Modular Journal aims to create a platform for academic studies from different disciplines that reveal new data in architecture, interior architecture, urban design, visual communication design, industrial products design, digital game design and all other design fields with scientific methods and to contribute to science with these researches. Compliance with scientific ethical principles is important in scientific studies prepared in accordance with this goal.
These ethical principles have been prepared in line with the guidelines and policies prepared by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and published in open access, and some of them are presented below.
Authors' Responsibilities
Articles submitted to Modular Journal should be original works related to Architecture, Urban Design, Interior Architecture, Visual Communication Design, Industrial Design and other design disciplines.
In order to preserve the diversity of publications, there should be at least two issues between two published articles of the first author.
All sources (authors, online pages, personal interviews, etc.) utilised in the articles should be indicated in the procedure stated in the writing rules.
It should be stated that the articles submitted to the journal have not been sent to another journal and the Copyright Transfer Form prepared by Modular Journal should be filled in.
For manuscripts whose copyrights have been transferred to Modular Journal at the submission stage, authors cannot send their manuscripts to another journal for evaluation unless the withdrawal request is approved. If there is a request to withdraw the article according to the request of the author(s) based on arbitrary reasons, where the author(s) does not provide a justified justification for the work, the Editor and Editorial Board will definitely not accept this request. In addition, the editorial and editorial board management of the journal will be considered as a disrespect to labour and occupying the referees' evaluations and journal time; It will be presented to the information that the author (s) who make this deliberate request to our journal will not be able to send a study to our journal for 2 years.
Authors should use inclusive language, statements that are respectful of all people, sensitive to differences and promote equality of opportunity. The content of the work should not make any assumptions about the beliefs or culture of any reader; it is obliged to use inclusive language throughout and without any statement that may imply that one individual is superior to another because of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health status. Authors should ensure that the writing is free of bias, stereotyping, slang, dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions.
Authors may be asked to provide raw data on their work to the editorial board while it is in the review process, in which case authors are expected to share their raw data with the editorial board. Authors are obliged to retain data on a published article for 5 years.
Authors should respond to reviewers' comments in a timely manner.
The author(s) should indicate the name of the ethics committee, the date and number of the decision on the last page of the article and in the method section, and upload the document showing the decision of the ethics committee to the system with the application of the article for research requiring data collection by quantitative or qualitative methods such as experiments, surveys, scales, interviews, observations, etc. that require ethics committee approval.
Authors should inform the editor and the editorial board when they detect an error in their work, and should co-operate for the correction or withdrawal process.
Changes in Authorship
Authors are expected to carefully organise the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and to submit the final list of authors at the time of the original submission. Additions, deletions, or rearrangements of author names in the author list should be made only before the manuscript is accepted and only if approved by the Editor of the Journal. To request such a change, the Editor must receive written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from the author concerned, stating the reason for the change in the author list and that all authors agree to the addition, deletion or rearrangement.
Responsibilities of the Editor, Assistant Editors and Field Editors
The editors endeavour to meet the information needs of referees, author(s) and readers, and to act in accordance with the principles of openness in matters requiring correction and clarification during the publication process.
While deciding on the publication of the articles, the editors take care to ensure that the articles are original, prepared with scientific methods, contribute to readers, researchers and practitioners, taking into account the purpose and scope of the journal.
The editors apply the blind refereeing and evaluation process policies among the publication policies of the journal, keep the identity information of the referees confidential, and ensure that each article is evaluated impartially and within the time limit.
The editors submit the manuscripts by taking into account the specialities of the field editors and referees, and support the unbiased and independent evaluation of the manuscripts.
Editors should ensure that manuscripts are reviewed on purely scientific grounds and that authors are not pressurised to cite specific publications for specific reasons.
Editors should seek to ensure that the pool of reviewers is broad and continuously updated.
Editors prevent unscientific and unscholarly reviews that do not conform to academic etiquette.
Editors ensure the protection of personal data in the articles under review; they protect the individual data of authors, reviewers and readers.
The editors are obliged to protect the identity of the referees, but if the referees wish to disclose their names, they should be allowed to do so.
The editors take into account consistent criticism of the articles published in the Journal and allow the author(s) of the criticised articles to respond.
Ethics committee, human and animal rights
Editors are obliged to ensure the protection of human and animal rights in the evaluated studies. The ethics committee approval for the subjects used in the studies is responsible for rejecting the study in the absence of permissions for experimental research.
Author Declaration Form for Articles Not Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
For articles submitted to our journal, whose data do not require ethics committee approval, our author(s) are required to scan the declaration form with wet signature and upload it to the system. The declaration form stating that there is no need for an ethics committee decision must have the signature of all authors. The form can be accessed from the FILES tab.
