Sakarya University Journal of Science

Sakarya University Journal of Science (SAUJS) aims to share scientific studies conducted in the fields of science, engineering, and architecture with national and international scientists and the public. Original research articles and review articles in science, engineering, and architecture disciplines are accepted in the journal. Original research articles are expected to contain theoretical and experimental results and should not be published in other journals. The review articles expect that scientific, technological, and current developments in a particular subject are reflected using a comprehensive bibliography, and a satisfactory evaluation is made.

The research topics or fields covered by SAUJS are listed below (Topics generally include but are not limited to): Computer Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Architecture, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Agricultural Engineering and Food Engineering.

As part of the submission process, author(s) must check that their submissions comply with all of the following conditions, and submissions that do not comply with these guidelines may be returned to the author(s). In addition, all author(s) submitting an article must have an Open Researcher and Contributor Identity (ORCID) number associated with their affiliation account and register this number to the journal system.

The manuscript should include the article title, abstract, keywords; introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; thanks; funding information, conflict of interest statement; author(s) contribution, ethics committee approval statement, research and publication ethics statement, references; supplementary materials (if any). Author information should not be included in this file. Document properties should be anonymized (The person who wrote the document should not be obvious. The Remove All options should be selected in the window that opens by saying File-Check for Problems-Inspect Document in your word document.)

You can use the below list to finalize your submission before submitting it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section of this Authors' Guide for more details.

1. Is the article file name the same as the article title or the abbreviated article title?

2. Is the article file prepared under the template on the web page of our journal? (Sample article file)

3. Has the author information in the article been deleted?

4. If there is any other information in the article file that may suggest the author’s name, has this information been deleted?

5. Is a cover letter written? (Cover Letter)

6. Has the ethics committee approval document been uploaded? If there is no need for approval, was the "No ethics committee approval document needed" declaration form on our journal website signed and uploaded? (Ethics Committee Approval Certificate, Ethics Committee Approval Not Required Declaration Form)

7. Has the research and publication ethics declaration form been signed and uploaded as an additional file? (Research and Publication Ethics Notification Form)

8. Is the copyright agreement form signed and uploaded? (Copyright Transfer Form for SAUJS)

9. Conflict of interest/Common Interest Statement form signed and uploaded? (Conflict of Interest/Statement of Common Interest)

10. Is the author contribution form signed and uploaded? (Author Contribution Form)

Except for the Author Contribution Form and Conflict of Interest/Common Interest Statement, the above forms must be uploaded by all the author(s) or signed by the corresponding author only. The author contribution form and the Conflict of Interest/Common Interest Statement must be signed by all author(s).

All forms must be signed, scanned, and uploaded as PDF file to the journal system.

Manuscript should be submitted as Word file.

Submission of an article means that the work has not been published before, is not considered for publication elsewhere, its publication has been expressly approved by all the author(s) and the responsible authorities in the place where the work was done, in the same form without the written consent of the copyright holder, if accepted, it warrants that it will not be published elsewhere, including electronically in English or any other language. Your article can be checked by the authenticity detection service Ithenticate similarity check to verify authenticity.

Inclusive language accepts diversity, respects all people, is sensitive to differences and promotes equal opportunities. Content should not make any assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing that could imply one individual's superiority over another based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, disability or health condition, and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that the manuscript is free of bias, stereotypes, slang, dominant culture references, and/or cultural assumptions. Unless relevant and applicable, we recommend that you avoid using identifiers that refer to personal characteristics such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, disability, or health status. These guidelines are provided as a reference point to help determine appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Authors are expected to carefully review the list and order of author(s) before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of original submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the list of authors should be made only before the article is accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must obtain from the corresponding author the following: (a) the reason for the change in the list of authors, and (b) written confirmation (email, letter) from all author(s) that they agree to include, remove or re-edit the list of authors. In the case of adding or removing author(s), this needs confirmation of the added or removed author.

The editor will consider adding, deleting or rearranging the author(s) after the article has been accepted, in only exceptional cases. While the editor is evaluating the request, the article’s publication will be stopped. If the article has been previously published in an online issue, requests approved by the Editor will result in a correction.

