1. Publication Ethics

The Turkish Research Journal of Academic Social Science (TURAJAS) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, open-access periodical that publishes original research articles, review articles, and other scholarly work within its scope in the social sciences.

Submissions must not have been published previously or be under consideration by another journal at the same time. They must comply with the principles of research and publication ethics. Authors bear scientific, ethical, and legal responsibility for published articles; views expressed in articles do not represent those of the editor, journal boards, or publisher.

TURAJAS follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed with DOAJ. The journal also observes the current publishing principles of TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM and DergiPark.

2. Open Access Policy

All scholarly content published by TURAJAS is made freely and openly available immediately upon publication without an embargo. Readers are not required to register, subscribe, or pay to access full texts.

Users may read, download, copy, share, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts, and otherwise use published content for lawful purposes under the terms of the applicable Creative Commons licence.

3. Fee Policy

TURAJAS does not charge authors submission, screening, peer-review, editorial processing, article processing (APC), publication, page, colour-figure, language-editing, or withdrawal fees. All evaluation and publication processes are free of charge for authors.

4. Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher

TURAJAS has operated since 2018 as a not-for-profit scholarly journal in the social sciences. The publisher:

·    Uses communication facilities without pursuing individual or commercial interests.

·    Respects copyright and intellectual property rights in published works.

·    Maintains open, electronic, and free access to the journal.

·    Safeguards editorial independence and does not interfere with editorial decisions.

·    Protects the independence and confidentiality of peer review.

·    Takes measures to comply with the announced publication schedule.

·    Protects the integrity of the scholarly record and implements correction or retraction procedures when necessary.

·    Ensures long-term digital preservation and accessibility of published content.

·    Observes confidentiality, conflicts of interest, intellectual property, and editorial independence in relationships among editors, reviewers, authors, and third parties.

Readers, authors, reviewers, and other interested parties may contact the editorial office when they encounter an ethical concern.

5. Responsibilities of the Editor and Editorial Board

The editor and Editorial Board are responsible for evaluating submissions and maintaining the scholarly record after publication. Editorial decisions are made independently on the basis of scholarly merit and the public interest, without regard to personal or institutional interests.

The editor and Editorial Board:

·    Implement the journal's policies and work to improve publication quality.

·    Apply double-anonymous peer review and protect the identities of the parties.

·    Assign submissions to independent reviewers with appropriate subject and methodological expertise.

·    Evaluate submissions solely on scholarly merit, irrespective of authors' gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, race, citizenship, ethnic origin, religion, political opinion, or institutional affiliation.

·    Do not disclose submission information to anyone other than persons involved in evaluation.

·    Decide whether to accept, revise, or reject after considering reviewer reports; the editor bears final responsibility for publication decisions.

·    Protect authors' copyright and intellectual property rights.

·    Verify ethics approval, exemption declarations, legal permissions, informed consent, legal-representative permission, and assent where required.

·    Investigate ethical complaints and allegations of research or publication misconduct in accordance with COPE guidance and journal policies.

·    Issue corrections, retractions, or editorial notices when necessary.

6. Peer Review and Evaluation Process

TURAJAS applies double-anonymous peer review. Authors and reviewers do not know one another's identities. Reviewers may not communicate directly with authors; reports and revision requests are transmitted through the DergiPark system by the editorial office.

Every research or review article that passes editorial screening is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with expertise in the relevant field. Where opinions conflict or provide an insufficient basis for a decision, a third and, when necessary, a fourth independent reviewer may be consulted.

Reviewers may recommend:

1.  Accept for publication.

2.  Accept after minor revisions.

3.  Reconsider after major revisions.

4.  Reject.

Reviewers:

·    Accept assignments only within their expertise.

·    Prepare objective, impartial, scholarly, and constructive reports.

·    Decline and inform the editor when an institutional, financial, personal, or academic conflict exists.

·    Keep all information relating to the manuscript and evaluation confidential.

·    Submit reports within the assigned period.

·    Do not use unpublished information, data, or ideas obtained through review for personal purposes.

7. Special Issues

Special issues are subject to the same scholarly and ethical standards as regular issues. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the entire special issue and all final publication decisions.

·    Special-issue manuscripts undergo the same editorial screening and independent peer review as regular submissions.

·    Guest editors' scholarly qualifications and potential conflicts are assessed before appointment.

·    Manuscripts submitted by guest editors are handled by an independent editor, and the author's access to or influence over the process is prevented.

