PUBLICATION ETHICS

Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences adheres to the guidelines of several organizations, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME), and the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, promoting transparency, integrity, and best practices in scholarly publishing.

Medical research involving human subjects must comply with the WMA Declaration of Helsinki (2013), ensuring informed consent, privacy protection, and participant safety. The journal also follows WAME’s Recommendations on Publication Ethics for Medical Journals, addressing conflicts of interest, research misconduct, and the peer review process to maintain integrity and transparency.

Ethics Committee Approval and Informed Consent

Ethical standards are upheld in both human and animal experiments. Authors must provide evidence of approval from a local Ethics Committee when required. Animal research should be conducted humanely, with clear reporting of anesthetics and analgesics used. Ethical standards must align with the WMA’s Code of Ethics (Declaration of Helsinki) for human studies and EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal research. A statement of ethics committee approval must be included in the ‘Materials and Methods’ section, in accordance with the ICMJE Recommendations. The journal will not consider any manuscript deemed ethically unacceptable.

If a manuscript is submitted to Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences without ethics committee approval, the journal will review it according to COPE's Research, Audit, and Service Evaluations guideline. This guideline helps the journal assess the risks and ethical concerns of publishing research lacking ethics committee approval, ensuring that the manuscript meets ethical standards despite the absence of formal approval.

Authors must provide detailed information on the ethical treatment of animals in their manuscript, including measures taken to prevent pain and suffering. The ARRIVE checklist can be used to help authors present this information clearly and comprehensively.

• For research involving human subjects, a statement confirming that written and/or verbal informed consent was obtained from all participants must be included. Informed consent forms should be retained for future reference.
• For studies involving children under 18, consent must be obtained from a parent or guardian, as children may not fully understand the risks and benefits of research.
  
• In cases of surveys or interviews, authors must confirm that participants gave informed consent for participation and, if applicable, for recording personal details. Any identifiable quotations or statements must be de-identified unless explicit consent for attribution is provided.
• Details of informed consent should be provided in the Methods section, along with other relevant research procedures. Authors must protect participants' anonymity and privacy, particularly regarding photographs that may reveal identities. Signed consent releases for photographs should be obtained, and the approval for publication must be documented in the Methods section.

Plagiarism and Ethical Misconduct

All submissions undergo multiple screenings during the peer review and/or production processes using similarity detection software. When citing previous works, ensure that all material is properly referenced. Copying text, tables, or illustrations from any source (journal articles, books, theses, electronic media, etc.) and presenting them as one's own is considered plagiarism, even if a reference is provided. Listing the source in the 'References' section does not absolve authors of responsibility for plagiarism.

Authors are strongly encouraged to avoid any form of plagiarism or ethical misconduct, as illustrated below:

• Citation Manipulation: Refers to inflating citation counts through self-citation, excessive citation of the same journal, or citation stacking, which distorts academic recognition.
• Self-Plagiarism (Text Recycling): Involves reusing sections or sentences from an author's prior work without proper citation, constituting a form of plagiarism.
• Salami Slicing: The unethical practice of publishing multiple articles using the same data set, hypotheses, and methods from a single study.
• Data Fabrication: The creation of false data not supported by actual research or experiments, considered a serious breach of research integrity.
• Data Manipulation/Falsification: Involves altering data, such as modifying images or removing outliers, to mislead or misrepresent findings.

In cases of suspected misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, or data falsification), the Editorial Board will follow COPE guidelines to ensure fair, transparent, and consistent handling of allegations.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

All articles published in the Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences are permanently accessible online at no cost, with no registration requirements. Authors retain the copyright to their work while permitting third parties to share, reproduce, and distribute the content in accordance with the journal’s Copyright and Ethics policy.

As of 2025, all published content will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which allows non-commercial use, distribution, and modification, provided proper credit is given to the original source.

The content published before February 25 was licensed under a traditional copyright, but the archive is still available for free access.

All journal content can be accessed freely at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/anatphar.

COPYRIGHT POLICY
Articles published in the Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This allows third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly credited. A Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship form should be submitted with all manuscripts. By signing this form, authors agree that the article, if accepted for publication by the Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Authors retain the copyright of their published work in the Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

ADVERTISING POLICY

Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences accepts digital advertisements on its website, provided they are approved by the journal's Editorial Board and management. All advertisements must be clearly labeled as such. Advertisers have no influence on editorial decisions or advertising policies.

For advertising inquiries, please contact the Editorial Office (inueditorial@inonu.edu.tr).

PEER REVIEW PROCESS
Anatolian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences adheres to a rigorous and transparent double-anonymized peer-review process to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity.

• Double Anonymized Peer Review

Manuscripts undergo a double-anonymized peer-review process, ensuring that both authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other. Each submission is reviewed by at least two independent external reviewers who are experts in the relevant field.

• Selection of Reviewers

Authors may suggest potential reviewers; however, the final decision on reviewer selection is made by the editor, who is not obliged to use the authors' suggested reviewers.

• Confidentiality

Confidentiality is crucial throughout the review process. Reviewers are required to keep the manuscript confidential and may not share it with others without the editor’s prior consent. This confidentiality extends to colleagues who may be asked to provide feedback with the editor’s permission.

• Timeliness and Objectivity

Reviewers should provide prompt, accurate, and unbiased feedback. Reviews should be evidence-based, well-reasoned, and constructive, aiming to enhance the quality of the manuscript.

• Suspected Misconduct

Reviewers are required to report any suspected research misconduct confidentially to the editor to uphold the integrity of the review process.

• Transparency

The journal ensures transparency by publicly sharing details about the peer-review process, reviewer selection criteria, and the appeals procedure. Key metrics, such as acceptance rates and publication timelines, are regularly audited and shared to promote transparency.

• Final Decision

The Editor in Chief assesses the suitability of submissions. Suitable manuscripts are assigned to Section Editors who manage the review process, request revisions, or decide whether to reject the submission. Section Editors provide their recommendations, which are forwarded to the Editor in Chief for the final decision.

• Reviewer Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must disclose any potential conflicts of interest before accepting an invitation to review. All communications between editors and reviewers are confidential.

• External Editors

To ensure fairness, manuscripts submitted by members of the editorial board are handled by external editors, who are selected based on their qualifications and experience. These external editors must also disclose any conflicts of interest.

• Review Deviation Transparency

If the peer review process deviates from the standard policy, the type of review will be clearly stated on the article to ensure transparency and accountability.

REVISION PROCESS
Manuscripts requiring "minor revision" or "major revision" will receive a decision letter from the Editor-in-Chief, outlining the reviewers’ and editors’ comments along with a deadline for resubmission.

Submission of Revised Manuscripts

Authors must submit a detailed "Response to the Reviewers" document along with the revised manuscript. This document should address each reviewer’s comment individually, explaining the revisions made and specifying the corresponding line numbers in the manuscript. Additionally, an annotated version of the main document highlighting the changes should be provided.

Timeliness

Revised manuscripts must be submitted within the deadline stated in the decision letter. Missing the deadline may result in the rejection of the revision. If additional time is required, authors must request an extension before the original deadline expires.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed in published manuscripts belong solely to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, editorial board, or publisher. The editors, editorial board, and publisher are not responsible for the content of published manuscripts and do not endorse the views expressed within them.
Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of their work. While the journal serves as a platform for disseminating research to the scientific community, it does not guarantee the validity of the content.