Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Ethical Principles

As Turkish Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care (TJFMPC), the development and dissemination of scientific knowledge in a fair, objective and reliable manner is one of our primary values. In our publication processes, ethical principles and responsibilities established by taking into account the guidelines and policies determined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) should be meticulously implemented by all stakeholders. These stakeholders include authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members and readers.

TJFMPC follows the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity in its scientific research and publication processes. These guidelines are recognized as an international reference to ensure integrity and transparency in research. For detailed information
(https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-ethics_code-of-conduct_en.pdf).

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

- Originality and Citation: The manuscripts submitted to TJFMPC must be original and the references used must be cited correctly and completely. In the absence of citation, the article cannot be published.
- Authorship Criteria: Individuals who do not make an intellectual contribution to the work should not be listed as authors. Authors should be listed in accordance with internationally recognized authorship criteria.
- Conflicts of Interest: Authors should clearly declare any potential conflicts of interest in their manuscript.
- Raw Data Presentation: Authors are required to share raw data with editors and reviewers when necessary during the review process.
- Copyright Transfer Form: All authors must sign a copyright transfer form at the time of manuscript submission. This form confirms the transfer of all copyrights to the journal.
- Plagiarism Check: All submitted manuscripts are checked with anti-plagiarism software (e.g. iThenticate etc.) and manuscripts with a similarity rate below 15% are included in the evaluation process. This practice is mandatory to ensure the originality of the study.
- Ethics Committee Approval and Informed Consent: Ethics committee approval must be obtained for research on humans and an informed consent form must be obtained from the participants. These documents should be specified in the Methods section of the article and sent to the journal. For studies conducted on animals, the approval of the relevant experimental animal ethics committee must be obtained and this document must be submitted to the journal.
- Errors and Corrections: Authors should immediately notify the editors and make the necessary corrections when they notice errors in published or under review manuscripts.
- Republishing: The same manuscript cannot be submitted to more than one journal, and a manuscript already published in another journal cannot be submitted to TJFMPC.
- Changing Author Order and Responsibilities: Once the review process has started, the author order cannot be changed, authors cannot be added or removed.
- Use of Commercial Products and Names: Any commercial product or brand name used in the studies should not be included. Studies should be presented in an unbiased manner without making comparisons based on products or brands.

Authors should contribute in accordance with the transparency and accountability criteria developed by McNutt et al. These criteria aim to ensure that the contributions of the authors to the manuscript are clearly stated and that the integrity of the scientific publication is ensured.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

- Independence and Transparency: Editors are responsible for every published work and should make decisions with independence. Publication processes should be independent of economic or political pressures.
- Review Processes: All manuscripts are evaluated by a double-blind peer review system. Editors should make fair decisions by taking into account the scientific value, originality and contributions of the articles.
- Feedback: An open and informative feedback process should be conducted with authors and reviewers.
- Conflicts of Interest: Editors should carefully manage conflicts of interest that may arise between authors, reviewers and other editors.
While ensuring the journal's compliance with ethical rules, the editors act in accordance with the scientific research and publication ethics rules** determined by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK). In this context, the standards of accuracy and integrity of scientific research are carried out according to the guidance of YÖK.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Expertise and Impartiality: Reviewers should only evaluate manuscripts within their area of expertise and should act impartially.
The evaluation process of manuscripts submitted to TJFMPC is carried out by **double blind reviewing system**. The double-blind review process is a system in which the reviewers and authors are not aware of each other's identities, and impartiality and confidentiality are essential. The aim of this method is to evaluate the scientific quality and originality of the study without bias and to ensure that the process operates in an objective and fair environment.

**Functioning of the Double Blind Review System:**

1. Confidentiality of Identity: In the double-blind system, the identities of authors and reviewers are kept confidential throughout the article evaluation process. Author information is not added to the article or anonymized. Reviewers also remain anonymous and cannot contact the author directly. All communication and feedback is provided through the editor via the journal management system.
2. Evaluation and Impartiality: Reviewers participate in the evaluation process by accepting only papers that fall within their area of expertise. Since the identity of the author is not known, the evaluation is based solely on the content, methodology and scientific contribution of the work. This system ensures a fair evaluation process based on the scientific quality of the work.
3. Confidentiality Obligation: Reviewers are obliged to keep all information obtained during the evaluation process confidential. Any information or ideas obtained about the manuscripts are destroyed at the end of the process and are not shared with third parties. Failure to observe the principle of confidentiality is considered a serious ethical violation.
4. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Reviewers should immediately notify the editor if they recognize a conflict of interest during the review process. In case of conflict of interest, the reviewer should withdraw from the review process. This is important to ensure that the reviewer performs the review with complete impartiality.
5. Feedback and Constructive Criticism: During the double-blind review process, the reviewers' feedback should be instructive and constructive for the authors. Reviewers are obliged to address only the scientific rigor and methods of the manuscript. It is important for scientific ethics that the language used in the feedback process is respectful and constructive. Referee feedback is taken into account by the author for corrections to be made on the manuscript and helps to improve the manuscript.

The double-blind review system ensures unbiased evaluation of the work by concealing the identities of the authors. This method prioritizes scientific objectivity by reducing bias in the manuscript evaluation process and supports the creation of high quality scientific publications in accordance with the ethical principles of TJFMPC.
Reviewers should check whether the study complies with ethical guidelines for the protection of human and animal rights. If an ethical violation is detected, the referees are obliged to report it to the editor.

Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher

- Publication Time Limit and Delay: It is aimed to complete the publication process of articles submitted to TJFMPC within a maximum of 6 months. Corrections requested by the referee or author are not included in this timeframe.
- Withdrawal and Correction Procedure: Articles cannot be retracted once the refereeing process has begun; however, if a serious error is detected in a published article, editors may publish corrections or expressions of concern. However, retraction is only by editorial decision.
Articles published in TJFMPC are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. This license permits the sharing of published content for non-commercial purposes and requires attribution to the authors.

Informed Consent Policy

TJFMPC strictly adheres to the requirement of informed consent in all human and animal research. Our informed consent policy is carried out in accordance with the principles set by the **Helsinki Declaration 2024** and **International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)**. Consent and ethics committee approval must be obtained for clinical studies on human or animal specimens and must be clearly stated in the methodology section.

In studies conducted with human volunteers, participants must be informed about the research procedures and a written consent form must be signed. In all studies using human data, relevant permissions should be obtained and authors should keep these documents for legal cases.

For studies based on animal experiments, approval from the relevant ethical institutions should be obtained and this information should be stated in the materials and methods section of the article.

Transparent Reporting of Artificial Intelligence Use

Authors must clearly indicate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in content submitted to TJFMPC if:

(a) In any content made available to us,
(b) Content related to other works of the authors,
(c) In the references cited.

The use of AI should be transparently disclosed with the following information:

- Statement of Contribution: The use of AI technologies should be clearly stated in the “Statement of Contribution” section of the article.
- Methods Section: If AI is included in the research process, a detailed explanation should be provided in the methodology section.

Information on the Use of AI

Authors should provide the following information on the use of AI technologies:

- AI Technology Used: The name of the AI technology used should be clearly stated.
- Reason for Use: The purpose for which AI is used should be explained.

Evaluation of the Use of AI

TJFMPC assesses whether the use of AI technologies and transparent reporting of this use is in accordance with journal policies. If there is insufficient disclosure or inappropriate use of AI, the manuscript may be rejected.

This text clearly presents the ethical principles of the Turkish Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care (TJFMPC) and its transparency policy regarding the use of AI.