves the integrity of the academic record and of other affiliated works (for example, other volumes in a series). This includes maintaining any associated metadata and, if legally possible, the abstract. We also participate in CrossMark; a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content, view any changes that have occurred, and access additional information about that publication record.

Falsification, Fabrication and Image Manipulation
Where research data are collected or presented as images, modifying these images can sometimes misrepresent the results obtained or their significance. We recognise that there can be legitimate reasons for modifying images, but we expect authors to avoid modifying images where this leads to the falsification, fabrication, or misrepresentation of their results.


Fraudulent Research and Research Misconduct
Where we are made aware of fraudulent research or research misconduct by a Mediterr Agric Sci author, our first concern is the integrity of content we have published. We work with the relevant editor(s), COPE, and other appropriate institutions or organizations, to investigate. Any publication found to include fraudulent results will be retracted, or an appropriate correction or expression of concern will be issued. Please see the Retractions, Corrections and Expressions of Concern section of these guidelines for more information.


Transparency
Mediterr Agric Sci strives to follow COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing and encourage our publishing partners to uphold these same principles.

Data and Supporting Evidence
We support transparency and openness around data, code, and other materials associated with research. We expect authors to maintain accurate records of supporting evidence necessary to allow others to understand, verify, and replicate new findings, and to supply or provide access to this supporting evidence, on reasonable request. Where appropriate and where allowed by employer, funding body or others who might have an interest, we encourage authors to deposit data in a suitable repository or storage location, for sharing and further use by others. Mediterr Agric Sci aims to provide authors with the ability to connect supporting data with their manuscripts, either on our own platform or through third party services. Please contact the journal for information on their transparency requirements.

Integrity of Record
We maintain a record of the existence of everything we publish with information (metadata) describing each publication. If our content is deemed not to comply with the laws of a sovereign nation, we make every effort to ensure the metadata remain accessible within that jurisdiction. Where we are obliged to alter the publication record in any way, such as in the case of research misconduct leading to retraction of a publication, we preserve the academic record as far possible. See the Retractions, Corrections and Expressions of Concern of these guidelines for information about how we do this.

Open Access Policy
Mediterr Agric Sci is a completely free, international peer-reviewed journal with open access. It does not charge article processing fees (evaluation fees or printing fees) and subscription fees for accessing articles.

Privacy Statement
Personal information such as names and e-mail addresses entered in the management system of Mediterr Agric Sci will be used only for the scientific purposes of this journal. This information will not be used for any other purpose or section and will not be shared with third parties.

Archiving
All articles published in Mediterr Agric Sci are stored and presented on ULAKBİM servers in pdf format through the TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM Life Sciences Database. Likewise, there is a copy of all the published articles in DergiPark (www.dergipark.org.tr).

Sponsorship and Advertising
Mediterr Agric Sci does not accept sponsorship and advertising in terms of publishing policies.

Copyright Transfer
Manuscripts submitted to Mediterr Agric Sci for publication should be original work that has not previously been published in any way or that has not been submitted for publication elsewhere.
Authors agree to waive the copyright of their work and submit the copyright of their work to Mediterr Agric Sci upon submission for evaluation.
The Editorial Board of Mediterr Agric Sci is authorized to publish the article. Authors who will send a work to Mediterr Agric Sci should fill in the "Copyright Transfer Form". The author (s) must sign the completed form with a wet signature. By scanning the signed form, uploading additional files in the 3rd of the work submission steps through the system option. The works of authors who do not submit the Copyright Transfer Form are not published.

Fair double-blind peer-review and Evaluation Process
Blind peer-review is a method used for the publication of scientific publications with the highest quality. This method is the basis of the objective evaluation of scientific studies and is preferred by many scientific journals.
The opinions of the peer reviewers have a decisive role in the publication quality of Mediterr Agric Sci. All studies submitted to Mediterr Agric Sci are evaluated through blanking according to the following stages.
Mediterr Agric Sci uses the double-blind method in the evaluation process of all studies. In the double-blind method, the author and peer reviewer identities of the studies are hidden.

