The journal adopts internationally recognized standards of scholarly publishing in order to ensure academic integrity, transparency, and ethical responsibility throughout the publication process.
All parties involved in the publication process — including authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial staff — are expected to adhere to these ethical principles.
The journal is committed to ensuring that all submitted manuscripts are evaluated fairly, transparently, and solely on the basis of their academic merit, originality, and relevance to the journal’s scope.
The following policies describe the principles governing the editorial and publication processes of the journal.
Publication Ethics
The journal follows internationally accepted publication ethics for all parties present in the publication process to prevent scientific misconduct and to ensure integrity in academic publishing; including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, the Council of Science Editors (CSE) guidelines on the responsibilities and ethical obligations of editors, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing as the joint statement of COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME, and the Higher Education Council's (YÖK) Directives on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics. By adhering to these guidelines and standards, the journal endeavors to ensure that published research meets the highest academic integrity standards, and to maintain objectivity and impartiality in the publication process while minimizing conflicts, thereby meeting the ethical expectations of the scientific community.
Publication ethics principles are defined separately for editors, authors, and reviewers and are presented in detail on the Publication Ethics section.
Research Ethics and Ethics Committee Approval
Research involving human participants, personal data, surveys, interviews, or experimental studies may require approval from an appropriate ethics committee.
Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary ethics committee approval before conducting the research when such approval is required by institutional or national regulations.
Manuscripts reporting research that requires ethical approval must clearly state:
This information should be included in the manuscript.
If ethics approval was not required for the study, authors should explicitly state this in the manuscript.
The journal reserves the right to request supporting documentation regarding ethics committee approval during the evaluation process.
Editorial Structure and Responsibilities
The journal has a clearly defined editorial structure consisting of the Editor-in-Chief, editors, editorial board members, and advisory board members supported with the editorial staff.
The responsibilities and roles of these bodies are described in detail on the Editorial Structure and Responsibilities section.
Editorial Independence
The editorial decisions of the journal are made independently by the Editor-in-Chief and the editors based solely on academic merit, originality, and relevance to the journal’s scope.
The publisher and affiliated institutions do not influence editorial decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts.
Peer Review Policy
The journal applies a double-blind peer review system in which both the identities of authors and reviewers remain anonymous during the evaluation process.
Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the relevant field.
Reviewers are expected to declare any potential conflicts of interest before accepting a review assignment.
Detailed information about the peer review process is available in the Peer Review Process section.
Manuscript Evaluation and Publication Process
The journal follows a transparent editorial workflow from manuscript submission to publication.
Detailed information about the manuscript evaluation stages and editorial workflow is available on the Manuscript Evaluation and Publication Process section.
Publication Frequency
The journal is published twice a year. Each issue includes peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, and other scholarly contributions within the journal’s scope.
Open Access Policy
The journal supports the vision of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and the Guidelines for Promoting Transparency and Openness prepared by the Center for Open Science. The journal provides immediate open access to its content, supporting the principle that making research freely available to the public promotes a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Copyright and Licensing
By submitting a manuscript to the Journal, all authors confirm that the submission has been approved by all co-authors and that copyright will be transferred to the Head of the Department of City and Regional Planning, Mersin University upon acceptance. The Journal requires the author(s) to sign the Copyright Transfer Form and upload to the System while submitting the manuscript.
All manuscripts published in the Journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License. It is free to use, share and distribute the content for non-commercial purposes by citing the manuscript.
Publication Charges
The journal does not charge any fees for manuscript submission, evaluation, or publication.
Plagiarism and Similarity Check Policy
All submissions are screened for plagiarism using Plagiarism Detection Service iThenticate before entering the peer review process. Manuscripts exceeding the acceptable similarity threshold (20% excluding bibliography) may be returned to the authors or rejected.
Authors are responsible about the content of the manuscripts. Editorial Board claims no responsibility for the opinions expressed in the published manuscripts. It is the author(s) responsibility to obtain written permission from authors and publishers of any previously published material, text, tables, figures, etc.
Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools
The journal recognizes that artificial intelligence tools may be used as supportive instruments during manuscript preparation. However, Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors, and do not replace the intellectual responsibility of authors.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of their work.
Detailed information about the use of artificial intelligence tools is provided on the AI Policy section.
Conflict of Interest Policy
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the evaluation or publication of a manuscript.
Detailed information about the conflict of interest is provided on the Conflict of Interest Policy section.
Data Availability Policy
The journal encourages authors to make the data supporting the findings of their research available whenever possible in order to promote transparency and reproducibility in scientific research.
Authors are expected to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscripts indicating whether the research data are available and where they can be accessed.
Detailed information about the journal’s data sharing principles can be found on the Data Availability Policy section.
Archiving Policy
All published articles are archived in the DergiPark system and are preserved for long-term access. DergiPark provides digital archiving infrastructure to ensure the permanent availability of published content.
Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern
The journal may publish corrections, retractions, or editorial expressions of concern when necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.
Detailed information is provided on the Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern section.