ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Users of Balıkesir Theology Journal (editors, authors, reviewers, department editors, readers) must obey to the ethical rules and responsibilities specified by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) These ethical rules and responsibilities are summarized below.

This journal provides instant open access to its content by adopting the principle that providing scientific research free of charge to the public will increase the global sharing of knowledge.

A. DUTIES of PUBLISHER

Balıkesir Theology Journal does not charge any article submission from authors.
The publisher undertakes to have an independent editorial decision made.
Editors are responsible for all the processes that the manuscripts submitted to BAID will go through. Within this framework, ignoring the economic or political interests, the decision-makers are the editors.
The publisher undertakes to have an independent editorial decision made.
However, the journal has left the database open on the internet.
The publisher bears all the responsibility to take the precautions against scientific abuse, fraud and plagiarism.


B. THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Balıkesir Theology Journal Editorial Board (henceforth, “The Editorial Board”) and Editors/Number Editors are responsible for all the processes before, during and after the publication of each and every article submitted to the Journal.
The Editorial Board determines and implements the entire policies of The Journal, including but not limited to publication, blind review, assessment process, and ethical principles.
The initiation of blind review process for an article does not indicate a publication promise on behalf of The Journal. Likewise, the positive outcome of the review process still necessitates the affirmative decision of The Editorial Board and Editors/Vice Editors for the publication of the article.
The Editorial Board encourages academic honesty. The Editorial Board ensures the originality of the articles by uploading them on iThenticate plagiarism detection software, and evaluating their originality report.
The Editorial Board always examines the claims of plagiarism and abuse in regard to published articles. In case it is established that an author committed plagiarism, or used copyrighted material that belongs to third parties without proper and full reference and permission, The Editorial Board reserves the rights, including but not limited, to retract the article, inform the author’s head of department, dean of faculty and/or other academic institutions.


C. ETHICAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES of EDITORS

The editors of Balıkesir Theology Journal should be obeyed to the ethical roles and responsibilities of “CODE OF CONDUCT AND BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINESFOR JOURNAL EDITORS” and “COPE BESTPRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR JOURNAL EDITORS” announced by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and provided on our webpage. These duties and responsibilities are summarized below.

1. Editors’ Relationships with Readers

The editors are responsible for taking into account the feedback from the readers, researchers and practitioners about the published works and to provide the necessary responses and take necessary actions.

2. Editors’ Relations with the Authors

Editors make decisions about the articles based on the original value of the article, the aims of the journal and the ethical rules.
Editors should accept papers with high original value, based on journal objectives and ethical rules for the evaluation process.
The editors should take into account positive opinions of the reviewers unless there is an important reason.
Requests and feedback from the authors should be returned with feedback.


3. Editors’ Relations with the Reviewers

The reviewers to be appointed must be selected from related area of the manuscript.
The editor should make sure that there is no conflict of interest between the reviewers and the authors.
The editor is responsible for guiding the reviewers during the article evaluation process and for providing the requested information.
The editor is obliged to hide the credentials of the author and the reviewers by means of blind reviewing.
The editor must make the necessary warnings to the reviewers about evaluating the article in a timely, impartial and scientific manner.
The editor must make an effort to increase the number of reviewers.


4. Editors’ Relations with Advisory Board

Editors should consider the opinions and recommendations of the advisory board about the articles.

5. Editors’ Relations with the Journal Owner and the Publisher

Editorial decisions should be independent of the journal owner and the publisher.

6. Publication of the Article

Editors are responsible for considering publishing principles, journal objectives and international standards in the articles to be published in the journal.

7. Retention of Personal Data

Editors are responsible for not transferring the personal information to third parties except for the consent of the authors.

8. Ethics committee, Human and Animal Rights

The editors are responsible for protecting the human and animal rights at about manuscript in the studies conducted on humans and animals. The editor is responsible for rejecting the article if ethics committee approval is not sent in the works that must provide ethics committee report.

9. Protection of intellectual property rights

Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all articles submitted and published in the journal.

10. Complaints to Editors

Editors are responsible for providing an open and enlightening answer to complaints from the reviewers, authors and readers.

11. Conflicts of interest and relations

Editors are responsible for taking action against conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers and third parties in order to complete the impartial and independent evaluation processes of the articles.

D. ETHICAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS

Reviewers evaluate manuscripts without origin, gender, sexual orientation or political philosophy of the authors. Reviewers also ensure a fair blind peer review of the submitted manuscripts for evaluation.
All the information relative to submitted articles is kept confidential. The reviewers must not be discussed with others except if authorized by the editor.
The reviewers have no conflict of interest with regard to parties such as authors, funders, editors and etc..
Reviewers give helps the editor in making decisions and may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.
The objective judgment evaluation is always done by them. The reviewers express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.
Reviewers ought to identify relevant published study that has not been cited by the authors. Reviewers also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.


E. ETHICAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES of AUTHORS

Authors prepare and send their manuscripts in original form.
The authors ensure that their citations and quotations in their manuscripts are accurate and complete.
Authors should indicate and explain situations in which they may be involved in conflicts of interest.
The editors, department editors or the reviewers can request raw data from the author of the manuscripts. Therefore, the author must keep the raw data of the article ready for submission.
Authors should not submit the same study for publishing any other journals. Simultaneous submission of the same study to more than one journal is unacceptable and constitutes unethical behavior.
Convenient acknowledgment of the study of others has to be given. Authors ought to cite publications that have been efficient in determining the study. All of the sources that used process of the study should be remarked.
All sources of financial support should be disclosed. All authors ought to disclose a meaningful conflict of interest in the process of forming their study.
When an author discovers a serious error or inaccuracy in a published article, it is the responsibility of the author to immediately notify the editorship. In this case, the author is responsible for cooperating with the journal editorship in either withdrawing the article or publishing a revision of the article.

For all researches conducted and for clinical and experimental studies involving humans and animals, which require an ethics committee approval, an ethics committee approval must be obtained and should be specified and documented.

F. NOTIFYING THE EDITOR ABOUT THE VIOLATION OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Should you encounter any unethical act or content in BAID apart from the ethical responsibilities listed above, please notify the journal by e-mail at balikesirilahiyatdergisi@gmail.com.