bitig Journal of Faculty of Letters by Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University adheres to the ethical principles and publication policies with the editorial and advisory board members, referees, and authors involved in the publication process. Papers submitted to the journal for publication should comply with the rules of “Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive of Higher Education Institutions.” Statements listed under “Actions Against the Scientific Research and Publication Ethics” are to be avoided. For the articles sent to the journal, international standards published by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) https://publicationethics.org/ for Editors and Authors will be taken into consideration. In light of this information, the following ethical standards are presented:

Ethical Responsibilities of the Referees

(1) All referees accepting an invitation to referee are expected to comply with international referee standards. Accordingly, they must adopt the principles of the COPE -Committee on Publication Ethics-.

(2) The principle of blind refereeing is applied in bitig Journal of Faculty of Letters. Referees do not directly communicate with authors.

(3) Referees only evaluate the articles related to their field of expertise.

(4) The referees conduct the evaluation within the principles of impartiality and confidentiality.

(5) The referees are obliged to evaluate the articles they accept within the time given to them.

(6) The referees make their evaluations in a constructive manner; they avoid harsh criticism and personal comments.

(1) Authors who submit their studies to the journal should provide their full academic titles, name and surname, and the institution they work for. They should add the full address, telephone number and e-mail address, as well.

(2) Authors are obliged to submit their original (unpublished) works to bitig Journal of Faculty of Letters and to follow the writing instructions given on the journal website. Authors should not submit works that have been previously published or whose peer-review process has begun on another platform. If the authors apply to our journal with a publication they have prepared or presented from their scientific activities and studies, they must declare the relevant information. In case of a contrary situation, the author will be responsible for the situation in accordance with the relevant sanctions.

(3) Authors have the responsibility that the papers submitted to the journal are original and that they are written in accordance with scientific ethical principles. The author's plagiarism report is examined through various programs such as iThenticate, Turnitin or intihal.net. Authors are obliged to upload the reports. If the result of the report is above 25%, the article will not be evaluated.

(4) The authors acknowledge that they have transferred the copyrights of the published articles to bitig Journal of Faculty of Letters. This transfer becomes obligatory with the acceptance of the article for publication. No part of the printed material can be used elsewhere without the written permission of the publisher. Authors who will send a work to bitig Journal of Faculty of Letters should fill out the "Copyright Transfer Form". Authors must sign the completed form originally and upload it to the system. Click here for the Copyright Transfer Form.

(5) The rights of the authors such as the right to use on personal websites provided that the work record is stated or to keep it in the open archive of the university, the right to use all or part of the work in his own books and other academic works, provided that the source is cited, the right to reproduce the work for its own purposes provided that it is not sold, all unregistered rights except for patent, copyright are preserved.

(6) As for the use of materials such as pictures, figures and etc. in the article, it is the author's responsibility to obtain permission from the necessary persons or institutions for the material to support the narrative.

(7) The decision of ULAKBİM dated February 25, 2020 claims “Ethics Committee Approval must be obtained separately for all branches of science, clinical and experimental studies on humans and animals that require an ethics committee decision, this approval must be stated and documented in the article.” The following situations require ethics committee approval:

• All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from the participants by using surveys, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment, interview techniques,

• The use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,

• Clinical studies on humans,

• Research on animals.