·    Research articles authored or co-authored by guest editors may not exceed 25 percent of research articles in the relevant special issue.

·    Every special issue must be consistent with the journal's aims and scope.

8. Endogeny and Editorial Conflicts of Interest

Research articles authored by an editor, Editorial Board member, or regular reviewer may not exceed 25 percent of all research articles in either of the two most recent issues.

A manuscript submitted by an editor, board member, or other journal officer is handled throughout by an independent editor, with the author's access to and influence over the process prevented. The author may not participate in editorial actions or decisions concerning their manuscript.

9. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Authors:

·    Warrant that their work is original and is not under consideration elsewhere at the same time.

·    Cite material from other sources or their prior publications appropriately and obtain necessary permissions.

·    Warrant that data, findings, and images are accurate and have not been fabricated, falsified, or misleadingly altered.

·    Disclose existing or potential institutional, financial, personal, and academic conflicts at submission.

·    Disclose funding sources and the role of each funder.

·    Follow authorship criteria; they do not list persons without a meaningful scholarly contribution or exclude eligible contributors.

·    Provide requested information and raw data subject to ethical and legal restrictions.

·    Notify the editorial office promptly upon identifying a significant error or inaccuracy.

The author list and order must be finalised at submission. Requests to add or remove an author or change author order during evaluation must include a justification and the written consent of all authors. The editor makes the final decision.

10. Research Ethics and Ethics Committee Approval

TURAJAS requires compliance with national and international ethical principles for the protection of human and animal rights. Authors are responsible for ensuring that research is planned, conducted, and reported in accordance with ethical requirements.

Research Requiring Ethics Committee Approval

For research requiring ethics committee approval, authors must state the committee's name, decision date, and decision or approval number in the Methods section and journal declaration fields. The approval document must be uploaded at submission.

Research requiring ethics committee approval particularly includes:

·    Quantitative or qualitative research collecting participant data through surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, experiments, or similar methods;

·    Research using humans or animals, including their materials or data, for scholarly purposes;

·    Clinical research involving human participants;

·    Research involving animals;

·    Retrospective research using personal or special-category personal data; and

·    Other research involving intervention, behaviour modification, physical or psychological risk, or privacy risk.

Studies That May Not Require Ethics Committee Approval

The need for ethics review is determined in light of the research method, source and nature of the data, interaction with participants, risk of re-identification, applicable law, and institutional rules. The following types of work may generally not require ethics committee approval, provided that they involve no human or animal participants, use no personal, sensitive, or confidential data, create no possibility of re-identifying individuals, and are not otherwise subject to approval under applicable law:

·    Traditional or systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses based solely on published sources;

·    Theoretical, conceptual, and methodological studies;

·    Bibliometric and scientometric research using publicly available bibliographic records;

·    Studies using fully anonymised secondary datasets made publicly available through lawful means;

·    Research based on public statistics, institutional reports, or open databases that contain no personal data;

·    Simulations and synthetic-data studies using no data relating to real persons or animals;

·    Analyses of legislation, works, documents, archives, or publicly available content that process no personal data; and

·    Editorials and book reviews involving no research participants or personal data.

The fact that a study falls within one of the categories listed above does not, by itself, mean that the study is exempt from ethics committee approval.. A study's derivation from a thesis, prior collection of its data, or perceived low-risk status does not by itself establish exemption. Authors are responsible for determining whether approval is required; the final determination rests with the competent ethics committee or institution under applicable law. In cases of doubt, the editorial office may request an ethics committee decision, exemption letter, or Declaration That Ethics Committee Approval Is Not Required. Where approval is not required, the article must state this fact and its justification clearly.

Informed Consent Legal Representative Permission and Assent

Informed consent is the voluntary agreement of a participant with decision-making capacity after receiving understandable information about the study's purpose, methods, anticipated uses, potential risks and benefits, confidentiality, use of data, and the right to withdraw without penalty.

For studies involving human participants:

·    Participation must be voluntary, and written or otherwise documented informed consent must be obtained as required by the ethics committee and applicable law.

·    Participants must have the opportunity to ask questions, decline participation, and withdraw without adverse consequences.

·    For children, persons under guardianship, or individuals who lack capacity to provide legally valid consent, permission must be obtained from a parent, guardian, or other authorised legal representative.

·    Assent is the affirmative agreement to participate given by a person who lacks full legal capacity to consent but can understand the research at a level appropriate to their age and decision-making capacity.

·    Where the participant has the capacity to provide assent, both legal-representative permission and age- and capacity-appropriate assent must be obtained. Neither replaces the other.

