PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
TUJE follows certain ethical standards for publication, existing to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and due credit for original ideas. TUJE is connected to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), abides by its Code of Conduct, and aims to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines.
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf
Authors who submit papers to TUJE certify that his or her work is original and is not published or under publication consideration elsewhere. In addition, authors confirm that submitted papers have not been copied or plagiarized, in whole or in part, from other papers or studies. Authors certify that he or she does not have potential conflicts of interest or partial benefits associated with his or her papers.
TUJE will check for plagiarism in all submitted articles prior to publication. If plagiarism is detected at any stage of the publication process, the author will be instructed to rewrite the manuscript. Every submission will be scanned by Turnitin to prevent plagiarism. If any manuscript is 30% plagiarized the article will be rejected and the author will be notified. We strongly recommend that authors check paper content before submitting for publication. Plagiarism can be checked by using free online software, like (FREE PLAGARISM CHECKER at http://www.quetext.com/.)
TUJE is committed to objective and fair blind peer reviews of submitted papers and the prevention of any actual or potential conflicts of interest between writers and reviewers.
Authors must confirm the following:
1. Manuscripts must be the original work of the submitting author.
2. Submitted manuscripts must be unpublished.
3. There should be no conflict of interest. If it exists, it must be clearly stated.
4. Authors should cite all data sources used in the preparation of the manuscript.
Please note: It is unethical to submit a manuscript to more than one journal concurrently.
Reviewers must confirm the following:
1. Manuscripts are reviewed fairly based on the intellectual content of the paper regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, citizenship or political view of the author(s).
2. Any observed conflict of interest during the review process must be sent to the editor.
3. Information pertaining to the manuscript is kept confidential.
4. Information that may be a cause for rejection of publication must be sent to the editor.
Editors must confirm the following:
1. Manuscripts are reviewed fairly based on the intellectual content of the paper regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, citizenship or political view of the author(s.)
2. Information pertaining to manuscripts is kept confidential.
3. Any observed conflict of interest pertaining manuscripts must be disclosed.
Please note: The Editorial Board takes responsibility for making publication decisions on submitted manuscripts based on the reviewer’s evaluation of the manuscript, policies of the journal editorial board, and legal efforts to prevent plagiarism, libel, and copyright infringement
Note: Author should make corrections in 2 months, otherwise paper will rejected.
Policies
Peer Review Policy
The author(s) of the present study and the journal accept(s) the ethical responsibilities that fit the PUBLICATION ETHICS. Each author is responsible for the content of his or her article. Articles submitted for publication are checked by the Turnitin (Professional Plagiarism Prevention) program. If an article contains plagiarism or self-plagiarism in more than 30% of the manuscript, it will be returned to the author for appropriate citation and correction.
• Submission of the same manuscript to different journals will not be accepted.
• Submissions with contents outside the scope of TUJE will not be considered for review.
• Submissions will have a double blind peer review.
• All papers are expected to have original content. They should not have been previously published or under review.
• The journal requires a minimum of three independent reviewers. All submissions are subject to a double blind peer review.
• Publication decisions are made by the journal's Editor-in-Chief on the basis of the reviewer' reports.
• Submitted papers and reviewer reports are archived whether they are published or not and are not returned.
• Authors who want to discontinue the publication process after submission to TUJE have to apply to the editorial board in a written correspondence.
• Authors are responsible for the writing quality of his or her papers.
• The TUJE journal is free of charge and will not pay any copyright fee to authors.
Open Access Copyright Policy
Open access (OA) journals are scholarly journals that are available online "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.” Open Access (OA) provides unlimited access and reuseability of research publications online for free. Therefore, the open access creates the network for reaching the widest possible audience, sharing the entire papers and building upon them.
Turkish Journal of Engineering (TUJE) has signed the Budapest Open Access Initiative and shows its “openness” clearly in a standardized form.
TUJE also supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of ''Open Access,'' which is defined as:
“It has free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.”
Articles published in TUJE will be Open-Access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License
TUJE is licenced by Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
You can find information about CC-BY-SA please click https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
The auhtor(s) retain all copyrights of their articles. However, authors grant the publisher non-exclusive publishing rights to publish the articles.
Archieving Policy (LOCKSS)
The LOCKSS system has permission to collect, preserve, and serve this Archival Unit.
The Turkish Journal of Engineering is using the LOCKKS archiving system.
The LOCKSS Program, based on the program used at Stanford University Libraries, provides libraries and publishers with award-winning, low-cost, open source digital preservation tools to preserve and provide access to persistent and authoritative digital content.
The LOCKSS Program (https://www.lockss.org/) is an open-source, library-led digital preservation system built on the principle that “lots of copies keep stuff safe.” The LOCKSS Program develops and supports libraries using an open source peer-to-peer digital preservation software.
