Author Guidelines

1. General Principles

Manuscripts submitted to the Van Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences must not have been previously published in any journal, must not be under submission elsewhere, and must not be simultaneously under review in another evaluation process. Papers previously presented at conferences may be considered provided this is clearly stated, and the work has been substantially expanded into article format. Single-authored studies by authors who have not completed a doctoral degree are not accepted for review.

Articles derived from graduate theses are accepted at a rate of no more than 20% of each issue. In such cases, the fact that the article is derived from a thesis must be indicated as a footnote on the first page, and the article must be substantially developed beyond the thesis and must not exhibit high similarity with it. Articles derived from theses must be submitted jointly with the thesis advisor.

All manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo preliminary evaluation by the editors, followed by double-blind peer review by at least two independent reviewers. Authors may be asked to make revisions based on reviewer reports. The final decision regarding acceptance, revision, or rejection of a manuscript rests with the editors. The editor may request an additional reviewer opinion when deemed necessary. To ensure a sound review process, authors are required to comply with the following anonymization rules: the submitted file must not contain the author’s name, institutional affiliation, or acknowledgments section. File metadata must be cleared (Word → File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document), and self-citations must be anonymized in the text as “Author, [year].” The similarity ratio of submitted manuscripts must not exceed 15%.

2. Article Types

The VJHSS accepts the following article types:

Research Article: Empirical studies involving original data collection and analysis that offer a new contribution to knowledge. These must include Introduction, Method, Findings, Discussion, and Conclusion sections.

Review Article: Studies that systematically address, synthesize, and evaluate the existing literature on a specific topic. Review articles must explain the literature search method and the scope criteria applied.

3. Formatting Requirements

3.1 General Format

3.2 Title

The article title should be 14 pt, centered, and no more than 12 words. The title in the language in which the article is written should appear first, in bold, followed immediately by the title in the second language in italics below it. Turkish titles must follow the spelling and punctuation rules of the Turkish Language Association Spelling Guide. English titles must be written in Title Case in accordance with APA 7.0 rules.

3.3 Author Information

Due to the double-blind review process, author information must not appear in the manuscript file. The authors' full names, institutional affiliations, ORCID numbers, e-mail addresses, and corresponding author information must be prepared on a separate title page and uploaded as a supplementary file. The title page is not sent to reviewers and is viewed only by the editor. Click here to download the title page template.

3.4 Abstract / Öz

If the article is written in Turkish, the Turkish Öz should appear first, followed by the English Abstract; if the article is written in English, the Abstract should appear first, followed by the Turkish Öz. Both texts must be between 150 and 250 words and must include the study’s purpose, method, findings, and conclusions. No citations should be included in the Öz or Abstract. Font: Garamond, 10 pt, indented 1 cm from both left and right margins.

3.5 Keywords

Immediately below the Öz and Abstract, 5 to 7 keywords must be provided in both languages. Keywords should be separated by commas and written in lowercase italics, except for proper nouns.

3.6 Subheadings

Subheadings should be 12 pt, bold, and indented 1 cm from the left. The first letter of all words except conjunctions should be capitalized. Hierarchical numbering (1., 1.1., 1.2., etc.) may be used where appropriate. The Introduction and Conclusion sections are not numbered.

3.7 Tables, Figures, and Images

Table captions should be placed above the table, while figure and chart captions should be placed below. Captions should be 11 pt, centered, and bold, including the sequence number (e.g., Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Participants). The source citation should appear directly below the caption in 11 pt. Images must have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

3.8 Quotations

Direct quotations exceeding four lines or 40 words should be formatted as a separate paragraph in 10 pt, indented 1 cm from both left and right margins, with single line spacing. The source must always be indicated at the end of the quotation (e.g., Foucault, 1999, p. 25).

3.9 Footnotes

The use of footnotes is not mandatory. When used, footnotes should be 10 pt and justified. Footnotes should be used solely for explanatory information and not for source citation.

3.10 References

The reference list must be prepared according to APA 7.0 format. References should be listed alphabetically, with a 1 cm hanging indent, 12 pt, and justified alignment. Sources not cited in the text must not be included in the reference list. For detailed information on APA 7.0 format, see: https://apastyle.apa.org

4. Ethics Statements

4.1 Ethics Committee Approval Statement

All studies involving human participants must have obtained approval from the relevant institution’s ethics committee. Ethics committee details (name of the committee, approval date, and decision number) must be clearly stated in the Method section of the article. In studies conducted with human participants, informed voluntary consent must have been obtained from participants prior to their involvement in the research, and this must be stated in the Method section. For studies that do not require ethics committee approval, this must be stated along with the justification.

For studies involving data collection from human participants through surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, or video/audio recording, the ethics committee approval document must be uploaded to the system at the time of submission.

4.2 Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors must declare, before the reference list, whether there is any financial or personal conflict of interest that could influence the conduct or interpretation of the study. Where no conflict of interest exists, this must be stated with the phrase “No conflict of interest has been declared.”

4.3 Author Contribution Statement

In multi-authored studies, each author’s contribution to the research must be specified based on the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). Contribution roles should be indicated using the applicable categories: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft, and Writing – Review & Editing.

In single-authored studies, the author is considered to have contributed to all stages of the research, and this must be stated in the contribution declaration. For example: “Author Contribution Statement: The author contributed to all stages of the study, including conceptualization, methodology development, data collection and analysis, and the writing and final review of the manuscript.”

4.4 Funding Statement

If the study was supported by any institution or organization, the name of the project, the name of the supporting organization, and the project number (if applicable) must be stated before the reference list.

4.5 Artificial Intelligence Use Statement

If artificial intelligence-based tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini) were used in the preparation of the study, the name of the tool used and the purpose of its use (e.g., language editing, translation, and idea development) must be clearly stated before the reference list. Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors of the study, and full scientific, legal, and ethical responsibility for their use rests with the author(s). If no artificial intelligence tool was used in the preparation of the study, this must also be explicitly stated.

5. Article Template and Submission

Authors must prepare their submissions using VJHSS article template. Click here to download the template.

In accordance with the double-blind review principle, manuscripts may only be submitted as Word files free of author information, and only through the DergiPark system. Submissions via e-mail are not accepted.

For questions regarding submission and the review process: visbid@yyu.edu.tr