Researcher

The journal "Researcher: Social Sciences Studies" (RSSS), which started its publication life in 2013, continues its activities under the name of "Researcher" as of August 2020, under Ankara Bilim University.
It is an internationally indexed, nationally refereed, scientific and electronic journal that publishes original research articles aiming to contribute to the fields of Engineering and Science in 2021 and beyond.
The journal is published twice a year, except for special issues.
Candidate articles submitted for publication in the journal can be written in Turkish and English. Articles submitted to the journal must not have been previously published in another journal or sent to another journal for publication.

The publication focus of our journal;

Industrial Engineering
Computer engineering
Software engineering
Electrical electronics Engineering

Click for download the journal template.

The RESEARCHER is a peer-reviewed journal published two times a year by Ankara Science University.

Manuscripts written in English or Turkish language are accepted.

Original research articles presenting detailed theoretical or practical content are published. Articles in this category are expected to bring a new dimension to the existing knowledge in the field of engineering or to contribute to extending knowledge in the field or to present a comprehensive practical application.

Technical notes, letters to the editor, discussion papers, case presentations and translations are not published in the journal.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not be published in any place or sent to any other journal for publication.

Manuscripts are evaluated by national and/or international referees. This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.

Articles uploaded to the journal are scanned with the iThenticate plagiarism package program before they are taken into the valuation process. For articles with a similarity rate of more than 20%, correction is requested from the author. If the required correction is not made within 10 days, the article is rejected.

Manuscripts which are rejected by the majority of the referees are rejected in accordance with the suggestion of the field editor.

The responsibility of the manuscript belongs to the respective authors. In order to comply with ethical standards, manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with internationally recognized code of ethics.

Only one article with the same author can be published within the same issue.

The copyright of the articles accepted to be published in the journal are transferred to the journal.

There are no manuscript submission fees or manuscript processing fees for the journal.

A conflict of interest and author contribution declaration are required for each article published within the journal.



Authorship and Author's Responsibilities

Authors should not submit a manuscript previously published in an international/local/national journal. A manuscript should not be submitted in the same or different languages, simultaneously to more than one journal or book available through a library or by purchase;

Authors should not describe the same research or slightly different one as a submitted or published paper (by the same/different author);

In multi-author papers all authors should have made a significant intellectual contribution to the study. “Ghost”, “Guest”, and “Gift” authors are considered unacceptable;

All authors should take collective responsibility and agree on the content of the paper;

Authors should provide valid information about themselves. (e.g., valid emails);

If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that should appropriately cited or quoted:

References must reflect a valid state of both the historical development of the subject and the current state of opinion in the field,

Authors should avoid copying references from other sources if they have not read the cited work.

Authors should have all valid permissions for use of information obtained privately and copyrighted materials. (e.g., pictures, diagrams, numerical results);

Authors should declare all support and funding sources in an Acknowledgment and if the role of the research funder has been beyond providing funding that should also be described. (e.g., role in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report);

Authors should supply promptly any missing items or information requested by the editors;

Authors should avoid nominating peer reviewers who have a conflict of interest;

Authors should not make significant changes to their manuscript after acceptance without the approval of the journal;

Authors should notify immediately the journal if significant errors or academic misconduct are found after publication and collaborate with the editor so that an appropriate correction or retraction can be made.



Peer Review Procedure

The Editorial Board of the Journal is aware that peer view is the critical phase of the publishing process. All submitted papers are reviewed at least by two experts of which at least one is not part of the editorial staff;

In special cases, authors are allowed to nominate two referees in the field (one of the referees must be from abroad);

Reviewers should have sufficient subject expertise to evaluate the scientific and practical value of the paper;

Reviewers are allowed to consult their colleagues about the paper, but are not allowed to pass on the paper to another referee without notifying the Editor in Chief.

If a reviewer is unable to assess the paper, he/she should return or inform the Editor in Chief immediately. His/ Her suggestions for alternative referees would be considered.