The text should be free of spelling and grammatical errors and written in good English.

Our online submission system guides you step-by-step through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. Editable files are required to string your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the editorial decision and revision requests, is sent by e-mail.

To submit your articles to SAUJS

Potential referee(s) may be suggested to evaluate the submitted article. Names and institutional email information of proposed referees should be provided. Referees at the same institution or have co-authored or collaborated in the past three years should not be recommended. In addition, potential referees from different countries/regions may be recommended to evaluate the study objectively and to ensure scientific rigor. The editor decides whether to invite the suggested referees or not. Editors do not invite referees who have a potential conflict of interest or common interest with the author(s).

There are no strict formatting requirements, but all articles should contain the essential elements needed to convey your article. The article should be divided into sections with different main headings and each section heading should be numbered. Section titles should be written in Bold Font. Numbering should start from 1 for the main sections. All main headings (except Abstract, Acknowledgments and References) should continue as 2., 3., .... Secondary headings should continue as 1.1., 1.2., 1.3., etc in accordance with the main section numbering. The first letters of the words for the second headings must begin with a capital letter. The third headings should continue as 1.1.1., 1.1.2., 1.1.3., ... in accordance with the second headings. Only the first letter of the first word for the third heading should be capitalized. In addition, supplementary materials (if any), acknowledgments, funding information, conflict of interest/common interest statement, author(s) contribution, ethics committee approval statement, research and publication ethics statement should be added after the bibliography.

The editor will first evaluate all studies in terms of suitability for the journal. Applicable articles are usually sent to at least two independent expert referees to assess the article’s scientific quality. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of the articles. The editor's decision is firm. Editors are not involved in decisions about articles written by them or their family members or close associates or related to products or services that the editor is interested in. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures and is peer-reviewed independently of the relevant editor and research groups.

Please read the spelling rules first. Research articles to be published in SAUJS should not be longer than 20 pages, including references, appendices, figures, and tables, and review articles should not be longer than 30 pages. Tables and figures should be added directly to the article near where they are cited. Both tables and figures should be numbered sequentially. Tables and Figures should not be renumbered for each section in the article. The article should be written in Microsoft Word. It is important that authors follow the instructions.

You can find more details and suggestions on formatting an article in the author guide below, presented in a typical article style.

This document is adapted from previous style guides used for “Sakarya University Journal of Science (SAUJS)”. Please write your articles using this style guide.

Research articles to be published in SAUJS should not be longer than 20 pages, including references, appendices, figures, and tables, and review articles should not be longer than 30 pages. The abstract should not exceed 300 words.

Please check your document for spelling and grammar before submitting it.

The first page containing the Title and Abstract should be 5 cm from the top and 2.5 cm from the bottom, left and right. Left and right margins for other pages should be 1.5 cm and others 2.5 cm, and the text should be justify to both sides. This guide is a sample file for all these requirements. It is recommended that you hyphenate words to achieve more even word spacing.

The article’s main text should be single-spaced and fully justified in 12-point Times New Roman font. Do not leave a single line space between paragraphs, and do not indent the first line of a new paragraph. Use a space after punctuation marks such as periods, commas, semicolons, and colons. Do not use spaces after dots in abbreviations (for example, i.e., etc., U.S.).

For the main headings, 12 point Times New Roman bold font, all letters should be capitalized and centered. Use 12 pt line before the main headings and 18 pt line after the main headings. For second headings, use 12-point Times New Roman font and capitalize the first letter of the first word. For third headings, use 12-point Times New Roman font, and only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized.

Please do not put headers or footers in your article.

• Title of the Article

Do not use a separate title page. For the title of the article, use 14-point Times New Roman bold font with only the first letter of each word (excluding the conjunctions) capitalized and centered.

• Authors

Do not write any information about the author(s) at this stage. Author information will be requested after your submission is accepted for publication.

