Publication Ethics Principles
SEBED publication processes are carried out on the basis of producing, developing and sharing information impartially with scientific method.
In the process of applying the scientific method and ensuring impartiality, the double-blind peer review process is important. All components of the publication process, publisher, editors, author(s) and reviewers must comply with ethical principles in the realisation of scientific production. In this context, all components of the publication process of SEBED must comply with ethical principles in line with the guidelines and policies of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Ethics committee approval is not requested from the author(s) for review articles. However, "Ethics Committee Approval" is requested for articles upon the change made in TR Index Journal Evaluation Criteria for 2020. All articles uploaded since 21.02.2020 are required to upload the Ethics Committee Approval/Permission Document.
If ethical violations such as plagiarism, manipulation and distortion of the data and the use of fabricated data are detected in the articles, the institution where the author(s) of the article works is officially notified of this situation and the article is rejected.
The journal has the right to request the output files of the analysis results from the author(s) according to the feedback given by the editors and/or reviewers.
The similarity rate can be maximum 15%, excluding references. If it is determined by the journal that the articles, which are also subjected to Ithenticate similarity scanning, have a higher similarity rate, they are rejected.
Peer-reviewed studies support and realise the scientific method. At this point, it is of great importance that all parties involved in the publication process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, reviewers and editors) comply with ethical principles. SEBED adheres to national and international standards on 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. SEBED has adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). It also undertakes to comply with the decisions of the Türkiye Editors' Workshop.
• Press Law (National Legislation)
• Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (National Legislation)
• Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive (National Legislation)
• Transparency and Best Practice in Academic Publishing (International Criteria)
• Türkiye Editors' Workshop Decisions (National Criteria)
Republishing
Republishing is the publication of the same article or substantially similar articles in more than one journal. The editor returns this type of article without reviewing it.
Simultaneous submission of the same study to more than one journal
Authors cannot submit the same article to more than one journal at the same time. If the editor learns of possible simultaneous submission, he/she rejects the article.
Plagiarism Prevention Control
Plagiarism is to present the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citing the authors in accordance with scientific rules.
SEBED scans all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. The studies submitted for review are checked for plagiarism using Ithenticate software. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 15%. Citation to a single study should not exceed 1%.
Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, publication by slicing, copyright infringement and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviours. All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from the publication.
Protection of Participants' Personal Data
SEBED requires that all research involving personal or sensitive data or materials relating to human participants that are not legally publicly available be subject to formal ethical review.
Addressing Allegations of Research Misconduct
SEBED adheres to COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. SEBED editors 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 SEBED editors become aware of any allegations of research misconduct related to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines for dealing with allegations.
Ethical Violation Notifications
Readers may notify SEBED by sending an e-mail to index.sebed@selcuk.edu.tr if they notice a significant error or mistake in an article published in SEBED or if they have any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.).
Correction, Retraction, Statement of Concern
Editors may retract the article in case of major errors / violations that invalidate the findings and conclusions, and may consider making corrections in case of minor mistakes Editors issue a statement of concern if there is a possibility of research or publication misconduct by the authors, if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and that the authors' institutions have not investigated the incident or if the possible investigation seems unfair or inconclusive. COPE and ICJME guidelines are taken into account with regard to correction, retraction or statement of concern.
Publication of Studies Based on Survey and Interview
SEBED adopts the principles of “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers” of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) in order provide ethical assurance in scientific periodical publishing. In this context, the following points should be followed in the studies submitted to the journal:
1) Ethics committee approval must be obtained for research conducted in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval, this approval should be stated in the article and uploaded to the journal system as a separate file.
2) In studies that require ethics committee approval, information about the approval (name of the committee, date and number) should be included in the method section, and in case reports, information on signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the method section.
Article Publication Policy
Articles submitted to SEBED are first subjected to a preliminary editorial review. Then, they are examined for compliance with the journal's writing rules and similarity scanning is performed to prevent plagiarism. After these stages, it is taken into the double-blind review process.
Editorial Confidentiality Obligation
The editors of SEBED treat all submitted articles as confidential documents, which means that they will not disclose information about an article to anyone without the permission of the authors. During the article review process, Editors, Reviewers, Editorial Board Members can access the articles. The only situation in which details about an article may be passed on to a third party without the consent of the authors is if the editor suspects serious research misconduct.
