OPEN ACCESS POLICY

Starting with the May 2021 issue, all content published in the Medical Records journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International License. This license allows third parties to use the content for non-commercial purposes as long as they give credit to the original work. However, the content cannot be modified or adapted in any way. This policy promotes the dissemination and use of the research published in the journal while protecting the integrity of the original work.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

A Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form should be submitted with all manuscripts. By signing this form, authors agree that the article, if accepted for publication by the Medical Records will be licensed under a the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC- BY-NC-ND) which allows third parties to share the material for only non- commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the original work. Adaptation and modification of the material is not permitted. For further details of the license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Authors retain the copyright of their published work in the Medical Records.

When using previously published content, including figures, tables, or any other material in both print and electronic formats, authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder. Legal, financial and criminal liabilities in this regard belong to the author(s).

PEER REVIEW GUIDELINES
This guide is designed to assist in the peer review of manuscripts submitted to the journal Medical Records. It aims to ensure that the review is accurate, comprehensive, and completed promptly.

Our Philosophy on Peer Review
Medical Records expects reviewers to evaluate manuscripts fairly, thoroughly, transparently, and promptly. As a result, peer reviewers are asked to submit their comments within 15 business days. All submissions to the journal are subject to double-blind peer review. We believe that the best way to obtain honest opinions about manuscripts is through double anonymous reviewers. Reviewers and authors are required not to communicate with each other. You should consider the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers before accepting to review a manuscript and throughout the peer review process.

Peer Review is Important
Peer reviewers’ comments and recommendations are crucial guides for making decisions about a manuscript. Peer review ensures that manuscripts receive impartial criticism and expert feedback, allowing authors to improve their work and enabling the publication of high-quality scientific research and reviews. It also helps readers trust the scientific integrity of the article and make informed decisions when reviewer comments are available.

Peer Review
After receiving a peer review request, it is important for reviewers to respond in a timely manner, especially if they are unable to complete the review, to prevent unnecessary delays in the process. Reviewers must keep all information regarding the content of the manuscript confidential. Peer review comments should be objective and constructive without being hostile or derogatory.
Reviewers should not enter unpublished draft files, images, or information into publicly accessible databases or tools that do not guarantee confidentiality and that may store or use this information for their purposes (e.g., generative AI tools like ChatGPT).
Reviewers should not use AI tools, including LLM-based tools like ChatGPT, to create manuscript review reports.
Reviewers are responsible for ensuring that all references included in their reports are accurate and verifiable.
More information about ethical peer review issues and conflicts of interest can be found in the COPE guidelines.
Medical Records will recruit external editors to handle peer review processes of manuscripts submitted by members of the editorial board.
If an article's peer review is an exception to the journal’s usual policy, the type of the review it received will be displayed on the article to ensure the transparency and accountability of the review process.

PUBLICATION FEE POLICY
Medical Recprds uses Dergi Park article tracking system software. With the journal infrastructure, instant open access to articles is provided and articles published in journals are made available online free of charge all over the world. You do not need to be a member to access the articles. All articles in the system can be accessed and read without being a journal user.

Medical Records is is an open-access journal, and all expenses are covered by the Medical Records Association (Tıbbi Kayıtlar Derneği). Starting from November 30st of 2022, authors are required to pay an article processing charge to ensure articles are evaluated as quickly as possible and better consultancy and editing services. This fee is deposited as a donation to the Medical Records Association.

Consulting, typesetting and editing services are provided by Effect Publishing.

As of October 10, 2024, the article processing charge has been updated to TL 5,000 (Turkish Liras) or $150 (US Dollars).

This fee must be paid in advance before providing consultancy and editing services. This amount will not be repaid in terms of the authors withdrawn or rejection of the articles in any stage and any reason. Article processing charge fee waivers are not available.

These charges are in no way related to our journal’s editors and reviewers who voluntarily contribute the scientific evaluations of manuscripts.

The Editor-in-Chief may reject articles without being sent to peers.

Medical Records has no legal or financial liability due to these fees.

The liable corporation is:
Tıbbi kayıtlar Derneği (MEDICAL RECORDS Association) for consultancy and editing services and for usage of online article submission and tracking system

Account Name: Tıbbi Kayıtlar Derneği
International Bank Account Number (IBAN) for TL is Ziraat Bankası
54- DÜZCE BRANCH NUMBER 97646173-5001
IBAN: TR82 0001 0000 5497 6461 7350 01

Account Name: Tıbbi Kayıtlar Derneği
International Bank Account Number (IBAN) for USD is Ziraat Bankası
54- DÜZCE BRANCH NUMBER 97646173-5002
TR55 0001 0000 5497 6461 7350 02

ADVERTISING POLICY
Medical Records accepts digital advertisements on its website. These ads must be approved by the journal's Editorial Board and management, and must be clearly labeled as advertisements. Advertisers have no influence on editorial decisions or advertising policies. Those interested in advertising in the journal should contact the Editorial Office.

