Introduction
At IKAM, the integrity of our academic content and publishing process is paramount. This section outlines the best practice principles that we apply to our journals. We hope these guidelines will be useful to many different groups, including authors, peer reviewers, editors within and outside of TUJISE, societies, and funders. At IKAM, we aim to support publishers and editors to achieve high standards in publishing ethics. In scientific articles submitted to the journal COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) International Standards for Editors and Authors should be taken into consideration. Any external guidelines we follow are referred to in the relevant sections below.
Research Integrity
We expect researches published by IKAM to follow some research integrity principles which are:
• Honesty in all aspects of research.
• Scrupulous care, thoroughness and excellence in research practice.
• Transparency and open communication.
• Care and respect for all participants in and subjects of research.
In addition to the general principles above, our editorial board may also provide some specific guidelines for authors on research integrity and ethics.
Anyone who believes that research published by IKAM/TUJISE has not been carried out in line with these Research Publishing Ethics Guidelines, or the above principles, should raise their concern by sending an email to editor@tujise.org.
Ethical Issues
TUJISE supports the development and practical application of cosistent ethical standards throughout the scholarly publishing community. The following ethical issues if arise are taken on seriously by the journal's editorial board and strict action is taken.
- Plagiarism
- Dual Publication
- Self-plagiarism
- Authorship issues
- Coercive citation
- Defamation
- Fabricated data
- Unethical research and testing
- Conflict of interest
Ethical Policy
The publication of articles in a refereed journal through authoritative reviews is highly significant in the development of a respectable and consistent information network, for this is an indicator to the quality of the authors’ researches and to the institutions supporting these authors. Scientific methods are adopted and supported in the articles reviewed by authoritative referees. For this reason, it is considerably important that all actors involved in publication process, namely authors, editors and referees, should agree on certain ethical attitudes
Approval of an article sent to TUJISE for publication depends on the following ethical and legal conditions:
- Every author agrees on the article’s content and the submission of this content to the journal.
- The article’s content is approved through reviews by authoritative and responsible referees.
- The article, partially or completely, has not been published before, in any language.
- An article submitted to TUJISE for publication must not be submitted to another journal during the review process.
- If a draft submitted to TUJISE includes figures, tables or long text block that have been published before, the author is responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright owners. All copyrighted elements should be specified appropriately in the draft submitted to TUJISE.
Editorial and Peer Review Process
We prioritize editorial independence, and strive in all cases to prevent this principle from being compromised through conflicts of interest, fear, or any other corporate, business, financial or political influence. Our editorial processes reflect this priority of editorial independence.
TUJISE does not discriminate against authors, editors or peer reviewers based on personal characteristics or identity.
A thorough review is an essential part of scientific development. Reviews by independent scholars are recommendations of the articles of highest quality to TUJISE’s editorial board. All articles are subject to completely confidential review process. In order to gain acceptance, all articles submitted to TUJISE for evaluation must have never been previously published. Submissions are first reviewed by the editorial board. If an article satisfies the necessary conditions of style and content, reviewers will then proceed to evaluate its suitability for publication. All articles undergo evaluation by two anonymous reviewers. If necessary, the article may be sent to a third reviewer for further assessment. The publication of an article depends upon the approval of these reviewers. Authors must provide the necessary corrections demanded by reviewers.
Both the authors and referees of TUJISE are international. Referees are carefully selected from scholars throughout the world. The names of referees are kept confidential and known only for the editors whose names are not disclosed. All works submitted for publication are reviewed objectively without regard to authors’ race, gender, religious view, ethnicity, citizenship, political tendency, age and reputation.
TUJISE’s editors regularly examine the quality of the articles. Rating the review quality and other performative characteristics of the referees are revisited in certain period of times. We consider some of performance criteria, such as the review completion time, for increasing the effectiveness of the journal. Those editors who do not contribute to the quality of TUJISE may be excluded from the editorial board.
We encourage our editors and peer reviewers to follow our guidelines on peer review process. We support our editors and peer reviewers in investigating of any kind of violation of the guidelines. We also ask them to protect the confidentiality of participants in the peer review process.
No abusive behavior or act will be tolerated towards anyone involved in the publishing process. If anyone involved in this process engages in such behavior we have the right to take action to protect others from this abuse.
