Publication Ethics

The publication processes of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center (ATAM Journal) are based on the development and sharing of information in an impartial and respectable manner. Peer-reviewed journals are studies that ensure the application of the scientific method and impartiality. In this respect, it is important that all stakeholders of the process (authors, readers and researchers, the publisher, referees and editors / assistant editors / editorial staff) comply with the standards for ethical principles.

Publication ethics and open access policy of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center require that all the components of the publication process comply with ethical principles in line with the guidelines and policies published in open access by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive for Higher Education Institutions published by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

All articles sent for the Journal of Atatürk Research Center with a request for publication must be original and unpublished elsewhere. In addition, they should not be in the evaluation process of another journal. Each article submitted through the Publication Tracking System (YAY-SIS) is pre-examined by the editor / assistant editors / editorial staff. If the articles, the preliminary evaluation of which is complete, are deemed worthy of being sent for review by the Journal’s Editorial Board, they are subjected to double-blind peer-reviewing by at least two referees determined by the Editorial Board. Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, “salami publication”, copyright infringement, concealment of conflict of interest, etc. are considered unethical behaviors.

All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from the publication. This includes possible nonobservant and inappropriate articles which are detected after publication.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher

Atatürk Research Center, which is the publisher of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center, is a non-profit public institution that observes the public interest.

Atatürk Research Center reserves the right of property and copyright of every published article and undertakes to keep a record of every published copy.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

1. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center is responsible for all processes of the articles submitted for the Journal of Atatürk Research Center and the Editorial Board fulfills this responsibility. This necessitates making decisions on issues related to the journal independently, with only the public interest in mind, without considering personal gain. The relationship between the publisher and the Editorial Board is based on the principle of independence. All decisions to be made by the Editorial Board are independent of the publisher and other individuals and organizations.
2. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center strives to continuously improve the journal and increase its publication quality. The Editorial Board pays attention to the originality of the articles, that they contribute to the scientific literature, readers, researchers and practitioners when deciding to publish the articles.
3. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center ensures the determination and implementation of journal policies such as publication, peer-review process, and ethical principles.
4. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center is responsible for taking measures regarding intellectual property rights, unscientific-unethical behaviors, observing similarity rate rules, “citation (reference) violations” during the publication process of the journal.
5. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center prepares a “Writing Guide” for the authors and a “Refereeing Guide” for the referees and updates them when necessary.
6. The Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center determines motivational and result-oriented policies for referees and author(s).

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors/Assistant Editors

Editors and assistant editors as well as the editorial staff of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center should have the following ethical duties and responsibilities based on “COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”, “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “Code of Conduct” published by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) through open access:

Editors / assistant editors / editorial staff are responsible for publishing every article in the journal in accordance with the journal’s publication policies and international standards.

Editors / assistant editors / editorial staff, while expressing positive or negative opinions about the articles, consider the original value of the articles, their contribution to the field, the validity and reliability of the research method, the clarity of the wording, and the purpose and scope of the journal.

Editors / assistant editors / editorial staff apply the policies of blind refereeing and evaluation process, which are among the publication policies of the journal, keep the identity information of the referees confidential, and strive to evaluate each article impartially and on time.

Editors / assistant editors / editorial staff make referee proposals to be submitted to the Editorial Board, taking into account whether there is a conflict / unity of interest between the editors, referees and the author(s) for the unbiased evaluation of the article.

Editors / assistant editors / editorial staff make suggestions to the Editorial Board to prevent the evaluation of articles that do not comply with academic writing rules and that they consider unscientific.

Ethical Responsibilities of Referees

All articles submitted for the Journal of Atatürk Research Center are evaluated by double-blind peer-review method. Double-blind refereeing means keeping the authors confidential from the referees and the referees from the authors in order to ensure an impartial, objective and independent evaluation process. The articles are sent to the referees through the Publication Tracking System (YAY-SIS) for evaluation. The referees are required to fill out a form that includes the contribution to their fields of study of the article which they have evaluated, their decisions on whether or not the article can be published and the reasons for these decisions. The ethical responsibilities and roles of the referees of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center are as follows:

