Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

The Eastern Journal of Science (Doğu Fen Bilimleri Dergisi) is published electronically twice a year, in May and October, on the ULAKBİM DergiPark platform as a peer-reviewed journal.
The journal publishes original research articles in Turkish and English in the field of natural sciences.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo an editorial screening process to assess their aims, scope, methodology, and compliance with the journal's writing guidelines. Following this process, manuscripts are subjected to scientific evaluation by the Editorial Review Board through a double-blind peer-review process.
In addition to peer-reviewed articles, the journal publishes non-peer-reviewed articles, applied research studies, research reports, case reports, technical notes, book critiques, standards reviews, biographical studies, reviews of laws and judicial decisions, book reviews, and academic studies by undergraduate students.
The Eastern Journal of Science adopts an open-access publishing model and does not charge any submission fees, editorial processing fees, or publication fees for articles or other contributions.
Authors are not paid for articles published in the journal.
Reported research must be conducted in accordance with ethical principles, and all in-text citations must be properly provided. The maximum acceptable similarity index is 20%.
The views expressed in published articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the journal. Authors bear sole responsibility for the opinions expressed in their respective articles.
Detailed information regarding the aims and scope of the Eastern Journal of Science, submission guidelines, publication policies, manuscript submission and evaluation processes, ethical principles, and related matters is available on the journal's website.

Ethical Principles and Responsibilities

The ethical responsibilities outlined below have been prepared in accordance with the ethical guidelines and responsibilities established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Editors, reviewers, and authors of the journal are expected to adhere to the following ethical principles.

1. Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviews must be conducted impartially.
Reviewers must be experts in the subject area of the manuscript they are invited to evaluate. If they lack sufficient knowledge of the subject, they should decline the review invitation.
Reviewers must not have any conflicts of interest with respect to the research or its authors.
In accordance with the principle of confidentiality, reviewers must destroy the manuscripts they have reviewed once the evaluation process has been completed.
Reviews must be objective and based solely on the content of the manuscript. Nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and commercial interests must not influence the evaluation.
As part of their responsibility to educate and guide authors, reviewers should provide constructive guidance and refrain from offensive or humiliating comments or statements concerning the authors' competence.
Reviewers must complete their evaluations within the agreed timeframe and in accordance with the ethical responsibilities outlined above.

2. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Manuscripts submitted for publication must not violate the principles of research and publication ethics, including plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, salami slicing, improper attribution of authorship, failure to acknowledge funding organizations, and non-compliance with ethical standards in animal research.
Authors must have conducted their research in accordance with ethical principles and applicable legislation. Manuscripts must present original research relevant to the journal's designated subject areas.
If a manuscript reports research requiring ethics committee approval, authors must provide the relevant approval details in the manuscript, including the name of the committee, the approval date, and the approval number.
When directly quoting from other works, authors must provide appropriate citations to the original sources.
The reference list must be complete, and all cited sources must be properly acknowledged.

2.1. Accuracy and Reliability

Authors must use appropriate data analysis methods when necessary and seek expert advice where appropriate.
In multi-authored studies, all authors share responsibility for the content of the publication. Authors must review their work at every stage to ensure that the methods and findings are reported accurately.

2.2. Honesty

Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been published elsewhere or be under consideration for publication by another journal.
Authors must describe the research methods they have used and present their findings clearly and transparently.

2.3. Originality

Authors must confirm that their work is original and has not been published elsewhere in any language.
If the research findings have previously been published or the manuscript has been submitted to another journal for publication, the editor must be informed during the submission process. Authors must provide copies of the relevant publications or manuscripts submitted to other journals.
Multiple publications arising from a single research project must be clearly identified, and the primary publication must be cited.

2.4. Transparency

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data underlying their manuscripts during the evaluation process. In such cases, they must be prepared to provide the requested data and information to the editorial board and reviewers.
Authors must possess documentation demonstrating that they have the rights to use the data, the necessary permissions for research and analysis, or evidence that the required consent procedures for research participants have been completed.
Authors must describe their methods clearly and comprehensively to enable others to verify the findings presented in their work.

2.5. Responsibility

Authors may not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously. A new submission may be initiated only after the previous submission process has been completed.
If authors identify an error or inaccuracy in their published, online-first, or under-review work, they are responsible for informing the journal editor and cooperating with the editor in making corrections or retracting the work, as appropriate.