Initial Evaluation Process
The articles submitted to Mediterr Agric Sci are first evaluated by the editors. At this stage, studies that do not meet the aim and scope of the journal, which are weak in terms of language and expression rules in English, that contain scientifically critical errors, have no original value and do not meet the publication policies are rejected. Authors of rejected studies are notified within two weeks of the submission date. Appropriate studies are sent to a Department editor for preliminary evaluation.

Preliminary Evaluation Process
In the pre-evaluation process, the editors of the department examine the introduction, materials and methods, findings, conclusions, evaluation and discussion sections in detail in terms of journal publication policies and scope and originality. Not eligible as a result of this review, the studies are returned within 4 weeks at the latest with the evaluation report of the department editor.

Arbitration Process
The works are sent to the peer reviewers according to their content and peer reviewer’s specialties. The editor of the department, who reviewed the study, proposes at least two peer reviewers from the peer reviewer pool of Mediterr Agric Sci, or new peer reviewers appropriate to the area of the study. The suggestions of the peer reviewers are evaluated by the department editors and the works are forwarded to the authors for revision. The peer reviewers have guarantee that they will not share the document someone else.

Peer reviewer Evaluation Process
Mediterranean Agricultural Sciences has an external peer review process. The time given to the peer reviewers is 4 weeks. Corrections from peer reviewers or editors must be completed by the authors within 1 month. Peer reviewers may review the corrections of a study to determine its suitability or may request multiple corrections if necessary.

Evaluation Result
The opinions of the peer reviewers are reviewed by the Department editor within 2 weeks at the latest. As a result of this review, the Department's editor communicates the final decision on the work to the editors (Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor).

Decision of the Editorial Board
The editors prepare the opinions of the editorial board based on the opinions of the department editor and the peer reviewers. The opinions prepared are forwarded by the Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor to the author (s) within 1 week at the latest, together with the suggestions of the Department editor and the peer reviewers. In this process, studies with negative opinions are returned.

Article Submission
The author (s) who will send a study to be evaluated in Mediterr Agric Sci can submit a membership to the journal management system at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/mediterranean.
If the author (s) notices a misstatement or error related to the works published or under evaluation, the department editor and the author(s) have an obligation to cooperate for the withdrawal of work.

Withdrawal of Articles
The author (s) wishing to request a withdrawal of his / her work during the evaluation phase are obliged to forward the petition containing the request for withdrawal of the article, signed and scanned with the signature of each author, to the editorial board via masjournal@akdeniz.edu.tr via e-mail. The Editorial Board reviews the withdrawal notification and returns within one week at the latest. Authors cannot send their manuscript to another journal for evaluation unless the request for withdrawal of the works whose copyrights have been transferred by the editorial board of Mediterr Agric Sci is submitted.

Editors
Mediterr Agric Sci board; in case of suspicion of copyright and plagiarism regarding a work published or under evaluation, it is obliged to initiate an investigation of the work.
In the event that the editorial board determines that copyright and plagiarism have been made in the evaluation process as a result of the investigation, it withdraws the study from the evaluation and returns the identified cases to the authors in detail.
If the editorial board determines that a copyrighted or plagiarism has been committed in a published or published work, it shall perform the following withdrawal and notification procedures within one week at the latest.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES and POLICIES
Publication Ethics. The publication processes used Mediterr Agric Sci are the basis for the development and dissemination of information in an impartial and respectable manner. The processes applied in this direction are directly reflected in the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions supporting the authors.
Peer reviewed studies are the studies that embody and support the scientific method. At this point, it is important that all stakeholders of the process (authors, readers and researchers, publishers, peer reviewers and editors) comply with standards for ethical principles. Within the scope of the publication ethics of Mediterr Agric Sci, all stakeholders are expected to bear the following ethical responsibilities.
The ethical duties and responsibilities set out below are based on guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as open access.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
The author (s) submitting works to Mediterr Agric Sci are expected to comply with the following ethical responsibilities:
• The works submitted by the author (s) are expected to be original. If the author (s) make use of or use other studies, they must cite and / or cite in a complete and accurate manner.
• People who do not contribute intellectually to the content of the study should not be mentioned as authors.
• The situations and relationships of any work submitted for publication that may constitute a conflict of interest should be explained.
• Raw data of the manuscripts may be requested from the author (s) within the framework of the evaluation process, in which case the author (s) should be prepared to submit the expected data and information to the editorial board and the scientific committee.
• The author (s) must have a document showing that they have the rights to use the data used, that they have the necessary permissions for the research / analysis, or that the consent of the test subjects has been obtained.
• The author (s) have an obligation to cooperate with the editor to inform, correct or withdraw the editor or publisher if he / she discovers a mistake or error related to his / her published, printed or evaluation work.
• Authors cannot keep their work in the application process of more than one journal at the same time. Each application may be initiated following the completion of the previous application. The study published in another journal cannot be sent to the Mediterr Agric Sci.
• It is not possible to change the author responsibilities (such as adding author, changing the order of author, removing the author) of a study that has started the evaluation process.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
The editors and department editors of Mediterr Agric Sci have the following ethical duties and on the basis of the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Practice COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) should have responsibilities:

