Publication Ethics

The publication process at Marmara Medical Journal aims improvement and dissemination scientific information objectively and respectfully. Therefore, the policy in this process helps in improving the quality of the articles. Peer-reviewed articles support and materialize the scientific method and hence it is of utmost importance that all parties included in the publication process (authors, readers, researchers, publisher, reviewers, and editors) comply with the standards of ethical considerations. Marmara Medical Journal expects all parties to hold to the following ethical responsibilities.

The following ethical duties and responsibilities are concordant with the policies made by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

The authors who submit their manuscripts to Marmara Medical Journal are expected to comply with the following ethical responsibilities:

Author(s) must submit their own original studies to the journal. If they utilize or present the results of the other studies in the manuscript, they must make the in-text and end-text references accurately and completely.

People who have no intellectual contribution to the study should not be indicated as authors.

If there are conflicting interests or relations in the manuscripts submitted, these must be stated and explained.

Author(s) may be asked to supply their raw data during the review process of their manuscripts. In that circumstance, the author(s) should be ready to submit their data and information to the corresponding editorial and scientific boards.

Authors should document that they have obtained ethics committee approval and informed consent in all research studies that involve patients, patient records, research participants, or databases.

For patient images that allow the identity of the patient to be identified, authors should document that they have obtained written permission from the patient(s) on whom the report is based.

Author(s) have the responsibility to inform the editor of the journal or publisher if they happen to notice a mistake or conflicting result in their study which is in the early release or publication process and to cooperate with the editors during the correction or withdrawal process.

Authors cannot submit their studies to multiple journals simultaneously. Each submission can be made only after the previous one is completed. A study published in another journal cannot be submitted to Marmara Medical Journal.

Author responsibilities are given in a study (e.g.: adding an author, reordering of author names) after the review process has started.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
The editor and section editors should hold with the following ethical responsibilities that are based on the guides of "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published as open access by COPE.

General duties and responsibilities

Editors are responsible for each study published in Marmara Medical Journal. In this respect, the editors have the following duties and responsibilities:
• Making efforts to meet the scientific information demands from readers and authors,
• Ensuring the continuous advancement of the journal,
• Managing the procedures in order to improve the scientific quality of the manuscripts published in the journal,
• Supporting freedom of expression,
• Ensuring academic integrity,
• Following the procedures without making concessions on intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
• Being transparent and clear in issues that require correction or commentary.

Relationships with Readers

Editors must make decisions taking into consideration of the knowledge, skills, and expectations of all readers, researchers, and practitioners need. They must also ensure that the published studies have an original contribution to the literature. Furthermore, they must take notice of the feedback received from researchers and practitioners and provide explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with Authors

Editors have the following roles and responsibilities in their relations with authors:

Editors must make positive or negative decisions about the studies' scientific importance, originality, validity, clarity in wording, and suitability with the journal's aims and scope.

Editors must accept the studies that are within the scope of the publication into the peer-review process unless there are serious problems with the structure of the study.

Editors must not ignore positive suggestions made by reviewers unless there are serious problems with the structure of the study.

New editors, unless they have serious concerns, should not change the previous editor's decisions about the studies.

Editors must take every effort to prevent possible deviations from the defined "Blind Review and Evaluation Processes".

Editors must present a comprehensive "Author's Guide" in answering queries by authors. This guide must be updated regularly.

Authors should be provided with explanatory and informative feedback.

Relationships with Reviewers

Editors have the following duties and responsibilities in their relations with reviewers:

Editors should:

• Choose reviewers adequate for evaluating the manuscript.
• provide the needed information and guidance to reviewers
• Monitoring whether there are conflicting interests between reviewers and authors.
• Keep the identities of the reviewers confidential in a blind review.
• Encourage the reviewers to review the manuscript in an unbiased, scientific, and objective manner.
• Evaluate reviewers regularly based on criteria like performance and timing.
• Develop and use policies that increase the performance of reviewers.
• make effort to update the reviewer pool dynamically to ensure its wide range
• Prevent unkind and unscientific reviews.

Relationships with the Editorial Board

Editors should monitor that the members of the editorial board follow the procedures in accordance with the publication policies and guidelines, and should inform the members about the publication policies and developments. The editors should also train new members of the editorial board and provide the information they need.

Furthermore, editors should also:
• Ensure that the members of the editorial board review the manuscripts in an unbiased and independent manner.
• Select the new members of the editorial board from those who can contribute to the journal and are qualified enough.
• Send manuscripts for review based on the subject of expertise of the editorial board members.
• Regularly communicate with the editorial board.
• Arrange regular meetings with the editorial board for the development of publication policies and the journal.

Relationships with the Journal's Owner and Publisher

The relationship between the editors and the publisher is based on the principle of the independence of editors. All the decisions made by the editors are independent of the publisher and the owner of the journal as required by the agreement made between editors and publisher.

