Ethical Principles and Policy

In the publication ethics text of Journal of Societal Studies, the ethical duties and responsibilities of authors, referees and editors have been determined by taking into account the recommendations of the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and the International Standards for Editors and Authors of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics).

  • The main purpose of the ethical principles applied in the Journal of Societal Studies is to form a basis for the development and sharing of information in an impartial and respectable manner. In this context, it is important that all stakeholders (authors, researchers, publishers, editors, boards, referees and readers) comply with ethical principles and standards.

In accordance with the articles related to the ethical rules, “In studies that require ethics committee permission, information about the necessary permissions should be included in the article”. Accordingly, whether ethical committee permission and/or legal/special permission is required in the articles to be published should be stated in the article. If it is necessary to obtain these permissions, it should be clearly presented from which institution, on which date and with which decision or number number the permission was obtained. Studies that require ethics committee approval are as follows:

  • All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from the participants by using survey, interview, focus group work, observation experiment, interview techniques,
  • The use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
  • Clinical studies on humans,
  • Research on animals, 

The responsibilities of the referees;

  • He should agree to be a referee only for articles related to his field of expertise.
  • He/she should be the referee for the accepted articles.
  • It should make an evaluation by considering the principles of impartiality and confidentiality. Nationality, gender, religious belief, political belief and commercial concerns should not impair the impartiality of the evaluation.
  • If it detects any conflict of interest, it should refuse to evaluate the article and report the situation to the editor.
  • He is responsible for the confidentiality of the study until the publication of the article he is evaluating in accordance with the confidentiality principle.
  • He should fill in the data requested from him in the evaluation form completely and send it to the journal (in detail).
  • They should state the reasons for their evaluations in a clear, understandable and persuasive manner, and explain their corrections and suggestions in a polite and constructive language. They should avoid comments that contain insults or hostility.
  • He is responsible for preparing the evaluation report for the studies that he accepts to be evaluated, within the time given to him and within the framework of ethical principles.
  • Responsible for complying with the Publication Ethics.
  • The refereeing period should not exceed the specified time. 

Responsibilities of the Editor and Assistant Editors;

  • It should strive to respond to the information needs of authors and readers, to improve and develop the journal, and to improve the quality of the content of the studies to be published in the journal.
  • It should support the freedom of opinion of the authors and protect their intellectual property rights. In case of violation of intellectual property rights, the journal and the author(s) should defend their rights. In addition, necessary measures should be taken to ensure that the content of the published articles does not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications.
  • It should ensure that the content to be published in the journal complies with the publication rules, and that the necessary ethics committee approvals are obtained and that human and animal rights are not violated.
  • Authors and readers should ensure that information on information and journal policies is up-to-date and accessible. It should show openness and transparency in terms of publication on issues that require explanation.
  • It should ensure academic integrity in the journal.
  • In their positive or negative decisions during the evaluation process, the original value of the articles, their contribution to the field, the validity and reliability of the research method, the clarity of the expression, and the purpose and scope of the journal should be taken into consideration.
  • An article that was rejected during the pre-evaluation process should be explained to the author together with its reasons (it should be ensured that the reasons and approaches of the referees can be clearly explained and are within certain standards).
  • It should ensure that the appropriate referees are selected in line with the contents of the article and should take care not to cause situations where there may be a conflict of interest.
  • The articles should be sent by taking into account the expertise of the field editors and referees, and should support the impartial and independent evaluations.
  • Double-blind refereeing should take care to keep the identity information of the referees and authors confidential during the evaluation process.
  • They should constantly renew the referee lists according to their fields of expertise and work towards expanding the referee pool.
  • It is responsible for notifying the authors of the evaluations of the referees in a timely manner, to ensure that they are sufficiently understandable and clear, and to give them the necessary time for correction.
  • The referees should make sure that their evaluations are made on time, in line with the ethical rules and impartially, and the referees who do not comply with these definitions should be removed from the database.
  • The members of the editorial board should be determined by considering their fields of expertise and contributing to the development of the journal, and should be followed regularly.
  • Evaluate possible criticisms and complaints with an impartial point of view, and respond in an informative and understandable way, taking into account consistent criticisms.
  • It should keep records of articles and related conversations.
  • The journal is responsible for acting and complying with publication ethics, process and policies. 