·    Silence or failure to object does not constitute assent. A participant's refusal or later wish to withdraw must be respected unless an exceptional arrangement has been approved by the ethics committee.

·    A waiver or alteration of consent may be used only where permitted by applicable law and approved by the competent ethics committee.

·    Participant confidentiality and personal data must be protected, and all necessary institutional permissions must be obtained.

·    The Methods section must explain how informed consent, legal-representative permission, and assent were obtained.

·    Authors must state that the research complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable national and international ethical standards.

For case reports, informed consent for publication must be obtained, and identifying information or images must not be used unless essential. Ethics committee approval does not remove the need for informed consent or permission to publish where these are required.

11. Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups in Research

Research involving children, persons with limited decision-making capacity, persons with disabilities, persons deprived of liberty, refugees, economically or socially disadvantaged persons, or other groups vulnerable to pressure because of power relationships must comply with the relevant provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable law.

·    Inclusion of a vulnerable group must be scientifically justified; if the same objective can be achieved with a less vulnerable group, inclusion should be avoided.

·    Additional safeguards must protect participants' physical, psychological, and social well-being.

·    Information and assent processes must be appropriate to the participant's age, language, circumstances, and decision-making capacity.

·    Legal-representative permission and assent must be documented separately, and authority, dependency, or incentive relationships that might affect voluntariness must be managed.

·    Personal information may be used only to the extent necessary and must remain confidential.

·    Applicable reporting duties must be observed where abuse, neglect, or mistreatment is suspected.

·    The study's scholarly merit, risk, and social value must be evaluated by an ethics committee.

·    Participants' rights, safety, and well-being take precedence over scholarly or societal interests.

12. Research and Publication Misconduct

TURAJAS follows the Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics of Higher Education Institutions and COPE guidance. Principal forms of misconduct include:

·    Plagiarism: Presenting another person's ideas, methods, data, or work as one's own in whole or in part without appropriate attribution.

·    Fabrication: Using data that do not exist or have been manufactured.

·    Falsification: Manipulating records or data, misrepresenting unused equipment or materials as used, or shaping results to serve particular interests.

·    Duplicate publication: Presenting the same study or substantially the same content as more than one publication.

·    Salami slicing: Dividing one study's results into multiple publications in a manner that compromises research integrity.

·    Improper authorship: Listing persons without qualifying contributions, excluding eligible contributors, or changing author order improperly.

·    Concealment of conflicts of interest: Failing to disclose relationships that could affect the work or evaluation.

·    Misrepresentation of ethics approval, exemption, or consent: Claiming that required permissions or documents exist when they do not or altering relevant documents.

Evaluation may be suspended when misconduct is suspected. Allegations are investigated with regard for confidentiality, impartiality, and the right of response; the author's institution or competent authority may be contacted when necessary.

13. Plagiarism and Similarity Policy

Submissions are screened using similarity-detection software. A total similarity score of 20 percent or less does not automatically qualify a submission for evaluation or publication. Unattributed use, substantial similarity to one source, block copying, or use that undermines scholarly originality is unacceptable even where the total score is lower.

Reports may be obtained through Turnitin or iThenticate. Thesis-derived work and expanded versions of papers presented at scholarly meetings must be disclosed in the Title Page Form at submission.

14. Copyright and Licensing Policy

Authors retain copyright in articles published in TURAJAS. Authors grant TURAJAS a non-exclusive right of first publication and authorise the journal to publish, distribute, archive, preserve over the long term, and make the published version publicly available in electronic and other media.

All TURAJAS articles are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence. Users may share and adapt a work for non-commercial purposes, provided they credit the authors and original source, link to the licence, and indicate changes.

Authors do not transfer copyright or exclusive publication rights to TURAJAS or its publisher.

Copyright: © Author(s)

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

The Publication and Licensing Agreement must be signed or electronically approved by all authors.

Self Archiving

TURAJAS permits authors to deposit and make publicly available the submitted version (preprint), the Author Accepted Manuscript, and the published Version of Record of their articles in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal academic websites, or other appropriate scholarly platforms. No embargo period applies to any of these versions.

When the published Version of Record is deposited, authors must provide full bibliographic details of the original publication in TURAJAS, include the article DOI, and indicate that the article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

Third Party Material

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for copyrighted third-party material not covered by the Creative Commons licence. Material excluded from the licence must be identified clearly in the article.