Editor in Chief may appoint new referees because of the reports written superficially without a clear explanation as to why the article should either be accepted or rejected;

The average time for evaluation is about two months. However, authors should note that each submission is assessed on its individual merit and in certain circumstances estimating time may differ.

Editorial Board attach high importance to reviewer reports. They should be provided timely and be constructive. These reports should contain concrete arguments referring to the paper which support the decision of the reviewer and not be written in harsh language with insulting expressions or personal attacks;

Reviewers should disqualify themselves from reviewing in cases that they have a very similar manuscript submitted elsewhere in preparation, have conflict of interest with the authors and/or the research fund or they feel that they are unable to provide an honest and unbiased assessment for any reason;

Reviewers should keep the submission and contents of manuscripts confidential, they should not contact the authors directly or anyone else about reviewing a manuscript without the knowledge and permission of the journal;

Reviewers are not allowed to use author’s manuscript in their researches without permission from the author and should destroy copies of manuscripts after submitting their reviews;

Reviewers should notify journals in case of any suspicion of misconduct such as possible data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, image manipulation, unethical research, biased reporting, authorship abuse, redundant or duplicate publication, and undeclared conflicts of interest.

If all the reviewers’ reports are positive the paper will be accepted for publication. However, when at least one of the reports is negative, then the manuscript will be sent out to a different referee. If the report of this reviewer also is negative, then the paper will be rejected. In the case when the second report is positive, the manuscript will be sent to the Editor in Chief for ultimate decision;



Editorial Responsibilities

Editor in Chief ensures that his/her behavior is transparent beyond reproach, treats all authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty and avoids all discrimination on ethnic or geographical origin of the authors;

Editor in Chief ensures the appropriateness of language in both submitted manuscripts and also in peer review reports or correspondence and ensure that these documents do not contain anything that is defamatory, libelous or likely to confuse the authors;

Editor in Chief may reject a paper without further evaluation for publication if the paper does not abide journal’s policies or the subject matter of the paper is out of the scope of the journal;

Before making a decision about controversial papers or papers with nonstandard ideas, the Editor in Chief would confer with the Editorial Board members;

Editor in Chief maintains the confidentiality of all submitted papers and ensures that author’s unpublished materials in his/her research are not used without his/her permission;

Editor in Chief encourages correspondences and constructive criticism of the published work and expects to be notified if any possible data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, image manipulation, unethical research, biased reporting, authorship abuse, redundant or duplicate publication, and undeclared conflicts of interest are detected;

Editor in Chief investigates all suspected cases of misconduct and puts in place necessary procedures such as publishing appropriate correction notes, retraction or withdrawal of the paper;

Editor in Chief concurrently informs the author, reviewers, abstracting and indexing services and the readers of the publication about retraction or withdrawal of the publication from the journal;

Editor in Chief gives authors the option to nominate peer reviewers or to request that particular individuals do not peer review their paper. Editor in Chief has no obligation to accept the authors’ nominations and validates nominations carefully;

Editor in Chief monitors the performance of peer reviewers for quality and timeliness, ensures that they abide the policy of peer reviewers’ ethical responsibilities of the journal

Editor in Chief mediates all exchanges between authors and peer reviewers during the peer-review process. Editor in Chief may seek comments from additional peer reviewers to help them make their final decision;

Editor in Chief ensures timely publication and avoids unnecessary delays;

Editor in Chief may request more data or clarification from authors if they come across anything unclear or suspicious;

Editor in Chief and/or editorial team members exclude themselves from publication decisions when they are authors or have contributed to a manuscript;

Editor in Chief communicates to authors exactly what the decision is on their manuscript, the reasons for it. (If appropriate what conditions need to be met for the journal to consider the manuscript again)

Editor in Chief have complete right and authority to make the final decisions and to decide which of the submitted manuscripts should be published.