• Abstract

No more than 300 words should be used in the abstract to indicate the nature of the subject and briefly explain the article’s findings. A summary is usually presented separately from the article, so it should be understandable. References should not be used in the abstract. In addition, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided. If necessary, they should be defined where they are first mentioned in abstract.

• Keywords

No more than five keywords should be written immediately after the abstract. Only abbreviations that are strictly defined in the related field may be used. 

The body of the article should be separated from the abstract by two-line spaces. The "body text" style used here is a justified 12-point Times New Roman font. Single line spacing (12 points) should be left between paragraphs. The first word of a new paragraph should not be indented.

• Footnotes

Footnotes are not recommended, but can be used when necessary. They should be numbered consecutively and placed at the bottom of the page on which they appear, separated from the body of the text by a line 25 mm. A line spacing should separate two footnotes on the same page. Make sure you follow the margin requirements at the bottom of the page. Footnotes should not be added to the equations.

• Figures and Tables

11-point Times New Roman font should be used for figure and table captions. Figures and tables should be placed immediately after the first citation in the text and should be placed so that they can be easily referenced while reading the text.

Figure captions should be placed under the figure, centered and not bold; no dots should be left after the figure number or at the end of the line.

Table headings should be placed at the top of the table, centered and not bold, no dots should be left after the table number or at the end of the line. The first line of the table should include explanations.

For both table and figure captions, only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized unless a word necessarily needs to be capitalized. Bold fonts should not be used. Dots should not be used after table and figure numbers and at the end of lines. Tables should be centered across the entire page if possible. Entries in the cells of the table should be left justified. The font used for cell entries is left to the discretion of the author. In general, it is recommended to minimize the number of vertical lines and use only horizontal lines whenever possible.

In the tables that continue on the next page, the phrase (continue) should be added in parentheses after the table title. Explanations should be included in the first line of the continued tables.

Please use the IEEE Reference to format your references: https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf

Please align your references to the left and do not use IEEE preferred hanging indents. Books, journals, and other references should be consecutively numbered in the main document text.

Please write math equations as editable text, not as images. All formulas should be aligned, and numbered sequentially on separate lines. All symbols must be adequately defined. Identification numbers should be written on the right side of the formula. Simple formulas should be presented in line with standard text whenever possible, and small fractional terms should use a “/” instead of a horizontal line (for example, X/Y).

If a supplementary file is required in the study, it should follow the article’s main text and come before the references. All accompanying tables and figures should be mentioned in the text. Table and figure numbers presented should be used as “Table S1” and “Figure S1” in the supplementary file.

After the annexes, other statements should be written in the following order.

If it is desired to thank any person who contributed to the study, this should be written under "Acknowledgments" before the references.

It is necessary to indicate the sources providing financial support for the conduct of the research and/or the preparation of the article. If the funding source(s) does not have such involvement, it is also recommended to indicate this.

Full details of funding sources should be included under the FUNDING heading as follows:

This study is supported by Sakarya University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit. Project Number: 2016-01-02-001.

If support is not received, under this heading "Author(s) have received no financial support for the research, authorship or publication of this work." statement must be written.

Corresponding author(s) must disclose, on behalf of all author(s) of an article, any financial and personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that may improperly influence their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest can be personal, business, political, academic or financial. All author(s), including those who have no interests to declare (who may state that they have nothing to declare), should provide relevant information to the corresponding author. For example;

In accordance with conflict of interest policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I declare that ……… [company, institution, person] may be affected by the research reported in the accompanying document. I have fully disclosed this conflict of interest situation to the journal and I have an approved plan for managing potential conflicts."

If no conflict of interest situation is disclosed, we will add the following statement to your article at the time of publication: "No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors".

For transparency, the author(s) are expected to submit an author statement file summarizing the respective author(s) individual contributions to the article. Under this heading, "Authors contributed equally to the study" or "1st author contributed 60%, 2nd author contributed 40%." statements may be presented.

If the study requires ethical committee permission, the committee’s name, the date and the number of the approval should be stated under this heading. In addition, information about the permission should be included in the METHOD section. A copy of the permission obtained should be uploaded as an ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL DOCUMENT at the article submission stage.

