Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Publishers Ethic Rules
The Aquatic Sciences and Engineering is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. All authors submitting their works to The Aquatic Sciences and Engineering for publication as original articles attest that the submitted works represent their authors’ contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. The authors acknowledge that they have disclosed all and any actual or potential conflicts of interest with their work or partial benefits associated with it. In the same manner, The Aquatic Sciences and Engineering is committed to objective and fair double-blind peer-review of the submitted for publication works and to prevent any actual or potential conflict of interests between the editorial and review personnel and the reviewed material.is committed to objective and fair double-blind peer-review of the submitted for publication works and to prevent any actual or potential conflict of interests between the editorial and review personnel and the reviewed material.

Further to the above, The Aquatic Sciences and Engineering provides a platform for the open public discussion of the journal contents. To secure accountability and to encourage sincere professional inputs without incivilities the system is set up to require registration and logging for recording of inputs. Some of the website contents will be available without logging but no peer review comments can be posted on the website without the disclosure of the reviewer identity to the journal editors.

It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher.

Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.


Publication Decisions

The editor of the TJAS is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair Play

An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.


Research Ethics

An approval of research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects,” amended in October 2013, www.wma.net) is required for experimental, clinical, and drug studies. If required, ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document will be requested from the authors.

For manuscripts concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows the written informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Information on patient consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number should also be stated in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect the patients’ anonymity. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed releases of the patient or of their legal representative should be enclosed.

Aquatic Sciences and Engineering requires experimental research studies on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates to comply with relevant institutional, national and/or international guidelines. The journal supports the principles of Basel Declaration (basel-declaration.org) and the guidelines published by International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) (iclas.org). Authors are advised to clearly state their compliance with relevant guidelines.

Aquatic Sciences and Engineering advises authors to comply with IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora for research involving plants.


Author's Responsibilities

Reporting Standards


Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and Plagiarism

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

By submitting articles to Turkish Journal of Aquatic Sciences, the author attest the following:

· None of the part of manuscript is plagiarized from other sources

· Proper reference is provided for all contents extracted from other sources

Strong action will be taken against cases of plagiarism

All the papers submitted have to pass through an initial screening and will be checked through the Advanced Plagiarism Dectection Softwares (iThenticate, Copyleaks).


Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Conflict of Interest

The journal requires the authors and all individuals taking part in the evaluation process to disclose any existing or potential conflict of interest (such as financial ties, academic commitments, personal relationships, institutional affiliations) that could unduly influence one’s responsibilities. To disclose potential conflicts of interest, the ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form should be filled in and submitted by authors as explained in the Author Form of the journal. Cases of a potential conflict of interest are resolved within the scope of COPE Conflict of Interest Flowcharts and ICMJE Conflict of Interest guidelines

Besides conflict of interest, all financial support received to carry out research must be declared while submitting the paper.


Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.


Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers

General duties and responsibilities for editor;


- Actively seek the views of authors, readers, reviewers and editorial board members about ways of improving their journal’s processes
- Encourage and be aware of research into peer review and ‘journalology’ and reassess journal processes in the light​of new findings
- Work to persuade their publishers to provide them with appropriate resources, guidance from experts (e.g. designers,
lawyers) and adequate training to perform their role in a professional manner and raise the quality of their journal
- Support initiatives designed to reduce academic misconduct
- Support initiatives to educate researchers about publication ethics
- Assess the effects of their journal policies on author and reviewer behaviour and revise policies, as required, to
encourage responsible behaviour and discourage misconduct
- Ensure that any press releases issued by the journal reflect the message of the reported article and put it into context


Duties of Reviewers;

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

openaccess.jpgOpen Access Statement:

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.