ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

The ethical principles and publication policy of our journal have been prepared in accordance with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics
• Plagiarism: Presenting the original ideas, methods, data or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citation in accordance with scientific rules,
• Forgery: Using non-existent or falsified data in scientific research,
• Distortion: Falsifying research records or data obtained, falsifying devices or materials that were not used in the research, falsifying or shaping the results of the research in line with the interests of the persons and organizations receiving support,
• Republishing: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
• Slicing: Inappropriately and inappropriately dividing the results of a research into parts in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and publishing them in more than one issue and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
• Unfair authorship: Including or excluding people who have not actively contributed, changing the author ranking in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of active contributors from the work in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has not actively contributed,

Other types of ethical violations include:
a) Failing to acknowledge the individuals, institutions, or organisations that provided support for research conducted with such support, or failing to acknowledge their contributions in publications resulting from such research,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or defended and accepted as a source without the permission of the owner,
c) Sharing information contained in a work assigned for review with others prior to publication without the express permission of the author,
ç) Using resources, premises, facilities, and equipment provided or allocated for scientific research for purposes other than those intended,
d) Making unfounded, inappropriate, and deliberate allegations of ethical violations,
e) Publishing data obtained without the explicit consent of participants in surveys and attitude studies conducted as part of scientific work, or without the additional permission of the institution if the research is to be conducted at an institution,
f) Failure to comply with the obligation to inform and warn those concerned about possible harmful practices related to scientific research conducted by researchers and officials,
g) In scientific studies, failing to use data and information obtained from other persons and institutions to the extent and in the manner authorised, failing to respect the confidentiality of this information and failing to ensure its protection,
h) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions.

Research Ethics Principles
• Scientific integrity, integrity, quality, and transparency should be adopted as fundamental principles in the planning of research, the development of its methodological framework, its ethical evaluation, and the execution of its implementation processes. Every stage of the research process should be documented and open to audit when necessary.
• The research team and participants should be informed in a clear and understandable manner about the purpose, scope, method, data collection tools, how the data will be analyzed, and the possible uses of the findings. The obligations required for participation in the research, possible risks, and expected contributions should be clearly explained to the participants.
• Personal data obtained from participants must be kept confidential; technical and administrative measures must be taken to prevent the disclosure of identity information. The principles of anonymity and privacy must be observed; actions must comply with data protection legislation (e.g., regulations on the protection of personal data). The research design should be structured in a way that protects the autonomy, human dignity, and fundamental rights of participants.
• Participation in the research should be entirely voluntary. Participants should not be subjected to any pressure, coercion, or expectation of benefit. Participants should have the right to withdraw from the study at any stage without facing any repercussions.
• All necessary measures should be taken to ensure that participants do not suffer physical, psychological, social, or economic harm during the research process. A risk analysis should be conducted, and the research should be planned to minimize potential harm. When children, restricted individuals, or persons with limited mental capacity are involved, permission should be obtained from their legal representatives, and relevant ethical committee approvals should be secured.
• Researchers should maintain their scientific independence and clearly declare any conflicts of interest that could influence the design, analysis, or results of the study. Financial support, sponsorship, or institutional affiliations should be transparently disclosed.
• If the research is to be conducted within any public institution, private organization, or university, official permission should be obtained from the relevant institution and, if necessary, ethical committee approval should be secured. 

Ethics Committee Approval
Our journal requires that the relevant ethics committee decision must be obtained for all studies in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval. In this context, authors should write the date and number of Ethics Committee approval in the “Sampling and Methods/ Materials and Methods” section. 
In line with the regulations implemented by Ulakbim TR Index since 2020, studies that do not have ethics committee permission are not evaluated in our journal.
Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
Studies requiring ethics committee approval in our journal include the following:
• All research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observation, and interview techniques.
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
For such studies to be considered for evaluation, the relevant ethics committee approvals must have been obtained and clearly stated in the article text.

Relations with Journal Owner and Publisher
The relationship between the editor and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence. In accordance with the written contract between the editor and the publisher, all editorial decisions are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are identified in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations and conclusions. In the case of major errors/violations that invalidate findings and conclusions, editors should consider retracting the article. The COPE Principles (1,2,3,4,5,6) shall be taken into account with regard to corrections, retractions or expressions of concern.

Conflicts of interest
Our journal guarantees the independent and impartial completion of the publication process, taking into account the conflicts of interest between the author(s), reviewers and other editors. Our journal acts in accordance with COPE principles (1,2) regarding potential conflicts of interest. 

Change of Author
Only the article is processed before acceptance. Authors are required to carefully review the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the exact list of authors at the time of original submission. Our journal acts in accordance with COPE principles (1,2,3,4,5) regarding relevant changes.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Our journal is responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all published articles and defending the rights of the journal and authors in case of possible infringements.

Protection of Participants' Personal Data
All personal data submitted to our journal is protected in accordance with legal regulations and ethical rules.

Complaints
If any unethical conduct is identified in our journal, it should be reported to ozer@politics.ankara.edu.tr. Our journal follows the procedure outlined in the COPE principles (1,2) regarding complaints.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF STAKEHOLDERS

1. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
• Editors must manage the review and publication processes of articles submitted to the journal in accordance with ethical principles, objectivity, and transparency.
• Publication decisions must be made by considering the originality of the work, its scientific contribution, its academic merit, and its alignment with the journal’s objectives and scope.
• All authors must be treated equally and fairly during the evaluation of their work. Language, religion, gender, ethnic origin, political views, or personal characteristics must not influence decision-making processes.
• Editors must recuse themselves from the review and publication process of any article in which a conflict of interest could compromise their impartiality.
• Documents, records, and communication details regarding manuscripts submitted to the journal must be stored in a secure electronic environment and made accessible when necessary.

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers
• Reviewers must conduct their reviews of submitted works within the framework of confidentiality, objectivity, academic integrity, and scientific ethics.
• Invitations to serve as a reviewer should be accepted only by individuals who possess sufficient academic knowledge and expertise regarding the subject and content of the relevant work.
• Review reports should be prepared in a manner that is based on scientific rationale, clear, understandable, and constructive.
• Reviewers should refrain from making statements targeting the authors’ personalities, using derogatory language, or offering comments not grounded in scientific evidence.
• Information and documents obtained during the peer review process must be kept confidential; after the review is completed, article files and related materials must be securely deleted or destroyed.
• Reviewers may not share articles submitted for review with others without permission, nor may they use them for any purpose outside the review process.
• To protect confidentiality and scientific ethical principles, reviewers must not transfer the text, tables, figures, or other content of the articles under review to artificial intelligence applications, online text analysis systems, or third-party digital platforms. This content must not be analyzed or processed through such tools.

3. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors
• Authors must ensure that the works they submit to the journal are original, scientifically sound, and in compliance with academic ethical principles.
• An article must not be submitted simultaneously to another scientific journal while the review process is ongoing.
• All sources used in the preparation of the study must be cited in accordance with relevant citation and referencing guidelines.
• Authors must avoid unethical practices such as plagiarism, fabrication, falsification of data, or the misleading presentation of scientific results.
• If the nature of the research requires it, approval from the relevant ethics committee must be obtained, and details of this approval must be clearly stated within the article.
• Authors must fully and accurately disclose any potential conflicts of interest related to their work, as well as financial support and other forms of support that contributed to the conduct of the research.
• All authors listed in the article must acknowledge that they are responsible for the content and scientific accuracy of the work.