A. ETHICAL PRINCIPLES POLICY
Journal of Sīrah Studies is committed to the production and publication of scholarly knowledge in accordance with the principles of accuracy, objectivity, originality, transparency, and accountability. All publication processes of the journal are conducted with due regard to national regulations on research and publication ethics and the international standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
The Ethical Principles Policy applies to authors, reviewers, members of the Editorial Board and Publication Board, and the publisher. The journal’s Publication Policy, Manuscript Evaluation and Peer-Review Process, Similarity Policy, Copyright Policy, and Artificial Intelligence Policy are complementary parts of this policy.
Authors submitting manuscripts to the journal, researchers accepting invitations to review, and individuals undertaking editorial responsibilities are deemed to have accepted and agreed to comply with the ethical principles set out in this policy.
1. Research and Publication Misconduct
Journal of Sīrah Studies considers the following practices to constitute ethical misconduct:
1.1. Plagiarism
Presenting, in whole or in part, the ideas, methods, data, interpretations, texts, translations, tables, images, or works of others as one’s own without proper scholarly attribution. Even where sources are cited, quotations or borrowings extensive enough to undermine the original contribution of the work are subject to further evaluation.
The procedures and criteria governing similarity screening are set out in the journal’s Similarity Policy.
1.2. Fabrication
Fabricating data, documents, historical reports, sources, or quotations that are not based on actual research. This also includes presenting a non-existent source or work as if it had been consulted or used.
1.3. Falsification
Altering or distorting sources, historical data, research notes, or findings; deliberately concealing information that could affect the results of the research; or presenting an unused source or method as if it had been used.
1.4. Duplicate Publication
Publishing the same or substantially similar work in more than one publication venue without clearly citing the previous publication, or submitting it simultaneously to more than one publication venue for consideration.
1.5. Salami Slicing
Unnecessarily dividing the findings of a single research project into multiple publications in a manner that compromises the integrity of the research and without clearly indicating the relationship between those publications.
1.6. Unjustified Authorship
Listing as authors individuals who have made no scholarly contribution to the work, excluding individuals who have made a substantive contribution, improperly altering the order of authors, or obtaining authorship through academic or administrative influence.
1.7. Improper Citation
Citing a work that has not actually been consulted, adding unnecessary references for the purpose of increasing citation counts, using reviewer or editorial authority to compel authors to cite particular publications, or attributing to a source a view that is not actually contained in that source.
1.8. Breach of Confidentiality and Peer-Review Ethics
Sharing unpublished information, documents, or ideas obtained during peer review or editorial evaluation without authorization, or using such material in one’s own research.
Manipulating the peer-review process through false identities or contact information, or intentionally breaching the double-blind peer-review system.
2. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Authors must:
Declare that their work is original, has not previously been published, and is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere.
Cite all sources used in the study accurately and completely.
Clearly explain the methodology, sources, limitations, and original contribution of the research.
Refrain from deliberately concealing sources or views that conflict with the findings of the research.
Disclose financial support, projects, institutional contributions, and conflicts of interest.
In multi-authored works, clearly state each author’s contribution, and ensure that all authors approve both the submitted version and the final version to be published.
Clearly indicate, both at the time of submission and in the manuscript itself, if the work is derived from a thesis, conference paper, or another study.
Inform the Editor-in-Chief without delay if they identify an error or ethical problem in their work and cooperate in any correction or retraction process.
Provide sources, permissions, or explanations relating to the research when requested by the Editorial Board.
Comply with the journal’s separately published Artificial Intelligence Policy and disclose any use of AI tools that is required to be declared.
After submission, the addition or removal of an author, or any change in the order of authors, is permitted only with the written consent of all authors and approval by the Editorial Board of the justification for the change.
3. Ethics Committee Approval
For research conducted through surveys, interviews, focus-group discussions, observations, experiments, or other methods involving data collection from participants, ethics committee approval must be obtained before the research begins where required by applicable regulations.
For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the name of the committee, decision date, and decision number must be stated in the methodology section of the article and in the ethical declaration section designated by the journal. The ethics committee approval document must be uploaded to the system at the time of submission.
Authors are responsible for obtaining any permissions required for the use of scales, questionnaires, photographs, maps, documents, manuscript images, or other copyrighted materials belonging to third parties.
4. Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers must:
Accept only manuscripts that fall within their areas of expertise and that they can evaluate within the specified period.
Not attempt to identify or discover the author’s identity; if they form a belief regarding the author’s identity and this could affect impartiality, they must inform the editor.
Conduct their evaluation impartially on the basis of the manuscript’s scholarly quality, methodology, use of sources, contribution to the field, and ethical compliance.
Refrain from using personal, derogatory, ideological, or offensive language toward the author.
Present revision requests in a clear, reasoned, and practicable manner.