Declaration of Opinion by Editors
TUJISE demands from the referees an explanatory short paragraph(s) on their opinions as proof of objectivity in reviewing process. This transparency is due to the ethical responsibility to authors and readers. It also addresses to the free declaration of opinion expected from authors, referees and book reviewers. Members of editorial office are expected to avoid from any arrangements that might potentially influence them or decide to create a disagreement.
Selection of Referees and Their Responsibilities.
The groups of referees for TUJISE are selected from the scholars who are authoritative on the subjects of articles. Their selection is for their objectivity and excellence in scientific knowledge. All selected referees are informed about what TUJISE expects from them. They are all required to fill out a review form and, if necessary, prepare a separate report.
Reviewing process is expected to be academic, honest, courteous, precise and constructive. The basic characteristics of a high quality review are the following:
• The referees should outline weak and strong aspects of the work in respect to its organization and methodology and also comment on each of these.
• By taking into consideration of the probability of a limited data available to the author, the referees should criticize his ability of processing the data in a fair and constructive way.
• The referees should identify weak and strong aspects of the work as a written means of communication, without regard to its organization, methodology, results and processing.
• The referees should express their opinions on the work concerning whether it has ethically ominous content or whether it is below the standard for its scientific value.
• The referees should give helpful suggestions for the development of the work.
• The referees should have constructive and professional critiques addressed to the authors.
• The review should provide a fair perspective and content to have a decision of acceptance (or revision).
• The referees are expected to identify the works that do not include citations or have not cited usage of other works and specify which parts are reproduced by the author without citation. The referees should also state the outstanding similarities between the work submitted to TUJISE and any other study published in another journal.
• The referees should not contact with the author directly. In principle, the journal seeks reviews by two authoritative scholars, but their opinions on the article may not be the same as editor’s.
Authorship and Contributorship
The authors of a work can include the individuals who contributed significantly to the ideas, project and draft or translation of the work. These individuals who contributed significantly can be listed as assisting authors. The primary author should clearly state that all assisting authors are declared accurately and they all have seen the final draft of the work and have agreed on its submission for publication.
We demand the corresponding author to be the person who handles the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process.
We ask that the corresponding authors confirm that they have the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. The corresponding authors are responsible for obtaining such agreements and for informing the co-authors of the manuscript’s status throughout the publication process. In addition, the corresponding author also acts as the main point of contact for any enquiries after the paper is published.
We encourage authors to list anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship in an Acknowledgments section in their publication, for example to recognize the contributions of anyone who provided research or writing assistance.
We support our editors in dealing with any authorship disputes, and also care about transparency in authorship. We integrate with established and emerging industry standards to increase transparency in authorship, for example, ORCID.
Corrective Action
Authors submitting works to TUJISE do so on the understanding if it is discovered that these basic principles have not been adhered to, strict action will be taken. A notice in this regard may be issued by the Associate Editor if there has been a small error or insight. A retraction notice will be issued in serious cases of ethical misconduct or where the research is seriously flawed and misleading.
Access to Data and Preservation
Concerning revisions during the review process, the authors may be asked to show some of the sources they used in the articles; in case of such a request, they must provide access to these sources. Nevertheless, the authors may choose to withhold the sources and data for a short period, even after the publication.
Originality and Plagiarism
The authors must prove that the works are product of their original research and if they utilize the works or ideas of others, they should quote and convey them accurately and appropriately.
Plagiarism is ‘using someone’s ideas, words, data, or other material produced by them without acknowledgement’. Plagiarism can occur in respect to all types of sources and media, including:
• Text, illustrations, musical quotations, extended mathematical derivations, computer code, etc…
• Material downloaded from websites or drawn from manuscripts or other medias.
• Published and unpublished material, including lectures, presentations and grey literature.
All kinds of plagiarism are unethical behaviors and are not acceptable. “We do not tolerate plagiarism in any of our publications, and we reserve the right to check all submissions through appropriate plagiarism checking tools” particularly iThenticate. “Submissions containing suspected plagiarism, in whole or part, will be rejected. We expect our readers, reviewers and
editors to raise any suspicions of plagiarism, either by contacting the editorial board or by emailing editor@tujise.org.
Multiple, Repeating and Simultaneous Publication
Duplicate or redundant publication, or ‘self-plagiarism’, occurs when a work, or substantial parts of a work, is published more than once by the author(s) of the work without appropriate cross-referencing or justification for the overlap. This can be in the same or a different language.
