Ethics in Publishing
Trakya Journal of Education follows the publication ethics and open access policy in accordance with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in open access (e.g., "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors"), and it requires that all components of the publication process adhere to ethical principles.
If cases such as data manipulation and the use of fabricated data are detected in the articles, the institution where the article author is affiliated will be officially informed, and the article will not be accepted for publication. Our journal reserves the right to request output files related to the analysis results from the authors based on feedback provided by the editorial team and/or reviewers.
Below are the ethical responsibilities of the publisher, journal editor, reviewers, and authors.
Publisher's Ethical Responsibilities
Trakya Journal of Education is published by Trakya University, a non-profit, public educational institution that prioritizes public interest.
The Editorial Board of the journal is composed of the Board of Directors of Trakya University's Faculty of Education. Members of the Editorial Board are appointed for a four-year term, taking into consideration the scientific disciplines of educational sciences. The Editorial Board consists of an editor-in-chief, and depending on the situation, one or more associate editors and field editors are determined. The editorial secretariat, appointed by the publisher, also actively takes responsibility during the publication process. The editor, according to the subject matter of the article, may send the article to non-board members who are faculty members as field editors for review when necessary.
The Ethical Responsibilities of the Editorial Board
• The Editorial Board is responsible for every article published in Trakya Journal of Education. This responsibility requires independent decision-making with consideration for the public interest. All decisions made by the editors are independent of the publisher and other individuals or organizations.
• The Editorial Board ensures the establishment and implementation of journal policies, such as publication, blind peer review, evaluation process, and ethical principles.
• The Editorial Board protects the copyright of the authors.
• The Editorial Board takes measures during the article publication process regarding intellectual property rights, scientific and ethical misconduct, plagiarism, and citation manipulation.
• The Editorial Board electronically preserves records of each article and correspondence related to the journal.
Ethical Responsibilities of the Editor, Associate Editors, and Field Editors
• Editors take responsibility for meeting the information needs of reviewers and authors.
• Editors strive to ensure that the articles contribute to the scientific literature and provide value to readers, researchers, and practitioners when making decisions on publication.
• Editors consider the originality, contribution to the field, validity and reliability of the research methodology, clarity of expression, and alignment with the aims and scope of the journal when making positive or negative decisions about the articles.
• Editors initiate the preliminary evaluation stage for submitted articles when there are no ethical or scientific concerns.
• Editors implement blind peer review and evaluation process policies for articles that pass the preliminary evaluation, ensuring that each article is evaluated within the specified timeframe.
• Editors assign articles to field editors and reviewers based on their expertise, supporting unbiased and independent evaluations.
• Editors consider the presence or absence of conflicts of interest or relationships between editors, reviewers, and authors for the unbiased evaluation of the article.
• Editors make efforts to have a wide range of expertise in the pool of reviewers and update it annually.
• Editors prevent non-scientific evaluations.
• Editors prevent evaluations that do not adhere to academic etiquette.
• Editors ensure the correction of errors, inconsistencies, or misleading information in the articles.
• Editors provide clear and informative notifications and feedback to authors and reviewers.
• Editors maintain communication with everyone involved in the publication process and hold regular meetings.
• Editors ensure the protection of personal data in evaluated articles and safeguard the individual data of authors, reviewers, and readers.
• Editors prioritize the protection of human and animal rights in the articles.
• Editors emphasize the documentation of explicit consent from the participants in the article and reject articles that do not have ethical committee approval or necessary permissions in experimental research.
• Editors take necessary precautions to ensure that the content of published articles does not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications and conduct originality-similarity checks.
• Editors protect the intellectual property rights of published articles and defend the rights of the journal and authors in case of violations.
• New editors should not change decisions made by previous editor(s) regarding works unless there is a serious issue.
• Editors consider consistent criticisms of published articles and provide the authors of criticized articles the right to respond.
• Editors also consider studies with negative results.
• Editors examine and provide necessary explanations for complaints and suggestions received by the journal.
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
Trakya Journal of Education applies the principle of double-blind peer review in the article evaluation process (where the authors and their reviewers remain anonymous to each other). Reviewers are not allowed to communicate directly with the authors. Communication, evaluation forms, and requests for revisions are conveyed to the authors by the editors through the journal's management system. Reviewers have the following ethical responsibilities:
• Reviewers should only accept to evaluate articles that are relevant to their area of expertise.
• Reviewers should conduct the evaluation with impartiality and confidentiality. According to this principle, they should destroy the articles they have reviewed after the evaluation process. They can only use the final versions of the studies they have reviewed after the publication.
