A Low-Cost IoT Smart Pill Box with Physical Intake Verification: Design and Evaluation in Real-Life Use

Instructions to Authors
Scientific Journal of Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Techno-Science) is an international, scientific, open-access periodical published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blinded peer-review principles. The journal is the official publication of the Bucak Faculty of Computer and Informatics, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, and it is published biannually in June and December. The publication language of the journal is English and continues publication since 2018.
Techno-Science aims to contribute to the literature by publishing high-level scientific articles in both experimental and theoretical research, primarily in the fields of computer science and information technology, as well as in basic science and engineering disciplines. The journal publishes original research and review articles that are prepared in accordance with ethical guidelines. It also encourages studies that promote the integration of informatics with other disciplines.
The target audience of the journal consists of scientists, experts, and professionals who are interested in or actively engaged in following the latest developments in science and technology.

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal conforms to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).
Originality, high scientific quality, and citation potential are the most important criteria for a manuscript to be accepted for publication. Manuscripts submitted for evaluation should not have been previously presented or already published in an electronic or printed medium. The journal should be informed of manuscripts that have been submitted to another journal for evaluation and rejected for publication. The submission of previous reviewer reports will expedite the evaluation process. Manuscripts that have been presented in a meeting should be submitted with detailed information on the organization, including the name, date, and location of the organization.
Manuscripts submitted to Techno-Science will go through a double-blind peer-review process. Each submission will be reviewed by at least two external, independent peer reviewers who are experts in their fields in order to ensure an unbiased evaluation process. The editorial board will invite an external and independent editor to manage the evaluation processes of manuscripts submitted by editors or by the editorial board members of the journal. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all submissions.
An approval of research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects,” amended in October 2013, www.wma.net) is required for experimental, clinical, and drug studies. If required, ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document will be requested from the authors.
For manuscripts concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows the written informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Information on patient consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number should also be stated in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect the patients’ anonymity. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed releases of the patient or of their legal representative should be enclosed.
All submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (iThenticate by CrossCheck).
In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, the Editorial Board will follow and act in accordance with COPE guidelines.
Each individual listed as an author should fulfil the authorship criteria recommended by the ICMJE. The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
 

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
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 he/she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.
All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the title page of the manuscript.
Techno-Science requires corresponding authors to submit a signed and scanned version of the authorship contribution form (available for download through https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/journal-file/32141 ) during the initial submission process in order to act appropriately on authorship rights and to prevent ghost or honorary authorship. If the editorial board suspects a case of “gift authorship,” the submission will be rejected without further review. As part of the submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author should also send a short statement declaring that he/she accepts to undertake all the responsibility for authorship during the submission and review stages of the manuscript.
Techno-Science requires and encourages the authors and the individuals involved in the evaluation process of submitted manuscripts to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interests, including financial, consultant, and institutional, that might lead to potential bias or a conflict of interest. Any financial grants or other support received for a submitted study from individuals or institutions should be disclosed to the Editorial Board. Cases of a potential conflict of interest of the editors, authors, or reviewers are resolved by the journal’s Editorial Board within the scope of COPE and ICMJE guidelines.
The Editorial Board of the journal handles all appeal and complaint cases within the scope of COPE guidelines. In such cases, authors should get in direct contact with the editorial office regarding their appeals and complaints. When needed, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve cases that cannot be resolved internally. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all appeals and complaints.
When submitting a manuscript to Techno-Science, authors accept to assign the copyright of their manuscript to Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. If rejected for publication, the copyright of the manuscript will be assigned back to the authors. Techno-Science requires each submission to be accompanied by a Copyright Agreement Form (available for download at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/journal-file/32140 ). 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).
Statements or opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in Techno-Science reflect the views of the author(s) and not the opinions of the editors, the editorial board, or the publisher; the editors, the editorial board, and the publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials. The final responsibility in regard to the published content rests with the authors.
 

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
The manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with ICMJE-Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated in December 2017 - http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines for randomized research studies, STROBE guidelines for observational studies, STARD guidelines for studies on diagnostic accuracy, PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, ARRIVE guidelines for experimental animal studies, TREND guidelines for non-randomized studies, and COREQ guidelines for qualitative studies.
Manuscripts can only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, available at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/sjmakeu . Manuscripts submitted via any other medium will not be processed.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal will first go through a technical evaluation process where the editorial office staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the submitting author with technical correction requests.
Authors are required to submit the following forms during the initial submission:
• Copyright Agreement Form,
• Author Contributions Form
 

AUTHOR GUIDELINES
All manuscripts must be in English. Pages should be numbered sequentially. The maximum length of contributions is 10 pages (short manuscripts should be less than 4 pages). Longer contributions will only be accepted if authors provide justification in a cover letter which must be added at submission as a supplementary file.
Please add a cover letter as a supplementary file stating the following information about the submitted paper:

 

1. Paper title
2. The type of your paper: original scientific paper (1.01), review scientific paper (1.02) or short scientific paper (1.03).
    
