ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
Our journal adopts the principles declared by the Comitee on Publication Ethics (COPEⓒ) in all its processes. The journal has selected the articles according to this committee principles.
The authors can share more detailed information through the following links: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines, https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowchart, https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Case.
It is crucial that the research doesn’t violate the human and animal rights. Ethical committee approval based on the Declaration of Helsinki must be obtained from the authorities (universities, institutes, Ministry of Health, etc.) for all the studies that include people or animals.
In the Material and Method section of the article, an explanation regarding the informed consent, name of the ethics committee, approval date and ethics committee approval number should be written.
In animal studies, the measures taken to prevent animal pain and suffering should be clearly stated.
It is the responsibility of the authors to carefully protect the anonymity of patients.
For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed consent documents of the patient or legal representative should be attached.
In the ethics committee approval document; All authors of the study must be included. Anyone who is not included in the ethics committee as a part of the publication will not be allowed to take part unmerited in the study. Along with the ethics committee document, it should be clearly stated in which part of the study each researcher took part.
In all studies submitted to the journal, the authors are responsible for any violation in terms of plagiarism, multiple publications (duplication) or Salami slicing (salamization). Authors should also add plagiarism reports to the system when submitting the application.
Any article not meeting the COPEⓒ criteria will not be published.
Editorial and publication processes of the journal are formatted according to International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and National Information Standards Organization (NISO) organizations.
In addition, these processes are carried out in accordance with Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).
Submitted articles are evaluated for their originality and scientific quality.
Submitted articles must not have been previously presented or published in another electronic or printed journal, or other medium.
In case the articles were sent to another journal before but not accepted, it is recommended that our journal is informed.
Sending the old referee reports of these articles to the Editorial Board will accelerate the evaluation process.
ETHICS FOR AUTHORS
• Authors and researchers are deemed to have accepted all kinds of ethical principles and related written documents in advance.
• The research should be conducted by responsible and competent people, and non-experts should not be allowed to participate.
• The purpose of the research, the implementation process, possible risks and benefits should be explained to the participants.
• Participants' right to participate in the research, or to withdraw at any time, should be respected.
• If the participants are under the age of 18, information about the research is given to the participants themselves and their parents (guardians), and if the participants do not have the power to decide for any reason (mental disability, illness, dementia, etc.), the legal guardian (guardian) of the participant should. Informed consent forms should be completed and signed by the person himself, if he is over 18 years old, or by a parent/guardian if he is a minor.
• Care should be taken to ensure that the information in the informed consent forms is clear and understandable according to the age of the participants.
• Information of the participants, like personal data or that may cause their identities to be exposed should be kept confidential.
• No one should be deprived of their right to participate in research unless there is a just and acceptable reason.
• No participant should be deprived of their rights or be harmed by not participating in or withdrawing from the research.
• If there are applications different from the initial explanations during the research process, the participants should be informed about the new situation.
• Content and method/data collection tools (questionnaire, interview, etc.); should not include negative features like humiliating, discriminating, disturbing, tiring, disruptive, etc.
• The possibility of negative effects of the applications in the process of experimental research on the participants should be minimized.
• To the participants; Information about the purpose of the research, expected benefits, how it will be conducted, possible risks, confidentiality policy and what is expected should be given.
• These explanations should not affect the participants' behavior regarding the research and their responses to the data collection tools.
• The name, address and telephone number of the researcher or research team leader should be stated in this letter. If the research will be carried out in an institution, the written approval of the relevant institution managers must be obtained.
• If the application made to one application group is more effective than the applications to other groups; After the end of the research, all groups should be given the chance to benefit from this practice.
• The researcher is obliged to ensure that the data collected during and after the research is protected and stored in accordance with the confidentiality rule.
• In co-authored studies, everyone's roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined. The level of contribution of the shared tasks should be clearly stated and the corresponding author order should be established. In principle, those who have contributed significantly to the research and reporting should be co-authors.
• It should not show unethical behaviors such as Scientific Misleading, Scientific Negligence/Undisciplined Research, Scientific Distortion/Deliberate Fraud, Distortion, Concealment, Fabrication, Scientific Stealing, Complete Stealing, Scientific Piracy, Self-Picturing, Duplication, Slicing, Sibling Publication, and No Attribution.
• When making use of the ideas, discourses, opinions, data, comments, evaluations, suggestions, publications, drawings and applications of others, permissions and sources should be clearly indicated.
• A researcher who uses a table or figure in a source as it is, should clearly indicate the original source under the relevant table or figure.
• In addition to citing sources, copyright etc. Where required by legal obligations, permission must be obtained from the person or organization holding the copyright.
