Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

PUBLICATION ETHICS

The International Academy of Social Sciences Journal aims to adhere to the guidelines and core practices set forth by various organizations, including the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and the Principles for Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME joint statement). These guidelines and recommendations are designed to promote transparency, integrity and best practices in scholarly publishing.
By adhering to these standards, the journal aims to ensure that the research it publishes is of high quality and meets the ethical standards of the scientific community.

PUBLICATION PRINCIPLES
- With the amendment made in the TR Index Journal Evaluation Criteria in 2020, “Ethics Committee Approval” is requested for articles in all disciplines, including Social Sciences. (See: https://trdizin.gov.tr/about#applicationAndCriterias TR Index Journal Evaluation Criteria Article 8).
- Before submitting your work to our journal, the “Cover Letter” file prepared by our journal should be uploaded to the system by examining whether your work is suitable for the publication criteria of our journal.
- In order to initiate the necessary processes of the studies sent to the International Academy of Social Sciences Journal, the “Copyright Form” prepared by our journal must be uploaded to the system with wet signature.
- Only one article of an author can be published in the same year (same volume), regardless of author ranking.
- Articles submitted without following the journal template will be rejected (returned) by the journal board.
- A study will not be published in the first issue following the submission date, even if the evaluation process is completed. If it meets all the conditions, it will be published in the next issue.
- A maximum of 25 (twenty-five) studies will be published in one issue, taking into account the date of submission to the journal.
- Maximum 20% of the total studies published in one issue can be from researchers working at İnönü University.
- Articles are published in Turkish and English. Authors are expected to submit their manuscripts in full text in Turkish for the peer review process. Studies accepted for publication are sent to the journal in both Turkish and English full text. “Proofreading Certificate” (after acceptance) is required for the English full text of the manuscript.
Ethics Committee Approval and Informed Consent
All research involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by an ethics committee (e.g. IRB) before it is conducted. The name of the ethics committee, approval number and date must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. Authors may also be asked to provide a copy of the approval.
If the study is exempt from ethics approval, authors must submit a statement from the ethics committee explaining the exemption. If a manuscript is submitted without ethical approval, the journal will follow COPE's guidelines for assessing ethical concerns. Articles without ethical approval may be rejected if the topic is considered important.
Details of informed consent should be included in the Methods section, along with information about the research process.
- For studies involving human subjects, the authors must confirm that written informed consent has been obtained from all participants and the consent form must be retained by the investigators. For studies involving children under the age of eighteen, consent must be obtained from a parent or guardian. In surveys or interviews, participants' consent for data use should also be confirmed. Personal information should be de-identified unless explicit consent for naming is given.
- Authors are responsible for protecting the anonymity and confidentiality of participants, especially in the case of photographs. Signed releases must be obtained for any images, consent for publication must be provided, and any conditions must be specified. This approval should be stated in the Methods section.

Plagiarism and Ethical Violations
All submissions are subjected to multiple scans using similarity detection software during the peer review and/or production processes. When citing previous work, it must be ensured that all material is properly referenced. Copying text, tables or images from any source (journal articles, books, theses, electronic media, etc.) and presenting them as one's own is considered plagiarism, even if a reference is given. Listing the source in the ‘References’ section does not exempt authors from responsibility for plagiarism.
Authors are strongly encouraged to avoid the following instances of plagiarism or ethical violations:
- Citation Manipulation: Inflating citation counts through self-citation, over-citation of the same journal, or citation stacking is a practice that distorts academic recognition.
- Self-Plagiarism (Text Recycling): It involves reusing passages or sentences from an author's previous work without proper attribution and constitutes a form of plagiarism.
- Salami Slicing: The unethical practice of publishing multiple articles from a single study using the same data set, hypotheses and methods.
- Data Fabrication: The creation of fake data that is not supported by actual research or experiments is considered a serious breach of research integrity.
- Data Manipulation/Falsification: Involves altering data, such as changing images or removing outliers, to mislead or misrepresent findings.
In cases of suspicion of ethical violations such as plagiarism, citation manipulation or data falsification, the Editorial Board will follow COPE (Commission on Publication Ethics) guidelines to ensure that suspicions are addressed in a fair, transparent and consistent manner.
All articles submitted to Usbad International Academy of Social Sciences Journal are scanned by https://intihal.net/ software before publication. The similarity rate should be 20% for original articles and 25% for articles produced from graduate theses. Articles below the similarity rate are accepted for publication. If plagiarism or unethical behavior is detected, the article will be rejected for publication.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY
All articles published in the International Academy of Social Sciences Journal can be permanently accessed online without any charge and without any registration requirement. While protecting the copyrights of their work, authors allow third parties to share, reproduce and distribute content in accordance with the journal's Copyright and Ethics policy.
All published content will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and modification, provided the original source is properly attributed.
All journal content is freely accessible at https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/usbad.

COPYRIGHT POLICY
A Copyright Agreement and Authorship Contribution Form must be submitted with articles submitted to the International Academy of Social Sciences Journal. By signing this form, authors protect the copyright of their work and if the article is accepted for publication by the International Academy of Social Sciences Journal, the article will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows users to share, adapt, reproduce, and distribute the content of the journal for non-commercial purposes, provided that the author and the journal are properly attributed.

