ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY

The Journal of Social Policy Studies is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published four (4) times a year by the Ministry of Family and Social Services.

For scientific manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Social Policy Studies, the Council of Higher Education Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics and the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) International Standards for Editors and Authors should be taken into consideration. In this context, the Journal undertakes to comply with the aforementioned national and international rules concerning Publication Ethics, Research Ethics, and Obtaining Legal/Special Permissions.

Pursuant to Article 8 of the Council of Higher Education Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics, the following constitute violations of scientific research and publication ethics:

a) Plagiarism: Presenting the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works of others, in whole or in part, as one's own work without proper scientific citation.

b) Fabrication: Producing data that are not based on research; preparing or altering a submitted or published work based on false data; reporting or publishing such data; or presenting research that has not been conducted as though it had been conducted.

c) Falsification: Distorting research records and obtained data; presenting methods, devices, or materials not used in the research as if they had been used; excluding data that do not support the research hypothesis; manipulating data and/or results to fit relevant theories or assumptions; or distorting or shaping research results in line with the interests of supporting individuals or institutions.

ç) Duplicate publication: Presenting more than one work containing the same results of a research study as separate works in associate professorship evaluations or academic promotions.

d) Salami slicing: Dividing the results of a research study into inappropriate parts in a manner that disrupts the integrity of the research and publishing them as multiple publications without cross-referencing, and presenting them as separate works in associate professorship evaluations or academic promotions.

e) Unjustified authorship: Including individuals who have not made an active contribution among the authors; excluding individuals who have made an active contribution; changing the order of authors without justification and in an inappropriate manner; removing the names of active contributors during publication or in subsequent editions; or including one's name among the authors by using influence despite having made no active contribution.

f) Other types of ethical violations: Failing to clearly acknowledge individuals, institutions, or organizations providing support and their contributions in publications arising from supported research; failing to comply with ethical rules in research involving humans or animals; failing to respect patients' rights in publications; sharing information contained in a manuscript assigned for peer review with others before publication; using resources, facilities, opportunities, or equipment allocated for scientific research for purposes other than those intended; or making completely unfounded, inappropriate, and intentional allegations of ethical misconduct.

Responsibilities of Authors

1) For studies requiring ethics committee approval, the necessary approvals must be obtained from the relevant ethics committees or commissions, and these approvals must be stated in the manuscript. In the absence of such approvals, the manuscript will be returned to the author during the preliminary review stage. Research requiring ethics committee approval includes the following:

• All research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants through questionnaires, interviews, focus group studies, observations, experiments, or interview techniques.
• Experimental or other scientific use of humans and animals (including materials/data).
• Clinical studies involving human participants.
• Studies involving animals.
• Retrospective studies within the scope of the Personal Data Protection Law.

In addition:

• Permission must be obtained from and acknowledged for the use of scales, questionnaires, and photographs belonging to others.
• Compliance with copyright regulations for the intellectual and artistic works used must be stated.

The manuscript must specify whether ethics committee approval and/or legal/special permission is required. If such approval or permission is required, the institution granting the approval, the date of approval, and the decision or approval number must be clearly stated.

2) Submitted manuscripts must be the original work of the author(s), and all authors named in the manuscript share equal responsibility for the submitted and published work.

3) Submitted manuscripts must not have been published previously.

4) Any potential conflict of interest must be clearly disclosed.

5) Plagiarism and fabricated data must be avoided.

6) During the peer review process, the raw data related to the research must be provided if requested by the reviewers.

7) Copyright regulations regarding the intellectual and artistic works used must be observed.

8) Manuscripts must include a statement indicating compliance with Research and Publication Ethics.

Compliance of manuscripts with ethical principles is the responsibility of the authors. The opinions expressed in articles published in the Journal and all related responsibilities belong to the author(s).

9) The copyright of submitted works belongs to the Journal of Social Policy Studies. Authors are deemed to have accepted this condition upon submission of their manuscripts. No material published in the Journal may be quoted without proper citation.

10) Manuscripts must be prepared using Microsoft Office Word, formatted according to the APA style, and submitted through the DergiPark system at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/spcd.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

1) All manuscripts should be evaluated fairly based solely on their scientific content, without regard to the author's gender, ethnic origin, race, religion, nationality, or political views.

2) If a reviewer believes that the content of a manuscript falls outside his/her area of expertise or that a timely review cannot be completed within the proposed period, the Editor should be informed and the invitation to review the manuscript should be declined.

3) The confidentiality of the peer review process must be respected. Information concerning the manuscript under review or the review process, before or after the review, must not be shared with third parties.

4) Reviews should be objective and constructive and should not contain hostile, provocative, or derogatory personal comments.

5) If a conflict of interest is identified during the review process, the Editor should be informed.

6) Information or ideas obtained through the peer review process must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal advantage.

7) If any information that may justify rejection of the manuscript is identified, the Editor should be informed.

For detailed information, see: https://publicationethics.org/files/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf

Responsibilities of the Editor

1) The Editor has the authority and responsibility to accept or reject manuscripts.

The Editor evaluates submitted manuscripts solely on the basis of their academic merit (importance, originality, validity, and clarity of the study) and their relevance to the scope of the Journal, regardless of the authors' gender, ethnic origin, nationality, religious beliefs, political philosophy, or institutional affiliation.

2) The Editor has full authority over all editorial content of the Journal and the timing of its publication.

3) Only original manuscripts that contribute to the field are accepted for publication.

4) Submitted manuscripts must be evaluated by at least two reviewers under the double-blind peer review system, and the identities of the reviewers must remain confidential. In making publication decisions, the Editor may consult the Editorial Board or the reviewers.

5) The Editor may refrain from evaluating manuscripts in which he/she has conflicts of interest arising from competition or collaboration with any of the authors, companies, or institutions, and may request another member of the Editorial Board to evaluate the manuscript.

6) All information concerning submitted manuscripts must be kept confidential.

7) Incomplete or erroneous manuscripts that do not comply with the Journal's policies and publication guidelines shall be rejected without being influenced by any external factors.

8) Where deemed necessary, the Editor may obtain opinions from the relevant units regarding studies related to the service areas of the Ministry.

All manuscripts submitted for publication in the Journal are screened for plagiarism, and manuscripts with a similarity rate of 15% or higher are not accepted. Any article that does not comply with accepted ethical standards will be removed from publication. This also includes articles in which possible violations or irregularities are identified after publication.

If a reader identifies a significant error or omission in an article published in the Journal of Social Policy Studies, or detects any irregularity in the editorial process (e.g., plagiarism, duplicate publications, etc.), he or she may notify the Journal by sending an e-mail to spcdergisi@aile.gov.tr.