RESEARCHER’s Publishing Policies

Papers published in RESEARCHER should have soundly reported and carefully executed contents and contain essential contributions to the subject area. Authors should use appropriate methods of data analysis and display. All mathematical proofs and calculations must be carried out correctly and carefully. If the author uses another author's algorithm or method, it must be clearly emphasized;

RESEARCHER publishes papers in a timely and efficient manner with dates of receipt and acceptance (order of publication is based on the submission dates);

The Journal is especially keen on cases of plagiarism, self-plagiarism and duplicate publication. Before the reviewing process, usually all manuscripts are submitted to plagiarism detection software packages;

RESEARCHER investigates all cases suspected of errors, fraudulent data or plagiarism and if there is a clear evidence of misconduct; puts in place necessary procedures such as publishing appropriate correction notes, retraction or withdrawal of the paper.

On all other aspects of the monitoring publications ethics and malpractice the journal strictly adheres to the international standards developed by: http://publicationethics.org

Refereed articles are studies that ensure the application of the scientific method and impartiality. In the realization of scientific production, all components of the publication process; publishers, editors, authors, referees and readers must comply with ethical principles.

In this context, the publication ethics and open access policy of the RESEARCHER, in line with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in open access (For example, the "Publication Ethics Committee (COPE) Code of Conduct and the Best for Journal Editors" Good Practice Guidelines, "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors") require that all components of the publication process comply with ethical principles.

Situations such as manipulating and distorting the data used in the articles and using fake data are detected, this situation will be officially notified to the institution where the author / authors work and the article will be rejected.

Our journal has the right to request the output files of the analysis results from the authors, if requested by the editor and / or referees.

Members of the RESEARCHER Editorial Board are experts in their fields. As the head of the Editorial Board, a chief editor and, depending on the situation, one or more editors and their assistant and field editors are determined. According to the subject of the article, when necessary, the editor may send an article to the faculty members who are not members of the Board of Editors for review as a field editor.

The relationship between the Publisher and the Editorial Board is based on the principle of independence, and all decisions taken by the editors are independent of the publisher and other persons and organizations.

The Editorial Board ensures the determination and implementation of journal policies such as publication, blind refereeing, evaluation process, ethical principles. It protects the copyright of the article authors published in RESEARCHER.

The Editorial Board is responsible for taking measures regarding intellectual property rights, unscientific and unethical behaviors, plagiarism, sending (citation) gangs during the publishing process of articles and journals.

Editors strive to meet the information needs of referees, author (s), researchers, practitioners and readers, to provide feedback when necessary, to act according to the principles of clarity in matters that require correction and explanation during the publication process.
When deciding on the publication of articles, editors take care that the articles are original and contribute to the scientific literature, readers, researchers and practitioners.
Editors apply the policies of blind review and evaluation process, which are among the publication policies of the journal, keep the identity information of the referees confidential, and ensure that each article is evaluated impartially and in time.

Editors send articles taking into account the field of expertise of the editors and referees, and

they support the impartial and independent evaluation.

Editors take into account whether there is a conflict of interest between editors, referees and author (s) for unbiased evaluation of the article.

Editors seek to ensure that the referee pool is diverse and constantly updated..
Editors ensure the protection of personal data in reviewed articles; protect individual data of authors, referees and readers.

Editors; They pay attention to the protection of human and animal rights in the articles, they care about documenting the explicit consent of the participants of the article, the approval of the ethics committee for the participants of the article, and they reject the article when they do not have permission for experimental research.

Editors protect the intellectual property rights of the published articles and defend the rights of the journal and the author (s) in case of violation. In addition, they take necessary measures to ensure that the content of published articles does not infringe the intellectual property rights of other publications; They do the authenticity-similarity check.

During the article evaluation process of the RESEARCHER, the double-blind review principle is applied, in which the referees of the author (s) and the referees do not recognize the authors. The referees cannot communicate directly with the authors; The article evaluation forms and the notes stated on the text and the correction requests are forwarded to the author (s) by the editors through the journal management system.