1. Referees should only agree to evaluate articles related to their areas of expertise.
2. Referees should act with the awareness that they are the main determinants of the academic quality of the articles to be published in the journal and should evaluate with the responsibility of increasing the academic quality.
3. The referees should make the evaluation with impartiality and confidentiality. They should not impair the impartiality of the evaluation with concerns related to nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commerce.
4. Referees must abide by the principle of confidentiality. They are obliged to not use the information obtained from the refereeing process for their personal interests. They should not share their reports and information about the articles with others. Additionally, only after the articles they have reviewed have been published can they use the data in the articles.
5. When the referees find out that there is a conflict / unity of interest, they should refuse to evaluate the article and inform the Institution.
6. Referees should only evaluate the accuracy of the content of the articles and their compliance with academic criteria. The fact that the opinions expressed in the article are different from those of the referee should not affect the evaluation.
7. Referees should make the assessment in a constructive language in accordance with academic etiquette. Personal comments that contain insults and hostility should be avoided.
8. In case of any abuse by the author(s) (eg, plagiarism or similar unethical activities), they should immediately notify the relevant editor.
9. The referees are required to complete their evaluations within the time given to them and are expected to comply with the ethical responsibilities set forth herein.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

1. Author(s) should not apply to the journal with an article they have already published elsewhere or sent to be published.
2. Author(s) must submit an original article. Submitted articles should be prepared in accordance with Atatürk Research Center’s Publication Principles of the Journal and Turkish Language Association's Writing and Spelling Rules. (The articles to be sent in a foreign language should include an abstract in Turkish.)
3. Author(s) must correctly refer to and/or cite the sources they used during the writing of the article in line with ethical principles. Author(s) is/are required to cite and/or refer completely and accurately to all sources (authors, online pages, personal interviews, etc.) used in their article.
4. The names of the individuals who do not contribute to the article should not be stated as authors. The authors of the article should be stated during the application. It should not be suggested to change the author order of, to remove an author from, or to add an author to an article that is in the publication process.
5. The author(s) should notify the editors of individuals who have a conflict / unity of interest regarding the article for which the application for publication has been made.
6. If information is requested from the author(s) regarding their articles during the evaluation process, the authors must submit the expected information to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Atatürk Research Center.
7. If corrections are requested regarding the article, the requested corrections must be made within the specified time.
8. When the author(s) notice(s) an error in an article that is in the evaluation and early view stage or in an article published in the electronic environment, they should contact the journal editors of Atatürk Research Center in order to inform them or correct the error.
9. The author(s) should present in the article the evidence that they care about ethical principles in the data collection process (eg, obtaining the permission to use other people's documents such as scales, questionnaires, photographs). It should be stated that research and publication ethics and copyright regulations for intellectual and artistic works are complied with in the articles.
10. Articles sent for publication should not be contrary to scientific research and publication ethics (plagiarism, forgery, distortion, republishing, slicing, unfair authorship, other ethical violations) specified in the “Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive for Higher Education Institutions”.
11. COPE’s International Standards for Editors and Authors should be taken into account for scientific articles submitted for the journal.
12. Raw data can be requested from the author(s) regarding their articles within the framework of the evaluation processes. In such a case, the author(s) must be prepared to present the expected data and information to the journal’s Editorial Board.
13. The author(s) must document the right of use obtained for the data they used in their articles, the permissions for the research-analysis, and the consent of the individuals on whom they have conducted research. The author(s) must state that they received ethics committee approval for studies that necessitate data collection through quantitative or qualitative methods such as experiments, questionnaires, scales, interviews, observations, focus group studies, which require an ethics committee decision. The name of the ethics committee, the date and number of the decision must also be specified in the method section and on the first or last page of the article to be sent. They must upload the document showing the ethics committee decision to the system together with the article. It must be stated that research and publication ethics and copyright regulations for intellectual and artistic works are complied with in the articles. For articles related to studies that do not require ethics committee approval, a statement must be made regarding this issue.

Notifying the Editor of the Situation Contrary to the Ethical Principles

In case of any unethical circumstance regarding the Journal of Atatürk Research Center, information regarding the relevant issue can be provided via journal@atam.gov.tr.

The editors of the journal and/or the Editorial Board take action when there is a suspicion of plagiarism or forgery regarding both published and unpublished articles, and if ethical violations are detected, they make decisions according to the rules of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).