3.  Confirming that “the paper is unpublished work and not under consideration for publication in another journal”.
    
4.  Including disclosure of any commercial or financial involvement.
    
5.  Confirming that the statistical design of the research article is reviewed.
    
6.  Confirming that last control for fluent English was done.
    
7.  Confirming that journal policies detailed in Information for Authors have been reviewed.
    
8.  Confirming that the references cited in the text and listed in the references section.
9. Confirming that the use or non-use of generative AI tools is declared in the AI Use Declaration section of the manuscript.
    
10.  State the value of the paper or its practical, theoretical and scientific implications. What is new in the paper with respect to the state-of-the-art in the published papers?
     
11.  We kindly ask you to suggest at least two reviewers for your paper and give us their names and contact information (email).
     

Preparation of the Manuscript

 

Manuscripts can be submitted in a free format, provided that the writing rules are followed during the initial submission. Upon acceptance, authors are expected to prepare the articles in accordance with the journal template.

Manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word must be converted into a single file before submission. Please start with the title page and insert your figures (schemes, graphics, etc.), tables in the main text.

Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)

Full Name(s) and Surname (s) of author(s)

ORCID ID for all author (s) (http://orcid.org/)

Address (es) of affiliations and e-mail (s)

Complete correspondence address and e-mail

Abstract: An Abstract should not exceed 250 words. The Abstract should state the principal objectives and the scope of the investigation, as well as the methodology employed. It should summarize the results and state the principal conclusions.

Key words (indexing terms), normally 4-6 items

Introduction

Material and Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

Compliance with Ethical Standard

Conflict of interests: When you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal or professional relationship with other organizations or people working with them, a conflict of interest may arise that may affect your research. A full description is required when you submit your article to a journal.

Ethics committee approval: Ethical committee approval is routinely requested from every research article based on experiments on living organisms and humans. Sometimes, studies from different countries may not have the approval of the ethics committee, and the authors may argue that they do not need the approval of their work. In such situations, we consult COPE’s “Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit and Service Evaluations” document and evaluate the study at the editorial board and decide whether or not it needs approval.

Financial disclosure: If there is any, the institutions that support the research and the agreements with them should be given here.

AI Use Declaration: The use of any generative AI tool or service during the preparation of the manuscript (writing or language assistance, code generation, data analysis, figure preparation) must be declared in this section. If no generative AI tools were used, this must also be stated explicitly. Generative AI tools cannot be listed as an author of the manuscript. Use one of the following statements:

With AI use: “During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [TOOL AND VERSION] in order to [REASON: language editing / code generation / data analysis / figure preparation]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.”

Without AI use: "No generative AI tools or services were used in the preparation of this manuscript."

Acknowledgment: Acknowledgments allow you to thank people and institutions who assist in conducting the research.

References

Manuscript Types
Original Research Articles: This is the most important type of article since it provides new information based on original research. The main text should contain Introduction, “Materials and Methods”, “Result and Discussion”, "Conclusion" and "References" sections.
Statistical analysis to support conclusions is usually necessary. Statistical analyses must be conducted in accordance with international statistical reporting standards. Information on statistical analyses should be provided with a separate subheading under the Materials and Methods section and the statistical software that was used during the process must be specified.
Units should be prepared in accordance with the International System of Units (SI).
After the Conclusion section and before references list, information regarding conflict of interest, financial disclosure, ethics committee approval and acknowledgement are given. This information is to be provided in the author form which must be submitted together with the manuscript.
Conflict of interests: When you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal or professional relationship with other organizations or people working with them, a conflict of interest may arise that may affect your research. A full description is required when you submit your article to a journal.
Ethics committee approval: Ethical committee approval is routinely requested from every research article based on experiments on living organisms and humans. Sometimes, studies from different countries may not have the approval of the ethics committee, and the authors may argue that they do not need the approval of their work. In such situations, we consult COPE’s “Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit and Service Evaluations” document and evaluate the study at the editorial board and decide whether or not it needs approval.
Financial disclosure: If there is any, the institutions that support the research and the agreements with them should be given here.

AI use declaration
Acknowledgment: Acknowledgments allow you to thank people and institutions who assist in conducting the research.

