Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
In the publishing process, Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences first and foremost aims for objective and impartial development and sharing of knowledge. Therefore, all processes affect the quality of the studies written by their respective authors and supported by institutions. For the peer-reviewed papers upholding scientific methods, all stakeholders are expected to share the ethical responsibilities in accordance with the publication ethics of Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences.
General Information
Publishing process of Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences relies on the objective and impartial generation, development, and sharing of knowledge with scientific methods and following the academic principles. Open-access international standards set out by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) are adopted to ensure ethical standards for the manuscripts submitted. BUJSS undertakes that it adopts the established academic and ethical publishing principles. Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences has the right to revise, publish, and not to publish any manuscripts submitted thereto. It is highly important that all stakeholders (authors, researchers, readers, reviewers, editors, and publishers) comply with the ethical standards. To this end, ethical responsibilities to be undertaken by all stakeholders in accordance with the publication ethics of Beykent University's Journal of Social Sciences are grouped into below categories:
| Ethical Guidelines for Editors | Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers | Ethical Guidelines for Authors |
| Independence Impartiality Punctuality Conflict of Interest Double-blind Peer Review Confidentiality Publication and Responsibility Decision Decision Quality | Right to Rejection Conflict of Interest Impartiality Punctuality Double-blind Peer Review Confidentiality | Conflict of Interest Originality Accuracy Copyright Double-blind Peer Review |
Responsibilities of the Editorial Board
• Editorial Board of the Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Editorial Board") and the Editors/Associate Editors are responsible for each and every manuscript submitted, and even all the post-publication processes thereof.
• The Editorial Board ensures the establishment and implementation of the journal principles, such as publishing, blind peer review, and ethical principles.
• Admission of a manuscript to the peer review process does not guarantee its publication. Even if the manuscript passes the peer review process successfully, decision of the Editorial Board and the Editors/Associate Editors is absolutely necessary.
• The Editorial Board always looks into the allegations of plagiarism and misconduct regarding published articles. It reserves the right to carry out certain procedures including but not limited to communicating the breach to the author's head of department or dean, and/or relevant academic unit in the author's institution in case of a misconduct.
Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors and Section Editors
Editors/Associate Editors are responsible for all the papers published in Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences. They are also responsible for taking all the necessary precautions to protect the intellectual property rights and prevent non-scientific/unethical practices and plagiarism in the journal and article publication process. The roles and duties corresponding to the relevant responsibilities are listed below.
• Publication and Responsibility Decision: Editors/Associate Editors are responsible for deciding on which of the submitted manuscripts comply with the aims and publishing policy of Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences, and to be published in the Journal. They take special care for the protection of human and animal rights in the papers, pay attention to the documentation of the explicit informed consent of the research participants, and as for experimental studies and studies with surveys, reject a paper when it lacks an ethics committee approval. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the content and publication quality of the Journal, and thus has the right to negotiate with the peer reviewers during the publication decision-making process. The Editor-in-Chief strives to meet the needs of the readers and authors.
• Impartiality: Manuscripts submitted to Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences are evaluated based on transparent, clear and scientific criteria without any prejudices and regardless of the author's religion, ethnicity, race, nationality, and political beliefs.
• Confidentiality: Editors/Associate Editors ensure that personal data is protected in accordance with the ethical principles and publishing policy of Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences. They do not disclose the information about the texts and the author(s) thereof to anyone except for the peer reviewers and the publisher. They ensure that each paper is evaluated objectively and timely.
• Conflict of Interest: Editors/Associate Editors do not let anyone use the unpublished materials and data of the manuscripts without explicit written consent of the author(s). They do not have any conflict of interests relating to the accepted or rejected manuscripts.
Editors, Associate Editors and Section Editors undertake the below roles:
● Ensuring academic integrity,
● Promoting freedom of thought,
● Striving to meet the readers’ and authors’ need for knowledge,
● Searching for and establishing a constantly updated wide-ranging pool of peer reviewers,
● Taking action against misconduct,
● When there are appeals of misconduct, carrying out an objective investigation and sharing the findings,
● Investigating the appeals submitted to the journal and provide necessary explanations,
● Taking into account the consistent criticisms for the articles published in the journal, and giving the author(s) of the criticized work the right to respond, and
● Having effective communication with everyone involved in publication process and organizing meetings at regular intervals.