Responsibilities of Referees
In the Modular Journal article evaluation process, Blind Peer Review (at least two referees) is carried out for each article. In order for the work to be accepted to the journal, it must receive a positive evaluation from 2 referees. When necessary, a third referee may be asked to contribute to the evaluation process.
During the manuscript evaluation process, the evaluation forms, notes on the text and correction requests are sent to the author(s) by the editors via the journal management system.
Referees should only accept to evaluate articles related to their field of expertise.
The reviewers should carry out the evaluation in impartiality and confidentiality. In accordance with this principle, they should destroy the articles they have reviewed after the evaluation process and use them only after publication. The evaluation should be carried out objectively, and nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns should not impair the impartiality of the evaluation.
Reviewers should evaluate the manuscript in a constructive manner in accordance with the rules of academic etiquette; they should avoid personal comments containing insults and hostility.
Reviewers should evaluate the accepted manuscript within the deadline.
Refereeing Ethics and Confidentiality Principles
The refereeing process should be conducted within the framework of ethical responsibility, impartiality and confidentiality principles, which form the basis of scientific publishing. Modular Journal has adopted the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) Refereeing Ethics Rules.
Reviewers are obliged to treat the submitted article as a confidential document from the moment they accept the invitation to review. The content of the article should only be used for review purposes; it should not be shared with third parties, discussed, or uploaded to any digital platform or artificial intelligence-based tool. Uploading the submitted article or any part thereof to artificial intelligence systems may constitute a violation of the authors' rights to privacy, intellectual property, and data protection. Similarly, as referee evaluation reports may contain confidential information about the article and authors, uploading these reports to any artificial intelligence tool, even for the purpose of obtaining support in terms of language or style, is inappropriate.
The evaluation of a scientific article requires critical thinking, academic judgement, and ethical responsibility, which are unique to humans. Therefore, generative artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence-assisted technologies should not be used by reviewers to assist in the scientific evaluation of an article. Artificial intelligence tools may produce erroneous, incomplete, or biased results in the evaluation process.
The referee is responsible for the entirety of the report they produce during the evaluation process and is obliged to act in accordance with the ethical principles governing this process.
Conflicts of Interest
When the referees realise that there is a conflict of interest, they should refuse to evaluate the article and inform the editors.
Each author should disclose any direct or indirect financial interests or connections in the reported work, results, reflections, or opinions expressed, or any other circumstances that may raise the question of bias, including relevant commercial or other sources of funding to the authors or related departments or organisations, personal relationships, or direct academic competition.
The editors guarantee the independent and impartial completion of the publication process, taking into account conflicts of interest between the author(s), reviewers and other editors.
Plagiarism Scanning
All submitted manuscripts are checked with iThenticate or Turnitin programmes. The similarity rate is 15% for all manuscripts submitted after 16.03.2025. All manuscripts with more than 15% similarity will be rejected unless another submission is made by the author. However, the 15% threshold may give the author the right of correction with the review of the editors, due to incorrect quotation, statement and correct citation. After this process, if the similarity is still above 15%, the journal has the right to reject the study.
Authors accept their responsibility in this regard and editors may take additional measures to prevent plagiarism if iThenticate or Turnitin programmes do not provide satisfactory results. As the Turkish database is limited, Crossref may use other methods, including Google search.
Publication Policy
Modular Journal adopts an open access policy. In accordance with the publication policy, no product processing fee and article submission fee are requested. The content of the journal can be accessed online without any charge. No submission fee or article evaluation fee is charged to authors for articles submitted to the journal.
It is a periodical publication. It is published twice a year.
Authors are responsible for the publications. No Editorial Board of the journal is responsible for the published articles.
Visibility and Discoverability Policy
Modular Journal adheres to the DOAS (Diamond Open Access Standard) principles with the aim of enhancing visibility and discoverability. In line with this, the journal continues its efforts towards open access publishing, the standardised description of article information in accordance with international standards, the use of DOIs, improving accessibility via search engines, and securing inclusion in national and international indexes.
As the evaluation process and duration after an article is uploaded to the Modular Journal system;
1. Preliminary Control (3 weeks),
2. Assessment (6 to 12 weeks)
3. Arrangement (3 weeks)
It is carried out in 3 stages and at least 18 weeks.
However, all these processes may vary depending on the intensity.
Studies uploaded to the system can be withdrawn by the Authors only during the Pre-control processes.
If you encounter any unethical behaviour or content in Modular Journal other than the ethical responsibilities mentioned above, please report it via e-mail to modular@gedik.edu.tr.
June 22, 2026
Page
1-20