Editorial and Blind Review Processes

Editors are obliged to comply with the policies of the "Blind Review and Evaluation Process" stated in the journal's publication policies. Therefore, the editors should ensure that each manuscript is reviewed in an unbiased, fair, and timely manner.

Quality Assurance

Editors should ensure that articles in the journal are published in accordance with the publication policies of the journal and international standards.

Protection of Personal Information

Editors are supposed to protect the personal information related with the subjects or visuals in the studies being reviewed, and to reject the study if there is no documentation of the subjects' consent. Furthermore, editors are supposed to protect the personal information of the authors, reviewers and readers.

Encouraging Ethical Rules and Protection of Human and Animal Rights

Editors are supposed to protect human and animal rights in the studies being reviewed and should reject the experimental studies that do not have ethical and related committee’s approval.

Precautions against possible Abuse and Malpractice

Editors are supposed to take precautions against possible abuse and malpractice. They should conduct investigations meticulously and objectively in determining and evaluating complaints about such situations. They should also share the results of the investigation.

Ensuring Academic Integrity

Editors should ensure that the mistakes, inconsistencies or misdirection in studies are corrected quickly.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of all the articles published in the journal and the rights of the journal and author(s) in cases where these rights are violated. Also, editors should take the necessary precautions in order to prevent the content of all published articles from violating the intellectual property rights of other publications. See Plagiarism Check

Constructiveness and Openness to Discussion

Editors must:
• Pay attention to the convincing criticism about studies published in the journal and must have a constructive attitude towards such criticism.
• Grant the right of reply to the author(s) of the criticized study.
• Not ignore or exclude the study that includes negative results.

Complaints:

Editors must examine the complaints from authors, reviewers or readers and respond to them in an explanatory and enlightening manner.
Political and Economic Apprehensions
The independent decision of the editors is not influenced by the owner of the journal, publisher or any other political or economical factor

Conflicting Interests

Editors, acknowledging that there may be conflicting interests between reviewers and other editors, guarantee that the publication process of the manuscripts will be completed in an independent and unbiased manner

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

The fact that all manuscripts are reviewed through "Blind Review" has a direct influence on the publication quality. This process ensures confidentiality by an objective and independent review. The review process at Marmara Medical Journal is carried out on the principle of double-blind review. Reviewers do not contact the authors directly, and their reviews and comments are processed through the journal management system. In this process, the reviewer's views on the evaluation forms and full texts are assigned to the author(s) by the editor. Therefore, the reviewers doing a review for Marmara Medical Journal are supposed to bear the following ethical responsibilities:

Reviewers should:
• Agree to review only in their subject of expertise.
• Review in an unbiased and confidential manner.
• Inform the editor of the journal if they think that they encounter a conflict of interests and decline to review the manuscript during the review process.
• Dispose of the manuscripts they have reviewed in accordance with the principle of confidentiality after the review process. Reviewers can use the final versions of the manuscripts they have reviewed only after publication.
• Review the manuscript objectively and only in terms of its content and ensure that nationality, gender, religious and political beliefs, and economic apprehension do not influence the review.
• Review the manuscript in a constructive and kind tone; avoid making personal comments including hostility, slander, and insult.
• Review the manuscript they have agreed to review on time and in accordance with the ethical rules stated above.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher

The publisher of Marmara Medical Journal is conscious of the fact that they should follow the ethical responsibilities below and act accordingly:

Editors are responsible for all the processes of the manuscripts submitted to Marmara Medical Journal. Within this framework, ignoring the economic or political interests, the decision-makers are the editors.

The publisher undertakes the independent editorial decision.

The publisher protects the intellectual property rights of all the articles published in Marmara Medical Journal and holds the responsibility to keep a record of each unpublished article.

The publisher bears all the responsibility to take precautions against scientific abuse, fraud, and plagiarism.

Human and nonhuman experimentation

Authors must follow the ethical standards for human experimentation established in the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: recommendations guiding physicians in biomedical research involving human subjects. JAMA 1997; 277:925-6). The editors should ensure that a manuscript originating from an institution has provided the approval of the requisite authority. This approval must be presented in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. For studies of human experimentation that require local institutional approval, authors must provide that they had obtained this approval before the experiment was started. If the authors declare that their study is exempt from Institutional Review Board approval, they should explain it in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. For reports originating from experiments on nonhuman animals or other species, authors must declare that the guidelines for the care and use of the animals approved by the local institution were followed.

Unethical Behavior

Should you encounter any unethical act or content in Marmara Medical Journal apart from the ethical responsibilities listed above, please notify the journal by e-mail at pamiratagunduz@marmara.edu.tr and seza.arbay@marmara.edu.tr