Authorship

All authors listed on the manuscript should have contributed significantly to the experimental design, its implementation, or analysis and interpretation of the data. All authors should have been involved in the writing of the manuscript at draft and any revision stages, and have read and approved the final version. Anyone who made major contributions to the writing of the manuscript should be listed as an author (e.g. "ghost writing" is prohibited by the Journal). Any other individuals who made less substantive contributions to the experiment or the writing of the manuscript should be listed in the Acknowledgement Section. Any change in authorship (including author order) after the initial manuscript submission must be approved in writing by all authors.

Authorship and "Umbrella" groups

Many large and collaborative studies are organized under a group name which represents all the participants. All articles must have at least one named individual as author. Authors who wish to acknowledge the umbrella group from which the data originate should first list the author(s) of the article and follow this with 'on behalf of the GROUP NAME'. If necessary the names of the participants may be listed in the Acknowledgements Section.

Originality

By submitting your manuscript to the journal it is understood that this it is an original manuscript and is unpublished work and is not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal. Manuscripts submitted to the journal are checked for originality using anti-plagiarism software.

Conflicts of interest

At the point of submission, if there is a situation of gaining financial interests directly or indirectly in the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated, or if there is a problem of bias related to the relevant author(s), organization(s), personal relationships or a direct academic competition, author(s) should reveal such situations. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest question: Is there any possible arrangement that would cause author(s) of the manuscripts legal and moral problems after publication?

If such manuscript is published, relevant Conflict of Interest information should be communicated in a statement in the published paper.

Declaration of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their own work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Author(s) must disclose this kind of interests in a summary declaration of interest statement in the title page file. If there are no interests to declare, then this should be stated as: 'Declarations of interest: none'. This summary statement will be ultimately published if the article is accepted. Author(s), who doesn't (don't) make such statements, are deemed to have taken the legal responsibility.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright holder. To verify originality, it is suggested that your article may be checked by the originality detection service Crossref Similarity Check and/or by using software such as Turnitin/Ithenticate.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, for instance by using 'he or she', 'his/her' instead of 'he' or 'his', and by making use of job titles that are free of stereotyping (e.g. 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman' and 'flight attendant' instead of 'stewardess').

Changes to authorship

The list and order of authors are asked to be considered carefully before submission of manuscripts and to provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the initial submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances may the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended.

Copyright

At the time of submission, authors are asked to complete the “Copyright Transfer Form”

Copyright Transfer Statement

The undersigned assigns to the Balıkesir University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Journal all rights under “Copyright Transfer Statement" that may exist in and to the above Work, and any revised or expanded derivative works submitted to the Journal by the undersigned based on the Work. The undersigned hereby warrants that the Work is original and that he/she is the author of the Work; to the extent the Work incorporates text passages, figures, data or other material from the works of others, the undersigned has obtained any necessary permission.

The copyright to this article sent is transferred to the Balıkesir University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Journal. The copyright transfer covers that the Journal distributes its technical publications throughout the world and does so by various means such as hard copy, microfiche, microfilm, and electronic media. It also abstracts and may translate its publications, and articles contained therein, for inclusion in various compendiums, collective works, databases and similar publications.

The Journal distributes its publications throughout the scientific world and ensures that these publications are properly available to the readership of those publications. Authors must ensure that their Work meets the requirements of the Journal, including provisions covering originality, authorship, author responsibilities and author misconduct.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Role of the Funding Source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Ethical Guidelines for Editors

General duties and responsibilities

Editors are responsible for every papers published in Balıkesir University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. Within this responsibility editors have the following roles and responsibilities:
• Making all reasonable effort to meet the needs of readers and authors,
• Developing the Journal continuously,
• Running the processes related to enhance the quality of the papers published in the Journal,
• Supporting freedom of thought,
• Ensuring the academic integrity,
• Following the procedures without making concessions on intellectual property rights and ethical standards.
• Being transparent and clear in issues that require correction or explanation.

Relationships with readers
Editors must make decisions taking into consideration the knowledge, skills and expectations of all readers, researchers and practitioners need. They must also ensure that the published studies contribute to literature and be original. Moreover, they must take notice of the feedback received from researchers and practitioners and provide explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with authors
Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with authors:
• Editors must make positive or negative decisions about the studies’ importance, originality, validity, clarity in wording and suitability with the Journal’s aims and objectives.
• Editors must accept the studies that are within the scope of publication into pre review process unless there are serious problems with the study.
• Editors must not ignore positive suggestions made by reviewers unless there are serious problems with the study.
• New editors, unless there are serious issues, must not change the previous editor’s decisions about the studies.
• “Blind Review and Review Process” must be published and editors must prevent possible diversions in the defined processes.

Relationships with reviewers
Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with reviewers:
Editors must:
• Choose reviewers according to the subject of the study.
• Provide the information and guidance reviewers may need during the review process.
• Observe whether there are conflicting interests between reviewers and authors.
• Keep the identities of reviewers confidential in blind review.
• Encourage the reviewers to review the manuscript in an unbiased, scientific and objective tone.
• Develop practices and policies that increase the performance of reviewers.
• Take necessary steps to update the reviewer pool dynamically.
• Prevent unkind and unscientific reviews.
• Make effort to ensure the reviewer pool has a wide range.

