Can the Glasgow-Blatchford Score Determine the Appropriateness of Interhospital Referral?

General information

• Turkish Journal of Internal Medicine (TJIM) is an international, double-blind, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes manuscripts describing clinical research in medicine.
• Manuscripts must describe original data that has not been published previously nor submitted for publication elsewhere.
• Manuscripts that adhere to the TJIM submission guidelines and are deemed appropriate for the scope of the journal are sent to two reviewers who are specialists in the field.
• The members of the Editorial Board who discuss the suitability then consider the reviewers’ comments on each submission.
• The final decision for all submitted manuscripts rests with the Editor-in-Chief.
• TJIM adopts a continuous publication model. Once an article is accepted, it is laid out and published after print approval.
• The articles are in English.
• Manuscripts to be published must be sent via the “Submit Article” page.

Article Submission Phase

Required files to be uploaded when submitting an article:

1. A Word file of the article prepared in accordance with the editorial guidelines (No information about the authors should be included. This file will be sent to the reviewers in accordance with the double-blind review policy.)
2. The "Title Page" must be fully completed and uploaded to the system.
3. Copyright Agreement and Author Acceptance Form   
4. A similarity report must be uploaded to the system.
5. The approved version of the Ethics Committee Permit must be uploaded to the system. If the study does not require ethics committee approval, upload a file indicating this. In addition, this approval (name, date, and number of the committee) must be stated in the "Article Information Form" at the end of the study.

Institutional review board/ethics committee approval (IRB)

If a study involves either human subjects, human-derived materials, and/or medical records, authors must include in the Methods section either a statement that an Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee approval has been obtained or a statement that the IRB/Ethics Committee had ruled that approval was not required for the study. When reporting experiments conducted with humans indicate that the procedures were in accordance with ethical standards set forth by the committee that oversees human experimentation. Approval of research protocols by the relevant ethics committee, in accordance with international agreements (Helsinki Declaration of 1975, revised 2002 available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm, “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html/), is required for all experimental, clinical, and drug studies. Patient names, initials, and hospital identification numbers should not be used. Manuscripts reporting the results of experimental investigations conducted with humans must state that the study protocol received institutional review board approval and that the participants provided informed consent.

Permission

All figures, tables, and text passages that have been previously published require permission from the copyright owner(s) for the TJIM. All expenses related to obtaining such permission must be borne by the authors. By signing the copyright form, you state that TJIM owns the copyright to the material in your article. Permission must be obtained for any material to which the authors do not own the full copyright. No material, such as clinical images or charts, photos, and graphs, as well as images of devices that may have been obtained from their producers, can be published without such permission. To secure the right to publish material that you do not own, contact the holder of the copyright (journal in which it was published, book publishers, or company that developed the instrument) by e-mail describing in detail the material you wish to use and stating that you wish to include that material in your manuscript (including the title The copyright owner will usually reply stating that permission has been granted. A copy of the reply must be forwarded to the TJIM offices with the number of your manuscript and a description of the materials in question. Most copyright permissions will specify conditions relating to the way in which reference to the permission should be stated. These conditions must be adhered to in full; otherwise, the permission may be invalid. Note that in some instances, copyright owners may require payment. In these cases, the authors must bear all such costs. As papers cannot be changed once accepted, authors are advised to apply for copyright permission early to prevent the possibility of the paper having to be withdrawn from publication. Note that receiving permission may take up to eight weeks and that the paper cannot be processed for publication before such permission has been granted.

Types of Papers

Original Article: An article is a full-length report on original primary research that will interest the journal's readers. They must describe significant and original observations. 

Review Article : The review article is a comprehensive analysis of specific topics and recent developments in a particular area. A review should focus on recent research and issues. It should also include the authors' opinion on how to approach the topic/situation under discussion and what is needed to advance the field in the future.

