Submission & Publication Policy

  1. Submission Declaration

The submission of an article implies that the work has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, as part of a published lecture, academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

  1. Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Concurrently submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper. Publication of some kinds of articles (e.g. clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication.

  1. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors should ensure that they have written genuinely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms counted as unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. The software Turnitin is used for checking plagiarism for the journal.

  1. Data Access and Retention

All data relating to the article must be made available upon request from the editors or deposited in external repositories and it must be submitted if it is requested. Furthermore, authors are expected to be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

  1. Acknowledgement of Sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of other authors must always be given. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should be cited. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as reviewing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in those services.

  1. Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are declared in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

  1. Changes to Authorship

The journal accepts the add and drop or rearrangement of author names in an accepted manuscript before publication. Before the accepted manuscript is published, requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Secretary by the corresponding author. This request must include:

  • The reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and
    • Written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.

In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Secretary to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) the Journal Secretary will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) the publication of the accepted manuscript in an issue will be suspended until authorship has been agreed. After the manuscript is published any requests to add, drop or rearrange author names will not be taken into consideration.

  1. Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper.

  1. Licensing Terms

The journal uses the Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 4.0. This means that users must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made, in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. This is a non-commercial license meaning that the users may not use the material for commercial purposes, and it allows no derivatives, meaning that if the user remixes, transforms, or builds upon the material, they may not distribute the modified material.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

  1. Copyright

Authors should have to check a box for confirmation of copyright of the article submitted to the journal, a sample is shown below.

“The attached article(s), whose writer(s) and title(s) are clearly indicated below, has/have been sent for your consideration to be published by the journal. The article(s) has/have yet to be published anywhere else, nor has/have the article(s) been sent to another journal for consideration. In the case that any or all of the article be accepted for publication, we affirm that all publishing rights shall belong permanently to the journal for each accepted article.

As the writer(s) whose signature(s) appear below, I/we accept all the conditions found in the Publication Policy and affirm that the below article(s) has/have been written in accordance to the ethical rules stated therein. I/we furthermore affirm that all accompanying articles are original works, that all articles are accompanied with their original copyright forms, that the writer(s) transfere/s all editing rights to the Publications Boards of the journal and that all copyrights, including registered copyrights, shall be transferred to journal upon acceptance.”

  1. Copyediting and Proofreading

The journal publishes exclusively in English. Please write your text in good English. All articles undergo a professional proofreading without a charge to the Authors.

  1. Queuing for Publishing

The journal receives submissions on on-going basis and issues opened calls eight months prior publication of special issues. After all review and copyediting processes completed Editorial Board will decide for the issue in which the article will take place. Normally the articles are listed according to submission dates. But in some cases, there may be some exceptions related with the special issues and focused files. The author(s) will be informed about this decision.

  1. Acceptance Letter

If author needs and demands an acceptance letter showing the status of the article may be supplied by editorial board. This letter will include a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number which the author may further necessary official processes.

  1. Use of the Digital Object Identifier

During the publication process the journal will assign a DOI number for your article. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

  1. Open Access Policy

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

  1. Publication fees

The journal does not charge fees for publishing of an article, editorial processing fees, proofreading, design, printing, or any other supplementary charges.

  1. Copies of the Journal

A hardcopy of the Journal could be sent to the authors and the editorial team. Besides this, the corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e- mail.

  1. Review Process

The submitted articles are first reviewed by the editorial board. Within a period of two weeks a decision is reached if an article submitted to us meets the necessary requirements in terms of content and format. If articles that are not found appropriate, the author is informed about the evaluation result. If articles are found appropriate, they are then reviewed for suitability for publication. All articles are evaluated by at least two reviewers in a double-blind review process. They could be sent to a third one if it is deemed necessary. The workload of the field editor, the difficulty of finding reviewers, unexpected changes in the availability of reviewers and many other factors can affect the processing time, but the reviewer evaluation process takes about two to three months.

The review decision process is the following:

1) If two of the reviewers accept an article as publishable, the article is published.

2) If one of the reviewers accept it and the other rejects, the article is transferred to a third reviewer. If the third reviewer accepts it, it is published. If he/she rejects, it is rejected.

3) If two of the reviewers reject an article, it is directly rejected and not published.

  1. Reviewers

The reviewers are carefully selected from the worldwide academic community and are chosen between experts in the scientific topic addressed in the articles. They are selected for their objectivity and scientific knowledge. All reviewers are informed of the journal’s expectations. They are expected to fill the evaluation form and prepare a separate report if necessary.

Reviewers’ names are kept confidential and may only be disclosed to editors who are also instructed to maintain confidentiality. Unbiased consideration is given to all manuscripts offered for publication regardless of the race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, political philosophy, age or reputation of the authors.