PUBLICATION ETHICS
Medical Records aims to adhere to the guidelines and core practices set forth by several organizations, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME), and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by ICMJE. 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.

Medical research involving human subjects including research on identifiable human material and data should follow the WMA Declaration of Helsinki amended in 2013 to provide guidance on issues such as obtaining informed consent from participants, protecting their privacy and confidentiality, and avoiding harm to study participants.

Medical Records also adheres to the WAME’s Recommendations on Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals. These recommendations provide guidance on how to handle conflicts of interest, how to deal with suspected research misconduct, and how to ensure the integrity and transparency of the peer review process. By following these recommendations, the journal helps to ensure that the research it publishes meets the highest ethical standards.

Authors are advised to use EASE Ethics Checklist for Authors to ensure that their manuscripts comply with ethical standards and practices.

All research involving human subjects, medical records, or human tissues must be reviewed and approved by a reviewer board, such as an institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee, before it is conducted. The name of the ethics committee that reviewed and approved the research, as well as the ethics committee approval number and date, should be included in the Methods section of the manuscript when it is submitted for publication. Additionally, the journal may require authors to provide a copy of the ethics committee approval as part of the manuscript submission process. This is to ensure that the research has been properly reviewed and approved, and to allow the journal to verify that the research meets the ethical standards required for publication.

If a study is exempted from the ethics committee approval, the authors must present a statement from the ethics committee explaining the reason for the exemption. This is to ensure that the research was reviewed by an ethics committee and that the decision to exempt the study was made in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

If a manuscript is submitted to Medical Records without ethics committee approval, the journal will review the manuscript according to the COPE’s Research, Audit and Service Evaluations guideline. This guideline provides guidance on how to handle manuscripts that do not have ethics committee approval, and allows the journal to assess the risks and potential ethical concerns associated with publishing the research.

If the journal determines that the lack of ethics committee approval is a significant concern, the manuscript may be rejected after editorial review. This is to ensure that the journal maintains high ethical standards and only publishes research that has been properly reviewed and approved by an ethics committee.

For manuscripts concerning research involving human subjects, it is required to include a statement indicating that written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Informed consent should be documented in writing, and a copy of the informed consent form should be retained by the researchers for future reference.

In the case of research involving children under the age of 18, the parent or guardian of the child must provide informed consent on behalf of the child. This is because children are considered to be a vulnerable population and may not have the capacity to fully understand the risks and benefits of participating in research.

Information on informed consent should be provided in the Methods section of the manuscript, along with any other relevant details about how the research was conducted.

It is the responsibility of the authors to protect the anonymity of study participants, and to ensure that the research is conducted in a way that respects their privacy and confidentiality. This is especially important for photographs that may reveal the identity of patients, as the publication of such photographs without proper consent could potentially violate the rights of the individuals depicted.

To protect the anonymity of patients in photographs, the authors should obtain signed releases from the patients or their legal representatives. These releases should indicate that the patients have given their consent for the publication of the photographs, and should specify any restrictions or conditions on the use of the photographs. Information on the publication approval for photographs should be provided in the Methods section of the manuscript and the publication approval form for identifying clinical images must be submitted during the initial submission.

For studies involving animals, it is required to obtain approval of research protocols from an ethics committee. The ethics committee should review the research protocols to ensure that they are in compliance with relevant guidelines and regulations, such as the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (8th edition, 2011) and the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (2012). These guidelines provide detailed information on how to conduct research involving animals in an ethical and humane manner, and are widely recognized as the standard for such research.

Authors should provide detailed information on the ethical treatment of animals in their manuscript, including the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering. They can use the ARRIVE checklist, which is designed to help authors provide this information in a clear and comprehensive manner.

In addition to the ethical treatment of animals, authors should also provide information on the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering. This is to ensure that the research is conducted in a humane manner, and to allow readers to verify that the research meets the relevant ethical standards.

PLAGIARISM AND ETHICAL MISCONDUCT
Medical Records is extremely sensitive about plagiarism. All submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (iThenticate by CrossCheck) at any point during the peer-review and/or production process. Even if you are the author of the phrases or sentences, the text should not have an unacceptable similarity with the previously published data. Those with an overall similarity index of greater than 25%, or duplication rate at or higher than 5% with a single source are returned back to authors without further evaluation along with the similarity report.