Communications  Short (brief) communications are short papers that focus on a particular aspect of a problem or a new finding that is expected to have a significant impact and present original and important material. Short communication is not intended to publish preliminary results. They may be given rapid publication. Short communication should not be subdivided. The paper should include an abstract, main body of text (combined methods, results, and discussion in a single section), and references. 
Rapid communications are similar to short communications. These are usually articles used to disseminate preliminary results that are original, of high interest, and likely to have a significant impact on the relevant scientific community. In the healthcare field, this can include information that is urgent from a public health perspective or findings in a rapidly changing specialty. Their format is similar to short communications. 

Case Report: Case Report: Case reports and case studies should present significant new insights or cases with an unusual and noteworthy course. It is recommended that case reports include an up-to-date review of all previous cases in the field. The novelty of the case(s) may lie in the phenotype, the presentation, the investigation, and/or the management.

Letter: Letters are encouraged if they directly concern articles recently published in the journal. If accepted, the editors reserve the right to submit such letters to the authors of the articles concerned prior to publication, in order to permit them to respond in the same issue of the journal.

Manuscript preparation

• Articles should be written in a single line using Microsoft Word, leaving 2.5 cm margins on all sides.
• Paragraphs should not be indented.
• A full-length article should be no more than 6,000 words, excluding references and tables.
• For equations, use either the equation editor or MathType.
• For tables, use the table function, not spreadsheets.

Download the WORD file for the sample file.

Title page 

Please complete this mandatory file when uploading your article, according to the instructions, see  Title Page.

Title

A title that describes the article and is not too long is preferred. Only the first letter of each word in the title should be capitalized.

Authors

Author names must be clearly written. Abbreviations must not be used. Each author's ORCID ID number must be written. Each author's institution must be listed in the order Department, Faculty, University, City, and Country. If the institution is present, its ROR ID must be written after the address. (Because the journal uses a double-blind peer-review policy, it is recommended that you enter author information in the "Title Page.docx " field during the initial submission.)

Abstracts

A structured abstract of no more than 350 words is required. The Abstract for all manuscripts except case reports and review articles should be divided into Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

Keywords

Keywords are required for indexing and abstracting services. Up to ten words should be listed.

Main text

The main text of an original article should be divided into INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, and CONCLUSION sections. The case report should include an abstract, introduction, case report, discussion, and references. Abbreviations must be defined following their first use in the Abstract as well as in the main text and in the figures and tables. Only commonly accepted abbreviations should be used. Drug and chemical names should be stated using generic or standard chemical nomenclature. Units of measurement should conform to the International System (SI); however, clinical data may be presented in conventional units where deemed more appropriate.

Headings and subheadings

Main headings (INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, etc.) and the word REFERENCES should be written in capital letters. In subheadings, only the first letter of each word should be capitalized.

Footnotes

Footnotes may be used to give additional information, but should not consist of a reference citation, which is not included in the reference list at the end of the manuscript, and must not contain figures or tables. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively and separately for the title page, the main text, and each table. Footnotes should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters or numbers, or by asterisks for significance values and other statistical data. Footnotes should be positioned at the bottom of the page or table in which they appear.

Tables, Graphics, and Illustrations

Tables, graphics, and illustrations should be numbered in Arabic numerals in the text. The places of the illustrations should be signed in the text.

Tables

• Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text. 
• Tables must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, …). Table titles should be placed above the table in Times New Roman, 10-point font size. Table content should be written in Times New Roman, 10-point font size. If the table does not fit within the page, the font size may be reduced accordingly. Statistically significant values should be presented in bold. If the table has a source, it must be indicated below the table in Times New Roman, 9–10-point font size. Only the first letter of the first word in the table title should be capitalized. All other words should be lowercase (except for proper nouns).
• Authors should include explanatory information as notes below the table, not in the title.
• Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully. 
• Additional tables containing backup data too extensive to publish in print may be appropriate for publication in the electronic version of the journal, deposited with an archival service, or made available to readers directly by the authors. An appropriate statement should be added to the text. Such tables should be submitted for consideration with the paper so that they will be available to the peer reviewers.

