ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY

Ethical Principles

Articles submitted for publication in the journal should be prepared in accordance with the rules of research and publication ethics. Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research follows the principles, standards and recommendations of the publication ethics determined by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).
All rights of the articles uploaded to Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research have been transferred to the journal by the authors. A signature and confirmation information-document is not requested from the author for this process. Scientific, content, language, legal and ethical responsibilities of the articles published in the journal belong to the author / authors.
In the articles evaluated within the journal, the responsible (corresponding) author of the relevant study is addressed. The journal does not have to provide information to other people except for the corresponding author.
In the context of publication ethics, all the shareholders are expected to bear the following ethical responsibilities in brief and all the ethical incidences are going to be evaluated in compliance with COPE rules.

Editors' Duties and Ethical Responsibilities
Publication and Liability Decision: The chief and field editors of Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted for publication is in line with the aim and publication policies of the journal and should be published. Editors are also responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal has policies regarding copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor is responsible for the content and publication quality of the journal and has the right to negotiate with the reviewers while making the publication decision in this context. The editor provides a fair and equitable peer review and review process. The editor of Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research strives to respond to the needs of readers and writers.
Objectivity: Articles submitted to Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research are always evaluated in accordance with open, transparent, scientific, and objective criteria without any prejudice. The articles are evaluated only within the framework of intellectual and scientific values, without considering the race, colour, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, nationality, and political view of the authors.
Privacy: Editor-in-chief, assistant editor, field editors and the editorial board do not disclose any information on submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, and publisher of the article. Any information about an article sent to the journal is not shared by the editor with anyone other than the editorial board, reviewers, and the owner of the journal.
Plagiarism Check: Editors check that the copyright form is signed by the authors while submitting the article to the journal's system. In addition, they are responsible for checking that the plagiarism report of the article has been uploaded. In the absence of these forms, they ask the authors to complete these documents. The editor can also scan for plagiarism. Articles with a plagiarism rate higher than 20% can be returned to the authors.

Other ethical principles that the editors are committed to abide by are:
• Editors are obliged to carefully examine the complaints from the authors, reviewers or readers and respond in an enlightening and explanatory manner.
• The owner of the journal, publisher and no other political or commercial factors affect the editors' independent decision making.
• Editors can return articles that they believe will not be published.
• Appropriate language that is not offensive or condescending is used when reporting the reasons for rejection (not being related to the journal's aims and scope, unsuitable writing-content-editing, having obvious errors, etc.).
• The editor is responsible for protecting the research data and the author's information. Privacy regarding the submitted articles is taken care of. Privacy principles are maintained after rejection or publication.
• The evaluation process is not delayed by negligence or wilfully. It is unethical to block the article or delay its publication.
• It is considered whether the study is carried out in accordance with ethical rules.
• Reviewers who may have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of the article are not invited to make an evaluation. The reviewers are chosen impartially.
• If the editor has her/his own work, she/he leaves the evaluation to the assistant editor or field editors.
• Article information cannot be used in the studies of the editor or any of her/his acquaintances.
• Scientific requirements are considered in the determination of the reviewers and expert reviewers related to the subject of the article are selected.
• The opinions and suggestions of the reviewers are reported to the author by the editor without specifying the name.
• Wrong information is not given to the authors at any stage of the evaluation process.
• No changes are made on the reviewer reports, no untrue reports are prepared.
• The editor or field editors do not use the study in their own research before publication and they do not allow others to use it.
• Individuals and institutions giving financial support to the journal are clearly stated.
• The article rejected by at least two reviewers is returned, nothing is kept except a copy of the correspondence. Reviewer reports are kept for at least 5 years.
• The article, which has received an acceptance report by at least two reviewers, is notified to the author by the editor and it is requested to make the final checks of the study and to give the final form to the article.
• The editor corrects the errors and all kinds of unethical studies in the journal through publication.