If the study does not require ethics committee approval, the statement "This study does not require ethics committee approval or any special permission" should be included under this heading. In addition, the ETHICS COMMITTEE PERMISSION IS NOT NEEDED DECLARATION FORM must be signed by the corresponding author and uploaded instead of the ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL CERTIFICATE that will be requested at the stage of article submission.

Under this title, the author(s) states, "In the writing process of this study, international scientific, ethical and citation rules were followed, and no falsification was made on the collected data. Sakarya University Institute of Science Journal and editorial board bear no responsibility for all ethical violations that may be encountered. All responsibility belongs to the corresponding author and this study has not been evaluated in any academic publications other than Sakarya University Journal of Science.

In addition, the RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS DECLARATION FORM regarding this statement should be signed by the responsible author and uploaded as an additional file while submitting the article.

Authors are requested to transfer the copyrights in their articles to SAUJS prior to publication. The corresponding author is expected to upload a 'Copyright Transfer Form' during the article submission phase. This gives us the right to reproduce your article and present it to readers.

Literature references should be numbered consecutively and grouped under the article's heading “REFERENCES” at the end. References should be cited in the text by giving the corresponding numbers in the reference list in square brackets.

There are standard reference formats for most document types. Below are examples of the most common types of documents you might want to refer to. Each of the following gives a recommended standard format for reference, followed by examples for different document types.

• Book

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, Book Title, edition (if not first). Place of publication: Publisher, Year.

[1] I.A. Glover and P.M. Grant, Digital Communications, 3rd ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall, 2009.

• Book chapter

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of chapter in book,” in Book Title, edition (if not first), Editor’s initials. Editor’s Surname, Ed. Place of publication: Publisher, Year, page numbers.

[2] C. W. Li and G. J. Wang, "MEMS manufacturing techniques for tissue scaffolding devices," in Mems for Biomedical Applications, S. Bhansali and A. Vasudev, Eds. Cambridge: Woodhead, 2012, pp. 192-217.

• Journal article

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of article,” Title of journal abbreviated in Italics, vol. number, issue

number, page numbers, Abbreviated Month Year.

[3] F. Yan, Y. Gu, Y. Wang, C. M. Wang, X. Y. Hu, H. X. Peng, et al., "Study on the interaction mechanism between laser and rock during perforation," Optics and Laser Technology, vol. 54, pp. 303-308, 2013.

Note: the above example article is from a journal which does not use issue numbers, so they are not included in the reference.

• Conference papers

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of paper,” in Name of Conference, Location, Year, pp. xxx.

[4] S. Adachi, T. Horio, T. Suzuki. "Intense vacuum-ultraviolet single-order harmonic pulse by a deep-ultraviolet driving laser," in Conf. Lasers and Electro-Optics, San Jose, CA, 2012, pp.2118-2120.

Standard abbreviations may be applied to the title of the conference. For a table of abbreviations go to: http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf

• Patents

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of patent,” Country where patent is registered. Patent number, Abbrev of Month Day Year.

[5] J. P. Wilkinson, “Nonlinear resonant circuit devices,” U.S. Patent 3 624 125, July 16 1990.

Note: Use “issued date” if several dates are given.

• Theses/Dissertations

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Author’s Surname, “Title of thesis,” Designation type, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., State, Year.

[6] J. O. Williams, “Narrow-band analyser,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. Eng., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA, 1993.

• Websites

Note: Include as much of the key information as you can find for a given website. If a web page has no personal author, you can use a corporate author. Failing that, you can use either Anon. (for anonymous) or it is permissible to use the title of the site.

[Ref number] Author’s initials. Authors Surname. (Year, Month. Day). Title of web page [Online]. Available: URL

[7] BBC News. (2013, Nov. 11). Microwave signals turned into electrical power [Online]. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24897584

[8] M. Holland. (2002). Guide to citing internet sources [Online]. Available: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/using/guide_to_citing_internet_sourc.html

The publication policy of the Sakarya University Journal of Science (SAUJS) is based on the improvement and dissemination of information in an impartial and respectful manner. The processes applied in line with this policy directly affect the quality of the studies submitted by authors and affiliated institutions. Peer-reviewed studies support and materialize the scientific method. Therefore, all the parties taking part in the process (authors, readers, researchers, publishers, reviewers, editors) should comply with the ethical principles.

