PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs

Perceptions is a biannual English language and peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Center for Strategic Research (SAM) which works under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey.

Regularly published since 1996, the journal accepts commentaries, original research articles and book reviews that focus on a wide range of issues related with Turkish foreign policy and international affairs.

Perceptions is currently included in the following databases: TR Dizin, Asos Index, Index Copernicus, Columbia International Affairs Online, CSA Index, Gale-Cengage, EBSCO, European Sources Online, Index Islamicus, International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA), PAIS Index, ProQuest, Ulrich's.

The journal features articles from many distinguished scholars and experts from Turkey and abroad. The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and should not be attributed to SAM. 

Manuscripts submitted to Perceptions should be original contributions. If another version of the manuscript is under review by another journal – or has been or will be published elsewhere – authors should clearly indicate this at the time of submission.

All manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to: perceptions@mfa.gov.tr.

Manuscripts are subject to initial evaluation by the Editors. If found suitable for further consideration, they are evaluated through double-blind peer-review by anonymous scholars and experts.

The final decision on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in Perceptions is made by the Editors in accordance with the reports of the anonymous reviewers.

The previous issues of the journal are also open access on the Dergipark platform. Please visit: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/perception

Perceptions publishes three types of manuscripts:

1. Commentaries should be 3,000 to 4,000 words including the endnotes and discuss a topical issue that would be of interest to the readers. They should make a short and provocative argument with policy relevance.
2. Articles should be around 6,000 to 8,000 words including the endnotes and comprehensively discuss and analyze the findings of original research in the field of international relations.
3. Book reviews should be around 1,000 to 1,500 words and evaluate the main strengths and weaknesses of a contemporary book published in the field of international relations.

All manuscripts should include an indented and italicized abstract of around 150-200 words, which should which should describe the main arguments and conclusions, and 5-7 keywords, indicating the main themes of the manuscript. The ORCID number for each researcher should also be indicated in the first page.

Manuscripts should be single-spaced written by Times New Roman regular font, 12 point throughout. Justified margins; top, bottom, left and right 3 cm are required. Manuscripts should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper. Only the first letters of title words should be ‘upper case’. Quotations should be placed within double quotation marks (“……”). Quotations larger than four lines should be indented at left margin and single-spaced.

All manuscripts should use endnotes (without bibliography). British punctuation and spelling should be used throughout. Dates should be in the form 3 November 1996; 1995-1998; and 1990s.

All diagrams, charts and graphs should be referred to as figures and consecutively numbered. Tables should be kept to a minimum and contain only essential data. Each figure and table must be given an Arabic numeral, followed by a heading, and be referred to in the text. Appropriate places of tables should be indicated in the text and tables should be submitted in a separate file.

If copyrighted material is used in the article, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder.

Names of the authors, places and the publishing houses are required to be written in their original forms. The styles of the references in endnotes should conform the following examples:

Books

John Smith, The Book Title, New York: New York Publishing Co., 1999, p. 100.
John E. Smith (ed.), The Book Title, New York: New York Publishing Co., 1999, pp. 100-102.
John Smith and Mary Jones, The Book Title, New York: New York Publishing Co., 1999, p. 100.
Subsequent references should appear as: Smith, The Book Title, p. 100.

In endnotes ‘ibid.’ should be used where possible, but it should not be used where the previous note contains more than one source.

Articles in Journals

John Smith, “Article Title,” Journal Name, Vol. #, No. # (Month Year), p. #.
Subsequent references should appear as: Smith, “Article Title,” p. #.

Articles in Edited Books

John Smith, “Article Title,” in Mary Jones, Book Title, New York: New York Publishing Co., 1999, p. 100.

Newspaper Articles

Christopher Hooton, “Japan is turning its abandoned golf courses into solar power plants,” The Independent, 21 July 2015.

Manuscript References

PRO King’s Remembrancer’s Memoranda Roll, E159/69, m. 78.
BM Add. MS 36042, fo.2 (plural fos.). Four-figure numerals without comma or space: 2572. Titles of other record repositories, and names of collections of papers, in full in first reference:
Scottish Record Office (hereafter SRO), Airlie Papers, GD 16, section 38/82, April 5, 1844.
Compton Papers, kept at the estate office of the Marquess of Northampton, Castle Ashby (hereafter CA), bdle. 1011, no.29.

Official Papers

Parliamentary Papers: Select Committee on Manufacturers (Parl. Papers, 1833, VI), 0.456. Subsequent references as:
SC on ... (PP, 1839, VII), 00.2347.
Hansard (Commons), 4th ser. XXXVI, 641–2, 22 Aug. 1895.

Theses

For titles of published and unpublished theses use italics:
John E. Smith, Title of Thesis, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Name of the University, Year, Chapter #, p. #

Internet References

Azam Ahmed and Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “U.S. and Cuba Reopen Long-Closed Embassies,” The New York Times, 20 July 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/world/americas/cuba-us-embassy-diplomatic-relations.html?ref=world&_r=0 (Accessed 21 July 2015).

Title of Book Reviews

Türk Basınında Dış Habercilik (Foreign News Reporting in the Turkish Media), by M. Mücahit Küçükyılmaz and Hakan Çopur. Ankara: SETA, 2010, 168 pages, ISBN 9786054023073.

Book Reviews

To have their recently published books in the journal, publishers are kindly requested to send copies of their most recent titles on Turkish Foreign Policy, International Relations, International Political Economy, Political Science, Political History and the Middle East, Caucasus, Eurasia, Asian Pacific, Africa and Latin American area studies to the Book Review Editor.

Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs
Center for Strategic Research
Dr. Sadık Ahmet Cad. No: 8 A Blok 12. Kat
Balgat 06100/ Ankara, Turkey
Fax: +90-312-292 26 35
E-mail: perceptions@mfa.gov.tr

Perceptions strives for meeting the highest standards of publication ethics. Publication malpractice is strictly prohibited by all possible measures.

The publication ethics of the journal is mainly based on the “Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.

Authors: Authors should present an objective discussion of the significance of research work as well as sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the experiments. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Review articles should also be objective, comprehensive, and accurate accounts of the state of the art. The authors should ensure that their work is entirely original works, and if the work and/or words of others have been used, this has been appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Authors should not submit articles describing essentially the same research to more than one journal. The corresponding author should ensure that there is a full consensus of all co-authors in approving the final version of the paper and its submission for publication.

Authors should also make sure that:
a) There is no conflict of interest in their submissions.
b) They have obtained the approval of the “Ethics Board/Committee” for clinical and experimental studies conducted on humans and animals (including opinion polls, surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, focus group studies). This approval should be clearly stated and documented in the article (board’s name, date and issue number).
c) Their submissions comply with the copyright regulations (especially for tables, graphs, illustrations, pictures, photographs).

Editors: Editors should evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit. An editor must not use unpublished information in the editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Editors should take reasonable responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Reviewers: Any manuscript received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments, so that authors can use them for improving the paper. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.