ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Publication processes of Motif Academy Journal of Folklore are based on producing, developing and sharing knowledge evenhandedly within scientific methods.
Refereed articles are studies that employ scientific methods and provide objectivity. All components of publication process (publisher, editors, authors, reviewers and readers) should obey ethical rules for scientific production. Within this context, the policies of ‘publication ethics’ and ‘open access’ also require all components of publication process to obey the ethical principles, in direction of guides and policies of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.

In case we identify that author(s) of the manuscript use(s) falsified and fabricated data, then we will report this to the institution of the authors where he/she works and reject the manuscript. Editorial members of the journal and/or the reviewers reserve the right to ask author(s) to provide raw data used in the manuscript.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher and Editorial Board
1. Motif Foundation and editorial board, the publisher of Motif Academy Journal of Folklore, is committed to complying with ethical standards at all stages of the publishing process. The Editorial Board supervises the compliance of the articles in the journal with ethical principles. Manuscripts submitted to the journal should not have been previously published in another journal. The publication of unpublished symposium proceedings is possible provided that symposium participation is indicated in the study. (Additional: A maximum of 20% of total articles can be accepted as such in each issue. (Decision by Editorial Board, dated 15.12.2018).
2. Papers sent to the journal must be checked through similarity (plagiarism) programs such as Turnitin etc. during editorial process. Studies with more than 20% of similarity will not be published.
3. As of 2020, Ethics Committee Certificate is strictly required for researches prepared with qualitative and quantitative approaches that collect data using interview techniques such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observations. Information about the approval date and unit of the Ethics Committee Certificate should be specified in the "Explanation" section as an attachment to the document during the article application.
4. Information such as author(s)’ name(s), title(s), institutions, and e-mail address for correspondance etc. must not be added. This information will be added by the editor after peer-reviewing process. Therefore, during submission process, no information about the author must be included in the text.
5. In articles with multiple (more than one) authors, contribution percentage of each author must be added in the end of their title, address and mail information section.
6. The articles whose editorial process is completed are published sequentially based on the dates of inclusion in the evaluation process. The order of publication is not changed with any justification.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
The articles in Motif Academy Journal of Folklore are evaluated by double-blind review, where neither the authors know the reviewers nor the reviewers know the authors; reviewers cannot communicate the authors directly; article evaluation forms and proofreading requests are sent to the authors through the website of the journal. Reviewers must bear the ethical responsibilities in Motif Academy Journal of Folklore as below:
* Reviewers should only accept to evaluate the articles related to their fields of study.
* Reviewers should make the evaluation impartially and confidentially. In accordance with this principle, the articles they review should be erased after the evaluation process. Nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns must not distort the impartiality of the evaluation.
* When reviewers understand that there is a conflict of interest, they should inform the editors and refuse to evaluate the article.
* Reviewers must evaluate articles with a constructive attitude in accordance with the academic rules; they should refrain from insulting and using hostile personal comments.
* Reviewers should evaluate the articles they agree on during the evaluation.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors
The ethical responsibilities of the authors that apply to Motif Academy Journal of Folklore are as follow:
* The authors should not send an article published in or sent to be published in another journal to Motif Academy Journal of Folklore at the same time.
* The authors should send original articles to Motif Academy Journal of Folklore. Authors should make a reference to the sources they use in writing articles in the correct way in line with ethical principles.
* Persons who do not contribute to the articles should not be listed as authors, and it should not be proposed to change the author order of a published article or to add new authors.
* Reviewers must notify the editors of the conflicts of interest and collaborations about the article.
* In the evaluation process of the articles, the authors should provide the editorial staff with information about the articles or the raw data if/when required.
* The authors must document the rights to use the data they use in their articles, the permission for research or the approval of the participants to whom they referred.
* Authors should communicate with the editors to provide information, to correct the article or to withdraw it when they are aware of any error associated with the evaluation and early appearance phase or the published article in electronic form.
* The author(s) must specify that they received the ethics committee approval for the researches that require data collection by using quantitative or qualitative methods such as experiment, survey, scale, interview, observation, focus group work that require ethics committee decision; the author(s) must also specify the name of the ethics committee, the date and the number of the ethics committee decision on the first-last page and in the method section of the article. In addition, the author(s) must include information on the fact that the informed consent form was received for the case reports in the articles. An Ethics Committee Document is definitely requested for researches that collect data using interview techniques such as surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observations and prepared with qualitative and quantitative approaches. The approval date and unit of the Ethics Committee Document should be specified in the "Description" section in addition to the document during the application.

Notification of Ethics Violations to the Editor
In case of encountering an unethical situation in articles or about editors, reviewers and authors or in articles that do not comply with the ethical principles regarding in the Motif Academy Journal of Folklore, it should be reported through motifakademidergisi@gmail.com

PEER REVIEW PROCESS
* All transactions in the journal's publication process are carried out at http://dergipark.org.tr/mahder.
* In the articles sent to the journal, firstly, the compliance of the article with the publication rules is examined. Articles that comply with the rules of publication are primarily evaluated by the editor. The articles that pass the editor's preliminary evaluation are directed to two referees who are experts in their fields. Authors are contacted in accordance with the reports of the referees in the articles that receive the printable report from both referees and requested correction.
* The authors are asked to send the article again by making the corrections requested by the referees. The referee reports, which cannot be published, will be notified to the article owner. Reports that are positive from one of the referees and negative from the other are directed to a third referee. The publication is decided based on the opinions of the third referee.
* The referees are asked to evaluate the articles within 15 days. With the expiration of the 15-day period, a reminder message is sent, which gives an additional period of 7 (seven) days. At the end of this period, another referee is appointed instead of the referee who does not respond to the evaluation.
* Double-blind referee system is applied in the journal. No information about the author(s), institutions etc. is sent to the referees. In this way, unbiased reviews of the referees are provided.

* Copyright Transfer Form and COPE Additional Declarations Form are requested from the authors of the articles whose evaluation process is concluded positively during the publication process.
* This journal has adopted open access policy in light of the rules set by the Budapest Open Access Initiative. Open access increases the global exchange of information and has beneficial consequences for humanity.

License: CC BY-SA