Reviewers’ Ethical Responsibilities
Accelerating the Process: A reviewer who does not find the assigned study related to his/her field of expertise, feels inadequate to evaluate the article, or is unable to submit a reviewer report on time, should inform the editor of this situation and withdraw from the review task. Reviewers must accept or reject the review invitation sent to them within five days. When they accept the evaluation, they should report the article within 15 days. When they ask to make corrections to the article, they should indicate in the report whether they can review it again.
Privacy: The texts reviewed by the reviewers should be considered as confidential documents, they should not be shown to anyone other than those authorized by the editor and field editors, and there should be no discussion about the articles. Privileged information and ideas obtained during the review process must be kept confidential and not used for personal interest.
Impartiality: Reviewer criticism should be made objectively, fairly and in accordance with scientific ethics. No personal criticism should be directed against the author. Reviewers should evaluate articles regardless of the authors' nationality, race, gender, or political ideology. Reviewers should also ensure a fair blind peer review process for the review of manuscripts submitted to the journal. Reviewers should express their opinions with arguments that clearly support them.
Plagiarism: The reviewers should examine the plagiarism status of the article they are evaluating. They can return the article with a plagiarism rate of more than 20%. Reviewers should bring to the attention of the editor any substantial similarity or overlap between the article they are evaluating and another previously published study.
Citation and References: The reviewers should check whether the citation and reference form in the study they are examining is made according to the citation and reference systems requested by the journal.

Reviewer Evaluation Process:
• The reviewers should evaluate the article in time, not delay it.
• The reviewer should work meticulously and complete the reports on time. If the reviewer cannot evaluate the manuscript sent to him on his/her own terms, he/she should not accept the invitation. If he/she accepted, he/she should withdraw from the process without delay.
• Reviewers must accept or reject the reviewer invitation sent to them within 5 days.
• When reviewers accept the article for evaluation, they must complete their evaluation within 15 days.
• Reviewers should check the title, abstract, Gel Codes, key concepts of the study. Likewise, they should carefully consider the English parts of them.
• They should control the theoretical and practical parts of the study according to scientific and ethical principles.
• When reporting the article and requesting correction, they should indicate if it is a minor or major revision. They should state in the report whether they wish to re-evaluate the article.
• Even if the reviewers give an “acceptance” decision when they evaluate the article, they should write down the text parts in the evaluation report and the reasons for acceptance in detail.
Editorial Support: Reviewers should assist editors in decision making and should also assist authors in improving manuscripts. While evaluating the article, they should write their opinions, contributions, and criticisms in detail in the blank text fields specified in the review form.

Other ethical principles that reviewers must comply with:
• The scientist who undertakes the review process is obliged to make a “fair” criticism.
• He/she should evaluate the manuscript without prejudice (free from influences such as race, religion, nationality, gender, opinion, and institutional/personal affinity), impartially and independently.
• In cases where they cannot or do not want to evaluate the study due to reasons such as incompatibility of field of expertise, lack of information about the article, personal or professional affinity, conflict of interest and time constraints; should return the manuscript to the editor or field editor as soon as possible.
• The reviewer must comply with privacy statement and not share article information.
• He/she should not exchange information about the article with people/authors other than the editor who sent the manuscript or the field editor.
• He/she should not send an article whose opinion is requested to another reviewer without consulting the editor and getting approval.
• The reviewer is obliged to ensure that the data related to the study is protected and stored in accordance with the privacy rule.
• The reviewer should consider whether the study is carried out in accordance with ethical rules.
• If there is another article that is very similar and overlapping with the evaluated article, the editor should be informed of the situation.
• The reviewer should prevent the publication of inconsistent and unethical articles.
• A cartel cannot be formed in reviewing, the reviewer cannot denigrate the studies that do not refer to him or request references to him.
• The deficiencies of the study should be stated in a “guiding” style.
• They should express their opinions, evaluations, and suggestions about the study in a clear and understandable way and should support them with literature data when necessary.
• They should not use the study in their own research before the article is published and should not allow others to use it.
• If the article is the subject of the reviewer's research and the authors and the reviewer are in a competition on that subject, the article should be returned, and the information should not be used.
• The reviewer should be sensitive in cases where the article he/she is reviewing is close to the subject he/she is working on or a study that has been published, and this may create a conflict of interest. If such a situation arises, he/she should promptly return the manuscript without review and notify the editor of possible conflict or bias.
• The reviewer should not accept the review of articles written by people with whom he/she has a personal or professional relationship and whom he/she advises, on the grounds that it may affect the objectivity of the review process.
• The reviewer should see the manuscript sent to him/her for evaluation as a private document.
• The reviewer should express and support his/her criticism in a way that the editor and the author can understand.
• The reviewer should be careful about the wrong citations that the authors may make.
• The reviewer should not use the article under review without the permission of the author. If the reviewer realizes that his/her evaluation is useless, he/she should not continue to review it.
• Reviewers should pay attention to the expressions used in order not to discourage researchers at the beginning of their academic career and not to undermine their confidence.
• The evaluation report should be read one last time by the reviewer and turned into an easy-to-understand text that includes suggestions for eliminating the deficiencies, supported by the necessary resources for criticism.