Authors’ responsibilities;

If it is detected that the authors manipulate the data used in the articles, distort them or use a fabricated text, this situation will be reported to the institution where the author works, and the article will be rejected.

  • The articles they have sent should not have been published anywhere and the same study should not have been applied to more than one journal at the same time.
  • Must submit original works (Research Paper and Review). The author is responsible for citations in whole or in part.
  • They should correctly cite and specify the sources they used during writing in line with ethical principles. The author is responsible.
  • All authors should have knowledge of the work they are involved in. In addition, people who did not contribute to the study should not be mentioned as authors.
  • They should explain the situations that may constitute a conflict of interest of the articles they apply for publication, together with their reasons.
  • If the work was produced from a project and thesis, it should clearly state at the end of the work.
  • He should interpret the data in the sources he used in the study objectively.
  • If he notices an error in his work during the process, he should inform the editor about his requests such as correction or withdrawal.
  • If information or raw data about their articles are requested during the evaluation process, they should present the expected information to the editors.
  • It should have a document stating that they have obtained the necessary permissions and consent of the subjects for all research that requires an ethics committee decision.
  • In the article, they should present evidence of their care for ethical principles in the data collection process (such as obtaining permission from others to use documents such as scales, questionnaires, photographs).
  • It should not make requests such as adding or removing authors or changing the order of the studies in the evaluation process.
  • Must adhere to all rules and responsibilities of Publication Ethics.
  • The article sent to the journal should not be sent to another journal.

Notifying the Editor of the Situation Not Complying with the Ethical Principles

In line with the determined principles, we ask you to notify us via e-mail when a study or behavior that does not comply with ethical principles is detected in the journal.

Special issue or additional numbers are also evaluated depending on the criteria.

Congress/symposium etc. It consists of event notices or articles on a certain subject. According to the subject title, the relevant faculty member in the editorial board can serve as the Guest Editor.

Conflicts of interest

Editors; It ensures that the publication process is completed independently and impartially, taking into account the conflicts of interest between the author(s), referees and other editors.

Protection of Personal Data

Editors; is obliged to ensure the protection of personal data handled in the studies. Individuals are responsible for refusing to work unless their explicit consent is documented. In addition, editors; It also protects the individual data of the author, referee and readers.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Editors; It is obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of the published articles. It is responsible for taking measures so that the content does not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Plagiarism Check

Within the framework of ethical principles and responsibilities presented in the title of Publication Ethics, authors should comply with the section. First, the submitted articles are checked for plagiarism with the iThenticate® (Plagiarism Detection Software) or Turnitin program. Articles with a similarity rate of more than 15%, excluding references, are directly rejected before they go to the evaluation stage.

Ethics Committee, Human and Animal Rights

Editors; is responsible for requesting ethical committee approval for the subjects in order to ensure the protection of human and animal rights in the study; has the right to refuse. In studies that require ethics committee permission, information about the permission (name of the committee, date and number) can be found in the method section, as well as on one of the first/last pages of the article; In case reports, information about signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the article.

Relationship with the magazine owner and Publisher

The relationship between the editors and the publisher According to the principle of editorial independence, all decisions taken by the editors are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.

Publisher Responsibilities;

It should not charge any fee from the authors in any way. Care must be taken to protect the property and copyright of each published article and to keep a record of each copy.

Price policy

Journal of Societal Studies is an open access journal and its content can be accessed online at no cost. Therefore, a product does not charge processing fees (APC) and article submission fees (ASC).

Journal of Societal Studies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-A-Like 4.0 International License.