The LOCKSS system allows librarians to access to the e-content to which they subscribe, restoring the print purchase model with which librarians are familiar.
The Global LOCKSS Network preserves today's e-journals and e-books for tomorrow's readers. The Global LOCKSS Network is a proven preservation approach that uniquely empowers both libraries and publishers. It enhances a library's value by restoring library collections via a locally installed "LOCKSS box", which is essentially a digital bookshelf. The Global LOCKSS Network enhances a publisher's value by preserving the original published artifact, including branding, historical context, and underlying files. It protects the publisher's interest by driving all reader traffic to their web site. The Global LOCKSS Network is administered and managed by the Stanford University Libraries LOCKSS Program. See the LOCKSS Program website for additional information, http://www.lockss.org/lockss/Home.
A detailed explanation of what sets the LOCKSS software apart and how preservation works in the LOCKSS network (e.g. technical infrastructure, security) can be found in the following link: https://www.lockss.org/about/how-it-works/.
TUJE LOCKSS data can be found in the following link: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/tuje/lockss-manifest
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy
Purpose
The Turkish Journal of Urban Engineering (TUJE) encourages the responsible, transparent and ethical use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in scholarly publishing and AI-informed technologies. AbstractThis policy outlines the obligations of authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher with regard to AI tools…
This policy has been drafted in line with COPE, ICMJE, WAME principles and the current AI policies implemented by prominent global publishers like Elsevier.
Policy for Authors
1.1 Permitted Use
The authors are allowed to use Generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Grammarly AI, DeepL Write or similar technologies) only in order to help with:
improving grammar, spelling, and language,
enhancing readability,
organizing text,
summarizing publicly available literature,
improving formatting,
translating manuscripts.
Authors hold complete responsibility for all submissions.
1.2 Scientific Responsibility
The task of substituting scientific judgment cannot be left to Artificial Intelligence.
Authors are solely responsible for:
originality,
accuracy,
integrity,
interpretation,
conclusions,
citations,
ethical compliance.
This does not reallocate responsibility away from the authors using AI.
1.3 AI Cannot Be an Author
Generative AI systems may not be included as an author or coauthor.
Authorship implies accountability, contribution and consideration of the same final version of the work; hence, only humans can fulfill those requirements.
1.4 Mandatory Disclosure
Authors must declare the use of AI-assisted technologies during manuscript preparation in a new section entitled
Gen AI & AI-supported Technologies Manifesto
The declaration should include:
name of the AI tool,
version (if applicable),
purpose of use,
indicated that all AI-generated output has been systematically scrutinized and confirmed by the writing authors.
Example:
During preparation of this manuscript authors have used ChatGPT (OpenAI) only for language editing and to improve the readability. All scientific content, interpretation, analyses and conclusions were independently reviewed, verified and approved by the authors who take full responsibility for the final manuscript.
1.5 Prohibited Uses
Authors must not use AI to:
fabricate or manipulate research data,
generate false references,
create fictitious results,
produce misleading scientific interpretations,
manipulate peer review,
conceal AI-generated content,
commit plagiarism,
producing fake images or graphs presented as genuine research outputs;
Such misuse may cause rejection, retraction or notification of the authors' institutions.
1.6 AI-generated Images
Unless images, figures, maps, or graphical abstracts are verifiably according to original scientific evidence that it is AI-generated AI-manipulated
its use is explicitly detailed in the Methods section,
they are scientifically justified,
they are clearly marked as such,
they do not distort research evidence.
AI Policy for Reviewers
Submitted manuscripts are confidential documents.
Reviewers must not input any component of a manuscript uploaded to the submission system, including supplementary files as well as reviewer reports or other editorial correspondence into publicly available Generative AI systems (including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, among others) because doing so may breach confidentiality; introduce copyright or proprietary information loss; and/or violate data protection requirements.
Proceeding reviewers prepare their reviews individually.
What generative AI must not be used for:
assess scientific quality,
determine novelty,
prepare review reports,
recommend editorial decisions.
The reviewer is solely responsible for the submitted review.
AI Policy for Editors
All materials submitted to you are secret.
Editors are prohibited from using publicly available AI systems to upload manuscripts or internal editorial communications.
Independent human judgment must always be responsible for editorial decisions.
Editorial evaluation, ethical assessment, and publication decisions will not be replaced by generative AI.
While the editorial decisions are the sole responsibility of each individual editor.
Transparency
The Journal reserves the right to request:
clarification regarding AI use,
original drafts,
supporting documentation,
revision history,
additional explanations concerning AI-assisted preparation.
