Editorial Confidentiality Obligation
The editors of The Journal of Ordu University Faculty of Theology treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. People who can access the articles during the article review process: Editors, Referees and Editorial Board Members. Only if the editor suspects serious research misconduct, he/she may share the details of the manuscript with a third party without the permission of the authors.

Allegations-Suspicions of Scientific Misconduct
The editor is obliged to take action if he/she suspects or alleges an ethical violation. This duty extends to both published and unpublished articles. The editor should not simply reject articles raising concerns about possible misconduct. He or she should first seek a response from those suspected of misconduct. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers or organisation to investigate.
Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty follows COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty or its editors will not knowingly allow plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct to occur. If the editors of Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty are aware of any allegations of research misconduct related to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines regarding allegations.
Reviewers should inform the Editor if they suspect research or publication misconduct. The Editor is responsible for taking necessary action in accordance with COPE recommendations.
Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty is committed to following the COPE flowcharts when faced with allegations of misconduct on the following or similar issues.
• Re-publication of a submitted article
• Plagiarism in the article
• Suspicion of fabricated data
• Requests for change of authorship
• Suspicion of an undisclosed conflict of interest
• Suspicion of unfair or gift authorship
• Suspecting the ethical problem of the article

Grievance Procedure
This procedure applies to complaints about content, procedures, or policies that are the responsibility of Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty or our editorial staff.
Complaints should be emailed directly to oduifd@odu.edu.tr and will be treated confidentially. The editor follows the procedure outlined in the COPE flowchart regarding complaints.
Complaints are reviewed by the relevant member of the editorial team and, if not resolved, the following processes are followed:
• If this initial response is considered inadequate, the complainant may request that the complaint be referred to a more senior member of the journal.
• If the complainant is not satisfied, the complaint may be forwarded to the editor-in-chief.
• If possible, a full response will be given within two weeks.

Objection Process
Serious objections to the evaluations made by the editors and referees are welcomed. If you believe that your manuscript has been rejected based on a misunderstanding of its scientific content, please send an appeal to our editorial team at oduifd@odu.edu.tr. If, after reading your letter of objection, it appears that your objection is justified, you may be asked to submit a revised version of your manuscript. Your manuscript will then be resubmitted to the external reviewer process. Only one objection per manuscript will be considered. Therefore, please include as much detail as possible in your appeal letter.

Conflicts of Interest
A conflict of interest occurs when professional judgement about a primary interest may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal competition). All sources of financial support received during the conduct of the research and preparation of the manuscript and the role of sponsors in the study should be disclosed. If there is no source of funding, this should also be indicated. Examples of possible conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include consultancies, salaries, grants.
Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty has a set process for handling submissions from editors, staff or editorial board members to ensure impartial review. Such submissions are first referred to other journals. If this is not possible, the submitter's position in the journal is suspended. These submissions are reviewed in a double blind process.
The editor should not be involved in decisions about manuscripts written by him/herself or family members. Furthermore, such a paper should be subject to all the usual procedures of the journal. The editor should follow the COPE guidelines on disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers.

Publication Ethics Principles
Publication Ethics can be defined as a self-regulatory mechanism that insists on integrity on behalf of authors, reviewers and publishers to establish higher standards of editorial processing.
• Honest researchers do not plagiarise.
• They do not misattribute sources.
• They do not hide objections they cannot refute.
• They do not distort opposing views.
• They do not destroy or hide data.
The Journal of Ordu University Faculty of Theology adheres to national and international standards in research and publication ethics. It complies with the Press Law, the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works and the Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics of Higher Education Institutions. Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty has adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA). It also undertakes to comply with the decisions of the Turkish Editors' Workshop.

Re-Pablication
Republishing is the publication of the same article or substantially similar articles in more than one journal. The editor sends such an article back without reviewing it. If the author attempts to republish, the editor may impose an embargo on the author for a certain period of time, the journal in which the author has previously published may publicise this situation (with simultaneous announcement with the editor of the journal that published the previous article), or apply all of these measures together.

Simultaneous submission of the same study to more than one journal
Authors may not submit an article to more than one journal at the same time. If the editor learns of possible simultaneous submission, he/she reserves the right to consult with the other editor(s) receiving the manuscript. In addition, the editor may return the article without reviewing it or reject it without considering the reviews. Or he/she may take this decision in discussion with the other editor(s) involved and decide not to accept submissions from authors for a certain period of time. The editor may also write to the authors' employers or take all of these measures together.

Plagiarism Prevention Control
Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty scans all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. The studies submitted for review are checked for plagiarism using Intihal.net software. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 20%. The main measure of similarity is the author's compliance with the rules of citation and citation. If the similarity rate is 1%, but citation and quotation are not done properly, plagiarism may still be in question. In this respect, citation and quotation rules should be known and carefully applied by the author.

Forgery
To produce data that is not based on research, to edit or change the work presented or published on the basis of unreal data, to report or publish them, to show a research that has not been done as if it has been done.
Falsifying research records and data obtained, showing methods, devices and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that do not comply with the research hypothesis, manipulating data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, falsifying or shaping the research results in line with the interests of the persons and organisations supported.

Protection of Personal Data of Participants
The Journal of Ordu University Faculty of Theology requires that all research involving personal or sensitive data or materials about participants that are not legally publicly available be subject to formal ethical review.

Addressing Allegations of Research Misconduct
The Journal of Ordu University Faculty of Theology follows COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. The editors of Ordu University Journal of Theology Faculty will take measures to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct have occurred. If the editors are aware of any allegations of research misconduct related to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines regarding allegations.

Ethical Violation Notifications
Readers can send an e-mail to oduifd@ordu.edu.tr if they notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in The Journal of Ordu University Faculty of Theology (e-ISSN 3023-4158) or if they have any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.).

Principles of Research Ethics
The Journal of Ordu University Faculty of Theology observes the highest standards in research ethics and adopts the international research ethics principles defined below. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the articles comply with ethical rules.
• The principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be ensured in the design, review of the design and conduct of the research.
• Confidentiality of information provided by research participants and confidentiality of respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
• Research independence should be clear and explicit; if there is a conflict of interest, it should be stated.
• In experimental studies, the written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. The consent of the legal guardian of children and those under guardianship or those with a recognised mental illness must be obtained.
• If the study will be carried out in any institution or organisation, approval must be obtained from this institution or organisation that the study will be conducted.
• In studies with a human element, it should be stated in the "method" section that "informed consent" has been obtained from the participants and ethics committee approval has been obtained from the institution where the study is conducted.