• Reviewers should provide justifications if they decline to review an article.
• Unless there is a significant reason (such as health issues or conflicts of interest), reviewers should not withdraw from the evaluation process once they have accepted it.
• Reviewers are expected to accept the review of articles without conflicts of interest. If reviewers become aware of any conflicts of interest, they should inform the editors by refusing to review the article.
• Reviewers should conduct the evaluation in accordance with academic integrity, using a constructive tone and avoiding personal comments that include insults or hostility.
• If it is determined that reviewers have made aggressive and/or unscientific comments, they may be contacted by the editors or editorial board to reconsider and correct their comments.
• Reviewers should evaluate the accepted articles within the specified timeframe and in accordance with the ethical responsibilities mentioned above.
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
The ethical responsibilities of authors submitting articles to Trakya Journal of Education are as follows:
• Authors should not submit the same article or multiple articles simultaneously to Trakya Journal of Education if they have already been published elsewhere or are under consideration for publication.
• Authors should not submit multiple articles simultaneously to Trakya Journal of Education.
• Authors should submit original articles to Trakya Journal of Education.
• When using information from other works, authors should provide complete and accurate citations and/or quotations.
• Individuals who have not contributed to the article should not be listed as authors.
• Changing the author order, removing or adding authors to an article under consideration for publication is not recommended.
• Authors should inform the editors of any conflicts of interest or relationships related to the article under review. The reason for the conflict of interest should be explained to the editor.
• Authors may be asked by the editorial board to submit raw data related to their work during the peer-review process, and in such cases, authors are expected to share their raw data with the editorial board.
• Authors are obliged to retain the data related to a published article for a period of 5 years.
• When authors identify an error in their work, they should inform the editor and the editorial board, and cooperate in the correction or retraction process.
• Authors should document that they have obtained the rights to use the data used in their articles, as well as the permissions or approvals from research participants for research analysis.
• If authors discover an error in their published, preprint, or in-review manuscript, they have an obligation to inform the journal editor and collaborate in the correction process.
• For research involving quantitative or qualitative methods that require data collection through experiments, scales, interviews, focus group studies, etc., authors should indicate in the methods section that they have obtained approval from an ethics committee, and they should upload the document showing the ethics committee decision along with the article submission.
• In case of case reports, information regarding the obtained informed consent form should be included in the article.
• Authors should provide evidence in their articles that they have adhered to ethical principles during the data collection process (such as obtaining permission to use other people's scales, surveys, photographs, etc.).
• Authors should indicate in their articles that they have complied with research and publication ethics, as well as copyright regulations for intellectual and artistic works.
• If the research involves human or animal subjects, it should be stated in the article that the research was conducted in accordance with appropriate international declarations, guidelines, etc.
• Compilation articles and ready-made data (such as PISA exams, etc.) do not require ethics committee approval.
In articles that do not require ethics committee approval, it should be stated in the methods section that ethics committee approval is not necessary for the article.
Plagiarism and Unethical Behavior
All articles submitted to Trakya Journal of Education are scanned using the IThenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/) or Turnitin (https://www.turnitin.com/) software programs before being published. Articles with an overall similarity rate of more than 15% or a rate of less than 2% for a single source are accepted. Articles that exceed this threshold are returned to the authors for review and revision, and if plagiarism or unethical behavior are detected, they are rejected.
Below are some examples of unethical behavior:
• Listing individuals as authors who have not made any intellectual contribution to the work.
• Publishing the same article in multiple places.
• Writing the article as a result of slicing (publishing multiple articles from a single study).
• Not indicating if the article is derived from the author's master's/doctoral thesis.
• Not indicating if the article is derived from a conference paper or a project.
• Altering the data used in the article from the original data collection date.
• Manipulating the results obtained from the research.
• Failing to disclose conflicts of interest related to the submitted articles.
• Disclosing the identities of the double-blind peer review process.
Reporting Ethical Violations to the Editor
In the case of encountering an unethical behavior related to the editors, reviewers, or authors, or any unethical situation in the review process, early appearance, or published article in Trakya Journal of Education, it should be reported to the editor via email using the Editor email address provided in the Contact section of the DergiPark website.
Review Process
• The status of an article during the review process is accessible at any given time and described in detail under the "Review Process" pane.
• The revision process to be carried out by the authors varies depending on the nature of the suggested revisions. The authors are given a minimum of one month and a maximum of six months for revisions, depending on the workload of the requested revisions.
January 31, 2025
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