Illustrations (Figures)

• Figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed or submitted as digital prints in photographic quality. In addition to requiring a version of the figures suitable for printing, authors are asked for electronic files of figures in a format (for example, JPEG or GIF) that will produce high-quality images in the Web version of the journal; authors should review the images of such files on a computer screen before submitting them to be sure they meet their own quality standards.
• For X-ray films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, sharp, glossy, black-and-white or color photographic prints should be sent, usually 127 x 173 mm. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should therefore be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough to remain legible when the figure is reduced for publication. 
• Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. 
• Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends--not on the illustrations themselves. 
• Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background. 
• Photographs of potentially identifiable people must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph. 
• Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. 
• If a figure has been published previously, the original source should be acknowledged, and written permission from the copyright holder should be submitted to reproduce the figure. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher, except for documents in the public domain. Accompanying drawings marked to indicate the region to be reproduced might be useful to the editor.

Legends for Illustrations (Figures)

• For image captions, Arabic numerals corresponding to the images should be used.
• When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, each one should be clearly identified and explained in the legend. The internal scale should be explained, and the method of staining in photomicrographs should be identified. Only the first letter of the first word in the figure title should be capitalized. All other words should be lowercase (except for proper nouns). 
• Figure titles should be placed below the figure in Times New Roman, 10-point font size. If the figure does not fit within the page, the font size may be reduced accordingly.  
• If the figure has a source, it must be indicated below the title in Times New Roman, 10-point font size. Only the first letter of the first word in the figure title should be capitalized. All other words should be lowercase (except for proper nouns).

Language and Editorial Review

All manuscripts accepted for publication undergo a mandatory final scientific language and editorial review before publication. The title, abstract, main text, discussion, conclusion, tables, figure legends, references, and other relevant sections are reviewed for clarity, consistency, grammar, terminology, and scientific English.

The Language Editor reviews all accepted manuscripts and may request linguistic or stylistic revisions when necessary. Authors are required to address these revisions before the manuscript proceeds to final publication.

Article Information Form

The article information form should be written after the text, before the references. Explain the following headings in detail.

Acknowledgments: 

Author Contributions (CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy): The journal follows the ICMJE Recommendations for authorship and adopts the CRediT  to describe each author's specific contributions to the manuscript. The statement "Authors' contribution to the article is equal" is not accepted. Each author must meet the ICMJE authorship criteria, and their individual contributions should be reported using the CRediT roles listed below. If any of the contribution categories are not applicable, please indicate "None."
Conceptualization: FA, SA;
Methodology: FA, SA;
Software: TA;
Validation: FA, TA;
Formal analysis: SA;
Investigation: FA;
Resources: TA;
Data curation: FA;
Writing – original draft: SA;
Writing – review & editing: FA;
Visualization: SA;
Supervision: None;
Project administration: FA, SA;
Funding acquisition: None.;

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Financial Disclosure:  Please state the source of financial support, if any. If no financial support was received, please state: “The authors declare that this study received no financial support.”

Data Availability Statement:
1. If the data are available upon request: The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
2. If the data are publicly available in a repository: The data supporting the findings of this study are publicly available in [repository name] at [DOI/URL].
3. If the data are not publicly available due to patient privacy or ethical restrictions: The data are not publicly available due to privacy and ethical restrictions. However, they may be made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request and subject to appropriate approval.

Artificial Intelligence Statement: No artificial intelligence tools were used while writing this article. (If an artificial intelligence tool was used, please write a detailed explanation.)

Plagiarism Statement: This article has been scanned by iThenticate.

Ethical Approval and Participant Consent:  Ethical approval for this study was obtained from [name of ethics committee] (Date: [date], Decision No: [number]). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants where applicable. (For studies not requiring ethical approval: Ethical approval was not required for this study in accordance with applicable institutional and national guidelines.)

Reference Style and Format

• References in the article should be written in Vancouver style.
• References should be shown in square brackets, for example [1], [2,3], [4-8].
• References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in parentheses.
• References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. 
• The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the list of Journals in Index Medicus. Additionally, the list should be obtained from the web address http://www.nlm.nih.gov. If a journal is not indexed in Index Medicus, it should not be abbreviated.
• If there are more than 6 authors, write the first 6 authors according to the rule and use et al. for the subsequent authors.
• All references should be cited in text.
• Citing a "personal communication" should be avoided unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication must be obtained.
• Accuracy of citation is the author's responsibility. Type references in the style shown below. 

