Publication Principles

MUTALAA Journal adheres to national and international standards in research and publication ethics. It complies with the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works, the Press Law and the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive.
MUTALAA Journal has adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). It also undertakes to comply with the Decisions of the Türkiye Editors' Workshop.
Within the scope of MUTALAA publication ethics, all stakeholders are expected to have the following ethical responsibilities:
If the study prepared for publication was produced from a book chapter, an unpublished paper text or a master's / doctoral thesis, this matter must be stated in both Turkish and English on the first page of the study.

Publication Ethics Policy, Plagiarism Action Plan and Journal's Precautions

The journal respects intellectual property and aims to protect and promote the original work of its authors. Articles containing plagiarism are against the standards of quality, research, and innovation. Therefore, all authors who submit articles to the journal are expected to comply with ethical standards and avoid any kind of plagiarism.
This journal checks for plagiarism in studies submitted for review: pre-checked articles are scanned for plagiarism by using TURNITIN software. If plagiarism/self-plagiarism is detected, the author is informed. If necessary, the editors may subject the article to plagiarism control at various stages of the evaluation or production process. High similarity percentages can cause an article to be rejected before or even after it is accepted. The rate is expected to be less than 24%.

Publication of Studies Based on Survey and Interview

MUTALAA Journal adopts the “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers” of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in order to establish ethical assurance in scientific periodicals. In this context, the authors are requested to comply with the following issues in the studies submitted to the journal:
1) Ethics committee approval should be obtained for research conducted in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval, this approval should be stated on the first page of the article and the ethics approval document should be uploaded to the Dergipark system with the article.
2) In studies that require ethics committee permission, information about the permission (name of the committee, date, and number) should be included in the method section, and also after the bibliography section of the article.

Actions against science research and publication ethics:

Plagiarism: Presenting the ideas, methods, data, practices, writings, figures or works of others as their own work, in whole or in part, without providing any attribution in accordance with scientific rules,
Fraud: To produce data that is not based on research, to edit or change the presented or published work based on untrue data, to report or publish them, to make unfinished research appear as if it has been done,
Distortion: To falsify research records and obtained data, to present methods, devices and materials that are not used in the research as if they were used, not to evaluate data that are not suitable for the research hypothesis, to manipulate data and/or results in order to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, to falsify or shape research results in line with the interests of the people and organizations that receive support.
Republishing: To present more than one work containing the same results of a research as separate works in the associate professor examination evaluations and academic promotions,
Slicing: Presenting the results of a research as separate works in the evaluations of associate professorship exams and in the academic promotions, by breaking the integrity of the research into parts inappropriately, and by making multiple publications without citing the other.
Unfair authorship: Including non-active contributors among authors, not including active contributors among authors, changing the order of authors unjustifiably and inappropriately, removing the names of active contributors from the work at the time of publication or in subsequent editions, using influence without active contribution include among the authors.
Other types of ethical violations: a) Not specifying the supporting persons, institutions or organizations and their contributions in the publications made as a result of research carried out with support, b) Using the thesis or studies that have not yet been presented or defended and accepted as a source without the permission of the owner, c) Not complying with the ethical rules in researches conducted on humans and animals on the subject, not respecting the rights of patients in the publications, d) To violate the provisions of the relevant legislation in human biomedical research and other clinical research, e) To share the information contained in a work that he has written with others before it is published without the express permission of the author, f) To misuse the resources, places, facilities and devices provided or allocated for scientific research, g) To make an unfounded, unjustified and deliberate claim of ethical violation, h) To publish the data obtained without obtaining the explicit consent of the participants in surveys and attitude studies conducted within the scope of a scientific study, or if the research is to be conducted in an institution, without the permission of the institution, i) To harm animal’s health and ecological balance in research and experiments, j) Not to obtain the necessary permissions in writing from the authorized units in research and experiments before starting the studies, k) To carry out studies in research and experiments that are contrary to the provisions of the legislation or the international conventions to which Türkiye is a party, regarding the relevant research and experiments, not complying with the obligation to inform and warn the relevant persons, l) Not to use the data and information obtained from other persons and institutions in scientific studies, to the extent permitted and not to comply with the confidentiality of this information and not to ensure its protection, or making a misleading statement (Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive of Council of Higher Education, Article 4).

Author Responsibilities:

All authors must contribute significantly to the research. All data in the article must be declared as true and original. All authors must ensure retraction and correction of errors.

Responsibilities of Referees:

Evaluations should be impartial. Referees should not have a conflict of interest with the research, authors and/or research funders. Referees should cite the relevant published but not cited works. Checked articles should be kept confidential.

Editorial Responsibilities:

Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article. Editors should not have a conflict of interest regarding the accepted or rejected articles. Only articles that will contribute to the field should be accepted. He or she should support the release or withdrawal of the fix when errors are detected. Referees must remain anonymous and prevent plagiarism/fake data. The peer-review process is central to the success of scientific publication. It is part of our commitment to protecting and improving the peer review process, and MUTALAA Journal has an obligation to assist the scientific community in all aspects of publishing ethics, especially in cases of dubious, duplicate publications or plagiarism. The reader can file a complaint when he or she notices a major error or inaccuracy in an article published in MUTALAA Journal, or has any complaints about editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.). We welcome complaints as they provide an opportunity for us to improve, and we aim to respond quickly and constructively.

Impartiality and Publisher's Freedom:

Editors evaluate the submitted article proposals by considering their compatibility with the scope of the journal and the importance and originality of their work. Editors do not consider the race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, or political views of the authors submitting the article proposal. Other institutions other than the editorial board of the journal cannot influence the decision to edit or publish. The editors take care that the published issues contribute to the reader, researcher, practitioner, and scientific field and that they are original.

Independence:

The relationship between the editors (Editor and Associate Editors) and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence. According to the written agreement between the editors and the publisher, all decisions of the editors are independent of the publisher and the journal owner. Editors should reject incomplete and inaccurate research that does not comply with the journal policy, publication rules and level without any influence.

Security:

Editors do not share information about a submitted article with anyone other than the responsible author, referees, and editorial board. He or she ensures that the articles evaluated by at least two referees are evaluated according to the double-blind refereeing system and keeps the referees confidential.

Information and Differences of Opinion:

Editors and editorial board members do not use unpublished information in a submitted article for their own research purposes without the express written consent of the authors. Editors should not have a conflict of interest regarding the articles they accept or reject.

Publication Decision:

Editors ensure that all articles accepted for publication are subject to peer-review by at least two referees who are experts in their field. Editors are responsible for making decisions on which work that was sent to the journal to be published, the validity of the work in question, its importance to researchers and readers according to the comments of the parties and such legal conditions. Editors have the responsibility and authority to accept or reject articles. Therefore, he or she must use his responsibility and authority appropriately and on time.