Publication Principles
1) Bitlis Journal of Theology; It publishes academic studies in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities, with priority on Basic Islamic Sciences, Philosophy and Religious Sciences, Islamic History and Arts, Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge Education.
2) The article acceptance dates of our journal, which is published electronically in two issues per year, June and December, will be January 1-May 1 for the June issue and July 1-November 1 for the December issue. If the number of articles reaches a sufficient level, the article acceptance process may be closed before these dates.
3) Submitted manuscripts should be appropriate to the purpose and scope of the journal.
4) Original, unpublished manuscripts that are not in the evaluation process in another journal and whose content and submission have been approved by each author are accepted for evaluation.
5) Copyright and publication rights of the author(s) are reserved.
6) Master's and doctoral students can submit their work to the journal together with their advisors (first author is the student - second author is the advisor). In the book review type, studies written by experts are reviewed.
7) Only one article by the same author in the same publication period can be processed and published if it passes the referees.
8) The manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the journal's spelling rules.
9) Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to the journal website via the “Submit Manuscript” tab.
10) The article should be written in Microsoft Word using Bitlis Journal of Theology, Article Template in Palatino Linotype font with main headings in 11 pt, subheadings in 11 pt, text single spaced in 11 pt, bibliography single spaced in 11 pt, footnotes single spaced in 9 pt.
11) Articles not using the ISNAD Citation System will be returned to the author for correction.
12) Articles exceeding 8,000 words or 30 pages including the article cover will be returned to the author to reduce the number of words and pages.
13) Submitted manuscripts should include a 150-200 word Turkish abstract, English abstract and at least 5 Turkish and English keywords. Abstracts should be in Palatino Linotype font style with headings in 11 pt and text in 10 pt. An extended English abstract of 600-750 words will be requested from the manuscripts accepted for publication (the extended abstract should be in Palatino Linotype font style and 10-point font size, large enough to fit on one page).
14) All expenses of the journal are covered by the Publisher. The publication of articles in the journal and the execution of article processes are not subject to a fee. No processing fee or submission fee is charged for articles submitted to the journal or accepted for publication.
15) After the manuscript is submitted to the Journal for publication, none of the authors' names may be deleted from the list of authors without the written permission of all authors, and no new name may be added as an author and the order of authors may be changed.
16) This journal checks for plagiarism in manuscripts submitted for review. Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/ denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, slicing and dicing, copyright infringement and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviors. All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from publication. This includes manuscripts that contain possible irregularities and improprieties detected after publication.
17) Double Blind Reviewing: After the plagiarism check, eligible manuscripts are evaluated by the editor-in-chief for originality, methodology, importance of the topic covered and compatibility with the scope of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the manuscripts undergo double blind review in a fair manner, and if the manuscript meets the formal guidelines, he/she submits the incoming manuscript to the evaluation of at least two referees from Turkey and/or abroad.
18) Publication Decision: If the referees deem necessary, changes are made by the author. The Editorial Board decides whether or not to publish the text corrected by the author.
19) The preliminary review and referee process takes an average of 70 Days / 10 Weeks.
20) Permanent Article Identifier: All published articles are assigned a DOI as a permanent article identifier.
21) Articles published in this journal are digitally archived in LOCKSS. The LOCKSS system has permission to collect, preserve and provide this access Archive Unit.
22) Articles that do not use the ISNAD Citation System will be rejected.
23) All documents and files must be submitted as Word documents (.doc or .docx).
24) At the end of the article, before the bibliography, the statement of the contribution rate of the researchers, the statement of support and acknowledgment, if any, and the statement of conflict should be stated in accordance with the table below.
25) For articles that require Ethics Committee approval, Ethics Committee approval must be obtained and this approval (committee name, date and number) must be stated on the first page of the article and in the method section. For research requiring Ethics Committee approval, please refer to the Ethical Principles and Publication Policy of the Journal.