For journals

Articles in journals

For the published article from the journal, which is placed and abbreviated in Medline:

• Krinsley JS, Preiser JC. Is it time to abandon glucose control in critically ill adult patients? Curr Opin Crit Care. 2019;25(4):299-306. doi:10.1097/MCC.0000000000000621.
• Noma H, Furukawa TA, Maruo K, Imai H, Shinohara K, Tanaka S, et al. Exploratory analyses of effect modifiers in the antidepressant treatment of major depression: individual-participant data meta-analysis of 2803 participants in seven placebo-controlled randomized trials. J Affect Disord. 2019;250:419-24. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2019.03.031.
• Glisson BS, Leidner RS, Ferris RL, Powderly J, Rizvi NA, Keam B, et al. Safety and clinical activity of MEDI0562, a humanized OX40 agonist monoclonal antibody, in adult patients with advanced solid tumors. Clin Cancer Res. 2020;26(20):5358-67. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-3070. Epub 2020 Aug 14.
• Lam RW, Filteau MJ, Milev R. Clinical effectiveness: the importance of psychosocial functioning outcomes. J Affect Disord. 2011;132(Suppl 1):S9-13. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.03.046.

For the published article from the journal that is not placed and is not abbreviated in Medline:

• Çiydem E, Şavklı Y. The effect of the managing examination anxiety program applied to high school students on test anxiety. Bandırma Onyedi Eylül Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri ve Araştırmaları Dergisi. 2022;4(3):225-32. doi:10.46413/boneyusbad.1200323.

Articles in press

• O'Brien EJ, BergWood MM, Bolner J, Tucker RP, Hill RM. Discrimination and microaggression experiences concurrently and prospectively predict defeat in sexual minority college students reporting suicidal ideation. J Affect Disord. 2026. In press. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2026.121406.
• Fortea A, Ortuño M, Masias M, Guasp M, De la Serna E, Armangue T, et al. Brain metabolite levels in the post-acute stage of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis and schizophrenia: a longitudinal case-control study. Biol Psychiatry. 2025. In press.

Article with published erratum

• Taylor CJ, Ordóñez-Mena JM, Roalfe AK, Lay-Flurrie S, Jones NR, Marshall T, et al. Trends in survival after a diagnosis of heart failure in the United Kingdom 2000-2017: population based cohort study. BMJ. 2019;364:l223. doi:10.1136/bmj.l223. Erratum in: BMJ. 2019;367:l5840. doi:10.1136/bmj.l5840.
• Seymour CW, Liu VX, Iwashyna TJ, Brunkhorst FM, Rea TD, Scherag A, et al. Assessment of clinical criteria for sepsis: for the Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3). JAMA. 2016;315(8):762–774. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.0288. Erratum in: JAMA. 2016;315(20):2237. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.5850.

Volume with supplement

• Giménez-Arnau AM, Toubi E, Marsland AM, Maurer M. Clinical management of urticaria using omalizumab: the first licensed biological therapy available for chronic spontaneous urticaria. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2016;30(Suppl 5):25-32. doi:10.1111/jdv.13697.

Issue with the supplement

• Wilkinson P. Non-suicidal self-injury. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2013;22(1 Suppl):S75-9. doi:10.1007/s00787-012-0365-7.

Volume with part

• Butkevich E, Hülsmann S, Wenzel D, Shirao T, Duden R, Majoul I. Drebrin is a novel connexin-43 binding partner that links gap junctions to the submembrane cytoskeleton. J Physiol. 2004;555(Pt 1):45-59. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2003.053900.

Issue with part

• Locarnini SA, Yuen L. Molecular genesis of drug-resistant and vaccine-escape HBV mutants. Antivir Ther. 2010;15(3 Pt B):451-61. doi:10.3851/IMP1499.

