ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLICATION POLICY
Each uploaded article is firstly scanned by iThenticate plagiarism scanning programme. Articles with a similarity rate of more than 20% are rejected. Manuscripts are evaluated by at least two referees through blind refereeing. The responsibility of the articles published in the journal belongs to the authors. The responsibility of plagiarism and plagiarism within and outside the 20% similarity rate determined in the preliminary control of the article belongs to the authors. Publications should be scientific articles prepared in a cause-effect relationship and should contribute to science. Articles that do not comply with the spelling and format rules are not sent to the referee and are not published. The relevant studies of the authors who do not send the correction text within 30 days are rejected. In ASSAM International Refereed Journal, none of the article submission and publication processes are subject to any charge.
Within the framework of the criterion of ‘ethics committee approval must be obtained separately for clinical and experimental human and animal studies requiring ethics committee decision, this approval must be specified and documented in the article.’, which ULAKBIM / TR Index made mandatory in 2020, ethics committee approval for qualitative and quantitative field research with human and animal samples should be given as an attachment to the article and it should be stated that ethical rules are followed by specifying the date and number of the document in the method section of the article.
Attention is paid to the compliance of the studies submitted to the journal with Research and Publication Ethics. Compliance with ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) recommendations and COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) international standards for editors and authors is required.
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND RULES FOR AUTHORS
- Articles submitted to ASSAM-UHAD must be original studies in the fields of social sciences.
- All sources used in the articles should be cited correctly and appropriately.
- The articles submitted to ASSAM-UHAD must not have been submitted to another journal and ASSAM-UHAD Copyright Transfer Form must be filled.
- Persons who do not contribute intellectually to the article should not be included as authors.
- Conflicts of interest regarding the submitted article should be clearly stated and the reason should be clearly stated.
- Authors may be asked to submit raw data about their work to the editorial board while it is in the refereeing process, in which case authors may be expected to share their raw data with the editorial board. Authors are obliged to keep the data related to a published article for 5 years.
- Authors should inform the editor and the editorial board when they detect an error in their work. They should carry out the correction or withdrawal processes in co-operation with the editors.
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND RULES FOR REFEREES
All articles submitted to ASSAM-UHAD are evaluated through a double blind review process. Double blind reviewing means that the authors are kept confidential from the referees and the referees are kept confidential from the authors in order to ensure an unbiased, objective and independent evaluation process. Manuscripts are sent to the referees for evaluation through the Dergipark system. The referees make their decisions on the contribution of the article to the main publication areas of ASSAM-UHAD and whether the article is publishable or not by filling out the form sent to them through the system. The ethical responsibilities of academicians working as referees in ASSAM-UHAD are as follows:
- Referees should pay attention to refereeing articles related to their fields of expertise.
- Referees should inform the editors that they cannot evaluate studies that may have a conflict of interest.
- Reviewers should evaluate the articles impartially.
- Reviewers are required to fill in the online Article Evaluation Form for the articles they evaluate. Referees should express their opinions about the article they evaluate in the article evaluation form with justification.
- Referees should avoid using a language that may offend the authors in their article evaluations, on the contrary, the style they use in their suggestions should be scientific. In case of a negative situation, editors can contact the referee and request them to review and correct their comments.
- Reviewers are required to complete their evaluations by complying with ethical responsibilities within the time given to them.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES AND RULES FOR EDITOR(S)
Editors are obliged to fulfil the ethical responsibilities in the ‘COPE Guide to Ethical Behaviour and Best Practices for Journal Editors’ published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The ethical duties and responsibilities of editors are as follows:
- The editor is obliged to endeavour to improve the quality of the journal and contribute to its development.
- The editor is required to support the freedom of expression of the authors.
- The editor should ensure that the sections of the journal where peer review is not required (letters to the editor, invited papers, conference announcements, etc.) are clearly indicated.
- The editor should endeavour to ensure that the articles published are compatible with the knowledge and skills of the journal's readers.
- The editor should ask the referees to evaluate the articles in accordance with their knowledge and expertise. Thus, it should be ensured that the articles are appropriately evaluated by experts in their fields.
- The editor is obliged to require reviewers to declare that they have no conflicts of interest before evaluating an article.
- The editor should communicate to the referees all the necessary information about the referee evaluation process and what the referees are expected to do
- The editor should ensure that the peer-review process is conducted in a double blind review process and should not disclose authors to reviewers and reviewers to authors. - The editor should evaluate reviewers based on their timeliness and performance.
- The editor should create a database of reviewers and update the database according to the performance of the reviewers.
- The editor should remove reviewers who make rude and offensive comments or return late from the reviewer list.
- The editor should constantly renew and expand the referee list according to the referees' areas of expertise. - The editor should continuously update the publication and writing rules and the sample template for authors on what is expected of them.
- The editor should evaluate the manuscripts submitted to the journal in terms of the journal's editorial rules, the importance and originality of the work, and if he/she decides to reject the manuscript during the first submission process, he/she should clearly and impartially communicate the reasons to the authors. In this process, if it is decided that the article needs to be revised in terms of grammar, punctuation and/or spelling rules (margins, proper referencing, etc.), the authors should be informed about this and they should be given time to make the necessary corrections.
- Manuscripts should include the dates of submission and acceptance for publication.
- When authors request information about the status of their manuscripts, the authors should be informed about the status of their manuscripts without disturbing the double blind review process.
- The final decision on articles submitted to the journal for publication belongs to the editorial board. The editorial board is responsible for determining the articles to be published in the journal within objective and academic criteria.
- The editor should inform the members of the editorial board about the publication and writing rules and explain what is expected of them.
- The editor should communicate the most up-to-date version of the publication and writing rules to the members of the editorial board.
- The editor should evaluate the members of the editorial board and elect members who will actively participate in the development of the journal to the editorial board.
- The editor should inform the members of the editorial board about the following roles and responsibilities:
-To support the development of the magazine
-Writing compilations related to their field of specialisation when requested to do so
- To review and improve publication and writing rules
- To fulfil the necessary responsibilities in the operation of the journal
PLAGIARISM AND UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
All articles submitted to ASSAM-UHAD are scanned with any plagiarism software programme before publication. Articles with a similarity rate of 20% or less are accepted for publication. Articles exceeding this rate are examined in detail and if deemed necessary, they are sent back to the authors for revision or correction, and if plagiarism or unethical behaviour is detected, publication is rejected.
Some unethical behaviours are listed below:
- Identification of persons who did not contribute intellectually to the study as authors,
- Failure to acknowledge the intellectual contributors to the study as authors,
- Failure to indicate if the article is derived from a master's/doctoral thesis or a project,
- Slicing, i.e. publishing more than one article from a single study,
- Failure to declare conflicts of interest regarding submitted manuscripts,
- Deciphering the process of double blind refereeing,