Keep confidential all information and documents obtained during the review process and not share the manuscript or any part of it with third parties.
Not use unpublished ideas, methods, or data from the manuscript in their own research.
Decline the review invitation or immediately inform the editor where there is an academic, institutional, personal, or financial conflict of interest involving the author or the manuscript.
If they identify suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated sources, data falsification, or other ethical misconduct, report the matter confidentially to the editor, together with supporting evidence where possible.
Request that authors cite only sources that are scientifically necessary and not require unnecessary citations to their own publications or to the works of particular individuals.
The journal’s Artificial Intelligence Policy applies to reviewers’ responsibilities regarding the use of AI.
5. Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
Editors must:
Evaluate manuscripts according to scholarly criteria regardless of the author’s identity, institution, academic title, gender, ethnic origin, religion, or political views.
Evaluate manuscripts in terms of their conformity with the journal’s aims and scope, originality, scholarly contribution, methodology, use of sources, and ethical compliance.
Preserve the confidentiality of the double-blind peer-review system and select reviewers on the basis of their relevant expertise.
Take into account circumstances that could compromise impartiality in reviewer selection, including employment at the same institution as the author, supervisor-student relationships, close co-authorship, personal relationships, or financial interests.
Ensure that an editor withdraws from the editorial process in cases involving a submission authored by the editor, a close colleague, a student, or another individual with whom the editor has a conflict of interest, and that the manuscript is handled by an independent editor.
Assess reviewer reports for scholarly and ethical appropriateness and refrain from forwarding to authors reports containing insults, personal attacks, or comments lacking scholarly justification.
Protect personal information relating to authors and reviewers, as well as unpublished documents.
Investigate allegations of ethical misconduct impartially, confidentially, and on the basis of evidence, and not take action solely on the basis of allegations or rumors.
Where an error, conflict of interest, or ethical violation is identified, initiate the necessary procedures, including correction, editorial notice, expression of concern, or retraction.
Ensure that publication decisions are not influenced by advertising, commercial relationships, institutional pressure, personal connections, or attempts to increase the journal’s citation count.
Manuscripts submitted by editors or members of the Publication Board are evaluated through an independent editorial process in which the individual concerned has no involvement whatsoever in the evaluation. See also Manuscript Evaluation and Peer-Review Process.
6. Responsibilities of the Publisher
Siyer Publications, the publisher of Journal of Sīrah Studies:
Ensures that decisions of the Editorial Board are made independently in accordance with scholarly and ethical criteria.
Does not permit commercial, political, institutional, or personal pressure to be exerted on the Editorial Board.
Provides the necessary resources for the implementation of the journal’s publication policies, preservation of academic records, and permanent access to published content.
Cooperates with the Editorial Board in cases involving allegations of ethical misconduct and ensures the implementation of necessary correction or retraction decisions.
Takes the necessary measures to protect personal data, author and reviewer information, and evaluation documents.
7. Conflict of Interest
Authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose to the Editor-in-Chief any institutional, professional, financial, intellectual, or personal relationships that could affect the impartiality of the evaluation or publication decision.
The existence of a conflict of interest does not automatically require rejection of a manuscript. However, failure to disclose such a relationship may constitute ethical misconduct. Depending on the nature of the conflict of interest, the Editorial Board may decide to replace a reviewer, suspend the evaluation process, or publish an appropriate disclosure.
8. Investigation of Allegations of Ethical Misconduct
Allegations of ethical misconduct concerning a published work or a manuscript under evaluation must be submitted to the Editorial Board of Journal of Sīrah Studies together with concrete information and supporting documentation.
The Editorial Board:
Conducts a preliminary assessment of the allegation and gathers the necessary information and documents.
Gives the person against whom the allegation has been made a reasonable opportunity to provide an explanation.
Where necessary, seeks an opinion from an independent expert or relevant institution.
Maintains confidentiality throughout the investigation until it is completed.
Depending on the nature of the violation, may decide to reject the submission, terminate the evaluation process, publish a correction, retract the work, or notify the relevant institution.
9. Correction and Retraction
If an error is identified in a work published in Journal of Sīrah Studies that does not invalidate its findings, a correction notice may be published.
Where an error, plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, unauthorized use of data, duplicate publication, or similar ethical violation is identified that undermines the reliability of the work, the work may be retracted. The bibliographic record of a retracted work and the reason for its retraction remain publicly accessible.
10. Appeals and Complaints
Authors may submit appeals and complaints concerning the editorial process or peer review to the journal’s official contact address within thirty days of notification of the decision, together with their scholarly grounds. The Editorial Board reviews the submission within a reasonable period and informs the relevant party of the outcome.