Publication Ethics Statement
The journal adheres to national and international standards on research and publication ethics. It complies with the Press Law (a), the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (b) and the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive (c). It has also adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles (d) published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
a) Press Law
b) Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works
c) Guidelines for Scientific Research and Publication Ethics of Higher Education Institutions
d) Transparency and Best Practice Principles in Academic Publishing

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing corrections if minor errors are detected in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, and conclusions. In cases of major errors/violations that invalidate the findings and conclusions, editors should consider retracting the article. If there is a possibility of misconduct by the authors in the research or publication; if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and the authors' institutions did not investigate the incident, or if the possible investigation appears unfair or inconclusive, editors should consider publishing an expression of concern. COPE and ICJME guidelines are taken into account regarding corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern.

Plagiarism Action Plan and Journal Measures
The journal respects intellectual property and aims to protect and promote the original work of its authors. Plagiarized articles are contrary to the standards of quality, research, and innovation. Therefore, all authors submitting articles to the journal are expected to adhere to ethical standards and avoid plagiarism in any form. In the event that an author is suspected of plagiarism in a submitted or published article, the journal's Ethics Editor will first review the work. This work will then be reviewed by the Editorial Board. The Journal will then contact the author(s) within two weeks to submit their explanations. If the Journal does not receive any response from the author within the specified period, it will contact the author's university and request that the allegation be investigated.

The Journal will take the following serious measures against published articles found to contain plagiarism:
1. The Journal will immediately contact the author's university to take definitive action against the relevant author.
2. The Journal will remove the PDF copy of the published article from its website and disable all links to the full-text article. The phrase Plagiarized Article will be added to the title of the published article.
3. The journal will disable the author account and reject all future submissions from the author for 3 years.
This journal checks for plagiarism in submitted papers: Pre-checked articles are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. Authors will be notified if plagiarism/self-plagiarism is detected. Editors may check the article for plagiarism at various stages of the evaluation or production process if necessary. High similarity rates may result in a paper being rejected before or even after acceptance. This rate is expected to be less than 20%.

Publication Ethics Policy
This journal checks for plagiarism in submitted papers. The journal adheres to national and international standards on research and publication ethics. It complies with the Press Law, the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works, and the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive. It has also adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

1. Authorship
• The reference list must be complete
• Plagiarism and false data must not be included
• The same research should not be attempted to be published in more than one journal, and scientific research and publication ethics must be followed. Actions that are against scientific research and publication ethics are as follows:
a) Plagiarism: Presenting others' ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures or works as one's own work, partially or completely, without citing their owners in accordance with scientific rules,
b) Forgery: Producing data that is not based on research, editing or changing a presented or published work based on false data, reporting or publishing these, presenting a research that was not conducted as if it was conducted,
c) Distortion: Falsifying research records and obtained data, presenting methods, devices and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that is not in accordance with the research hypothesis, tampering with data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, falsifying or shaping research results in line with the interests of persons and organizations from which support is received,
ç) Republishing: ç) Re-publication: Presenting more than one work containing the same results of a research as separate works in evaluations of associate professorship exams and academic promotions,
d) Slicing: Presenting the results of a research as separate works in evaluations of associate professorship exams and academic promotions by dividing them into inappropriate parts and publishing multiple publications without citing each other in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research,
e) Unfair authorship: Including people who have no active contribution among the authors, not including people who have active contribution among the authors, changing the author order in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of those who have actively contributed from the work during publication or in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has not actively contributed,
f) Other types of ethical violations: Not clearly stating the supporting persons, institutions or organizations and their contributions to the research in publications of research conducted with support, not complying with ethical rules in research conducted on humans and animals, not respecting patient rights in publications, sharing information in a work that one has been assigned to review as a Reviwer with others before publication, resources provided or allocated for scientific research, using places, facilities and devices for purposes other than intended, making completely unfounded, unfounded and intentional accusations of ethical violations (YÖK Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive, Article 8).

2. Author Responsibilities
• All authors must contribute significantly to the research.
• A declaration that all data in the article are real and original is required.
• All authors must provide retractions and corrections of errors.

3. Reviwer Responsibilities
• Evaluations must be impartial.
• Reviwers must not have a conflict of interest with the research, the authors and/or research funders.
• Reviwers must indicate relevant published but uncited works.
• Controlled articles must be kept confidential.