The Relationship between Editors and Authors:
• Editors should make positive or negative decisions based on the importance, originality, validity, and narrative clarity of the articles, as well as the aim and objectives of the Journal.
• Works deemed suitable candidates for publication should enter the initial check stage as long as they have no major problems.
• New editors should not change decisions made by previous editor(s) regarding works unless there is a serious problem.
• ‘The Blind Peer-Review and Evaluation Process’ must be definitely published on the predetermined platforms, and editors should prevent possible deviations from the defined procedures.
• Authors should receive feedback and information in an explanatory and informative manner.
The Relationship between Editors and Peer Reviewers:
Editors should
• determine the peer reviewers appropriately according to the nature of the work,
• provide the peer reviewers with the necessary information and guidance (guidelines, etc.) as per their needs during the evaluation process,
• consider whether or not any conflict of interest exists between authors and peer reviewers,
• keep the identity of peer reviewers confidential during blind peer review.
• assess the peer reviewers by criteria such as performance and timely reply,
• establish practices and policies that improve the performance of peer reviewers, and
• prevent unkind and unscientific comments.
The Relationship between the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board:
The Editor-in-Chief should
• ensure that the Editorial Board members evaluate the papers in an impartial, unbiased, and independent manner,
• Select new members of the Editorial Board whom he or she thinks can contribute to the Journal and have the required qualifications and characteristics,
• Assign suitable works to the new members of the Editorial Board according to their fields of expertise, and
• regularly communicate and interact with the Editorial Board.
The Relationship between Editors and Readers:
Editors
• should should consider that the published articles are original works and contribute to the readers, researchers, practitioners, and the scientific literature, and
• are obliged to take into account feedback from readers, researchers and practitioners, and to provide explanatory and informative replies.
Ethical Responsibilities of Peer reviewers:
Evaluation of all studies with “double-blind peer review" directly affects the quality of the publication. This process establishes trust as a result of an objective and independent evaluation. With peer reviewers not having to contact authors directly, the evaluation and comments are communicated through the Journal’s management system. By this process, the editor communicates peer reviewers’ comments on the articles and the evaluation forms to the author(s). In this context, the ethical responsibilities required to be undertaken by the reviewers involved in the evaluation process with Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences are specified as follows:
● Confidentiality: Evaluations should be done in an impartial, unbiased, and confidential manner. In line with the privacy policy, peer reviewers must delete/destroy examined works after the evaluation process. They can use final versions of the papers they reviewed only after publication.
● Neutrality: Reviewer evaluations should be objective and constructive. The academic competence of a manuscript should form the basis for a review. Criticism of an author’s personality or character is not acceptable. Nationality, sex, religious belief, political opinion, or commercial concerns should not impair the academic impartiality of the review process. Peer reviewers should state the reasoning and arguments to support their comments in the peer review reports presented by the Editor’s Office. Editors/Associate Editors do not take into consideration biased and personalized evaluations, or unsubstantiated approvals or rejections, and assign new reviewers in such cases.
● Acknowledgement of Sources: Peer reviewers should identify and disclose any relevant published works not specified by the author. A peer reviewer must also bring to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the paper they are commenting on and another previously published work or a manuscript they have knowledge of. If the peer reviewers detect any duplicate publication or simultaneous submission, they should notify the Editor of the case.
● Conflict of Interest: Peer reviewers should not be in any conflict of interest with the research, the author(s), and/or research funders. Peer reviewers should not agree to evaluate articles that may result in any personal or institutional conflict of interest.
● Process Acceleration: Reviewers should agree to review only the works related to their field of expertise. A reviewer who does not find the work assigned to him/her relevant to their field of expertise, feels inadequate to comment, will not be able to present a timely review should inform the Editor about the situation and withdraw from the review assignment.
● Support for the Editor: Peer reviewers should be able to help editors in the decision-making process and also help authors improve texts. In order to improve the academic quality of an article, a peer reviewer’s recommendations for correction are forwarded to the authors, and if requested by the peer reviewers, the corrections made by the authors are forwarded back to them.
Peer reviewers should evaluate articles they have agreed to review within the scope of the specified responsibilities and the stated period of time.
Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors
Manuscripts sent to Beykent University's Journal of Social Sciences should not contain any plagiarism and should be original. Author(s) submitting their manuscripts to Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences are expected to follow and undertake the ethical responsibilities listed below.
• If it is found that a manuscript has plagiarisms, the review process is discontinued. Manuscripts must not breach intellectual property rights of any third persons.