Responsibilities of the SEBED Editorial Board
• SEBED Editorial Board is responsible for all processes, from the application process to the publication process, for each article submitted to SEBED. This responsibility requires the application of the scientific method in the decisions made on issues related to the journal. The relationship between the publisher and the Editorial Board is based on the principle of independence. All decisions taken by the editors are independent of the publisher and other individuals and organizations.
• SEBED Editorial Board strives to continuously improve the journal and increase its publication quality.
• SEBED Editorial Board ensures the determination and implementation of journal policies such as publication, blind review, evaluation process, and ethical principles.
• SEBED Editorial Board prepares an “Author's Guide” containing the information requirements of the author(s) and updates it when necessary.
• SEBED Editorial Board keeps the records of each article and correspondence related to the journal electronically.
Ethical Responsibilities of Editors and Field Editors
• Editors strive to meet the information needs of reviewers, authors, researchers, practitioners and readers, to provide feedback when necessary, and to act in accordance with the principles of clarity in matters that require correction and/or clarification during the publication process.
• Editors fulfill their duties without discriminating on the gender, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origins of the author(s) and act in a balanced, objective and fair manner.
• When deciding on the publication of articles, the editors pay attention to the originality of the articles and their contribution to the scientific literature, readers, researchers and practitioners.
• Editors consider the original value of the articles, their contribution to the field, the validity and reliability of the research method, the clarity of the narration, and the purpose and scope of the journal when making positive or negative decisions about the articles.
• Editors apply the policies of blind reviewing and evaluation process, which are among the publication policies of the journal, keep the identity information of the reviewers confidential and ensure that each article is reviewed impartially and within the deadline.
• Editors send articles to field editors, taking into account their areas of expertise, and support impartial and independent evaluations.
• Field editors send the articles to the reviewers, taking into account their areas of expertise, and support impartial and independent evaluations. Field editors appoint at least two reviewers for each article, taking care to ensure that they are from different institutions. If at most one of these reviewers rejects the article, the third reviewer is appointed.
• Editors consider whether there is a conflict of interest between the field editors, reviewers and the author(s) for the unbiased evaluation of the article.
• Editors seek to ensure that the reviewer pool consists of a wide range of reviewers and is constantly updated.
• Editors prevent unscientific evaluations that do not comply with academic etiquette.
• Editors support the author(s) freedom of expression.
• Editors communicate effectively with the members involved in the publication process and organize meetings at regular intervals.
• Editors ensure the protection of personal data in the evaluated articles and protect the individual data of authors, reviewers and readers.
• Editors pay attention to the protection of human and animal rights in articles, attach importance to documenting the explicit consent of the participants of the article, reject the article when there is no ethics committee approval for the participants of empirical articles that require an ethics committee decision.
• Editors take precautions against misconduct. When there are complaints about misconduct, they make an objective investigation and share the relevant findings.
• Editors ensure that errors, inconsistencies or misdirections in articles are corrected.
• 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 the necessary measures to ensure that the content of the published articles does not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications and they perform the originality-similarity check.
• Editors take into account the consistent criticisms of the articles published in the journal, and allow the author(s) of the criticised articles to respond.
• Editors publish submission and acceptance dates of the articles.
• Editors also consider studies with negative results.
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
During the article evaluation process, SEBED applies the principle of double-blind reviewering, in which the author(s) do not know the reviewers and the reviewers do not know the author(s). The reviewers cannot communicate directly with the author(s). Article evaluation forms, notes on the text and correction requests are forwarded to the author(s) by the editors through the journal management system. The reviewers who will evaluate the articles submitted to SEBED should bear the following ethical responsibilities:
• Reviewers should only accept to evaluate articles related to their field of expertise.
• Reviewers should conduct the evaluation with impartiality and confidentiality. Pursuant to this principle, they should evaluate the articles they review in accordance with scientific and ethical rules and avoid giving any information that may reveal their identity.
• When the reviewers understand that there is a conflict of interest, they should refuse to evaluate the article and inform the editors.
• Reviewers should evaluate the article in a constructive manner in accordance with the rules of academic etiquette and avoid personal comments containing insults and hostility.
• Reviewers should evaluate the article that they accept for evaluation within the deadline.
Ethical Responsibilities of the Author(s)
Ethical responsibilities of the author(s) submitting an article to SEBED:
• Author(s) should not submit an article published elsewhere or submit for publication or more than one article at the same time to SEBED and should notify that they accept these rules by filling out the Copyright Notice Text of the journal.
• Author(s) must submit an original article to SEBED.
