ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
The Journal of Near East University Faculty of Theology has adopted the International Principles of Ethical Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics
a) Plagiarism: Presenting the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works of others as one's own, in whole or in part, without proper scientific attribution to the original authors.
b) Fabrication: Creating data that is not based on research, editing or altering a submitted or published work based on false data, reporting or publishing such data, presenting research that has not been conducted as if it had been conducted,
c) Distortion: Falsifying research records and obtained data, presenting methods, devices, and materials not used in the research as if they had been used, excluding data that does not fit the research hypothesis from evaluation, manipulating data and/or results to fit relevant theories or assumptions, distorting or shaping research results in line with the interests of the individuals and organizations providing support,
ç) Duplicate publication: Presenting multiple works containing the same results of a research as separate works in associate professorship examination evaluations and academic promotions,
d) Salami slicing: Presenting the results of a study as separate works in associate professorship examination evaluations and academic promotions by dividing them into parts in an inappropriate manner that disrupts the integrity of the study and publishing them in numerous publications without cross-referencing each other,
e) Unfair authorship: Including individuals who have not made an active contribution among the authors, not including individuals who have made an active contribution among the authors, changing the order of authors without justification and in an inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have made an active contribution from the work during publication or in subsequent editions, including one's name among the authors by using one's influence despite not having made an active contribution,

Other types of ethical violations include:
a) Failing to acknowledge individuals, institutions, or organizations that provided support for research resulting in publications,
b) Using theses or studies that have not yet been submitted or defended as sources without the permission of the owner,
c) Sharing information contained in a work assigned for review with others prior to publication without the express permission of the author,
ç) Using resources, facilities, opportunities, and equipment provided or allocated for scientific research for purposes other than those intended,
d) Making unfounded, inappropriate, and deliberate allegations of ethical violations,
e) Publishing data obtained without the explicit consent of participants in surveys and attitude studies conducted as part of scientific work, or without the permission of the institution if the research is to be conducted at an institution,
f) Failing to use data and information obtained from other persons and institutions in scientific studies to the extent and in the manner permitted, failing to respect the confidentiality of this information, and failing to ensure its protection,
g) Making false or misleading statements regarding scientific research and publications in academic appointments and promotions. 

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
• Articles should be selected based on scientific merit, originality, and suitability for the journal.
• The identities of authors should not be disclosed to reviewers, nor should the identities of reviewers be disclosed to authors (under double-blind peer review).
• Editors are responsible for conducting the peer review process fairly, impartially, and in a timely manner.
• Editors should prevent potential conflicts of interest and recuse themselves in such cases.
• Editors should transparently communicate the journal's policies, objectives, and scope.
• Must initiate the necessary corrections and retractions in cases of violations of publication ethics (plagiarism, fabrication, duplicate publication, falsification of data, etc.).
• Must ensure healthy, ethical communication between reviewers and authors.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
• The work must be original, unpublished, and not submitted to another journal simultaneously.
• All sources, citations, and contributions used must be correctly indicated.
• Research and publication ethics must be followed, and plagiarism must be avoided.
• All authors who contributed to the work must be indicated; no “pseudo-authors” should be added, nor should contributors be omitted.
• Potential conflicts of interest must be declared.
• Revisions requested by the editor during the peer review process must be made in a timely and complete manner.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
• Evaluations must be impartial, confidential, and based solely on scientific merits.
• Reviewers must remain impartial even if they have knowledge of the authors' identities.
• The reviewed article must be kept confidential and not shared with third parties.
• If there is a conflict of interest, the review should not be conducted and the editor should be notified.
• Constructive, respectful, and clear feedback should be provided to contribute to the scientific quality of the manuscript.
• Any similarity, plagiarism, or unethical behavior should be reported to the editor.
• Reviews should be completed on time and in accordance with the journal's schedule.