When you are discussing others' (or your own) previous work, please make sure that you cite the material correctly in every instance.

Authors are strongly recommended to avoid any form plagiarism and ethical misconduct that are exemplified below.

Citation manipulation: The practice of manipulating the number of citations received by an author, journal, or other publication through various means, such as self-citation, excessive citation of articles from the same journal, or the inclusion of honorary citations or citation stacking.

Self- plagiarism (text-recycling): The practice of using overlapping sections or sentences from the author's previous publications without properly citing them. This is considered to be a form of plagiarism, as it involves using someone else's work (in this case, the author's own work) without proper attribution.

Salami slicing: The practice of using the same data from a research study in several different articles. This is considered to be unethical, as it involves reporting the same hypotheses, population, and methods of a study in multiple papers.

Data Fabrication: The addition of data that never occurred during the gathering of data or experiments. This is considered to be a form of research misconduct, as it involves presenting false or misleading information as if it were real data.

Data Manipulation/Falsification: The practice of manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This can include manipulating images, removing outliers or "inconvenient" results, changing data points, and other forms of manipulation. This is also considered to be a form of research misconduct, as it involves presenting false or misleading information as if it were real data.

In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct such as plagiarism, citation manipulation, or data falsification/fabrication, the Editorial Board will follow the appropriate COPE flowcharts to ensure that the allegations or suspicions are handled in a fair, transparent, and consistent manner.

AUTHORSHIP
All individuals listed as an author should meet the authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on the following four criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content.
3. Final approval of the version to be published.
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work they have done, authors should also be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work to ensure that the contributions of all authors are accurately and appropriately acknowledged. Authors may use CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to provide information about individual contributions at the time of submission. It is expected that all authors agreed upon their individual contributions as shared by the corresponding author. The authors’ contribution statement will be published with the final article and should accurately reflect contributions to the work.

Furthermore, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. This means that they should trust that their co-authors have conducted the research in an ethical and responsible manner, and that the data and results presented in the manuscript are accurate and reliable.

Individuals who do not meet all four of the authorship criteria should not be included as authors on the manuscript. However, they can still be acknowledged on the title page of the manuscript for their contributions to the research in order to recognize the contributions of these individuals and to provide transparency about who was involved in the research.
If the editorial board suspects a case of ghost, honorary or gift authorship, the submission will be suspended and the relevant COPE flowchart and COPE Policy on authorship and contributorship will be followed.

CHANGE of AUTHORSHIP
Any requests for changes to authorship, such as the removal or addition of authors, or changes in the order of authors, should be submitted to the editorial office with a letter stating the reasons for the change. The letter must be signed by all authors, including any who have been removed.

The journal’s Editorial Board will handle all requests for changes to authorship in a consistent and transparent manner, following the relevant COPE flowchart guidelines. These procedures are in place to protect the integrity of the research and the reputation of all involved authors.

DECLARATION of INTEREST
Medical Records requires the ICMJE Disclosure Form to be filled in and submitted by all contributing authors of each manuscript in order to be informed about potential conflicts of interest of authors.
Medical Records also requires and encourages individuals involved in the peer review process of submitted manuscripts to disclose any existing or potential competing interests that might lead to potential bias.
The Editorial Board will handle cases of potential competing interests of editors, authors, or reviewers within the scope of relevant COPE flowcharts and ICMJE recommendations.

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
Medical Records requires authors to disclose any financial support they received to conduct their research. This information should be included in the funding statement, which should be provided when the manuscript is submitted to the journal.
The funding statement should include the name of any granting agencies, the grant numbers, and a description of each funder's role in the research. If the funder had no role in the research, this should be stated in the funding statement as well. This information is important for readers to understand the potential biases and conflicts of interest that may exist in the research.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Manuscript Preparation
Medical Records follows the guidelines outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) with regards to the utilization of AI and AI-assisted technology in manuscript preparation. Authorship encompasses a range of tasks that can only be performed by humans, and authors are accountable for ensuring the article's originality and possessing the requisite qualifications for authorship. While AI can be employed for language corrections during the article writing process (and this should be explicitly stated in the article), it cannot be included as an author, as it is essential to maintain the originality and quality of the article.

Post-Publication Correction Requests and Retractions
All post-publication correction requests are subject to editorial review. The editorial board will review the request and determine whether the correction is necessary and appropriate. The decision to publish a correction will be based on the nature of the error, its potential impact on the article, and the availability of supporting evidence. The editorial board may also consult with the authors, reviewers, and other experts as needed to make its decision. If the correction request is approved, the article will be corrected in the journal's archive.