Sakarya University Journal of Science expects all its parties to take on the following ethical responsibilities as part of the publication ethics.

The ethical duties and responsibilities listed below are based on the guidelines and policies published as open access by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is essential for the development of a coherent and respected knowledge network. Peer-reviewed articles support and develop scientific methods. Therefore, it is important for all relevant parties involved in the publishing process, including authors, journal editors, reviewers, and publishing agencies, to agree on the expected ethical behaviors and standards.

1. Ethical Principles

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

1.2. Conflicts of Interest:
Authors: All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Reviewers: Referees should inform the journal editor about the evaluation process if they suspect any conflict of interest in the article they are evaluating, and refuse article evaluation if necessary. In order to prevent conflict of interest, people in the institutions where the article authors are working cannot referee the article.

Editors: Editors should not have personal or financial conflicts of interest with articles.

1.3. Data Access and Retention:

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

1.4. Data Fabrication and Falsification:
Fabrication and/or falsified experimental results, including the manipulation of images.

1.5. Duplicate / Multiple Submission(s):
Manuscripts that are either found to have been submitted elsewhere or published elsewhere. If authors have used their own work, either previously submitted or published, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work. They also need to indicate how novel contributions are offered in their submitted manuscript, over and above those of the previous work.

1.6. Intellectual Property
• Authors certify that their submitted manuscript (and any supporting items) are their own intellectual property and the copyright has not been transferred to others.
• Authors certify that the manuscript contains no plagiarism, no fabrication, no falsification, no manipulated citations and that the manuscript conforms to JSS authorship policies.
• All manuscripts, revisions, drafts, and galleys remain the intellectual property of the author(s). Except as stated in the agreed license, the author(s) retain the copyright to their work.
• All review comments and reports remain the intellectual property of the reviewer or editor. Except as stated in the agreed license, the author(s) retain the copyright to their work.
• Authors, reviewers, and editors agree to keep all communications, comments, or reports from reviewers or editors confidential.
• Reviewers and editors agree to keep all manuscripts, revisions, and drafts confidential, with the exception of the final published galley(s).

1.7. Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
• Editors may make corrections if they detect minor errors in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, or results.
• Editors may retract the article in case of major errors/violations that invalidate the findings and results.
• Editors may issue a statement of concern if there is a possibility of abusive research or publication by the authors, if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and the authors' institutions have not investigated the incident, or if the potential investigation seems unfair or inconclusive. COPE and ICJME guidelines are taken into account with regard to the correction, retraction, and expression of concern.

1.8. Publication of Studies Based on Surveys and Interviews
Aiming to establish ethical assurance in scientific periodicals, SAUJS journal adopts the principles of the "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and the "Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In this scope, the following aspects should be adhered in the studies submitted to the journal:
• Ethics committee approval should be obtained for research conducted in all the disciplines that require ethics committee approval, and this approval should be stated and documented in the article.
• In studies that require ethics committee approval, information about the approval (committee name, date and issue number) may be included in the method section of the study. However, in case reports, information about the informed consent and the signed consent form should be included in the Article Information Form at the end of the article.
The studies that require ethics committee approval are as follows:
• All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants through surveys, interviews, focus group works, observations, experiments and other interview techniques.
• Use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
• Clinical studies conducted on humans,
• Studies conducted on animals,
• Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on the protection of personal data,
Also;
• A statement confirming that an "informed consent form" has been received in case reports,
• Obtaining permission from the owners for the use of scales, surveys or photographs belonging to others,
• A statement confirming that copyright regulations are met for the intellectual and artistic works used.

1.9. Policy of Publishing Additional or Special Issues
A special issue can be published in our journal once a year upon the request of the Editorial Board. The publication processes of the articles sent to be included in the special issue are the same as the standard processes.

