The publication processes implemented in the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research form the basis for the objective and respectable development and distribution of knowledge. The processes applied in this direction directly reflect the quality of the work of the authors and the institutions supporting them. Peer-reviewed studies are those that embody and support the scientific method. At this point, it is crucial for all stakeholders of the process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, reviewers, and editors) to comply with standards for ethical principles.

Within the scope of publication ethics, the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research expects all stakeholders to bear the following ethical responsibilities.

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. This is a direct reflection of the quality of work of the authors and the institutions supporting them. Peer-reviewed articles support and shape scientific methods. Therefore, agreeing on standards of expected ethical behavior is important for all parties involved in publishing: author, journal editor, reviewer, and publishing organizations.

Open Access Policy

The Sinop University Journal of Sport Research follows an Open Access Policy in accordance with the declaration prepared by the Budapest Open Access Initiative on February 14, 2002, in Budapest, Hungary. In the declaration, open access is defined as follows:

"By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers."

Within the framework of this declaration prepared in Budapest, the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research leaves the restriction on reproduction-distribution and the role of copyright in this area to the authors so that they can control the integrity of their own work, be properly recognized, and be cited.

The full text of the declaration can be accessed at Budapest Open Access Initiative.

Copyright Policy

Authors who publish their work in the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research accept the following conditions:

• All rights of the article belong to the author.
• The author has complied with academic and ethical rules during the preparation of the article.
• No copyright belonging to a third party is violated in the submitted article.
• The author does not defame another work, person, or institution in their article.
• Within this framework, the author retains the copyright of the work and grants the journal the right of first publication.
• The work is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0, which allows others to share it provided that the author is credited and the initial publication is made in this journal.
• The author can enter into separate contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book).
• Authors are encouraged to share their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their own websites) before submitting it to the journal or while the submission process is ongoing; this can lead to both productive exchanges of ideas and earlier and greater citation of the work.
• In the event of any legal prosecution initiated due to the information contained in the article, the responsibility lies with the author of the article, not with the journal staff. In this case, potential material damages as well as litigation and defense expenses are under the obligation of the authors.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses on this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal; they will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Evaluation Process

1. Preliminary Evaluation

Original research articles, review studies, and scientific analyses related to the field of sports sciences can be submitted to the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are first subjected to a preliminary evaluation by the editors. Manuscripts that do not fall within the publication scope of the journal, or do not comply with the academic writing format in terms of content and formal conditions, are rejected without initiating the peer-review process, or certain revisions may be requested. The result of the editorial review is notified to the author. No article can be accepted for publication by the editors without favorable reviewer reports.

If translations of articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals in different languages are deemed appropriate for the publication scope of the journal, they are checked by the language editors of the journal and published if the translation is found suitable.

2. Plagiarism Screening

Plagiarism is a violation of publication ethics that has been encountered quite frequently in academic circles recently. All articles, reviews, and scientific analyses submitted to the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research are subjected to plagiarism screening through plagiarism detection software in order to combat plagiarism and act in accordance with publication ethics. The software used for this purpose is the iThenticate plagiarism detection program.

In the screening to be performed with the program, if the similarity index of the screened manuscript is above 15%, the article is rejected by the Editorial Board without being put into the reviewer process. The plagiarism report of the rejected manuscript is also shared with the author. The rejected manuscript is not re-evaluated in any way. Among the manuscripts with clean plagiarism screening results, research articles are accepted into the reviewer process, while translation and book review manuscripts are taken into review directly by the editorial board.

3. Reviewer Evaluation (Double-Blind Peer-Review System)

Every article submitted to the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research for publication that passes the preliminary evaluation and plagiarism screening goes through the reviewer evaluation process specified below. At every stage of the process, a double-blind peer-review system is implemented, where the names of the reviewers and authors are kept confidential.

• Manuscripts that pass the preliminary evaluation stage are sent by the Editor and/or Editorial Board to two reviewers determined from different institutions. Considering their areas of expertise, both members of the journal's editorial and advisory board and external academics can be designated as reviewers.
• Reviewers evaluate the manuscripts sent to them in terms of originality, methodology, contribution to the literature, presentation of findings, support of conclusions, and utilization of previously conducted studies.
• Reviewers may accept or reject the article, or request the authors to make revisions regarding format and/or content. For an article to be accepted for publication, at least two reviewers must express a positive opinion. If one of the reviewer reports is positive and the other is negative, the article is sent to a third reviewer.
• In the event that the reviewer or reviewers request revision, the author completes the requested corrections within 15 days at the latest, taking into account the criticisms and suggestions made by the reviewers, and resubmits the article. Reviewers may request revisions more than once for the same article.
• Articles that are not deemed suitable for publication by two reviewers are not accepted for publication, and manuscripts that are not accepted are returned to their authors.
• Reviewer reports are kept by the journal editorship for a period of 5 years.
• Authors may object to the negative opinions of the reviewers or the changes and corrections they request, provided that they show evidence. This objection is examined by the Editorial Board and, if deemed necessary, another reviewer's opinion is sought.
• For their work to be published, authors must take into consideration the opinions and suggestions of the reviewers and the Editorial Board.
• For all articles that reach the publication stage upon receiving positive opinions from the reviewers, the final evaluation is made by the Editorial Board. Articles given a "publishable" decision by the Editorial Board are placed in the publication queue and published in the next issue.