This should not take more than a day or so to provide otherwise your manuscript might be rejected or withdrawal.
Violations
Non adherence to this policy may lead to:
manuscript rejection,
withdrawal during review,
publication of corrections,
retraction after publication,
notification of the authors' institutions,
take exercises in concert with COPE principles.
AI Policy Updates
Given the rapidly evolving nature of Generative AI technologies, TUJE may update this policy from time to time in order to stay aligned with international publication ethics and indexing standards.
Deposit
The articles published in TUJE are stored in Sherpa Romeo.
https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/41940
Complaint Policy
Complaints are welcome as they provide an opportunity for improvement. Responses to complaints should be quick, helpful, and constructive. Please address complaints with a volume number, issue number, paper ID, paper title, and page number.
Turkish Journal of Engineering (TUJE) accepts the following complaints:
• Authorship complaints
• Plagiarism complaints
• Multiple, duplicate, and concurrent publications or simultaneous submissions
• Allegations of research errors and fraud
• Research standards violations
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Reviewer bias or competitive/harmful acts by reviewers
Policy for Handling Complaints
If the Journal receives a complaint that any contribution to the Journal infringes intellectual property rights or contains material inaccuracies, libelous materials, or otherwise unlawful materials, the Journal will investigate the complaint. An investigation may include a request that the parties involved substantiate their claims (the Journal will make a good faith determination whether to remove the allegedly wrongful material). A decision not to remove material should represent the Journal's belief that the complaint is without sufficient foundation, or if well‐founded, that a legal defense or exemption may apply. The Journal will document its investigation and decision. We strive to ensure that TUJE is of the highest quality and is free from errors. However, we accept that occasionally mistakes might happen.
Editorial Complaints Policy
The Managing Editor and staff of TUJE will make every endeavor to resolve issues as soon as possible in the most appropriate way, offering a right of reply when necessary. We will investigate complaints in a blame-free manner, looking to see how systems can be improved to prevent mistakes occurring.
Guiding Principles
Our general approach to complaints is that they are a rare but inevitable part of a process that involves putting together complex material at great speed. Despite rare mistakes, we will spend effort to treat complaints with urgency. Timely solutions can prevent the escalation of problems. All substantial errors and complaints are referred to senior executives within the editorial staff.
The procedure outlined below aims to be fair to the submitting authors who have complaints as well as the things they complain about. All complaints will be acknowledged within three working days if by email. If possible, a definitive response will be made within two weeks. If impossible, an interim response will be given within two weeks. Interim responses will be provided until the complaint is resolved. Escalated complaints are sent to the editor.
How to Make a Complaint
Complaints about editorial content should be made as soon as possible after publication, preferably by email to: myakar@mersin.edu.tr
Article Correction Policy
The online, published version of an article is considered the final and complete version. Even though it is possible to correct this version, our policy (in common with other publishers) is not to do so, except in very rare circumstances.
The only typographical errors that can be corrected are: author names, affiliations, article titles, abstracts, and keywords. In such cases, an erratum or corrigendum would be necessary as well (see below) so that there is a record of the difference between the online and print versions.
We can publish a correction to your article if there is a serious error, for example with regard to scientific accuracy, or if your reputation or that of the journal would be affected. We do not publish corrections that do not affect the contribution in a material way or significantly impair the reader’s understanding of the contribution (such as a spelling mistake or a grammatical error).
Please send an email to myakar@mersin.edu.tr in the event a correction is needed.
Errata
An erratum will be used if an important error has been found during the publication process of the journal article. Errors requiring an erratum include: an error that affects the publication record, the scientific integrity of the paper, the reputation of the authors or of the journal, and errors of omission (e.g. failure to make factual proof corrections requested by authors within the deadline provided by the journal and within journal policy).
Erratas are not published for typing errors except where an error is significant (for example, an incorrect unit.) A significant error in a figure or table is corrected by the publication of a newly- corrected figure or table as an erratum. The figure or table is republished only if the editor considers it necessary.
Corrigenda
A corrigendum is a notification of a significant error made by the authors of the article. All authors must sign a corrigenda that is submitted for publication.
In cases where co-authors disagree, the editors will take advice from independent peer-reviewers and impose the appropriate amendment; noting the dissenting author(s) in the text of the published version.
Addenda
An addendum is a notification of a peer-reviewed addition of information to a paper. An example is a response to a reader’s request for clarification. Addenda do not contradict the original publication. If the author inadvertently omits significant information, the information can be published as an addendum after peer review.
Addenda are published only rarely and only when the editors decide that the addendum is crucial to the reader’s understanding of a significant part of the published contribution.
DOI
DOI assignment is made in this journal. The DOI number of articles with DOI number cannot be canceled even if they are not published.