ADVERTISING POLICY
International Journal of Academy of Social Sciences accepts digital advertisements on its website, provided they are approved by the Editorial Board and management. All advertisements must be clearly labeled as such. Advertisers have no influence on editorial decisions or advertising policies.
For advertising requests, please contact usbaddergi@gmail.com.
International Journal of Academy of Social Sciences conducts a rigorous and transparent double anonymized peer review process to ensure that academic integrity is maintained to the highest standards.
Articles are subjected to this process in which both authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other. Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. Authors can suggest potential reviewers, but the final selection is made by the editor and the editor is not obliged to follow the author's suggestions.
Confidentiality is essential throughout the review process and reviewers may only share the manuscript with the editor's permission. Reviewers provide timely, impartial, evidence-based and constructive feedback to improve the quality of the manuscript. Suspected instances of research misconduct should be reported confidentially to the editor to protect the integrity of the process. The journal ensures transparency by sharing information about the review process, selection criteria and appeals procedure, and by publishing key data such as acceptance rates and publication times. The final decision to accept, revise or reject an article is made by the Editor-in-Chief, taking into account the recommendations of the Area Editors. Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest before accepting an invitation to review. All communications between editors and reviewers are confidential.
Articles submitted by members of the editorial board are reviewed by external editors to ensure impartiality, and these external editors must disclose any conflicts of interest. If the peer review process deviates from standard procedures, the type of review is indicated in the manuscript to ensure transparency and accountability.

REVISION DETAILS
Manuscripts requiring minor revision or major revision are responded to by the Editor-in-Chief with a decision letter including comments from reviewers and editors, and receive a deadline for resubmission. Authors must submit a revised manuscript and a detailed “Response to Reviewers” document addressing each comment individually. The response should explain the revisions made and indicate the relevant line numbers in the manuscript.
An annotated version of the manuscript highlighting the changes should also be submitted. Revised manuscripts must be submitted by the date specified in the decision letter. Failure to meet the deadline may result in rejection of the revision. If additional time is needed, authors should request an extension before the original deadline expires.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA
Authors of submissions reporting research findings must meet all four criteria set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):
1. Significant contribution to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of the data;
2. Drafting the manuscript or critically reviewing it for important intellectual content;
3. Approval of the final version for publication;
4. agreeing to be responsible for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions about the accuracy or completeness of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Authors should determine who is eligible for authorship and in what order authors will be listed before submitting their manuscript. The editors of the International Journal of Academy of Social Sciences do not resolve authorship disputes. Any changes to the number or order of authors after initial submission must be explained in writing to the Editor-in-Chief. The editors reserve the right to refer any authorship irregularities to the research officer at the first or corresponding author's institution or employer, or to the appropriate academic ethics authorities.
Authors may use CRediT (Taxonomy of Contributor Roles) to provide information about individual contributions at the time of submission.

Conflict of Interest Statement
Any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest, including relationships with editorial associations, commercial editing companies, medical communications companies, or other organizations relevant to the submission, should be disclosed at the end of the manuscript, just before the References section.

Declaration of Financial Support
All sources of funding should be indicated at the end of the manuscript. Authors should indicate the role, if any, of the study sponsor(s) in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, report writing, and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the funding source did not contribute to these areas, the authors should make this clear.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Article Preparation Process
The International Academy of Social Sciences Journal follows the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-enabled technologies in article preparation. Authorship requires responsibilities that only humans can fulfill, and authors are responsible for the originality and integrity of their work.
AI tools can be used for language editing, but their use must be clearly indicated in the article. AI cannot be listed as an author because authorship requires intellectual contributions, critical thinking and responsibility, elements that cannot be provided by AI. Maintaining these standards is important to protect the quality and originality of published research.

Post-Publication Correction Requests and Article Retraction Policy
All post-publication correction requests are subject to editorial review. The Editorial Board evaluates the necessity and appropriateness of corrections based on the nature of the error, its impact on the manuscript, and supporting evidence. If approved, the correction will be made in the journal archive. The journal follows ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

Article Retraction (Pre-Publication)
The Article Retraction process applies only to articles in press, which are early versions of articles that may contain errors, accidental duplicate submissions, or ethical violations (e.g., multiple submissions, falsified data, or plagiarism). The HTML and PDF content of withdrawn articles will be removed and replaced with a notice of withdrawal and a link to the journal's withdrawal policy.

Article Retraction (Post-Publication)
Retractions are issued for serious ethical violations such as plagiarism, data fabrication, false authorship, or publication without co-author consent. Retraction notices include the following elements:
- A formal retraction note titled "Retraction: [Article Title]" published in a subsequent issue.
- A watermark reading “Withdrawn” on the PDF of the original article.
- Removal of the HTML version, which provides transparency in corrections while maintaining academic integrity.

Article Removal (Legal and Security Concerns)
In rare cases, an article may need to be permanently removed from the journal's online database due to legal issues, court decisions, defamation or significant health risks. While metadata (title and authors) will be preserved, the article content will be replaced with a legal notice explaining the removal.

Article Replacement
If an article poses a serious health risk, authors can request that it be replaced with a corrected version. In such cases, a retraction notice will be published with a link to the corrected article and a transparent record of the updates will be maintained.

Self-Archiving Policy
Authors are allowed to self-archive their published work on institutional or personal websites as well as open access repositories. When sharing their articles, authors must properly cite the original publication and include the DOI number. Furthermore, authors are encouraged to provide a link to the official website of the publisher, thus ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record. The version published on the publisher's website is considered the definitive version of the recordings.

DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in published articles are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, editorial board or publisher. The editors, editorial board and publisher are not responsible for the content of the published articles and do not endorse the views expressed in these articles.
Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of their work. While the journal serves as a platform for the dissemination of research to the scientific community, it does not guarantee the validity of the content.