Authors who submit articles to the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research are deemed to have accepted the aforementioned reviewer evaluation conditions and process.

4. Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Based on the Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE) "Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors - 2011", the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research has determined the responsibilities of editors, reviewers, and authors as follows:

Authorship

• The reference list must be complete.
• Plagiarism and fraudulent data must not be included.
• Attempting to publish the same research in more than one journal must be avoided, and scientific research and publication ethics must be complied with.

Actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics are as follows:

• Plagiarism: Presenting the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works of others as one's own, partially or completely, without citing the owners in accordance with scientific rules.
• Fabrication: Producing data that is not based on research, editing or changing a presented or published work based on unrealistic data, reporting or publishing them, or presenting an unconducted research as if it has been conducted.
• Falsification: Falsifying research records and obtained data, presenting methods, devices, and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that is not suitable for the research hypothesis, manipulating data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, or falsifying or shaping research results in line with the interests of the individuals and organizations supporting the research.
• Duplicate Publication: Presenting more than one work containing the same results of a research as separate works in associate professorship examinations and academic promotions.
• Salami-slicing: Publishing multiple papers by inappropriately dividing the results of a research into parts in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and without citing each other, and presenting them as separate works in associate professorship examinations and academic promotions.
• Unfair Authorship: Including individuals who do not have an active contribution among the authors, not including individuals who have an active contribution among the authors, changing the author order unjustifiably and inappropriately, removing the names of active contributors from the work during publication or in subsequent editions, or using influence to include one's name among the authors despite having no active contribution.
• Other Types of Ethical Violations: Not clearly stating the supporting individuals, institutions, or organizations and their contributions in the publications of research conducted with support; failing to comply with ethical rules in research conducted on humans and animals; failing to respect patient rights in publications; sharing information contained in a work assigned to review as a reviewer with others before publication; misusing resources, places, opportunities, and devices provided or allocated for scientific research; making completely groundless, unwarranted, and deliberate accusations of ethical violation (YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, Article 8).

Author Responsibilities

• All authors must contribute significantly to the research.
• A declaration that all data in the article is real and original is required.
• All authors have the right to withdraw their articles.
• All authors are obliged to correct article errors.

Reviewer Responsibilities

• Evaluations must be objective.
• Reviewers must not have a conflict of interest with the research, the authors, and/or the research funders.
• Reviewers should indicate relevant published but uncited works.
• Reviewed articles must be kept confidential.

Editor Responsibilities

• Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article.
• Editors must not have a conflict of interest regarding the articles they accept or reject.
• Only articles that will contribute to the field should be accepted.
• When errors are found, they should support the publication of corrections or retractions.
• They must keep the names of the reviewers confidential and prevent plagiarism/fraudulent data.

The peer-review process is central to the success of scientific publishing. Protecting and improving the peer-review process is part of our commitment, and the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research has an obligation to assist the scientific community in any situation related to publishing ethics, especially in cases of suspected duplicate publications or plagiarism.

When a reader notices a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research, or when they have any complaint regarding editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.), they can lodge a complaint by sending an email to susard@sinop.edu.tr. Since complaints provide an opportunity for our development, we welcome them and aim to provide a quick and constructive response.

5. Ethical Committee Approval

All studies submitted to the Sinop University Journal of Sport Research must be prepared in accordance with scientific ethical principles. If human or animal subjects were used in the data collection phase during the research process, it is mandatory to obtain the relevant ethical committee approval. In studies requiring ethical committee approval, information regarding the approval must be stated in the article text.

Authors declare that the study is original, has not been published anywhere before, and is not under evaluation in another journal.

The Sinop University Journal of Sport Research takes the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as a basis regarding publication ethics. In cases where ethical violations (plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, etc.) are detected, the journal reserves the right to carry out the necessary editorial procedures.

QUESTION: Is ethical committee approval required for all articles?

ANSWER: No. It is specified in the criteria as articles "requiring Ethical Committee Approval".

Researches requiring Ethical Committee approval are as follows:

• All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require collecting data from participants by using survey, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment, and interview techniques.
• Use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes.
• Clinical research conducted on humans.
• Research conducted on animals.
• Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on protection of personal data.

In addition;

• Stating that the "Informed Consent Form" was obtained in case reports.
• Obtaining permission from the owners for the use of scales, surveys, and photographs belonging to others, and stating this.
• Stating that copyright regulations were complied with for the used intellectual and artistic works.

QUESTION: Should retrospective Ethical Committee Approval be obtained for publications produced from studies and theses completed in previous years?

ANSWER: Retroactive ethical committee approval is not required for articles that used research data from before 2020, were produced from master's/doctoral studies (must be stated in the article), made a publication application to the journal in the previous year, and have been accepted but not yet published.

QUESTION: Have restrictions been imposed on publications made outside of universities with these rules of TR Dizin?

ANSWER: No. Researchers who are not members of a university can also apply to the Ethical Committees located in their regions.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (2011, March 7) "Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" can be accessed at the following link: Publication Ethics COPE.