TURKISH JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING CODE OF ETHICS

The Chamber of Civil Engineers is the publisher and its President is the official owner of Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering. The Editorial Board is appointed by the Executive Board and is responsible to define and implement the publication principles. The Board Chair is the Editor and The Board Members act as Area Editors. The Editorial Board is the sole authority in all matters concerning publication.

Under the current publication principles, the reviewers who evaluate the manuscripts are engaged as consultants. The reviewers are proposed by the area editors and appointed by the Editorial Board. Single blind review process is adopted, reviewers know the authors, authors do not know the reviewers. The area editors oversee the review process and act as rapporteurs to the Editorial Board summarising the review reports. The final accept/decline decisions are taken by the Editorial Board considering the rapporteur proposals.

The principles of ‘publication ethics’ observed in this activity have been inspired by the principles of the “Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)”. The duties and the ethical responsibilities of each party involved in the publication of Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering are summarised below.

Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors

• Original papers are published. Originality has been defined in the Publication Principles.
  
• The work reported by the manuscripts should comply with the principles of research ethics.
  
• Manuscripts should be free of conflicts of interest. Unclear cases should be honestly declared.
  
• Authors should be prepared to present the raw data to the Editorial Board, if requested.
  
• A work under evaluation by another journal cannot be submitted to Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering.
  
• Persons who made no intellectual contribution to the work cannot appear as authors.
  
• Consents are needed of the persons who made intellectual contribution, if they are not authors.
  
• Once the manuscript is submitted to Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering, author names cannot be added or removed.
  
• Unethical conduct leads to rejection and future manuscripts by its authors are not accepted.
  

Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of the Reviewers

• The reviewer should decline the request unless he/she is fully confident of his/her expertise.
  
• Should perform the review in full impartiality and confidentiality and without prejudice.
  
• Should inform the area editor of any indications of conflict of interest or unethical conduct.
  
• Should adopt a constructive approach and use a careful language not to offend the authors.
  
• Should carefully observe the review time table specified.
  

Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of the Area Editors

• Area editors carefully observe the publication principles and procedures of Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering.
  
• Carefully consider the expertise, competence and experience of the reviewers they propose.
  
• Help the authors and reviewers by providing guidance whenever needed.
  
• Evaluate the reviewer reports with scientific accuracy and impartiality.
  

Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

• The Editorial Board reviews the publication principles considering the changing demands.
  
• Carefully considers the expertise, competence and experience of the reviewers it appoints.
  
• Continuously observes and directs the review progress, appoints new reviewers if needed.
  
• Takes accept/decline decisions with accuracy and impartiality considering area editor reports.
  
• Takes decisions concerning ethical questions and unusual requests.
  

Duties and Ethical Responsibilities of the Chamber of Civil Engineers

• The Chamber of Civil Engineers observes the principles of professional ethics in its activities.
  
• For each term, TCCE Executive Board appoints the Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering Editorial Board.
  
• Executive Board evaluates the publication policy change proposals of the Editorial Board.
  
• Executive Board evaluates the administrative and financial requests of Turkish Journal of Civil Engineering.