4. Editorial Responsibilities
• Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article.
• Editors must not have a conflict of interest with the articles they accept or reject.
• Only articles that will contribute to the Section should be accepted.
• Support the publication or retraction of corrections when errors are found.
• Reviwers should remain anonymous and prevent plagiarism/false data. The peer review process is central to the success of scientific publication. It is part of our commitment to protecting and improving the peer review process, and Bitlis Theology Journal has an obligation to assist the scientific community in all cases related to publishing ethics, especially in cases of suspicious, duplicate publications or plagiarism. If a reader notices a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in Bitlis Theology Journal, or has any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.), they can complain by sending an e-mail to bider@gmail.com. We welcome complaints as they provide us with opportunities for improvement, and aim to respond quickly and constructively.

Revealing Plagiarism
Articles submitted for publication in Bitlis Theology Journal are subject to double-blind peer review by at least two Reviwers. In addition, it is confirmed that the articles have not been published before and do not contain plagiarism through iThenticate, which is used in plagiarism detection.

Preliminary Review and Plagiarism Scanning:
The work is reviewed by the editor in terms of compliance with the journal publication principles, academic writing rules and ISNAD Citation System and is scanned for plagiarism using the iThenticate program. The plagiarism similarity rate is required to be less than 20%. The preliminary review is completed within a maximum of 15 days.

Section Editor Review:
The work that has passed the Preliminary Review and Plagiarism Scanning stage is reviewed by the relevant Section editor in terms of problematic and academic language-style. This review is completed within a maximum of 15 days.

Reviwer Process (Academic Evaluation):
The study that passes the Section editor's review is presented to at least two Reviwers who have a doctoral dissertation, book or article on the subject. The Reviwer process is conducted confidentially within the framework of double-blind Reviwering. The Reviwer is asked to either state his/her views and opinions about the study he/she reviewed in the text or to justify them with a statement of at least 150 words on the online Reviwer form. The author is given the right to object and defend his/her views if he/she does not agree with the Reviwer's opinions. The Section editor ensures mutual communication between the author and the Reviwer, while preserving confidentiality. If both Reviwer reports are positive, the study is presented to the Editorial Board with a proposal for evaluation for publication. If one of the two Reviwers has a negative opinion, the study is sent to a third Reviwer. Studies can be published with a positive decision of at least two Reviwers. Translated articles are sent to language and relevant Section experts to be evaluated in terms of conformity to the original, appropriate use of Section concepts and language. Translations where experts have a negative opinion are not published. The publication of book and symposium reviews and doctoral dissertation abstracts is decided upon the evaluation of the relevant Section editors. Proofreading Stage: If the Reviwers request corrections to be made in the text they have reviewed, the relevant reports are sent to the author and the author is asked to correct his/her work. The proofreading is requested to be completed within a maximum of 10 days. The author presents the corrections he/she has made to the Section editor by indicating them in red.

Section Editor Check:
The Section editor checks whether the author has made the requested corrections in the text. The check is completed within a maximum of 10 days.

Reviwer Check:
The Reviwer who requested the proofreading checks whether the author has made the requested corrections in the text. The check is completed within a maximum of 10 days. Detailed Abstract and Summary Preparation: Authors of studies that have been decided “publishable” by both Reviwers are asked to expand the abstract section of the articles to 600-750 words.

Turkish Language Control:
Works that pass the Reviwer process are reviewed by the Turkish Language Editor and if necessary, corrections are requested from the author. The control process is completed within a maximum of 10 days.

English Language Control:
Works that pass the Turkish language control are reviewed by the English Language Editor and if necessary, corrections are requested from the author. The control process is completed within a maximum of 10 days.

Editorial Board Review:
Articles that pass technical, academic and linguistic reviews are reviewed by the Editorial Board and the final publication status is decided. In case of objection from the members, the Board decides by majority vote.

Typesetting and Layout Stage:
Works decided to be published by the Editorial Board are typeset and laid out and made ready for publication. Data Submission to National and International Indexes: The printed copy of the published issue is sent to domestic and foreign reference libraries within 60 days at the latest; and the article metadata is sent to the relevant indexes within 15 days.