Relations with the readers
Editors should make decisions based on the knowledge, skills and experience expectations of all readers, researchers and practitioners. To contribute the published works to readers, researchers, practitioners and scientific literature and to be original should pay attention. In addition, editors are obliged to take into account the feedback from readers, researchers and practitioners, and to provide explanatory and informative feedback.

Relations with authors
The duties and responsibilities of the editors against the authors are as follows:
• Editors should make positive or negative decisions based on the importance, original value, validity, clarity of expression, and the objectives and objectives of the journal.
• The studies that are in compliance with the publication scope should be taken to the pre-evaluation stage unless there is a serious problem.
• Editors should not ignore favorable peer reviewer proposals unless there is a serious problem with the work.
• New editors should not change the decisions made by the previous editor (s) for the work, unless there is a serious problem.
• "Blind Judging and Evaluation Process" must be published and editors should avoid deviations from the defined processes.
• Editors should publish an Author's Guide that includes every topic that is expected by the authors in detail. These guides should be updated periodically.
• Authors should be provided with explanatory and informative notification and return.

Relations with Peer Reviewer’s
The duties and responsibilities of editors against peer reviewers are as follows:
• designate the peer reviewers according to the subject of the study.
• It is obliged to provide the information and guides that the peer reviewers need during the evaluation phase.
• The authors and peer reviewers have to observe whether there is a conflict of interest.
• In the context of blanking arbitration, the peer reviewer’s identity information should be kept confidential.
• Encourage peer reviewers to consider working in an objective, scientific and objective language.
• Evaluate the peer reviewers with criteria such as timely return and performance.
• Develop policies and practices to improve the performance of peer reviewers.
• Take the necessary steps to dynamically update the peer reviewer pool.
• Prevent disrespectful and unscientific assessments.
• Take steps to ensure that the peer reviewer pool is composed of a wide range.

Relations with editorial board
Editors should ensure that all editorial board members proceed with the publication policies and guidelines. The editorial board should inform its members about the publication policies and keep them informed of developments. New editorial board members educate, provide the information they need.

Relations with magazine owner and publisher
The relationship between editors and publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence. As per the written agreement between the editors and the publisher, all decisions of the editors are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.
Editorial and blind arbitration processes
Editors; The journal is obliged to implement the "Blind Arbitration and Evaluation Process" policies in the publication policies. In this context, the editors ensure that the fair, impartial and timely evaluation of each work is completed.
Quality assurance
Editors; is responsible for the publication of each article published in the journal in accordance with journal publishing policies and international standards.

Protection of personal data
Editors; and to ensure the protection of personal data relating to the subjects or visuals involved in the studies evaluated. Unless the express consent of the individuals used in the studies is documented, it is responsible for rejecting the study. In addition, editors; The author is responsible for protecting the individual data of the peer reviewers and readers.

Ethics committee, human and animal rights
Editors; to ensure the protection of human and animal rights in the studies evaluated. Ethics committee approval of the subjects used in the studies is responsible for rejecting the study in the absence of permission for experimental research.

Measure against possible abuse and misconduct
Editors; is obliged to take measures against possible misconduct and misconduct. In addition to conducting a rigorous and objective investigation into the identification and evaluation of complaints, the editor is also responsible for sharing findings.