• Ethical rules regarding author names should be followed in articles. Author names and order should be determined by the contribution made to the study. The ranking on the published work expresses this contribution. In co-authored studies, all authors are scientifically and ethically responsible for the entire work.
• It is not ethically appropriate to include people who do not contribute actively or not to include contributors, to change the order of authors without justification and inappropriately, to remove the names of those who contributed actively from the work in subsequent editions, to include their names among the authors even though they do not have an active contribution, by using their influence.
• Thesis or studies that have not yet been presented or defended should not be used as a source without the permission of the owner.
• In the works, the addresses of the institutions/organizations must be given correctly and completely.
• If a research has been financially supported by a particular institution or person, the source of the financial support must be specified in the research report. Sometimes the number of institutions providing financial support can be more than one. In this case, all supporting institutions should be specified.
EDITORIAL CODE FOR EDITORS
In the evaluation process of a submitted work, the scientific ethical principles that the editors must comply with are as follows:
• Working; without prejudice (regarding race, religion, nationality, gender, opinion, affiliation, institutional or personal affinity), impartial, objective and independent.
• Negligently or deliberately delaying the evaluation process.
• It should take into account whether the study is carried out in accordance with ethical rules.
• Members of the editorial board should not exchange information about the study with people other than the referees and authors.
• The referee should not make any changes on the reports, and should not issue false reports, use the work in their own research before the work is published; should not allow others to use it.
• At any stage of the evaluation and publication process, the authors should not give false information that may have positive or negative meanings.
• Double-blind evaluation is carried out under the responsibility of the editor.
ETHICAL RULES ABOUT REFEREES
In the evaluation process of a submitted study, the scientific ethical principles that the referees must comply with are as follows:
• Working; without prejudice (regarding race, religion, nationality, gender, opinion, affiliation, institutional or personal affinity), impartial, objective and independent.
• In cases where they cannot or do not want to evaluate the work due to conflict of interest, personal or professional affinity, conflict of interest and time constraint; should return the work to the editor or the chairman of the board as soon as possible.
• They should not exchange information about the study with people/authors other than the editor or the chairman of the board who sent the study to him.
• They are responsible for ensuring that the data related to the work are protected and stored in accordance with the confidentiality rule.
• It should be taken into account whether the study is carried out in accordance with ethical rules. They should share the ethical problem of the article with the editor.
• They should express their opinions, evaluations and suggestions about the study in a clear and understandable way and should support them with literature data when necessary. They should clearly state their comments and suggestions and should not use general expressions.
• The journal does not accept sponsorship or advertising in accordance with its publication policies.
Publications are licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 4.0). The journal's policy is based on scientific contribution and does not allow commercial use of publications. CC's NonCommercial (NC) licenses prohibit uses that are "primarily directed toward or intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation." At this point, authors sign an exclusive license agreement in which they own the copyright but license exclusive rights in their article to the publisher. This means that by special agreement the publisher has the right to make and authorize commercial use. Publications can be used or shared in whole or in part, provided that the journal and authors are cited.

PUBLICATION POLICY
Our journal adopts the principles declared by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPEⓒ) in all its processes. Publications are handled within this scope. Authors can access more detailed information on this issue through the links https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines, https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts, https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Case.
It is essential that human and animal rights are not violated in studies. In studies in which human participants or animal subjects are used, ethics committee approval based on the Declaration of Helsinki must be obtained from the authorities authorized to give ethical approval (universities, institutes, Ministry of Health, etc.) in accordance with the research method. In the materials and methods section of the manuscript, an explanation of informed consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the date and number of ethics committee approval should be provided.
In studies on animals, the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering of the animals must be clearly stated. It is the authors' responsibility to carefully protect the anonymity of patients. For photographs that may reveal the identity of patients, signed permission from the patient or legal representative must be attached.
The ethics committee approval document must include all authors mentioned in the study. It should not be allowed for someone who is not named in the ethics committee to take part in the publication unfairly within the scope of gift authorship or in line with other interest relations. With the ethics committee document, it should be clearly stated in which part of the study the researchers took part.
All manuscripts submitted to the journal must be free of plagiarism, duplication and salamization, and authors are responsible for this. Authors should include their plagiarism reports when submitting the publication.
No study contrary to the principles of COPEⓒ may be published in this journal.
The editorial and publication processes of the journal are structured in accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). In addition, these processes are carried out in accordance with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).
Submitted articles are evaluated for originality and scientific quality. The submitted manuscripts must not have been previously presented or published in any other electronic or printed journal, book or other medium. It is recommended that the journal be informed about manuscripts that have been previously submitted to another journal but not accepted for publication. Sending the old referee reports of these manuscripts to the Editorial Board will speed up the evaluation process.