• If the article is based on the author's graduate thesis or from a project, the author(s) should indicate this in the relevant place on the first page of the article.
• If part or all of the article has been presented in any scientific symposium/congress, the author(s) should state this in the relevant place on the first page of the article.
• Author(s) must accurately cite the sources used during the writing of the article in accordance with ethical principles.
• Author(s) should determine the similarity rate in their articles and submit it to the journal if it does not exceed the 15% limit.
• The names of people who did not contribute to the article should not be written as authors. It should not be suggested to change the order of authors, remove authors or add authors of an article submitted for publication. The contribution rate of the co-authors in the articles should be declared at the end of the article.
• Persons with any conflict of interest/unity of interest related to the article submitted for publication should be reported to the editors, and this information should be included at the end of the article.
• Author(s) should declare support and acknowledgment, if any, at the end of the article.
• Author(s) should provide the editors with the expected information if they are asked for information or raw data about their articles during the evaluation process.
• Author(s) are obliged to keep the data of their published articles for 5 years.
• Author(s) should contact the editor to inform, correct or retract when they notice an error in their article under review or published electronically.
• Author(s) should indicate that they have received ethics committee approval for empirical studies requiring ethics committee approval. The name of the ethics committee, the date and number of the decision should be indicated in the relevant place on the first page of the 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, information about obtaining informed consent/consent form in case reports should be included in the method section of the article.
• Author(s) should provide evidence that they pay attention to ethical principles in the data collection process (such as obtaining their permission to use other people's documents such as scales, questionnaires, photographs). 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 stated that the research was carried out in accordance with ethical principles.
• Ethics committee approval is not requested from the author(s) for review articles. However, in articles that do not require an ethics committee decision, it should be stated on the first/last page of the article and in the method section that an ethics committee decision is not required.
Complaint Procedure
This procedure applies to complaints about content, procedures or policies that are the responsibility of SEBED or our editorial staff.
The complaint must be about the content that is the responsibility of SEBED or our editorial staff.
Complaints should be emailed directly to index.sebed@selcuk.edu.tr and will be treated confidentially. The editor responds to complaints immediately. The editor follows the COPE procedure regarding complaints.
Appeal Process
If you have serious objections to the evaluations made by the editors and reviewers, please send an objection message to our editorial staff at index.sebed@selcuk.edu.tr
Conflicts of Interest
Authors
According to SEBED general publication principles, only those who have actually contributed to the relevant study should be considered as authors. The authors are responsible for reporting all personal and financial relationships that may be a party to their study. Financial relationships such as work, consultancy, shareholding, remuneration, payment for expert testimony, etc. are easily identifiable conflicts of interest and are highly likely to undermine the reputation of the journal. To clarify the issue of conflict of interest, authors should clearly indicate any conflict of interest in a letter to the editor with their submitted article.
Reviewers
In case of any conflict of interest, the reviewers are responsible for the rejection of the peer review process. Reviewers should consult with the editor regarding the review process if they have any doubts about the conflict of interest. In order to avoid conflict of interest, persons working in the same institutions as the authors of the article are not selected as reviewers.
Editors
Editors are responsible for managing the peer-review process of the articles and have the right to reject the relevant article in case of any conflict of interest. Editors should not be in any personal and/or financial conflict of interest with the articles they are assigned. If the editors are on the author list of a submitted article, they are excluded from the evaluation process of that article.
Principles of Research Ethics
SEBED follows the highest standards in research ethics and adopts the international principles of research ethics defined below. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the articles comply with ethical rules.
• Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be ensured in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.
• The research team and participants should be fully informed about the purpose of the research, its methods and possible uses, the requirements and risks, if any, of participating in the research.
• Confidentiality of information provided by research participants and confidentiality of respondents should be ensured. Research should be designed in a way that preserves the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
• Research participants should take part in the research voluntarily and should not be under any coercion.
• Harm to the participants should be avoided. The research should be planned in a way that does not put the participants at risk.
• It is necessary to be clear and explicit about research independence. If there is a conflict of interest, it must be stated.
• In experimental studies with human subjects, the written informed consent must be obtained from participants who decide to participate in the research. The consent of the legal guardian of children and persons under guardianship or with a confirmed mental illness must be obtained.
• If the study will be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from that institution or organization.
• In studies with a human element, it should be stated in the “method” section that “informed consent” was obtained from the participants and ethics committee approval was obtained from the institution where the study was conducted.