Issue with no volume 

• Bhandari M, Guyatt GH, Siddiqui F, Morrow F, Busse J, Leighton RK, et al. Treatment of acute Achilles tendon ruptures: a systematic overview and metaanalysis. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2002;(400):190-200. 

No volume or issue

• Don’t panic!: phobias and anxiety disorders. NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine. 2010 Fall:12-5.

Journal article on the Internet

• Nordh M, Wahlund T, Jolstedt M, et al. Therapist-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy vs internet-delivered supportive therapy for children and adolescents with social anxiety disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry [Internet]. 2021 May 12 [cited 2026 Feb 26];78(7):705-13. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0469

For books and other monographs 

Personal author(s)

• Rothman KJ, Greenland S, Lash TL. Modern epidemiology. 4th ed. Philadelphia (PA): Wolters Kluwer; 2020.
• Petrie A, Sabin C. Medical statistics at a glance. 4th ed. Chichester (UK): Wiley-Blackwell; 2019.

Author(s) and editor(s)

• Aristotle. Nicomachean ethics. Crisp R, editor. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press; 2000.
• Kant I. Critique of pure reason. Guyer P, Wood AW, editors. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press; 1998.

Organization(s) as author

• World Health Organization. World malaria report 2023. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023. 283 p.

Editor(s), compiler(s) as author

• Firth JD, Conlon C, Cox TM, editors. Oxford textbook of medicine. 6th ed. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press; 2020.
• Bennett JE, Dolin R, Blaser MJ, editors. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett’s principles and practice of infectious diseases. 9th ed. Philadelphia (PA): Elsevier; 2020

Translated book

• Foucault M. Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. Sheridan A, translator. New York (NY): Vintage Books; 1995.
• Homer. The iliad. Fagles R, translator. New York (NY): Penguin Classics; 1998.

Chapter in a book

• Clasen T. Water and sanitation. In: Detels R, Gulliford M, Abdool Karim QA, Tan CC, editors. Oxford textbook of global public health. 6th ed. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press; 2015. p. 162-79. doi:10.1093/med/9780199661756.003.0011.
• Williams GM. Statistical methods. In: Detels R, Beaglehole R, Lansang MA, Gulliford M, editors. Oxford textbook of public health. 5th ed. Oxford (UK): Oxford University Press; 2009. p. 677-715.

Conference proceedings

• Youn HY, Cho WD, editors. UbiComp 2008: ubiquitous computing, 10th International Conference, UbiComp 2008; 2008 Sep 21–24; Seoul, Korea. New York (NY): ACM; 2008.
• Halliday RB, Walter DE, Proctor HC, Norton RA, Colloff MJ, editors. Acarology: Proceedings of the 10th International Congress; 1998 Jul 5–10; Canberra, Australia. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing; 2001.

Dissertation (Thesis)

• Davis FD. A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: theory and results [dissertation]. Cambridge (MA): Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management); 1986.
• Sürer S. From space to safety: flood mapping with Sentinel-1 SAR data for enhancing flood risk management in Ljungby Municipality [master’s thesis]. Lund (SE): Lund University; 2024 [Internet]. [cited 2025 Nov 22]. Available from: https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9158441
• Patwary MM. Adoption of mobile banking applications: a study on young people [master’s thesis]. Eskişehir (TR): Anadolu University Graduate School of Social Sciences; 2017 [Internet]. [cited 2025 Nov 22]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.35579.49446

Poster(s)

• Ashby S, Bowman CR, Zeithamova D. Generalized memory representations emerge across paired-associate training [poster]. Presented at: Neuroscience 2019 (49th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience); 2019 Oct 19–23; Chicago, IL.
• Foushee R, Srinivasan M, Xu F. The impact of speech complexity on preschooler attention and learning [poster]. Presented at: 45th Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 45); 2020 Nov 5–8; Boston, MA, USA (virtual).

Patent

• Duong-Van Minh, inventor; Interos Inc, assignee. Sentiment analysis from social media content. United States patent US 8,849,826. 2014 Sep 30.

