Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Publication Ethics

Turkish Journal of Scientific Research aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working in educational sciences, social sciences, science, visual arts education and other fields. The publication process of the Journal of Scientific Research of Turkey is based on the unbiased production, development and sharing of information using the scientific method.

Peer-reviewed articles are studies that ensure the application of the scientific method and impartiality. In the realisation of scientific production, all components of the publication process; publisher, editors, authors, referees and readers must comply with ethical principles. In this context, the publication ethics and open access policy of the Journal of Scientific Research in Turkey requires all components of the publication process to comply with ethical principles in line with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in open access (e.g. ‘Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors; “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”).

If cases such as manipulation, distortion and fabrication of the data used in the articles are detected, the institution where the author of the article works will be officially notified of this situation and the article will be rejected. Our journal has the right to request the output files related to the results of the analyses from the authors according to the feedback given by the editorial board and referees.

Author(s)

Articles submitted to the Journal of Scientific Research in Turkey should be original studies in educational sciences, social sciences, science, visual arts education and other fields.
All sources (authors, online pages, personal interviews, etc.) used in the articles should be cited correctly and appropriately.
It should be stated that the articles submitted to the journal have not been sent to another journal and the Copyright Transfer Form (https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/journal-file/19204) should be filled in.
Persons who have not contributed to the article should not be listed as authors.
Conflicts of interest regarding the submitted article should be indicated and the reason should be explained.
Authors may be asked to submit raw data about their work to the editorial board while it is in the refereeing process, in which case authors are expected to share their raw data with the editorial board. Authors are obliged to keep the data related to a published article for 5 years.
Authors should inform the editor and the editorial board when they detect an error in their manuscript and should co-operate in the process of correction or retraction.

Referees

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Scientific Research in Turkey are evaluated through a double blind review process. Double blind reviewing means that the authors are kept confidential from the referees and the referees are kept confidential from the authors in order to ensure an unbiased, objective and independent evaluation process. Manuscripts are sent to the referees for evaluation through the journal management system. The referees are required to fill out a form containing their judgements about the contribution of the article to the relevant field and whether the article is publishable or not, and the reasons for these judgements. The ethical responsibilities and roles of the referees of the Turkish Journal of Scientific Research are as follows:

Referees are required to referee only articles related to their areas of expertise.
Reviewers are expected to agree to review articles without any conflict of interest. Referees should inform the editor when they realise any conflict of interest and refuse to referee the relevant article.
Reviewers should evaluate the articles impartially and objectively.
Reviewers are required to fill in the Referee Evaluation Form for the articles they evaluate, and are expected not to indicate their names on the forms in order not to damage the double blind review process. The referees are also required to state their decision on whether the manuscript is publishable or not and the reasons for their decision in this form.
The style used by the referees in their suggestions should be polite, respectful and scientific. Reviewers should avoid offensive, disrespectful and subjective personal comments. When referees are found to make such unscientific comments, they may be contacted by the editor or editorial board to review and correct their comments.
Reviewers are required to complete their evaluations within the time given to them and are expected to comply with the ethical responsibilities specified herein.

Editor

The editor is required to comply with the ethical responsibilities listed below in the ‘COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors’ (COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf)) and ‘COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors’ (COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (https://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Best_Practice.pdf)) published by the Committee on PublicationEthics (COPE (https://publicationethics.org/)).
The editor is responsible for all articles published in the journal. The ethical duties and responsibilities of the editor are as follows:

General Responsibilities

The editor is obliged to endeavour to improve the quality of the journal and to contribute to its development.
The editor should support the authors' freedom of expression.

Relations with Readers

The editor should ensure that the sections of the journal where peer review is not required (letters to the editor, invited papers, conference announcements, etc.) are clearly indicated.
The editor should endeavour to ensure that the articles published are compatible with the knowledge and skills of the readers of the journal.
Relations with Reviewers

The editor should ask the reviewers to evaluate the articles in accordance with their knowledge and expertise. Thus, it should be ensured that the articles are appropriately evaluated by experts in the field.
The editor is obliged to require the reviewers to state that they have no conflicts of interest regarding the article before evaluating an article.
The editor should communicate all necessary information about the peer review process and what is expected from the reviewers to the reviewers.
The editor should ensure that the peer review process is carried out in a double blind review process and should not disclose authors to reviewers and reviewers to authors.
The editor should evaluate reviewers based on their timeliness and performance.
The editor should create a database of reviewers and update the database according to the performance of the reviewers.
The editor should remove reviewers who make rude and unqualified comments or return late from the reviewer list.
The editor should constantly renew and expand the referee list according to the referees' areas of expertise.

Relations with Authors

The editor should continuously update the publication and writing rules and the sample template to inform the authors about what is expected of them.
The editor should evaluate the manuscripts submitted to the journal in terms of the journal's editorial rules, the importance and originality of the work, and if he/she decides to reject the manuscript during the first submission process, he/she should clearly and impartially communicate the reasons to the authors. In this process, if it is decided that the article needs to be revised in terms of grammar, punctuation and/or spelling rules (margins, proper referencing, etc.), the authors should be informed about this and they should be given time to make the necessary corrections.
Manuscripts should include the dates of submission and acceptance for publication.
When authors request information about the status of their manuscripts, the authors should be informed about the status of their manuscripts in a way that does not disrupt the double blind review process.

Relations with the Editorial Board

The editor should communicate the publication and writing rules to the new editorial board members and explain what is expected of them.
The editor should send the most up-to-date version of the publication and writing rules to the members of the editorial board.
The editor should evaluate the members of the editorial board and select members who will actively participate in the development of the journal to the editorial board.
The editor should inform the members of the editorial board about the following roles and responsibilities:
o To support the development of the journal,
o To write compilations related to their areas of expertise when requested to do so,
o To review and improve publication and writing rules,
o To fulfil the necessary responsibilities in the operation of the journal.

Unethical Behaviour

In case of any behaviour that does not comply with the ethical principles regarding the editors, referees, authors in the Turkish Journal of Scientific Research, or an unethical situation in the evaluation process, in early view or in relation to a published article, it should be reported to tubadeditor@gmail.com via e-mail.