Author (s) should not submit articles published elsewhere or submitted for publication.

It accepts original articles to RESEARCHER.

The author (s) must correctly refer to the sources they use during the writing of the article in line with ethical principles.

The names of persons who do not contribute to the article should not be written as authors, and it should not be suggested to change the order of the authors of an article submitted for publication, remove authors, or add authors.

Individuals who have a conflict of interest and a common interest related to the article for publication must be notified to the editors.

If information or raw data are requested from the author (s) during the evaluation process, they should submit the expected information to the Editors.

The author (s) must document that the rights of use of the data they use in their articles, permission for research-analysis or the approval of the participants on which they have researched.

The author (s) should contact the editor to inform, correct or retract when they notice the error in the evaluation and early viewing or electronically published article.

The author (s) have received ethics committee approval for research that requires data collection through quantitative or qualitative methods such as experiments, questionnaires, scales, interviews, observations, focus group studies that require the decision of the ethics committee; The name of the ethics committee, the date and number of the decision should be stated on the first-last page of the candidate article and in the method section, and the document showing the ethics committee decision should be uploaded to the system with the application of the article. In addition, case reports should include information about obtaining the consent form / consent form in the article.

The author (s) should present in the article the evidence that they adhere to ethical principles in the data collection process (such as obtaining permission from others to use documents such as scale, questionnaire, photograph). It should be stated in the articles that research and publication ethics and copyright regulations for intellectual and artistic works are complied with. If the research was carried out on human and animal subjects, it should be reported that the research was carried out in accordance with international papers, guidelines, etc.

Ethics committee approval is not required from the author (s) for review articles. However, in articles that do not require an ethics committee decision, it should be stated that the ethics committee decision is not required, on the first-last page and method section of the article.

In RESEARCHER, in case of an unethical situation related to editors, referees, authors or an article that is in an early view or in an evaluation process that does not comply with ethical principles, it should be reported to the journal management.



Ethical Rules

1. For research in all disciplines, including social sciences, and on clinical and experimental people and animals that require an ethical committee decision;

· Any research carried out with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using survey, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment, interview techniques,

· Use of humans and animals (including material / data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,

· Clinical researches on humans,

· In accordance with the law on protection of personal data, ethics committee approval must be obtained for retrospective studies, this approval must be stated and documented in the article.

· Information about the permit (board name, date and number no) should be included in the "Method" section of the article and also on the first / last page. During the article upload, the Ethics Committee Approval file should be uploaded to the system in addition to the article file. In addition, information about the fact that the informed consent / consent form has been signed in the case reports should be included in the article.

2. The article should state whether it is necessary to obtain legal / special permission. If the study covers the application made in an institution, it should be clearly stated on which date and with which decision or number the permission has been obtained from the relevant institution.

3. Permission must be obtained from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires and photographs belonging to others and this must be stated in the article (citing the source).

4. As a result of the analysis of the article with iThenticate similarity programs, the total similarity level should be below 20%.

5. The articles should include the statement that Research and Publication Ethics are complied with.

6. In scientific articles sent to journals, ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations and COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)'s International Standards for Editors and Authors should be taken into consideration.

7. Copyright regulations must be observed for the ideas and works of art used.

8. At the end of the article; Declaration of “Contribution of Researchers”, “Support” or “Acknowledgment” and “Conflict of Interest” should be given. In addition, if there is not a author in the article but there are supporters in the data collection etc. phase of the research, it can be thanked. To clarify the issue of conflict of interest, the authors should be declared at the end of the article whether there are any "Conflicts of Interest".

9. Studies produced from postgraduate / doctoral studies should be stated in the article.

There is no article submission, article-editorial processing, publication charges or any other charges.

All accepted articles are freely available online upon publication.