Checking for Plagiarism
Authors should ensure that their work is original, and if they have used the work and/or words of others, they should cite them appropriately. Publications that are influential in determining the quality of the reported work should also be cited. Plagiarism constitutes any form of unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. A similarity report obtained from similarity programs provided by universities, such as iThencitace, Turnitin, or intihal.net, should be uploaded to the system by the author when submitting the article. The similarity rate of the article should be no more than 20%; the similarity rate with another study, including the author's own studies, should be no more than 2%; and for studies produced from open access master's and doctoral theses, the similarity rate with the author's own thesis should be no more than 5%.

Plagiarism Action Plan
If plagiarism is detected in studies submitted to our journal, our journal will act in accordance with COPE principles. The relevant COPE principle for submitted articles is the COPE Principle for Published Articles.

Ethics Committee Approval
Our journal requires that an ethics committee decision has been obtained for all studies in scientific fields that require ethics committee approval. In this context, information regarding ethical committee approval (committee name, date, and decision number) must be clearly stated in the article text. Studies without ethical committee approval will not be considered for publication in our journal.

Studies Requiring Ethical Committee Approval
Studies requiring ethical committee approval in our journal include the following:
• All research conducted using qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observation, and interview techniques.
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
For such studies to be considered for evaluation, the relevant ethics committee approvals must have been obtained and clearly stated in the article text.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Our journal is responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all published articles and the rights of the journal and author(s) in cases where these rights are infringed. In addition, our journal takes the necessary measures to prevent the content of all published articles from infringing the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Protection of Personal Information
All personal data submitted to our journal is protected in accordance with legal regulations and ethical rules.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are found in a published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, or conclusions. Editors should consider retracting an article when major errors/violations invalidate the findings and conclusions. If there is a possibility that the research or publication has been misused by the authors; if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and the authors' institutions have not investigated the matter, or if a possible investigation appears unfair or inconclusive, editors should consider publishing a statement of concern. COPE guidelines are taken into account regarding corrections, retractions, and statements of concern.

Conflicts of Interest
A conflict of interest is the possibility that financial gain, personal rivalry, or similar secondary interests may influence academic judgment. Authors should clearly declare all financial support, sponsorships, and funding sources obtained during the research process; if there is no funding, this should also be stated. Editors cannot participate in the decision-making process for works written by themselves or their family members. Our journal follows COPE guidelines regarding conflicts of interest.

Use of Artificial Intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence in processes that do not affect the originality of the article, such as literature review or language control, is acceptable in works submitted to our journal. However, the use of artificial intelligence must be carried out within the framework of ethical rules and must not be used for unethical purposes such as fabricating data or manipulation.
For studies involving the use of artificial intelligence, it is mandatory to inform our journal of this situation during the article submission stage. All responsibility regarding the use of artificial intelligence lies with the authors themselves.

Notifications and Complaints
Readers who notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in the Journal of the Faculty of Theology, Near East University, or who have any complaints regarding editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.) can submit a notification by sending an email to info.jtf@neu.edu.tr. Notifications and complaints submitted to our journal are evaluated in accordance with COPE principles.

Appeal Process
We welcome serious appeals regarding evaluations made by editors and reviewers. If you believe we rejected your article because we misunderstood its scientific content, please send an appeal message to our editorial team at info.jtf@neu.edu.tr. Appeals submitted to our journal are evaluated in accordance with COPE principles.

Research Ethics Principles
The Journal of Near East University Faculty of Theology adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and embraces the international research ethics principles defined below. The authors are responsible for ensuring that their articles comply with ethical rules.
• The principles of integrity, quality, and transparency must be ensured in the design of the research, the review of the design, and the conduct of the research.
• The research team and participants must be fully informed about the purpose, methods, and anticipated uses of the research; the requirements for participation in the research; and any risks involved.
• The confidentiality of the information provided by research participants and the anonymity of respondents must be ensured. Research must be designed in a way that protects the autonomy and dignity of participants.
• Research participants should participate voluntarily and should not be coerced in any way.
• Harm to participants should be avoided. The research should be planned in a way that does not put participants at risk.
• Research independence should be clear and transparent; any conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
• If the study is to be conducted at any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from that institution or organization.