Homepage/Website

• Eurostat [Internet]. Luxembourg (LU): Statistical Office of the European Union; c1953– [cited 2025 Sep 27]. Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Proofreading

After TJIM has prepared the layout of the article, it is sent to all authors for proofreading. All authors must view the pre-publication version of the article and approve its publication.

Multicenter clinical trials

TJIM welcomes the submission of manuscripts reporting results of multicenter clinical trials. These manuscripts may be submitted with authorship in one of the following styles:

• The name of a study group only (collective authorship)
• The names of no more than five individuals and the name of a study group

In each case, one individual must serve as the corresponding author, and the names of all individuals specifically involved in the preparation of the manuscript should be listed under the heading Writing Committee following the Acknowledgments section. This should be followed by a list of investigators from each institution under the heading Study Group Investigators. Each author and each Writing Committee member must sign the Copyright Agreement and Author Acknowledgement Form.

Content responsibility

Content and scientific accuracy of all manuscripts, as well as of any electronic supplementary material, are the sole responsibility of the authors. No responsibility will be assumed by TJIM for any legal claim arising from injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of product liability, negligence, or other circumstances; nor from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the published material. No test or procedure should be carried out unless the reader judges it to be safe. Independent verification of all diagnoses and drug dosages should be performed. Discussions, views, and recommendations regarding medical procedures, drug choices, and dosages are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Disclaimer

TJIM does not accept or publish advertisements. Any mention of commercial products, if it occurs within scholarly content, does not imply endorsement by the journal.

Turkish Journal of Internal Medicine (TJIM) is an international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted to internal medicine and related medical disciplines. The journal publishes in English, follows a double-blind peer-review model, and uses a continuous publication system, so that accepted articles are published online once the editorial and production processes are complete. The journal adheres to the highest ethical and scientific standards, following the guidelines of COPE, ICMJE, Declaration of Helsinki, and WAME to ensure integrity, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing.

Author Responsibilities

• Authors must submit only original and unpublished manuscripts that are not under consideration by another journal at the same time.
• When an editor submits an article to a journal, their access is restricted until the peer-review process is complete. The editor cannot see any screens related to the article's progress.
• For studies involving human participants, animals, biological materials, or sensitive data, the required ethics committee approval and informed consent documents must be submitted in full.
• Authors must avoid all forms of research and publication misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, excessive overlap, and all other violations of publication ethics.
• A study may not be included in more than one publication, whether in the same journal or in a different journal.
• All authors must meet the ICMJE authorship criteria; honorary, guest, or ghost authorship is strictly prohibited.
• Valid ORCID IDs for all authors must be provided.
• All actual or potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed clearly and transparently.
• Funding bodies, institutional contributions, and any other support related to the research must be properly acknowledged.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy, reliability, and reproducibility of the data they submit.
• All submitted manuscripts are subject to a rigorous peer-review process conducted by at least two international reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. Reviewers are selected by the Associate Editors and the Editor-in-Chief. In some journals or for certain article types, authors may also be allowed to suggest reviewers.
• During the review process, the manuscript is evaluated for relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, readability, scientific and statistical validity, and language quality.
• At the end of the review process, the manuscript may be accepted, returned for minor revision, returned for major revision, or rejected.
• A request for revision does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript.
• Authors must complete the requested revisions in a timely, careful, and comprehensive manner, in line with the editors' and reviewers' comments.
• Rejected manuscripts are not reconsidered for review.
• Acceptance of a manuscript is subject to compliance with applicable legal requirements, including those related to libel, copyright infringement, plagiarism, and other relevant regulations.