Having published a work, the authors should not initiate multiple publications of their work based on the same research. Simultaneous publication of the same work is unethical behavior and is not acceptable.
Likewise, authors are expected not to submit their published works to another journal for review. For this, the author and editors of the journal should agree on a second publication of the work including the sources and interpretation of the first publication. The references in the first publication should be represented accurately in the second publication.
We expect our readers, reviewers and editors to raise any suspicions of duplicate or redundant publication, either by contacting the editorial board or by emailing editor@tujise.org.
Research with Humans or Animals
Research involving humans or animals should be approved by relevant ethics committee(s) and should conform to international ethical and legal standards for research. We also expect authors to respect human participants’ right to privacy, and to gain any necessary consent to publish before submitting to us.
Conflicts of Interest
We try to ensure that any TUJISE publication is free from undue influence. Authors submitting a manuscript to TUJISE, editors and reviewers of TUJISE, are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest that could interfere with the objectivity or integrity of a publication. Conflicts of interest are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on a piece of work. These may be financial, non-financial, professional, contractual or personal in nature. We also expect that anyone who suspects an undisclosed conflict of interest regarding a work published or under consideration by TUJISE should inform the editorial board or email editor@tujise.org.
Libel, Defamation and Freedom of Expression
We as an academic publisher respect the freedom of expression, but we do not support
publishing false statements that harm the reputation of individuals, groups, or
organizations.
Research Misconduct
Where we are made aware of fraudulent research or research misconduct by an author, our first concern is the integrity of content we have published. Any publication found to include fraudulent results will be retracted, or an appropriate correction or expression of concern will be issued.
Open and Fair Access
TUJISE has a policy of open access. All published articles and reviews can be accessed from the webpage. A hardcopy of TUJISE will be sent to each author. In addition this, each corresponding author will receive an electronic copy of his/her article for free of charge.
Censorship
We do not comply with any kind of censorship. TUJISE respects freedom of speech and expression. As a journal, our goal is to disseminate knowledge to the widest possible audience, and to serve the academic community in all countries around the world.
Copyediting and Proofreading
TUJISE publishes articles only in English. Please write your text in good English. Authors should copyedited their article before submitting it. You may use our copyediting services. In this case charges for this service belong to the Authors.
The authors, who notice a mistake or an error in their published work, are responsible to contact immediately with TUJISE editors or publishers to correct or withdraw their work through collaboration with the editor. If the editor or publisher is informed by third person about important mistakes in a published article, it is completely the author’s responsibility to withdraw or correct the mistakes or provide the evidence confirming the accuracy of the original research to the editor.
Order for Publication
Having finished all reviews and revisions, the Editorial Board begins ordering publication of articles. In principle, articles are published in respect to their submission order; however some exceptions might happen for special issues and extraordinary conditions. If such an exception is decided, the authors are informed in this respect.
Letter of Acceptance
The editorial board sends a letter of acceptance if the author needs and requests such a letter. This letter includes Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, which the author may need for later official paperwork.
Using DOI
DOI can be used for citation and providing access to electronic documents. DOI is a unique alphanumeric band, assigned to each document for the electronic publication by the publisher. An assigned DOI is never changed. Therefore, it is a suitable means for citing a document, especially when its bibliographical information is not yet complete. When DOI is used to create a link to a document on the internet, this identifier link is never changed.
Confidentiality
The information and opinions acquired by the referees during the review process are all kept confidential and are never used for the advantage of someone. The submission of an article, as a special presentation, is kept confidential completely.
• The referees do not accept the submission of an article and reproduce the submitted material. Without written permission of the editor, the referees do not share the article with colleagues.
• Before the publication of an article, the referees and editors cannot utilize the data, ideas or subjects without permission of the author (unless it is strictly related to review process) and they cannot write and comment on the article.
• If a referee is not able to review a work or complete the review with some delay, he/she should inform TUJISE.
• The referees should review the quality of the work objectively, criticize it in an open, impartial and constructive way and avoid personal criticism against the authors. It is appropriate that the authors see and know the referees’ comments. Therefore, the referees’ judgments should be stated clearly and supported in order to facilitate the authors understand the comments and principles of review.
• If the referees suspect a violation, they can inform the editor about this easily. But they should not share the issue with others unless they receive a directive concerning this.
Please contact immediately with the editor by sending a message to editor@tujise.org for further information about a work under review for its supposed unethical conduct.