1. Additional or Special issue: An issue published in addition to the regular issues of a periodically published journal. It may consist of conference papers or a series of articles focusing on a specific topic.
2. Page numbering in the additional or special issue is different from the regular issues.
3. The print run of the additional or special issue cannot be more than one third of the regular issue. The special issues containing conference paper abstracts are not included in this scope.
4. Ratios of case reports, compilations and research articles (excluding conference paper abstracts) published in the additional or special issue will be included in the ratios of articles published in other issues.
5. The issues published as a tribute are not accepted as an additional or special issue. Their page numbering and organization are the same as the regular issues.

1.10. Plagiarism Action Plan and Measures of the Journal
The journal respects intellectual property rights and aims to protect and promote the original work of its authors. Having plagiarized content in articles do violate the research and originality standards. Therefore, all the authors submitting articles to the journal are expected to comply with the ethical standards and avoid all forms of plagiarism. If a submitted or published article is suspected of containing plagiarism, the Publication Board of the journal first examines the work. Then the work is reviewed by the Editorial Board. Afterwards, the journal contacts the author(s) and asks them to submit their justifications within 15 days. If the journal does not receive any response from the author(s) within the specified time, it would contact the affiliated university and request the investigation of the claim.
The journal will take the following serious measures for published articles that are found to contain plagiarism:
• The journal will immediately contact the university to which the author(s) are affiliated, in order to take final action against the related author.
• The journal will remove the PDF copy of the published article from the website, will remove the published article from the issue file, and will disable all links to the published article. The phrase "Plagiarized Article" will be added to the title of the published article.
• The journal will disable the author's account and reject all future submissions by the author for the following 2 years.

Note: If you encounter any unethical behavior or content in the Sakarya University Journal of Science, other than the above-mentioned ethical responsibilities, please report it to saujs@sakarya.edu.tr via e-mail.

The author should submit a similarity report for new studies submitted to the journal. Pre-reviewed articles may again be subjected to plagiarism checking in any software.
If plagiarism/self-plagiarism is detected, the authors are informed. An article with a high overall similarity rate (maximum 30%) or with more than 3% similarity rate from a single source may be rejected or sent back to the author to reduce the similarity rate.

Actions that violate scientific research and publication ethics are as follows:

(Turkish Council of Higher Education [YÖK] Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, Article 4)
https://www.yok.gov.tr/Sayfalar/Kurumsal/mevzuat/bilimsel-arastirma-ve-etik-yonetmeligi.aspx
Plagiarism: Showing others' original ideas, methods, data or works as their own work, partially or completely, without reference to scientific rules,
Forgery: Using data that does not actually exist or has been falsified in scientific research,
Distortion: Falsifying the research records or data obtained, displaying the equipment or materials not used in the research as if used, distorting or shaping the results of the research in the interests of the people and organizations that provide support,
Republishing: Presenting repetitive publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
Slicing: Dividing the results of a research into pieces in an improper way or in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and publishing each one separately to increase total publication count for academic appointments and promotions,
Unfair Authorship: Including non-contributors in the author list or not including those who have contributed, changing the author's order in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of contributors from the work in subsequent editions, using influence to include names among the authors despite not being contributors,

Other ethical violations include:
a) Not specifying the supporting individuals, institutions or organizations and their contributions in the publications made as a result of research conducted with support.
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or have not been accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Not complying with ethical rules in research on humans and animals, not respecting patients' rights in publications,
ç) Violating the provisions of the relevant legislation in biomedical research and other clinical research related to humans,
d) Sharing the information in a work that has been assigned for review with others before it is published without the explicit consent of the author,
e) Misusing resources, spaces, facilities and equipment provided or allocated for scientific research,
f) Deliberately making a false and ungrounded allegation about ethical violation,
g) Publishing the data obtained from surveys conducted as part of a scientific study without the explicit consent of the participants, or without the permission of the relevant institution if the study is conducted in an institution,
h) Harming animal health and ecological balance in research and experiments,
ı) Failing to obtain written permissions from authorities that are required for starting research activities or experiments,
i) Conducting research activities or experiments in violation of the related legislation or the provisions on research and experiments in the international conventions to which Turkey is a party,
j) Disregarding the obligation to inform and warn the relevant authorities about possible harmful practices related to the scientific research.
k) Not using the data and information obtained from other individuals or institutions in scientific studies to the extent and as permitted, not respecting the confidentiality of this information and not ensuring its protection,
l) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions.