Review Articles: Reviews prepared by authors who have extensive knowledge on a particular field and whose scientific background has been translated into a high volume of publications with a high citation potential are welcomed. These authors may even be invited by the journal. Reviews should describe, discuss, and evaluate the current level of knowledge of a topic in researches and should guide future studies. The main text should start with Introduction and end with "Conclusion" and "References" sections. Authors may choose to use any subheading in between those sections.
After the Conclusion section and before references list, information regarding conflict of interest and acknowledgement are given. This information is to be provided in the author form which must be submitted together with the manuscript.
Conflict of interests: When you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal or professional relationship with other organizations or people working with them, a conflict of interest may arise that may affect your research. A full description is required when you submit your article to a journal.

AI use declaration
Acknowledgment: Acknowledgments allow you to thank people and institutions who assist in conducting the research.

Short Communication: This type of manuscript discusses important parts, overlooked aspects, or lacking parts of a previously published article. Articles on subjects within the scope of the journal that might attract the readers’ attention, particularly educative cases, may also be submitted in the form of a “Short Communication” Readers can also present their comments on the published manuscripts in the form of a “Short Communication”. The main text should contain Introduction, “Materials and Methods”, “Result and Discussion”, "Conclusion" and "References" sections.
After the Conclusion section and before references list, information regarding conflict of interest, financial disclosure, ethics committee approval and acknowledgement are given. This information is to be provided in the author form which must be submitted together with the manuscript.
Conflict of interests: When you (or your employer or sponsor) have a financial, commercial, legal or professional relationship with other organizations or people working with them, a conflict of interest may arise that may affect your research. A full description is required when you submit your article to a journal.
Ethics committee approval: Ethical committee approval is routinely requested from every research article based on experiments on living organisms and humans. Sometimes, studies from different countries may not have the approval of the ethics committee, and the authors may argue that they do not need the approval of their work. In such situations, we consult COPE’s “Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit and Service Evaluations” document and evaluate the study at the editorial board and decide whether or not it needs approval.
Financial disclosure: If there is any, the institutions that support the research and the agreements with them should be given here.

AI use declaration
Acknowledgment: Acknowledgments allow you to thank people and institutions who assist in conducting the research.
 

Units standard SI symbols and abbreviations should be used. Symbols for physical quantities in the text should be written in italics (e.g. v, T, n, etc.). Symbols for units that consist of letters should be in plain text (e.g. ms-1, K, min, mm, etc.).

Abbreviations should be spelt out in full on first appearance, e.g., variable time geometry (VTG). Meaning of symbols and units belonging to symbols should be explained in each case or quoted in a special table at the end of the manuscript before References

Figures must be cited in a consecutive numerical order in the text and referred to in both the text and the caption as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc. Figures should be prepared without borders and on white grounding and should be sent separately in their original formats.

Pictures may be saved in resolution good enough for printing in any common format, e.g. BMP, GIF or JPG. However, graphs and line drawings should be prepared as vector images, e.g. CDR, AI. When labeling axes, physical quantities, e.g. t, v, m, etc. should be used whenever possible to minimize the need to label the axes in two languages. Multicurve graphs should have individual curves marked with a symbol. The meaning of the symbol should be explained in the figure caption.

Tables should carry separate titles and must be numbered in consecutive numerical order in the text and referred to in both the text and the caption as Table 1, Table 2, etc. In addition to the physical quantity, e.g. t (in italics), units (normal text), should be added in two square brackets. The tables should each have a heading. Tables should not duplicate data found elsewhere in the manuscript.


REFERENCES
Techno-Science complies with the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) reference style for referencing and quoting. A reference list must be included using the following information as a guide. Only cited text references are included. Each reference is referred to in the text by a number enclosed in a square bracket (i.e., [3] or [2] to [6] for more references). No reference to the author is necessary.
References must be numbered and ordered according to where they are first mentioned in the paper, not alphabetically. All references must be complete and accurate. All non-English titles must be translated into English with the added note (in language) at the end of reference. Examples follow.

Journal Papers:
A. Author, B. Author, and C. Author, "Title of the paper," Journal Name, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month Year, https://doi.org/xxxxxxx. The article title is set in quotation marks; the journal title is set in italics and should not be abbreviated.
[1] S. K. Williams and T. J. Martinez, "Exploring cognitive development in early childhood," Developmental Psychology, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 250-265, Feb. 2020, https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000908.

Books:
A. Author and B. Author, Title of Book, xth ed. City, Country: Publisher, Year.
[2] L. M. Johnson and R. A. Thompson, Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing. London, U.K.: Wiley, 2021.