Where possible, appeals are reviewed independently of the person or persons who made the original decision. Mere disagreement with a reviewer’s opinion is not sufficient to justify changing the decision. The appeal must be based on a procedural error, conflict of interest, or scholarly grounds.
11. Implementation of the Policy
This policy is implemented together with the other policies of Journal of Sīrah Studies. In cases not specifically addressed by this policy, COPE guidelines, applicable national regulations, and generally accepted principles of scholarly publishing shall apply.
B. PUBLİCATION POLICY
1. Journal of Sīrah Studies (Siyer Araştırmaları Dergisi) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes academic studies directly or indirectly related to the field of sīrah. Its regular issues are published twice a year, in April and October. By the decision of the Editorial Board, a special issue may also be published once a year on a specific theme.
2. The journal publishes original works by researchers who are pursuing graduate studies or hold a doctoral degree, including Research Articles, Review Articles, Translations, Scholarly Critiques, Book Reviews, Symposium Evaluations, and Obituaries (Wafayāt) written in Turkish or English that make a scientific contribution to the field.
3. No more than one work by the same author, including co-authored Works, may be published in any given issue.
4. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been previously published, accepted for publication elsewhere, or under simultaneous consideration by another publication.
5. Papers presented at academic conferences and works derived from postgraduate theses may be considered for publication, provided that their origin is disclosed at the time of submission and that they are prepared in the form of a scholarly article. No more than two such works may be published in the same issue.
6. Journal of Sīrah Studies (Siyer Araştırmaları Dergisi) considers only one manuscripts from each author during the same submission period. An article by the same author will not be published in two consecutive issues.
7. Authors’ identification and contact details (full name, academic title, institutional affiliation, ORCID iD, email address, and acknowledgements, if any), must be entered accurately and in full in the Author Information Form and the form must be uploaded to the submission system.
8. For multi-authored articles, the Author Contribution Statement Form must be completed in full, clearly specifying the nature and proportion of each author’s contribution.
9. Manuscripts submitted for peer-review must not contain any information that could reveal the identity of the author(s), in order to ensure the proper implementation of the double-blind peer review process.
10. Manuscripts in Turkish to Journal of Sīrah Studies (Siyer Araştırmaları Dergisi) must be between 3,000 and 12,000 words, including the Turkish and English abstracts, bibliography, figures, and tables. For manuscripts in English, the word limit is between 3,000 and 14,000 words.
11. Manuscripts must include titles in both Turkish and English; a Turkish abstract and an English abstract of between 100 and 400 words; five keywords in both language; footnote citations and a bibliography prepared in accordance with the ISNAD Citation Style (2nd Edition); and a bibliography written in the Latin alphabet in accordance with the rules of transliteration.
12. Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the journal’s author guidelines and uploaded through the DergiPark submission system within the announced submission period.
13. All manuscripts are subject to preliminary evaluation by the Editorial Board to determine their compliance with the journal’s author guidelines, publication principles, and scope. Manuscripts found unsuitable at this stage are not sent for peer-review process and are returned to their authors by decision of the Editorial Board.
14. Similarity reports for submitted manuscripts are generated using the İntihal.net. The overall similarity rate must not exceed 25%. the Editorial Board may also review these reports by taking into account both the similarity rate and the nature of similarities, in accordance with the Similarity Policy of Journal of Sīrah Studies (Siyer Araştırmaları Dergisi).
15. Manuscripts that pass the preliminary evaluation and similarity check are sent to at least two subject experts for double-blind peer review. The reviewers are appointed by the Editorial Board.
16. Following the completion of the peer-review process, manuscripts that receive favourable recommendations are accepted for publication by decision of the Editorial Board. Manuscripts that receive negative recommendations from both reviewers are rejected. The authors of rejected manuscripts are informed of the review reports and the outcome of the evaluation. A rejected manuscript may be reconsidered if it is revised in accordance with the reviewers’ reports and submitted as a new manuscript.
17. If the reviewers’ reports contain differing recommendations, the Editorial Board may, if it deems it necessary, send the manuscript to a third reviewer. The final decision on publication is made by the Editor.
18. Submissions for special issues approved by the Editorial Board are accepted separately. The publication policy, author guidelines, and ethical principles applicable to regular issues also apply to special issues. The Editorial Board may appoint a guest editor to oversee the preparation of a special issue.
19. Authors are not charged any fees for manuscript submission, review, or publication. No royalties are paid for published works.
20. Journal of Sīrah Studies (Siyer Araştırmaları Dergisi) has signed the Budapest Open Access Initiative Declaration and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
21. The copyright in published works belongs to the authors.
22. The scientific, ethical, and legal responsibility for all published works rests solely with their authors. Journal of Sīrah Studies (Siyer Araştırmaları Dergisi) is not responsible for the opinions expressed, evaluations made, or conclusions reached in published works.