1.11. Ethical Guidelines for Authors
• Studies must be original and based on research.
• It must be ensured that all the persons mentioned as authors/co-authors have contributed to the article. It is against scientific ethics to show persons who have not made any academic contribution as additional authors or to rank the authors by non-scientific criteria such as title, age and gender, regardless of the order of contribution.
• In the articles with multiple authors, it should be clearly stated to what extent the authors have contributed to which stage of the article.
• The article should not be sent to different journals at the same time and should not have been sent to another journal before. If it is found to have been sent to another journal, the publication process will be cancelled.
• It is assumed that the authors who submit articles to the journal have read and accepted the publication and writing principles of the journal, and the authors are deemed to have committed to these principles.
• The citations and bibliography should be complete.
• Plagiarism and fake data should be avoided.
• The similarity rate obtained as a result of the similarity checks should not exceed 20% in order to initiate the peer review process.
• An article may be included in a maximum of 2 PRE-REVIEW processes. The article will be rejected if the feedback conveyed to the author is not revised.
• The corresponding author must inform the journal editor in case of any conflict of interest.
In this scope, WAME can be referred:
https://www.wame.org/conflict-of-interest-in-peer-reviewed-medical-journals

1.12. Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
• Peer reviewers should be aware that they play a critical role in the academic quality of the article to be published in the journal, and they should engage in the peer review process with the responsibility of improving academic quality.
• Peer reviewers should only accept to review articles for which they have the expertise to make an appropriate assessment. They should also respect the confidentiality of the blind peer review process and keep the details of the article confidential at all costs.
• After the review process, any information about the reviewed article should not be shared with others under any circumstances.
• Peer reviewers should only evaluate the accuracy of the content of the articles and their compliance with academic criteria. Any difference of opinions between the article's argument and the peer reviewer should not affect the review process.
• Peer review reports should be objective and measurable. Libelous, derogatory or accusatory expressions should definitely be avoided.
• Peer reviewers should avoid superficial or inaccurate statements in their peer review reports. In reviews with negative results, a complete justification should be presented on the aspects that led to the negative result.
• Peer reviewers should review the articles within the time period allotted to them. If they are not going to review the article, they should notify the journal within a reasonable time.

1.13. Ethical Guidelines for Editors
• Editors should accept articles that will contribute to the relevant areas specified in the journal policy.
• Editors should not have any conflict of interest with accepted or rejected articles.
• Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article.
• It is editors' responsibility to keep the names of peer reviewers and authors mutually confidential.
• Only the articles that will contribute to the relevant field should be accepted.
• If an error is detected, editors should support the correction or retraction of the error.
• It is the duty of editors to complete the pre-review, peer review, editing and publishing processes of the articles submitted to the journal in a timely and appropriate manner.
• Editors should not assign people who do not contribute to the journal as editorial board members or associate editors.

2. Publication Policy

Any manuscript that is considered to be published in SAUJS must meet the following criteria:
• Originality
• Not containing ethical violations
• Having clear messages for the scientific community
• Expressing the extent of the article's contributions to researchers in the field and its relevance to related sciences
• Current fields and topics drawing the interest of researchers in the field of related sciences
• Having structural and logical integrity
• Research results that are based on scientific evidence
• Coherence of the scientific method


Review of the Articles
Articles can be submitted to the SAUJS by registering in the "Article Management System" on https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/saufenbilder. Articles sent by e-mail will not be taken into consideration.