The publication of an article depends on the approval of the reviewers. The authors are obligated to make the necessary correction requested by the reviewers.

Any person who has a conflict of interest in the subject of the article cannot be a reviewer for that article. Reviewers should contact the editorial office to declare any potential conflicts of interest in advance of reviewing an article (e.g. being a co-worker or collaborator with one of the authors, or being in a position which precludes giving an objective opinion of the work, those working for a company whose product was tested, its competitors, those with special political or ideological agendas).
Reviews are expected to be professional, honest, courteous, prompt, and constructive. The desired major elements of a high-quality review are as follows:

  • The reviewer should have identified and commented on the major strengths and weaknesses of the study design and methodology
    • The reviewer should comment accurately and constructively upon the quality of the author's interpretation of the data, including acknowledgment of its limitations.
    • The reviewer should comment on the major strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript as a written communication, independent of the design, methodology, results, and interpretation of the study.
    • The reviewer should comment on any ethical concerns raised by the study, or any possible evidence of low standards of scientific conduct.
    • The reviewer should provide the author with useful suggestions for improvement of the manuscript.
    • The reviewer's comments to the author should be constructive and professional
    • The review should provide the editor the proper context and perspective to make a decision on acceptance (and/or revision) of the manuscript.
    • The reviewers are expected to point out relevant work that has not been cited, and use citations to explain where elements of the work have been previously reported. They should also note any substantial similarity between the manuscript and any paper published in or submitted to another journal.
    • We request that reviewers do not contact authors directly. In most cases two reviewers will be consulted, but the opinion of these reviewers may not reflect the Co-Editor’s final decision on an article. Receiving partial advice from one reviewer can give authors a misleading impression of the peer review process.
    The editors of the journals routinely assess all reviewers for quality. Ratings of review quality and other performance characteristics of reviewers are periodically assessed to assure optimal journal performance. Performance measures such as review completion times should be used to assess changes in processing that might improve journal performance. Individual performance is kept confidential. The reviewers who do not contribute to the journal’s quality may be out listed.
  1. Confidentiality of Reviewers

In the review process, information and ideas obtained as a reviewer is kept confidential and not used for competitive advantage. The submitted manuscript is a privileged communication and should be kept confidential.

  • The submitted manuscript should not be retained or copied by the reviewers. Also, reviewers must not share the manuscript with any colleagues without the explicit permission of the editor.
    • Reviewers and editors must not make any personal or professional use of the data, arguments, or interpretations (other than those directly involved in its peer review) prior to publication unless they have the authors' specific permission or are writing an editorial or commentary to accompany the article.
    • Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest and inform the editorial board.
    • Reviewers must inform the journal if they are unable to review a paper or can do so only with some delay.
    • Reviewers must objectively judge the quality of the research reported, give fair, frank and constructive criticism and refrain from personal criticism of the authors. Comments made by reviewers may be seen by the authors. Therefore, reviewers’ judgments should be explained and supported so that authors can understand the basis of the comments and judgments.
    • If reviewers suspect misconduct, they should notify the editor in confidence, and should not share their concerns with other parties unless officially notified by the journal that they may do so.

If you have any ethical concerns about a paper, whether published or in review, please contact the editor in the first instance.

  1. Ethical Guidelines

In order to support and embody the scientific method the journal is committed to adhering to the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) International Standards for Editors and Authors. For this purpose, it is of crucial importance for all parties involved in the act of publishing – the authors, the editors, the peer reviewers and the publishers – to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. Approval of an article sent to the journal for publication depends on the following ethical and legal conditions:

  • Authors submitting to the journal must ensure data integrity, provide sufficient details for reproducibility, make raw data available upon request, and avoid data fabrication or manipulation.
    • Members of the editorial board and reviewers associated with the journal are expected to adhere to guidelines, including confidentiality, conflict avoidance, and timely, constructive feedback.
    • The journals follows a transparent and rigorous peer review process, selecting expert reviewers to ensure confidentiality and provide fair, unbiased, and constructive assessments.
    • The journal is zealously against plagiarism and authors are expected to provide original research to avoid academic misconduct.
    • Authors, editors, and reviewers associated with the journal are obligated to disclose any conflicts of interest that might compromise the publication process's integrity.
    • Submission to the journal implies that all listed authors have substantially contributed to the research, seen and approved the final manuscript, and agree to its submission.
    • The editorial team the journals commits to unbiased decision-making based solely on the academic merit of submissions, ensuring editorial independence and integrity.
    • The journal is committed to transparency, promptly correcting errors identified in published articles and issuing retractions, when necessary, with authors encouraged to report errors promptly.