PUBLICATION POLICIES
• The Journal of Near East University Faculty of Theology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published twice a year (June and December) in both online and print formats since 2015.
• It aims to publish works primarily in the field of theology, as well as in the social sciences, particularly history, art, philosophy, literature, and religious education.
• Open to expert researchers from around the world, our journal publishes in both Turkish and English.
• Our journal uses a double-blind peer review system. For articles to be published, they must be accepted by at least two independent reviewers who are experts in the field.
• There is no charge for the publication of articles submitted to our journal or for access to published articles. All expenses of our journal are covered by Near East University, and our journal does not accept sponsorship or advertising in accordance with its publication policies.
• Original, unpublished articles that are not under review by another journal and have been approved by each author in terms of content and submission are accepted for review.
• The copyrights of the works published in our journal belong to the authors, and they are published as Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.
• The works published in our journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS.

Special Issue Publication Policy
Upon the request of the Editorial Board, a special issue may be published once a year in our journal. Articles submitted for inclusion in the special issue are first subject to an editorial pre-review. They are then reviewed for compliance with the journal's writing rules, and similarity scanning is performed to prevent plagiarism. After these stages, they undergo a peer review process using a double-blind model.

Article Review Process
Articles submitted to our journal must be unpublished, not currently under review by another journal, and approved by all authors. The editor first reviews the studies for compliance with publication principles, academic writing rules, and the İsnad Citation System. Plagiarism checks are also performed at this stage. The similarity report must be obtained from similarity programs provided by universities, such as iThencitace, Turnitin, or intihal.net, and uploaded to the system by the author when submitting the article. The similarity rate of the article must be no more than 20%; the similarity rate with another study, including the author's own studies, must be no more than 2%; and for studies produced from open access master's and doctoral theses, the similarity rate with the author's own thesis must be no more than 5%.

Articles that pass the preliminary review are examined by the relevant field editor for problematic issues and academic language and style. The work is then sent to two independent external reviewers who are experts in the field using a double-blind peer review method. The referee reports are kept confidential, and referees are expected to write a reasoned evaluation of at least 150 words. With positive reports from both referees, the article is accepted for publication; if one referee has a negative opinion, a third referee is appointed. Book reviews, symposium papers, and thesis abstracts are finalized with the evaluation of at least two internal reviewers.

If the reviewers request corrections, the reports are sent to the author, and the corrections are requested to be made in Word with the “Track Changes” feature enabled. The revisions are checked by the section editor; if necessary, the relevant reviewer also re-examines the manuscript. Manuscripts that pass the review process are examined by the Turkish Language Editor, English Language Editor, and Chief Editor.

The Chief Editor evaluates manuscripts independently of the authors' identities; factors such as ethnicity, gender, religion, or political views do not influence the process. Editors do not participate in the evaluation process of articles belonging to themselves, their family members, or close colleagues. Such works are subject to the usual peer review procedures.

Articles that successfully complete all stages are typeset and laid out for publication.

NOTE: The final decision regarding works submitted to our journal is made by the chief editor. 

Copyright and Open Access Policy
The copyright of works published in The Journal of Near East University Faculty of Theology belongs to the authors. Authors grant permission for their submitted intellectual work to be published as open access by the Near East University Faculty of Theology Journal under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. All works published in our journal are freely accessible via our Archive page.

Scope of the License
As long as you comply with the license terms, the license holder cannot revoke these freedoms (the specified rights).
You are free to:
1) Share: Copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format.
2) Adapt: Remix, transform, and build upon the existing work.
Under the following conditions:
3) Attribution: You must provide appropriate credit, link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but this does not imply that the licensor endorses you or your use.
4) NonCommercial: You may not use this material for commercial purposes.
No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal conditions or technological measures that would legally restrict the use of the permissions granted by the license.

Archiving Policy
Works published in our journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS. Our journal also allows authors to archive versions of their work on their own websites, institutional websites, and other repositories. As the journal is open access, there is no embargo period.