Protection of intellectual property rights
Editors; to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of journal and author (s) in case of possible violations. In addition, editors are required to ensure that the content of all published articles does not infringe the intellectual property rights of other publications.
measures.

Complaints
Editors; The author is obliged to examine the complaints coming from the peer reviewers or readers carefully and to respond in an illuminating and explanatory manner.

Political and Commercial Concerns
The owner, publisher and any other political and commercial elements do not affect the independent decision-making of the editors.

Ethical Responsibilities of Peer reviewers
The evaluation of all studies with "Blinding Peer reviewer" directly affects the quality of the publication. This process provides confidence through objective and independent evaluation of the publication. The evaluation process of Mediterr Agric Sci is carried out with the principle of double-blinded arbitration.
The peer reviewers cannot contact the authors directly. Reviews and comments are communicated through the journal management system. In this process, peer reviewer comments on evaluation forms and full texts are forwarded to the author (s) through the editor. In this context, peer reviewers evaluating the work for Mediterr Agric Sci are expected to have the following ethical responsibilities:
• Only work related to the field of expertise should accept the evaluation.
• Evaluate in neutrality and confidentiality.
• If he thinks that he is facing a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, he should refuse to review the study and inform the journal editor.
• Dispose of the studies they review in accordance with the principle of confidentiality after the evaluation process. They can only use the final versions of the studies they have reviewed after they are published.
• Evaluate objectively in relation to the content of the study. Nationality should not allow gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns to influence assessment.
• Evaluate in a constructive and gentle language. Do not make humiliating personal comments that include hostility, slander and insult.
• Carry out the work they accept to evaluate in a timely manner and with the above ethical responsibilities.

Conflicts of interest
Editors; it ensures that the publication of the manuscripts is completed independently and impartially, taking into account conflicts of interest between the author (s), the peer reviewers and other editors.

Plagiarism Control
A plagiarism document is requested from the authors during the first submission; however, the journal reserves the right to check all submissions after peer-reviewing process through appropriate plagiarism checking tools. In accordance with the publication ethics of Mediterr Agric Sci, it is obligatory that plagiarism audits are carried out in order to protect the integrity of all studies that have passed through the Blind Arbitration Assessment Process ". Within this scope, a copy of each study is subject to plagiarism control by a company approved by the editorial board. The material responsible for the audit belongs to the author (s). Plagiarism is controlled by Turnitin and iThenticate software. Each work is analyzed in-depth by means of software, and the matching and citation matches are extracted. The remaining matches are examined and the errors are detected and reported to the editorial board. The editorial board makes the final decision about the study in the light of the plagiarism audit report of each study. Errors in the report may be requested to be corrected by the authors or the work may be returned to the authors.

Bibliography, Submission and Citation Control
Scientific research is based on previous studies. In the studies conducted, reference is made to the previous studies within the framework of certain rules and references. Mistakes made intentionally or unknowingly in scientific studies undermine the reliability of the study and publication. Mediterr Agric Sci sees it as imperative that accurate and complete references and citations are accepted as a result of the evaluation. Within this scope, after each work is accepted, a bibliography, sending and citation control is carried out by the editorial board. The material responsibility for the control carried out belongs to the author (s).
The bibliography, submission and citation control of accepted studies are carried out for the full text in the following steps:
• Bibliography is prepared in accordance with the procedures and principles contained in the Intructions for Authors section of the journal.
• It is checked whether the references in the text of each reference in the bibliography are given according to the procedures and principles, and the wrong ones are corrected.
• References to in-text references are checked. The missing ones are requested from the authors and the wrong ones are corrected. Procedures and principles of references for full text are taken into consideration.

Layout and Typesetting
Mediterr Agric Sci requires the uniformity of the articles, their readability and the standard and uniform print format required by the standards. In this context, plagiarism audit and bibliography editing are completed by the Editorial Board. The responsibility for the checking of the galleyproofs rests with the author (s).


Giving the DOI Number
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique access number that allows the identification and access of each published work electronically. A DOI number is mandatory for each study published in Mediterr Agric Sci. Plagiarism audit, bibliography check and print version are prepared by the editorial board after the acceptance stage.

MEDITERRANEAN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES is free of charge.