Editor Responsibilities

• Editors must evaluate submitted manuscripts fairly and impartially, in accordance with academic criteria, while maintaining confidentiality throughout the process.
• Editorial decisions must be based on the manuscript’s originality, scholarly contribution, methodological soundness, clarity, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal’s scope.
• Editors must not allow any conflicts of interest among authors, reviewers, editorial board members, and editorial staff, and they must refrain from handling submissions in cases of actual or potential conflicts of interest.
• Editors are responsible for selecting qualified, appropriate, and impartial reviewers for each submission.
• Editors must protect the integrity of the double-blind peer review process and maintain the confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and manuscript content throughout the evaluation process.
• Editors should ensure that all submissions are evaluated within a reasonable timeframe and that the editorial process proceeds in an orderly, careful, and transparent manner.
• Editors (Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editors) have full authority and responsibility for the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript.
• Editors should not alter a decision once it has been made unless there is a serious and well-justified reason; likewise, they should not overturn decisions made by previous editors without compelling grounds.
• Editors must ensure that all published research complies with internationally accepted ethical principles and, when necessary, should have a clear understanding of the sources of research funding.
• Editors are responsible for safeguarding the scientific quality of the manuscripts, the overall quality of the publication, and the integrity of the academic record.
• Editors must take allegations of ethical misconduct, research malpractice, or publication-related complaints seriously, regardless of whether the manuscript is published or unpublished, and should make every reasonable effort to resolve such issues.
• When necessary, editors should issue corrections, clarifications, retractions, editorial notices, or errata in order to preserve the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.
• Editors should consider the needs of both authors and readers while striving to enhance the journal’s academic quality and editorial process.

Reviewer Responsibilities

• Reviewers must treat all manuscripts assigned to them as confidential documents and must not share, reproduce, or discuss their contents with third parties.
• Reviewer reports should be prepared in an objective, evidence-based, constructive, and respectful manner, avoiding personal criticism.
• Reviewers should accept only those manuscripts within their area of expertise and decline review invitations when they lack sufficient knowledge to provide a qualified assessment.
• Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest that may affect their impartiality, including competitive, collaborative, institutional, or financial relationships, and should withdraw from the review process when necessary.
• Reviewer reports should focus on the scientific quality, originality, clarity, ethical compliance, and overall contribution of the manuscript to the field.
• Reviewers should inform the editor of any important relevant literature that has not been cited, as well as any similarity or overlap with other works known to them.
• If reviewers identify suspected plagiarism, duplicate submission, data manipulation, or any other ethical concern, they should promptly report the matter to the Editor or Editor-in-Chief.
• Reviewers are expected to complete their evaluations within the agreed-upon timeframe and to provide clear, reasoned, and understandable feedback that will contribute to the editorial decision.
• Reviewers must not upload manuscript files or any part of the manuscript content to artificial intelligence tools, AI-assisted platforms, or any external system that could compromise confidentiality.

Plagiarism and Similarity Check Policy

• All manuscripts submitted to TJIM are screened for originality as part of the editorial evaluation process.
• The journal adopts a strict policy against plagiarism, unethical text reuse, duplicate publication, and other forms of academic misconduct.
• Manuscripts are assessed through similarity-checking tools during the preliminary editorial review.
• For TJIM, the overall similarity index must not exceed 20%, excluding the reference list.
• Similarity originating from a single source must not exceed 3%.
• In some cases, similarities detected in the methodology section may be evaluated separately at the editors' discretion.
• Manuscripts that exceed the journal’s similarity thresholds may be returned to the authors for revision, correction, or further explanation.
• Authors are fully responsible for ensuring the originality of their submissions and for providing proper citation and acknowledgment of all sources used.
• Authors are expected to review and comply with the journal's full plagiarism and similarity policy before submission.

Research Ethics

• All studies involving human participants must have received approval from the relevant ethics committee.
• Research involving humans must be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
• Where applicable, it must be clearly stated in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from the participants.
• For clinical studies, registration information and relevant ethical approvals must be provided.
• Studies involving animals must be conducted in accordance with internationally recognized standards of animal welfare and research ethics.
• Authors must clearly declare that the research was conducted and reported in compliance with ethical principles.

Data Transparency

• Authors must be prepared to provide raw data, supporting documents, or additional explanations to the editors when requested for verification purposes.
• Research data must be reported accurately, completely, and transparently.
• Data fabrication, data falsification, selective reporting, and similar practices are considered serious violations of scientific ethics.