Pre-Review and Plagiarism Checking
The journal's compliance with the writing rules is examined and a similarity check is made to prevent plagiarism. A similarity software is used in the checking process. The overall similarity rate should be less than 30% and the similarity rate from a single source should be maximum 3%. If the similarity rate is more than 30%, the study is either rejected or sent back to the author to reduce the similarity rate. The pre-review is completed within a maximum of 30 days.

Editor/Field Editor Review
After the study passes the stages of pre-review and similarity checking, it is reviewed by the relevant editor/field editor in terms of subject, scope, language use and academic competence. This review is completed within a maximum of 30 days.

Peer Review Process (Double-Blind Peer Review)
Studies that pass the pre-review and editorial review undergo a confidential double-blind peer review process. Within the double-blind strategy, the identity of the peer reviewer is concealed from the author submitting publications to the journal. Similarly, the peer reviewers do not know who wrote the article they are reviewing. In other words, the peer review process is conducted by keeping both authors and peer reviewers anonymous to each other. The reports are also stored in the Article Management System.

Author's Revision
Authors take into account the feedback, criticisms and recommendations of the reviewer and the Editorial Board. In case of any disagreement, they have the right to appeal with their justifications. Authors edit the article as per the reports and upload the final version of the article to the system.

Field Editor Review
The field editor checks whether the author has made the requested corrections in the text. If there is a “Major Revision” requirement in the peer review reports, they send the article to the relevant peer reviewer. If there is "Acceptance" or "Minor Revision" requirement and the revisions are completed, they can submit the article for language checks (The checking process is completed within a maximum of 7 days.). If they detect that the corrections have not been made, they re-send the article to the author. They may reject the article if the author does not make the corrections again. Articles that are not accepted for publication are not deleted from the system. Their processes and files are stored in the system.

English Language Checks
Studies  are reviewed by the English Language Editor and if necessary, corrections are requested from the author. The checking process is completed within a maximum of 15 days.

Editorial Board Review
The articles that pass technical, academic and linguistic reviews are examined by the Editorial Board and the final publication status is determined. In case of any objection from the members, the Board decides by majority of votes.

Typesetting and Layout Process
The journal undertakes the typesetting and layout processes of the studies decided to be published by the Editorial Board.

Language
SAUJS publishes articles written in English.

Change of Authorship
SAUJS accepts article authors according to the statement on the Title Page of the article. Therefore, it is the responsibility of authors to submit the final version of the full author list. Requests for any change of authorship after the submission of the article (e.g removal/addition of authors, change of order, etc.) are subject to editorial approval. The Editorial Board will investigate such cases and act according to the COPE flowcharts.

Requests for a change of authorship should be conveyed to the Editor with an official letter stating the reasons for the change. The letter should be signed by all the authors and include their confirmation of the change of authorship. If the request is approved by the Editorial Board, the authors are required to submit a new Copyright Agreement Form according to the final author list.

Objections and Appeals
The Editorial Board of the journal deals with objections and appeals within the scope of COPE guidelines. Authors can contact the Editorial Office directly for their objections and appeals. When needed, an impartial representative will be appointed for issues that cannot be resolved by the Editorial Board. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision in the decision-making processes regarding objections and appeals.

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in the articles published in the journal are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the SAUJS and its Editor-In-Chief, Editors, Editorial Board or Publisher. The Editor-in-Chief, Editors, Editorial Board and Publisher assume no responsibility or liability for such cases. The sole responsibility for the published content lies with the authors.

Price Policy
• SAUJS does not request any fees for article submission, reviewing and editing processes, page-layout and publication (page or color fees).
• SAUJS does not pay any fees to authors, reviewers, editors and editorial board members.
• All papers on SAUJS are free to read and download.
• SAUJS sign on to the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), which promotes free access to research literature, and has adopted the Open Access Principles that clarified in this initiative.
• All papers on SAUJS are archived with LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system through TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM DergiPark.
• SAUJS does not accept announcements, advertisements, sponsorships, etc. due to its publication policy.

• All expenses of the SAUJS journal are covered by Sakarya University.

The average time during which the preliminary assessment of manuscripts is conducted: 3

The average time during which the reviews of manuscripts are conducted: 60

The average time in which the article is published: 90