15. Digital Archiving and Preservation

Content published by TURAJAS is hosted on the DergiPark infrastructure and preserved through DergiPark's long-term digital-preservation mechanisms. Content archived through LOCKSS may be preserved and made accessible if the journal becomes unavailable or ceases publication.

DOI links assigned as persistent identifiers are kept current. If an article's web address changes, its DOI is updated to resolve to the correct full-text landing page.

16. Conflicts of Interest

·    Authors disclose all existing or potential institutional, financial, personal, and academic conflicts at submission.

·    Reviewers inform the editor and withdraw if a conflict could prevent impartial evaluation.

·    Editors do not participate in evaluating or deciding on manuscripts written by themselves, family members, or close academic collaborators.

·    The journal takes care not to assign reviewers employed by the same institution as the authors.

·    Submissions authored by editors or board members are handled by an independent editor; the author's editorial access is restricted until completion.

17. Data Sharing and Research Reproducibility

Unless ethical or legal restrictions apply, authors are encouraged to share data in a trusted repository and include a data-availability statement. When data cannot be shared, the reason should be stated. Personal, sensitive, or confidential data must not be shared without appropriate anonymisation and compliance with applicable law.

The editorial office may request raw data, analysis code, or supporting documents for an ethical investigation or verification of findings.

18. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

·    Generative AI and automated tools may not be credited as authors or used as scholarly sources.

·    Authors must disclose generative AI tools used to prepare the manuscript and their purposes, except where use is limited to basic language correction and formatting.

·    Authors bear final responsibility for the accuracy, originality, source validity, and ethical appropriateness of AI output.

·    Confidential, personal, copyrighted, or unpublished data and documents may not be uploaded to AI systems lacking appropriate security safeguards.

·    Reviewers and editors may not upload confidential submission files to generative AI systems or delegate scholarly evaluation or editorial decision-making to such tools.

·    Automated tools routinely used by the journal are subject to human oversight. Automated findings on similarity, image manipulation, duplicate publication, or undisclosed AI use may not serve as a decision basis until verified by an authorised editor.

19. Corrections Retractions and Removal

When an error or ethical violation affecting the scholarly record is identified, TURAJAS issues a correction, retracts the article, or removes it in exceptional circumstances, depending on the nature of the matter and in accordance with COPE guidance.

·    Minor typographical errors not affecting conclusions may be addressed through an editorial correction.

·    Errors affecting findings, interpretations, authorship, or the scholarly record require a reasoned correction notice.

·    Retraction may be considered for unreliable findings, serious misconduct, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or illegality.

·    Removal is considered only in exceptional circumstances involving serious legal risk, breach of privacy, or a security threat.

·    Correction and retraction notices are dated, reasoned, openly accessible, and linked bidirectionally to the article.

·    The bibliographic record is retained; DOI and metadata are updated to reflect the action.

20. Complaints and Appeals Policy

Authors, reviewers, and readers may submit reasoned complaints or appeals concerning the editorial process, publication ethics, or published content, together with supporting documents, to hbircan@gmail.com.

·    Receipt is acknowledged within a reasonable period.

·    The matter is examined by an editor or board member without a conflict of interest.

·    A complaint concerning the Editor-in-Chief is examined by an independent board member or expert not previously involved.

·    Relevant parties have an opportunity to respond.

·    The outcome and reasons are communicated in writing subject to confidentiality.

·    Appeals against editorial decisions are considered only when alleging a significant procedural error, conflict of interest, or clear error in scholarly assessment. An appeal does not imply acceptance.

·    Ethical complaints and unresolved disputes are handled in accordance with COPE guidance.

21. Confidentiality and Protection of Personal Data

Personal data obtained during submission and evaluation are processed solely for the journal's scholarly publishing activities and in accordance with applicable data-protection law. Information about authors, reviewers, and editors is not disclosed to unauthorised third parties.

Reviewer reports, unpublished manuscripts, raw data, and editorial correspondence are confidential. They may not be disclosed unless required by law or necessary for an ethical investigation.

22. Advertising Revenue Sources and Editorial Independence

TURAJAS operates on a not-for-profit basis and does not charge authors. Funding or support may not influence editorial decisions. Any sponsorship or advertising is disclosed transparently; advertising and commercial decisions remain separate from scholarly evaluation. Misleading advertising or advertising that could be confused with editorial content is not published.

23. Policy Updates

This policy may be reviewed in response to developments in scholarly publishing standards. Material changes are published on the policy page with the update date. All language versions are updated simultaneously to prevent inconsistencies.