The publication process at the International Journal of Academy (IJA) is the basis of the improvement and dissemination of information objectively and respectfully. Thus, the procedures in this process improve the quality of the studies. Peer-reviewed studies are the ones that support and materialize the scientific method. At this point, it is of utmost importance that all parties included in the publication process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, reviewers, and editors) comply with the standards of ethical considerations. International Journal of Academy expects all parties to hold the following ethical responsibilities.
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
- It is the author’s responsibility to submit the submitted article to the academic fields.
- Author(s) must submit original studies to the journal.
- If they utilize or use other studies, they must make the in-text and end-text references accurately and completely.
- If the manuscripts submitted to be published are subject of conflicting interests or relations, these must be explained.
- It should be ensured that other authors whose names will be written in the article contribute to the research. It is against the ethics of science to show people who do not have academic contribution as additional writers or to rank authors with nonscientific criteria.
- During the review process of their manuscripts, author(s) may be asked to supply raw data. In such a case, author(s) should be ready to submit such data and information to the editorial board.
- Author(s) should document that they have the participants’ consent and the necessary permissions related with the sharing and research/analysis of the data that are used.
- 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 International Journal of Academy.
- Author responsibilities given in a study (e.g., adding an author, reordering of author names) cannot be changed if the review process has begun.
Ethics Committee Approval
The studies that require ethics committee approval are as follows:
Ethics committee approval should be obtained separately for research in all disciplines and for clinical and experimental studies on humans and animals that require an ethical committee decision, this approval should be stated and documented in the article. In studies requiring ethical committee permission, information about the permission (board name, date and issue number) should be included in the method section and on the first/last page of the article. In case reports, information about signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the article.
Studies that require the approval of the Ethics Committee are as follows:
- Any research carried out with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using survey, interview, focus group work, observation, experiment, interview techniques,
- Use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
- Clinical studies conducted on humans,
- Studies conducted on animals,
- Retrospective studies in accordance with the law of protection of personal data,
- A statement confirming that an “Informed Consent Form” has been received in case reports,
- For the scales used in data collection, the permission of the scale owner should be obtained and declared in the article,
- A statement confirming that copyright regulations are met for the intellectual and artistic works used.
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 through objective and independent review. The review process at the International Journal of Academy is carried out on the principle of double-blind review. In this context, the reviewers doing review work for the International Journal of Academy are supposed to bear the following ethical responsibilities:
- Peer reviewers should only accept to review articles for which they have the expertise to make an appropriate assessment. They should also respect the confidentiality of the blind peer review process and keep the details of the article confidential at all costs.
- Peer reviewers should be aware that they play a critical role in the academic quality of the article to be published in the journal, and they should engage in the peer review process with the responsibility of improving academic quality.
- Peer reviewers must inform the editor of the journal if they think that they encounter conflict of interests and decline to review the manuscript during the review process.
- Peer reviews should 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.
- Peer review reports should be objective and measurable. Libelous, derogatory, or accusatory expressions should be avoided.
- Peer reviewers should avoid superficial or inaccurate statements in their peer review reports. In reviews with negative results, a complete justification should be presented on the aspects that led to the negative result.
- Peer reviewers should review the articles within the period allotted to them. If they are not going to review the article, they should notify the journal within a reasonable time.
Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
Editors are responsible for each study published in the International Journal of Academy. In this respect, the editors have the following roles and responsibilities:
- Editors should accept articles that will contribute to the relevant areas specified in the journal policy.
- Editors should not have any conflict of interest with accepted or rejected articles.
- Editors should ensure the continuous development of the Journal.
- Editors should manage the procedures aimed to improve the quality of the studies published in the journal.
- Editors have full responsibility and authority to accept or reject an article.
- It is editors’ responsibility to keep the names of peer reviewers and authors mutually confidential.
- It is the duty of editors to complete the pre-review, peer review, editing and publishing processes of the articles submitted to the journal in a timely and appropriate manner.