KAREFAD adopts a publication policy in which international academic integrity and ethical standards are rigorously applied.Within this framework, KAREFAD is committed to full compliance with the academic ethical principles determined by reputable international boards and committees, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Transparency & best practice, the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

The following ethical principles have been determined to ensure the quality and transparency of the studies to be published in the journal. 

1. Authorship and Contribution Policy

KAREFAD adopts the recommendations of ICJME Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors in its authorship and contribution policies. In the studies to be published, authors should be indicated as authors only in the sections they directly contribute to. Authorship requires direct participation in the planning of the study, data collection and analysis, and the writing process. Contributions should be acknowledged in the ‘acknowledgements’ section. Each author should see and approve the final version of the manuscript. Authors decide the author ranking starting from the first author and this ranking should be done in accordance with the contributions of the study.

2. Complaint and Appeal Processes

KAREFAD welcomes all kinds of feedback via karefad@karatekin.edu.tr. Complaints and objections may include reports of ethical violations in a published article as well as the evaluation processes. KAREFAD undertakes to handle complaints and objections that may arise between authors and reviewers in a transparent manner. A written application can also be made to the journal management for the submission of complaints and objections. Objections are finalised as soon as possible through an independent evaluation process. Authors who object to referee reports may request a reconsideration of the decision by presenting concrete and scientific justifications. KAREFAD undertakes to respond quickly and constructively to all kinds of notifications communicated to it.

3. Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests

It is mandatory to declare conflicts of interest in all studies to be published in the journal. If there is a possibility of financial, institutional or personal conflict of interest between authors, editors, reviewers and other stakeholders, this should be clearly stated. KAREFAD is committed to providing an impartial and objective evaluation process by monitoring conflicts of interest. The direct or indirect effects of conflicts of interest are taken into account in the evaluation process.

4. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

KAREFAD encourages data sharing for the reliability of scientific research. In order to ensure the verifiability and reproducibility of research findings, the data of published studies can be shared on open access platforms upon request by the authors. In order to ensure the verifiability and reproducibility of research findings. However, personal and sensitive data must be protected under appropriate permissions and confidentiality conditions.

5. Ethical Oversight Policy

Adherence to ethical principles is essential in the studies to be published in KAREFAD. Ethics committee approval is required for research on human and animal subjects and this approval must be submitted to the journal. The journal management has the right to withdraw the study and initiate the necessary legal proceedings against ethical violations. In addition, KAREFAD undertakes to run an effective similarity scanning of each article applied for publication by using plagiarism detection programmes. KAREFAD adopts COPE (https://publicationethics.org) ethical principles.

5. Intellectual Property Rights:

All works published in KAREFAD are protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. This licence secures the intellectual property rights of the authors and allows articles to be shared for non-commercial purposes without modification and with attribution. Authors are not obliged to obtain permission from the journal before sharing their works with third parties. However, the authors should check the copyrights of the images, tables and figures used. All articles are open access and made available under this licence.

6. Post-Publication Discussion and Corrections

Objections and criticisms to published articles are also evaluated by KAREFAD after the article is published. In this context, steps such as correction, withdrawal or addition of comments can be taken. Errors or deficiencies detected in the articles in the post-publication process are corrected by the editorial decision within five days after the article is published. A correction article is published for articles with a publication date longer than five days. Correction requests may come from authors or third parties.

7. Ethical Rules for Reviewers

Experts reviewing in KAREFAD should adhere to the principles of impartiality, confidentiality and fairness in the evaluation process. Reviewers should provide an objective review by taking into account the quality, originality and academic contribution of the evaluated work, avoid personal conflicts of interest and protect the confidentiality of the articles they evaluate. Reviewers should quickly inform the editor if they encounter a manuscript that they cannot evaluate or if they are unable to complete the review in a timely manner.

8. Ethical Rules for Authors:

Authors submitting articles to KAREFAD are obliged to submit original and previously unpublished studies. The sources and data used in the study should be correctly stated, and citations should comply with ethical rules. Authors should appropriately disclose conflicts of interest and financial support, and avoid any ethical violations related to their work. In studies with more than one author, it should be ensured that all authors make a meaningful contribution to the research and the contribution of each author should be clearly stated.

9. Ethical Rules for Editors:

KAREFAD editors have adopted Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Editors are responsible for making impartial and fair judgements in the publication process. Editors should evaluate incoming manuscripts solely on the basis of their academic quality and contribution to science, and no author's personal characteristics or institutional affiliations should influence the decision process. In case of a conflict of interest, the editor should refrain from evaluating the relevant manuscript and ensure that appropriate referees are appointed. In addition, editors should manage the process between authors and referees in a transparent manner and provide all necessary ethical oversight to protect the scientific quality of published articles.

These principles are constantly reviewed and updated in order to maintain the scientific quality and reliability of KAREFAD journal.

References:

https://doaj.org/apply/transparency/
https://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Best_Practice.pdf
https://www.wame.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing
https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html