Chapters in Books:
A. Author, "Title of the chapter," in Title of Book, A. Editor and B. Editor, Eds. City, Country: Publisher, Year, pp. xxx-xxx.
[3] G. Carbone and M. Ceccarelli, "Legged robotic systems," in Cutting Edge Robotics, V. Kordić, A. Lazinica, and M. Merdan, Eds. Mammendorf, Germany: Pro Literatur Verlag, 2005, pp. 553-576.

Proceedings Papers:
A. Author, "Title of the paper," in Proc. Name of the Conference, City, Country, Year, pp. xxx-xxx.
[4] K. P. Davis and L. M. Roberts, "Digital boundary controller for single-phase grid-connected CSI," in Proc. IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conf. (PESC), 2008, pp. 4562-4568.

Dissertations and Theses:
A. Author, "Title of the thesis," M.S. thesis or Ph.D. dissertation, Department, University, City, Country, Year.
[5] P. T. Nguyen, "The impact of social media on adolescent behavior," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Somewhere, 2020.

Standards:
Title of Standard, Standard number, Year.
[6] Liquid petroleum products - Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) for use in diesel engines and heating applications - Requirements and test methods, BS EN 14214:2012+A1, 2014.

Patents:
A. Inventor, "Title of the patent," U.S. Patent X XXX XXX, Month Day, Year.
[7] E. Tsukahara and K. Takurou, U.S. Patent 9 010 288, 2015.

Websites:
A. Author or Company Name. [Online]. Available: http://address. [Accessed: Month Day, Year].
[8] Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. [Online]. Available: http://www.mehmetakif.edu.tr. [Accessed: May 1, 2018].

Government Publications:
Government Name, Title of Publication, Year. [Online]. Available: http://address
[9] U.S. Department of Education, Annual Report on Education Statistics, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.ed.gov/annual-report-2019

Reports:
A. Author, Title of the Report, xth ed. City, Country: Institution, Year.
[10] J. Yager, Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with Eating Disorders, 2nd ed. Washington, DC, USA: American Psychiatric Association, 2000.

All authors are listed in each reference; do not use "et al." in place of author names.

REVISIONS
When submitting a revised version of a paper, the author must submit a detailed “Response to the reviewers” that states point by point how each issue raised by the reviewers has been covered and where it can be found (each reviewer’s comment, followed by the author’s reply and line numbers where the changes have been made) as well as an annotated copy of the main document. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 30 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option may be canceled. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request this extension before the initial 30-day period is over.
Accepted manuscripts are copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, and format. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before it is included in its scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of their receipt of the proof.



Submission Checklist
• Cover letter to the editor
    o Paper title
    o The type of your paper: original scientific paper (1.01), review scientific paper (1.02) or short scientific paper (1.03).
    o Confirming that “the paper is unpublished work and not under consideration for publication in another journal”.
    o Including disclosure of any commercial or financial involvement.
    o Confirming that last control for fluent English was done.
    o Confirming that journal policies have been reviewed.

    o Confirming that the use or non-use of generative AI tools is declared in the AI Use Declaration section of the manuscript.
    o Confirming that the references cited in the text and listed in the references section.
    o State the value of the paper or its practical, theoretical and scientific implications. What is new in the paper with respect to the state-of-the-art in the published papers?
    o We kindly ask you to suggest at least two reviewers for your paper and give us their names and contact information (E-mail).

• Copyright Agreement Form
 

• Author Form
 

• Permission of previously published material if used in the present manuscript
 

• Title page
    o The type of the manuscript
    o The title of the manuscript in English
    o Short title (running head) in English
    o All authors’ names and affiliations (institution, faculty/department, city, country), e-mail addresses
    o Corresponding author’s email address, full postal address, telephone and fax number
    o ORCIDs of all authors.
 

Manuscripts can be submitted in a free format, provided that the writing rules are followed during the initial submission. Upon acceptance, authors are expected to prepare the articles in accordance with the journal template.

• Main Manuscript Document
    o The title of the manuscript in English
    o Abstracts in English (250 words). 
    o Keywords: 4 - 6 words both in English
    o Main article sections (including all tables and figures)

    o Financial support (if any, please specify)

    o AI Use Declaration

    o Conflict of interest (if any, please specify)
    o Acknowledgment (if any, please specify)

    o Final remarks (if any, please specify)
    o References


 

Statement of Publication Ethics
The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and pays regard to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing
The subjects covered in the manuscripts submitted to the Journal for publication must be in accordance with the aim and scope of the Journal. Only those manuscripts approved by every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
Changing the name of an author (omission, addition or order) in papers submitted to the Journal requires written permission of all declared authors.
Plagiarism, duplication, fraud authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, salami slicing/salami publication, breaching of copyrights, prevailing conflict of interest, undisclosed use of generative artificial intelligence tools are unethical behaviors. All manuscripts not in accordance with the accepted ethical standards will be removed from the publication. This also contains any possible malpractice discovered after the publication.

