Publication Ethics Statement

• The manuscripts sent to the journal should be original, haven’t been published before and not sent to another journal for the evaluation. The author should declare that his/her study is original, unpublished before and not in the evaluation process to be published in another language and in another journal. The materials of copyright (e.g. tables, figures and long citations) should be used with necessary permission and special thanks. The works of other authors and contributors or the sources utilised should be used appropriately and stated in the references.

• The manuscripts sent to the e-journal is subjected to double blind peer review process by one editor and at least two referees. Plagiarism, duplication, false/ denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, publication by slicing, copyright infringement and concealment of the conflict of interests are accepted as unethical behaviours.

• All authors should have a direct academic and scientific contribution to the article. In this regard, “the author” is considered as a person who is apparently involved in designing and conceptualizing the research, collecting the data, analysing or interpreting the data, writing the manuscript or reviewing it critically. Moreover, planning or conducting the research and/or revising the article are the other requirements of being an author.

• It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules.

• The author must guarantee that the submitted article is original and it has not been published elsewhere previously or is not presently in the evaluation process in another language elsewhere.

• All authors must declare issues regarding financial relations, conflict of interest and competing interests which might potentially affect the research results and scientific judgement.

• When an author finds out an evident error or any mistake in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s responsibility for getting an immediate contact and cooperating with the editor. The author must contact with the editor for informing about, correcting and retracting his/her article in the case of noticing any errors in the evaluation or previewing process or when it has just been published electronically.

• Statement and Notification of TR Index Ethical Rules: the articles related to the principles of ethics mentioned in the previous years’ criteria are explicably detailed in 2020. Assuming that the studies necessitating research ethics committee approval get the approval, the explanation “stating the approval notification into the article” was added to the criteria.

• Editors are responsible for overall quality of the content and publication.

• Editors enable the authors to correct the mistakes, inconsistencies or misguidance in the manuscripts.

• Editors evaluate the manuscripts regardless of ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief and political views of the authors.

• Editors have the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for ultimate decision for publication of the article.

• Reviewers assist editors during the decision process and improving the manuscripts.

• Reviewers also inform the editor about any significant similarities or overlaps between the manuscript and other publications within their knowledge.

• Reviewers evaluate the articles with an unbiased judgement. They also must keep the information concerning the manuscripts confidential and report to the editor if they notice any copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

• Reviewers feeling unqualified to revise the subject of the article or being already aware that the time limit is not enough for the proper evaluation must inform the editor and request not to be assigned.

• Reviewers must reject evaluating the manuscript when they realize that there is conflict of interest or unity of interest by informing the editor.

• The principles of unity, quality and transparency must be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.

• The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the participation to the research; and risks of participation in the research.

• It must be guaranteed that the information provided by the research participants and the respondents must be confidential. The research must be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.

• Research participants must willingly take part in the research without any coercion.

• Any possible harm to the participants must be avoided. The research must be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.

• The independence of the research must be clear and any conflict of interest must be disclosed.

• In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to take part in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with legal custodian’s assent and confirmed insanity must be obtained.

• If the research is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from that institution or organization.

• Upon reaching the adequate number of manuscripts to be published, other submissions being worth to be published are sequenced for the upcoming issue.

• The manuscripts should be sent through DergiPark (https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/trakyaiibf), and all the procedure must be followed on the system. The communication regarding the evaluation process is carried out via DergiPark.

• There is no publication charge for the articles in submission or publication process. Also, there is no article processing charge or submission fees for any submissions and acceptances. All expenses of the journal are covered by the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Trakya University.

• The articles in the journal undergo a double-blind peer review procedure. Authors do not know about the reviewers, and vice versa.

• The similarity rate of the article is detected by the Ithenticate reports handed by the authors; and the article is evaluated in terms of the issues dealt with. Then, they are investigated and determined by the editorial board.

• The manuscripts submitted to the journal are subjected to pre-review by the editorial board in terms of the content and the form. After the assessment and corrections by language editors of the journal, reviewer evaluation process begins (Editors have the right to reject the manuscripts which are not compatible with the spelling rules or the necessary language and spelling corrections, and so not found qualified enough to be published).

• The manuscripts being worth to be evaluated are sent to two different reviewers (blind reviewer). If the reviewers are not in agreement of the acceptance of the manuscript, then the third reviewer is assigned. Editorial board give a decision on whether a manuscript will be accepted or rejected considering reviewers’ reports.

• Articles in the preview phase could be retrieved from the system by the authors without the approval of the editor. It is not possible for the article to be retrieved after the preview process is completed. During the evaluation process if an author requests to retrieve his/her article, he/she must provide reasonable and acceptable justifications.

• In the case of correction request for the manuscript, it is necessary for the correction to be completed and sent to the editorial board in time set by the editorial post. Otherwise the manuscript will be exempted from the evaluation process by the editorial post.

• The type of article (research, case report, compliation, etc.) must be stated during the article submission process.

• Authors whose articles are published in our journal must wait for one year to submit an article again. This period is applied as two years for in-house researchers.

•   If there is a conflict of interest between an editor and an author or institution of the author in terms of cooperation or competition, then another member of the Editorial Board is assigned to manage the evaluation process.

• Invited reviews, editorials and letters to editors may be accepted by the editor-in-chief without peer review after the editorial board review.

Exploitation Enquiry and Complaints 

• All kinds of exploitation doubts and complaints about manuscripts, either published or in the publication process, are evaluated by the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board strictly follows the directives of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) during the evaluations. An ombudsman who has no connection with the parts in any stage of the complaint is appointed and a decision is made. Complaints can be sent to the editor in chief by sending an e-mail to iibfedergi@trakya.edu.tr.