• Provided that they inform the Editorial Board, author(s) can withdraw their manuscript(s) until a publication decision is made for the manuscript(s).
• Author(s) must use non-discriminatory and inclusive language addressing all people regardless of their sex, race, language, faith, culture, class, age, ideas, communities, or sexual orientation.
• They are responsible for crediting all stakeholders of their research. They should also list the person(s) who have made substantial contributions to the study as co-authors.
• All the authors must give their consent for the publication of the paper.
Author(s) should not make any requests to change the order of the authors, or remove or add authors for a manuscript sent for publication.
• Authors are responsible for acting in in accordance with the current copyright laws.
• If asked for any information or data relating to their manuscripts during the review process, authors must submit the information and data to the Editorial Board. They are also responsible for making and then submitting any corrections suggested by the reviewers and editors.
• Authors must clearly state all the sources of funding, and declare any conflict of interest thought to affect the conclusions or interpretation of the paper.
• If author(s) find a serious error or mistake in their published articles, they should immediately contact the Editorial Board on this matter.
Author(s) submitting manuscripts to Beykent University's Journal of Social Sciences are considered to have explicitly agreed to and undertaken the ethical guidelines above of their own free will.
Research Content Requiring an Ethics Committee Approval (Letter of Approval)
• Any qualitative or quantitative studies with data collection using questionnaires, focus groups, observations, experiments, and interviews,
• Clinical research on humans and animals,
• Retrospective studies in accordance with the Law on Personal Data Protection,
• Studies using computer-based tests and audio-visual recording, and
• Studies with informed participants in their case reporting.
If there are informed participants in the study, author(s) should state that all the participants have signed the informed consent forms. Furthermore, if the author(s) use scales, questionnaires, and photographs owned by others, they should get the rightful owner's permission and state in the manuscript that they have such permission. For studies requiring ethical approval, the Methods section and the last page of the manuscript should contain the information regarding the approval (name of the ethics committee, date, and serial number). If the studies falling into the categories above lack an Ethics Committee Approval, the manuscripts submitted shall not be accepted.
Plagiarism and Unethical Practices
All the manuscripts submitted to Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences are scanned on an appropriate software before the publication process. The upper limit of similarity accepted by the Journal is 15% excluding the References. Manuscripts exceeding this limit are reviewed in detail. If deemed necessary, manuscripts are sent back to the authors for revision or correction. If any plagiarism is found in the manuscript, it is rejected for publication. Furthermore, a manuscript is rejected for publication if unethical practices are involved, such as listing any person(s) with no contribution to the conception of the study as authors, or not listing any person(s) contributing to the conception of the study as authors, not declaring that a paper has been written using a thesis/dissertation or a project if that is the case, not disclosing the conflicts of interest, disclosing the double-blind peer review process, and publishing more than one articles from a single study.
Important Note: Researchers who are not members of a university may apply to their local Ethics Committee for their research as well.
Introduction
Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences is a national, scientific and peer-reviewed journal published by Beykent University's Institute of Graduate Studies. Having been a "Peer-reviewed Journal" since 2008, Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences is a biannual journal published in June and December. Beykent University Journal of Social Sciences (BUJSS) is a peer-reviewed journal covering authentic scientific articles from all fields of social sciences, e.g. economics, banking, business administration, finance, psychology, political science, sociocultural anthropology, sociology, history, international relations and cultural studies, communications, comparative literature, languages, and literature, etc. It is a bilingual journal publishing articles written in Turkish and/or English. Authors are not charged any fees in any step of the manuscript review process.
* In accordance with Article 8.1 of the TR Index Journal Evaluation Criteria stating that "an ethics committee approval must be obtained for research conducted in all disciplines requiring an ethics committee approval and this approval must be stated and documented in the relevant article", an ethics committee approval must be obtained.
** The ethics committee's letter of approval must be uploaded as a separate file in addition to the manuscript. Furthermore, both the last page and the Methods section of the article should contain the information regarding the approval (name of the ethics committee, date, and serial number), and also state that ethical principles were observed.
The Journal is committed to upholding the highest standarts of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpratices. Submitting researches by all authors mean that they assured their manuscripts are original and attest that the submitted papers represent their contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. All submissions will be checked by iThenticate before being sent to reviewers according to the Journal's Zero Tolerance on the Plagiarism Policy