Conflict of Interest

• Authors: All authors must disclose in their manuscripts any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that may affect some or all of their manuscripts. These explanations should be stated in the article information form.
• Reviewers: Since the journal has a double-blind referee policy, referees cannot see the names of the authors. However, if referees suspect any conflict of interest in the article they are evaluating, they must withdraw from the refereeship of the article by informing the editor. In order to prevent conflict of interest, people in the institutions where the article authors are working cannot referee the article.
• Editors: Editors must not have a conflict of interest with authors or reviewers. If the editor has any financial or financial support for the article, it should be disclosed. If the editor sends an article to the journal, the process of his article is closed to him until the article process is completed.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Policy

• Authors must clearly disclose any artificial intelligence tools used during the manuscript preparation process. This disclosure should be included in the Methods, Acknowledgments, or another appropriate section, stating the name of the tool, its version if applicable, and the purpose of its use.
• AI tools may be used for limited and technical purposes such as language editing, spelling and grammar correction, technical formatting, reference editing, coding support, data visualization, and statistical or computational assistance.
• The use of artificial intelligence must not adversely affect the originality, scientific integrity, accuracy, or reliability of the research.
• AI tools must not be used to generate scientific content, results, hypotheses, interpretations, discussions, or original academic evaluations.
• AI must not be used to fabricate, falsify, distort, or manipulate data, images, findings, references, or citations.
• AI tools cannot replace the researcher’s scientific judgment, interpretive ability, or academic responsibility.
• AI tools cannot be listed as authors, as they do not meet authorship criteria and cannot assume scientific or ethical responsibility.
• The authors bear ultimate responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and ethical compliance of all content included in the manuscript.
• Editors and reviewers may use AI tools only for limited technical purposes that protect confidentiality and comply with the journal’s policy. AI must not be used for editorial decision-making, drafting reviewer reports, or replacing human expert evaluation.
• Editors and reviewers must not upload manuscript files, supplementary files, images, data, or peer-review correspondence to external AI systems.

Retraction

An article may be retracted under the following circumstances:

• Confirmed plagiarism, data fabrication, or data falsification,
• Detection of duplicate publication,
• Major errors that fundamentally affect the conclusions of the study,
• Ethical violations that compromise the scientific reliability of the work.

Retracted articles remain publicly accessible in order to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record. Such articles are clearly marked with a “RETRACTED” watermark and accompanied by an explanatory retraction notice.

Withdrawal

• Requests for withdrawal must be submitted with a formal written justification.
• Withdrawal requests made after the peer-review process has begun, without a valid justification, may be regarded as unethical publishing behavior.

Corrections

• Corrections, including corrigenda, errata, or addenda, are issued when minor errors or omissions do not invalidate the study's overall findings but require clarification.

Handling of Ethical Misconduct

• Allegations of ethical misconduct or concerns regarding scientific reliability submitted to the journal are evaluated carefully and confidentially by the editorial office.
• When necessary, the editor initiates an investigation in accordance with COPE and ICMJE principles and may request explanations, additional documents, or supporting information from the authors.
• If the suspicion of ethical misconduct is serious, the editor may consider informing the authors’ institution and, where appropriate, the relevant funding bodies.
• While the investigation is ongoing, the editor may publish an expression of concern if there is a serious doubt regarding the integrity of the manuscript.
• If misconduct is confirmed, the manuscript may be rejected; for published articles, a correction, expression of concern, or retraction may be issued.
• Retractions and expressions of concern are published in a clear, visible, and reasoned manner and are linked to the original article.
• Throughout the process, editorial impartiality, confidentiality, and the integrity of the scholarly record are maintained.

Official Editorial Communication Address

• All formal correspondence related to the editorial and peer-review process shall be conducted through the journal’s official communication address: nkoca@yahoo.com
• Such correspondence may include, but is not limited to, initial editorial screening, requests for clarification, authorship verification, ethical inquiries, notifications of suspected misconduct, and decisions concerning revision, acceptance, rejection, or withdrawal.
• Authors are responsible for regularly monitoring this address and for providing timely responses in order to avoid delays in the editorial process.
• All communications sent to or received from this address form part of the journal’s official editorial record.
• Failure to respond within a reasonable period may affect the editorial workflow and may lead to administrative action