The Editorial Board reviews cases following journal policies, ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

If misconduct allegations are made by whistleblowers directly, the Editorial Board will follow the relevant COPE’s flowchart. The journal will act in accordance with the COPE's flowchart on how to respond to whistleblowers when concerns are raised about a published article on a social media site.

In some cases, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve claims that cannot be resolved internally.

To investigate potential ethical misconduct, the editorial board may share information with other editors-in-chief to conduct investigations more efficiently and effectively. If communication with the editor-in-chief is necessary, the editorial board will follow the relevant COPE's recommendations.

If necessary, the journal may also contact institutions to inform them of suspected misconduct by researchers and provide evidence to support these concerns, following COPE guidelines in the process.

In the event of ethical misconduct concerns, the editors will investigate the case according to COPE guidelines. If the investigation verifies the concern, the editors may issue a retraction notice. The retraction notice will be published in the journal and the article's record will be updated to reflect the retraction. The article will remain in the archives of the journal, but it will be clearly marked as retracted. The article's record will also be updated in the relevant indexes to reflect the retraction.

WITHDRAWAL REQUESTS
Withdrawal requests for an article are reviewed by the editorial board of the journal. To request the withdrawal of an article, the authors must send a letter signed by all authors stating their request and the reasons for withdrawal to the journal editor. The editorial board will then review the request and make a decision based on the reasons provided by the authors. If the request is approved, the article will be withdrawn from the journal and the authors will be notified of the decision. It is important to note that authors should not submit their work to another journal for evaluation until the withdrawal request has been approved. This is to avoid any potential conflicts of interest or duplication of publication.

APPEALS AND COMPLAINT
The editorial board of the journal is responsible for addressing appeals and complaints in accordance with the guidelines and recommendations of the COPE. If an author has an appeal or complaint, they should contact the editorial office directly to discuss their concerns. The editorial board will review the case and make a decision based on COPE guidelines.
The editor-in-chief has the final authority in the decision-making process for all appeals and complaints. In some cases, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve claims that cannot be resolved internally. It is important to note that the journal follows a fair and transparent process for handling appeals and complaints, with the goal of preserving the integrity of the scientific record.

PREPRINT POLICY
Medical Records does not consider preprints as prior publication, which means that authors are allowed to present and discuss their findings on a non-commercial preprint server before submitting their work to the journal.
However, authors must provide the journal with the preprint server deposition of their article, along with its DOI, during the initial submission process.
If the article is accepted and published in the journal, it is the responsibility of the authors to update the archived preprint and link it to the published version of the article. This helps to ensure that readers can easily access the most up-to-date and accurate information.

PERMISSION POLICY
As of the May 2021 issue, the journal's content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC- BY-NC-ND)

Under this license, users are allowed to share, adapt, reproduce and distribute the journal's content for non-commercial purposes, provided that they give appropriate credit to the original author and the journal.

Medical Records Associationis the copyright holder of content published before May 2021.

DATA SHARING POLICY
As of 1 January 2019, a data sharing statement is required for the registration of clinical trials. Authors are required to provide a data sharing statement for articles that report the results of a clinical trial. The data sharing statement should indicate the items below according to the ICMJE data sharing policy:

• Whether individual deidentified participant data will be shared
• What data in particular will be made available
• Whether additional, related documents will also be provided
• When the data will become accessible and for how long it will remain available
• The criteria for accessing the data, including who will have access, the purpose of the analysis, and the mechanism for obtaining the data
Authors are recommended to check the ICMJE data sharing examples at
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html
While submitting a clinical trial to Medical Records,
• Authors are required to make registration to a publicly accessible registry according to ICMJE recommendations and the instructions above.
• The name of the registry and the registration number should be provided in the Title Page during the initial submission.
• Data sharing statement should also be stated in the Title Page even if the authors do not plan to share it.
Clinical trial and data sharing policy of the journal will be valid for the articles submitted from January 2024.

DISCLAIMER
The statements or opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in the journal reflect the views of the author(s) and not the views of the editors, editorial board, and/or publisher. The editors, editorial board, and publisher are not responsible for the content of the manuscripts and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed in them. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that their work is accurate and well-researched, and the views expressed in their manuscripts are their own. The editors, editorial board, and publisher simply provide a platform for the authors to share their work with the scientific community.

ERRATUM
The correction requests submitted by the authors are reviewed by the Editorial Board and the corrections are applied based on the decision of the Editorial Board. In case of corrections in the published text, the readers are informed by publishing the Erratum text in the number following the correction. The edited article is updated on the journal web page and in the indexes when the journal is scanned.

ARCHIVING POLICY
The content published by the Medical Records is electronically preserved by using LOCKSS