Relationships with the editorial board

Editors must make sure that the members of the Editorial Board follow the procedures in accordance with the puıblication policies and guidelines, and must inform the members about the publication policies and developments. Moreover, editors must
• Ensure that the members of the Editorial Board review the manuscripts in an unbiased and independent manner.
• Select the new members of the Editorial Board from those who can contribute to the Journal and are qualified enough.
• Send manuscripts for review based on the subject of expertise of the Editorial Board members.
• Regularly communicate with the Editorial Board. Arrange regular meetings with the Editorial Board for the development of publication policies and the Journal.

Relationships with the Journal’s owner and publisher

The relationship between the editors and publisher is based on the principle of the independency of editors. All the decisions made by the editors are independent of the publisher and the owner of the Journal as required by the agreement made between editors and publisher.

Editorial and blind review processes

Editors are obliged to comply with the policies of “Blind Review and Review Process” stated in the Journal’s publication process. Therefore, the editors ensure that each manuscript is reviewed in an unbiased, fair and timely manner.

Quality assurance

Editors must make sure that articles in the Journal are published in accordance with the publication policies of the Journal and international standards.

Protection of personal information

Editors are supposed to protect the personal information related with the subjects or visuals in the studies being reviewed, and to reject the study if there is no documentation of the subjects’ consent. Furthermore, editors are supposed to protect the personal information of the authors, reviewers and readers.

Encouraging ethical rules and protection of human and animal rights

Editors are supposed to protect human and animal rights in the studies being reviewed and must reject the experimental studies which do not have ethical and related committee’s approval about the population given in such studies.

ULAKBİM TR DİZİN Comittee has changed the inclusion criteria for journal evaluations to be indexed for 2020. As a consequence, for all research studies conducted in all science branches including social sciences the Ethics Committee Approval is required. This Ethics Committee Approval should be indicated in the articles and they should be documented as well.

Change in Item 8 of TR DİZİN Evaluation Criteria applies to studies that the procedures of collecting date started in 2020 and require Ethics Committee Approval. Ethics Committee Approval information (the title of the ethics committee, date and number) must be stated in the method section as well as on the first/last page of the articles. In this regard, the following studies to be sent to our Journal to be reviewed for publication must follow research and publication ethics as well as they must include Ethics Committee Approval information: (1) all qualitative or quantitative studies which included data collection from participants bu questionnaire, interview, focus group study, observation, and experiment; (2) all studies in which humans or animals (materials/data included) are used with experimental or any other specific purposes; (3) clinical trials with humans; (4) trials with animals; (5) retrospective studies with respect to preservation of personal data. For case studies (1) information regarding informed consent form must be present; (2) permissions from other individuals’ scales, questionnaires, and photos must be taken and indicated; and (3) it must be stated that there is no copyright infringement for intellectual properties. There is no requirement of Ethics Committee Approval for review articles.

Precautions against possible abuse and malpractice

Editors are supposed to take precautions against possible abuse and malpractice. They must conduct investigations meticulously and objectively in determining and evaluating complaints about such situations. They must also share the results of the investigation.

Ensuring academic integrity

Editors must make sure that the mistakes, inconsistencies or misdirections in studies are corrected quickly.
Protection of intellectual property rights

Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all the articles published in the Journal and the rights of the Journal and author(s) in cases where these rights are violated. Also, editors must take the necesary precautions in order to prevent the content of all published articles from ciolating the intellectual property rights of other publications.

Consturctiveness and openness to discussion

Editors must
• Pay attention to the convincing criticism about studies published in the Journal and must have a constructive attitude towards such criticism.
• Grant the right of reply to the author(s) of the criticized study.
• Not ignore or exclude the study that include negative results.

Complaints

Editors must examine the complaints from authors, reviewers or readers and respond to them in an explanatory and enlightening manner.

Political and economic apprehensions

Neither the owner of the Journal, publisher or any other political or economical factor can influence the independent decision taking of the editors.

Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

• The reviewers should only agree to review manuscripts which align with their expertise.
• The reviewers are expected to review manuscripts which they do not have any conflict of interests. If they notice any conflict of interest, they should inform the Editor about it and decline to be a reviewer to the related manuscript.
• The reviewers should review the manuscripts in an unbiased and objective manner.
• The reviewers should fill in the “Referee Evaluation Form” for the manuscripts they reviewed and they should include their decisions about the manuscript whether or not it should be published and the reasons.
• The reviewers should response in time (15 days) when a manuscript is submitted to them to be reviewed and they should adhere to the ethical responsibilities declared hereby.
• It is unethical that the reviewers share the manuscript sent to him/her without Editor’s permission.
• Any information regarding peer-review cannot be shared with anyone without informing the Editor and the author(s).

If You Encounter Any Unethical Situation:

If you encounter any unethical behavior or content except ethical responsibilities mentioned above in Balıkesir University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Journal, please report it to iibfdergi@balikesir.edu.tr by e-mail.

Guide for Authors:

1. Submitted article should not been published previously, or is not under consideration/review for publication elsewhere.
2. Article should be submitted (without author(s) name(s)) electronically by signing up online at DergiPark’s website: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/bauniibfd
3. Upon acceptance and publication of an article, author(s) agrees that copyrights are transferred to Balıkesir University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Journal. That is, the copyright fees will not be paid to author(s).
4. Article must comply with research and publication ethics. If it is necessary to obtain “Ethics Committee Approval” for research, in the “Materials and Methods” section of the article, information on the ethics committee approval (name of ethics committee, number and date of approval document) should be indicated.
5. Author(s) can monitor the status of article anytime by signing in online at DergiPark’s website: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/bauniibfd