Authors’ Responsibilities
Reporting Standards: Every manuscript submitted to Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research must be original. Authors must undertake that the text is original and unpublished in any journal. The data used in the study should be presented meticulously in the text. Articles should contain sufficient detail and source information. Fraudulent and deliberate false statements are unacceptable as they may lead to unethical situations. In addition, authors must strictly abide by the writing rules of the journal. Authors should make the changes requested by the reviewers, field editor and editor-in-chief in a timely and meticulously manner. All kinds of information, documents and changes related to the article requested from the authors by the journal editorial should be made within 15 days at the latest and sent through the system and the editor should be informed. It should be known that the authors will be deemed to have withdrawn the article if these requests are not fulfilled within the time limit.
Data Access and Data Retention: Authors may be asked to provide relevant raw data that may be needed during the evaluation phase in connection with their studies. Therefore, authors should be prepared to provide access to this data and retain it for a reasonable period of time following publication of their work.
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors should write completely original texts and, if they use other's articles and/or words, they should cite accordingly. By submitting an article to Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research, the authors guarantee that their articles are original and comply with ethical standards, that the references used are fully cited, and that they are not similar to other articles in print/published or in the publication phase. In this context, the authors should pass a plagiarism detection software (ihenticate, turnitin, etc.) and upload a document stating that they have a maximum of 20% similarity on the website of Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research. In addition, the Copyright Form in the journal's system must be signed by the corresponding author and uploaded to the journal's system.
Slicing and Multisite Publication: Authors should generally not publish text describing the same research in more than one article. Especially in research articles, slicing should not be done as much as possible. Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal. This is considered as an unethical behaviour. When authors convert their extended and revised papers uploaded to the journal into an article, they should declare this situation as a footnote on the first page of the article.
Declaration of Sources: The declaration of sources taken from the other studies should always be made appropriately. Authors must cite previous publications that have influenced the merits of the study they are reporting.
Authorship in the Study: Authorship must be an adjective limited to persons who have made a meaningful contribution to the concept, design, implementation, or interpretation of the reported study. All significant contributors should be listed following the first author. If there are people involved in various aspects of the research project, they should be declared or listed as "contributors". The editor and the field editors contact with the corresponding author. The corresponding author gives the necessary information to the other authors.
Fundamental Errors in Published Studies: If an author notices a material inaccuracy or defect in his/her published paper, he or she should immediately notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to correct the existing inaccuracy or defect. Since Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research is published through the DergiPark system, such change requests must be made within 5 days at the latest from the date of publication of the last issue of the journal. Authors have an obligation to work with the editor to ensure that errors are corrected. Responsibility for errors and inaccuracies in published articles that are not specified on time belong to their authors.

STATEMENT OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST
For Authors
According to the general publication principles of Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research, only people who contribute to the relevant study are considered as authors. The authors are responsible for reporting all personal and financial relationships that may be related to their studies. Financial relationships such as employment, consulting, shareholder, compensation, expert testimony payment are highly identifiable conflicts of interest and are highly likely to undermine the journal's reputation. To clarify the conflict-of-interest issue, the authors are obliged to declare openly whether there is any conflict of interest with a document prepared as a letter to the editor with their submitted articles. Authors should not submit their articles with a conflict of interest to the journal. Editors have the authority not to publish or return such manuscripts.
For Reviewers
The reviewers should not evaluate the articles if there are conflicts of interest that may arise due to competition, cooperation or any other kind of relationship or connection between the authors and themselves. There should be no conflict of interest between reviewers and authors, funders, editors, etc.
For Editors
The editor in chief and field editors of Pamukkale University Journal of Business Research do not allow any unpublished material, information and data in the texts submitted by the authors to be used by anyone without the clear and written permission of the authors. In co-authored studies, there should be no conflict of interest between the authors. Authors should not submit their studies with a conflict of interest to the journal. The editor may not publish articles with conflicts of interest. The editor only contacts with the corresponding author in all processes of the article.