Plagiarism
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. If plagiarism/self-plagiarism will be found authors will be informed. Editors may resubmit manuscript for similarity check at any peer-review or production stage if required. High similarity scores may lead to rejection of a manuscript before and even after acceptance. Depending on the type of article and the percentage of similarity score taken from each article, the overall similarity score is generally expected to be less than 15 or 20%.

Double Blind Peer-Review
After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by the editors-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope. The editor provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles and hands over the papers matching the formal rules to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and gives green light for publication upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.


Research Ethics
The journal adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.
- Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.
- The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.
- The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
- Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.
- Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.
- The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.
- In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.
- If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.
- In studies with human subject, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained.

Human Subjects and Animal Use in Research, Ethics Committee Approval and Informed Consent
The Journal takes as principle to comply with the ethical standards of World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and WMA Statement on Animal Use in Biomedical Research.

An approval of research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international standards mentioned above is required for experimental studies. If required, ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document will be requested from the authors. For manuscripts concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows that written informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Information on patient consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number should also be stated in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect the patients’ anonymity. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed releases of the patient or of their legal representative should be enclosed.

For studies involving animals, it is required to obtain approval of research protocols from an ethics committee. The committee reviews protocols to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and guidelines, including 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 offer comprehensive instructions on how to carry out animal research ethically and humanely and are widely acknowledged as the benchmark for such research.

Authors should provide detailed explanation of the ethical treatment of animals in their manuscripts, including measures taken to avoid pain and distress. This is crucial to ensure the humane conduct of the study and enable verification that it conforms to the relevant ethical criteria. The ARRIVE checklist is a useful tool authors can use to present this information clearly and thoroughly.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

In line with the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) position statement on authorship and AI tools and the ICMJE recommendations, the journal applies the following principles concerning the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools and AI-assisted technologies in manuscripts submitted for publication.

For authors:

1. Disclosure requirement. Any use of generative AI tools or AI-assisted technologies during the preparation of a manuscript (including writing or language assistance, code generation, data analysis, and figure or image preparation) must be disclosed in the AI Use Declaration section of the manuscript, in the form specified in the Author Guidelines. Where no such tools were used, this must be stated explicitly.

2. AI cannot be an author. Generative AI tools do not meet the journal's authorship criteria: they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work and cannot consent to its publication. AI tools must not be listed as an author or co-author, and no AI tool may be cited as an author in the reference list.

3. Author responsibility. Authors remain fully responsible for the entire content of their manuscript, including any parts prepared with the assistance of AI tools. The use of an AI tool does not relieve the authors of responsibility for originality, accuracy, referencing, and confidentiality obligations.

4. AI-generated images and figures. Manuscripts must not contain AI-generated or AI-enhanced images unless the generation or enhancement of the image is itself an integral, disclosed part of the research method and is described in the Materials and Methods section.

5. Use in research. The use of AI tools in data analysis, experiment execution, or code generation must be described in the Materials and Methods section, including the tool, version, and manner of use, so that the work remains reproducible.

6. Prohibited uses. The use of generative AI tools to fabricate data, results, images, references, or any other manuscript content constitutes research misconduct and is handled under the Statement of Publication Ethics.

For editors and reviewers:

7. Confidentiality. Manuscripts and related submission materials are confidential. Editors and reviewers must not upload manuscripts, in whole or in part, or any confidential information obtained through the peer-review process, to generative AI tools or services, as such use may breach confidentiality and data protection obligations.

8. Review integrity. Editors and reviewers must evaluate submissions themselves and must not delegate any part of the evaluation to an AI tool.

Enforcement. Failure to disclose the use of generative AI tools, or the discovery of undisclosed AI-generated content after publication, is handled as a violation of publication ethics under the Statement of Publication Ethics and may result in rejection of the manuscript, a request for correction, or retraction of a published article.
 

Author Responsibilities
 

It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. And authors must ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.
All the authors of a submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contribution to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analyzing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection or supervision of the research group are not sufficient roles to be accepted as an author. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form. The individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, assisting writing, providing a general support, providing material or financial support are examples to be indicated in acknowledgement section.
All authors must disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment.
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.
Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.
Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.