2.6. Multi-Authored Studies

All authors must be listed in multi-authored studies and included in the copyright transfer form at the time of manuscript submission.
A corresponding author must be designated from among the authors to manage communication with the editor throughout the manuscript evaluation process.
Once the evaluation process has begun, changes to authorship arrangements, including adding or removing authors or changing the order of authors, may not be proposed.
Any changes or revisions made to the manuscript must be communicated to all authors. This is the responsibility of the corresponding author.
In multi-authored studies, all authors are expected to share responsibility for the integrity of the research and its reporting. However, if individual authors are responsible for only specific aspects of the research or its reporting, this must be stated in the publication.

2.7. Peer-Review Process and Copyright Transfer Form

Detailed information about the peer-review process is provided under the heading "Peer Review and Evaluation Process" on the journal's Author Guidelines page. Authors are deemed to have accepted these rules upon submitting their manuscripts.
Authors must cooperate throughout the process and respond accurately and promptly to requests from reviewers and editors.
Authors who wish to withdraw their manuscripts during the evaluation process must inform the editor.

2.8. Reporting Research Involving Human Participants or Animals

Appropriate approvals, licenses, or registrations must be obtained before the research begins, and relevant details must be provided in the report. Examples include approval from an Institutional Review Board or Research Ethics Committee and licenses issued by national authorities responsible for animal research.
Upon request by the editors, authors must provide evidence that the reported research received the necessary approvals and was conducted ethically. Such evidence may include copies of approvals, licenses, and participant consent forms.
Authors must not publish or share personal data collected during research without the consent of the individual concerned or their legal representative.
Authors must publish all significant research findings that may contribute to understanding the subject under investigation.

3. Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

3.1. Responsibility for Journal Content

Editors are responsible for every article published in the journal. They must ensure the quality of published material and safeguard the integrity of the scholarly record. Accordingly, editors shall:

Make decisions solely on academic grounds and assume full responsibility for those decisions.
Endeavour to uphold the principle of academic freedom to ensure that manuscripts are evaluated fairly and impartially.
Conduct editorial processes in accordance with intellectual property rights and ethical standards.
Strive to meet the information needs of readers and authors and continuously improve the journal.
Protect the confidentiality of authors and reviewers and manage the peer-review process accordingly.
Take into account the views of authors, readers, and members of the reviewer board when improving the journal's processes.
Keep abreast of research on peer review and scholarly publishing and review the journal's procedures in light of new developments.

3.2. Relations with Readers

Editors must ensure that published works are original and make every effort to ensure that they contribute to scholarship and provide scientific value to readers, researchers, and practitioners.
Editors must consider feedback from all stakeholders and endeavour to provide clear and informative responses.

3.3. Relations with Authors

Editors must ensure that all manuscripts are evaluated by appropriately qualified reviewers.
Detailed information about editorial procedures is provided in the Author Guidelines available on the Eastern Journal of Science website.
Editors must maintain ongoing communication with authors to prevent potential disruptions in the evaluation and publication processes.

3.4. Relations with Reviewers

When assigning reviewers, editors must consider whether any conflicts of interest exist between the authors and the reviewers.
As the evaluation process follows a double-blind peer-review model, reviewers' identities must remain confidential. The list of reviewers for each issue is announced in the corresponding issue.
Reviewers are encouraged to use impartial, scholarly, and objective language when evaluating manuscripts.
Efforts are made to ensure that the reviewer pool represents a range of disciplines and is regularly updated.
Discourteous and unscientific comments in review reports are prevented or removed.

3.5. Peer-Review and Evaluation Process

Editors are responsible for implementing the policies set out under "Peer Review and Evaluation Process" in the journal's Author Guidelines. In this regard, editors must ensure that every manuscript undergoes a fair, impartial, and timely evaluation process.
Reviewers may express a definite recommendation regarding whether a manuscript should be published or rejected. However, the editor or editorial board may make a decision by considering both convergent and opposing views expressed by the reviewers.
The editor or editorial board bases its decision not on the number of reviewers recommending acceptance or rejection, but on the strength of the arguments presented by reviewers and authors. Reports containing well-supported arguments and reasoned recommendations are given greater consideration than reports in which evaluation questions are answered merely with "yes" or "no."
After publication, a reviewer may observe that their views have not been fully reflected in the published manuscript. Other reviewers may have expressed differing opinions, and the editor or editorial board may have taken those opinions into account. In such cases, at the request of the reviewer concerned, the opinions of other reviewers may be shared with them, subject to the approval of the editorial board.

Based on reviewers' recommendations, the editor or editorial board may take one of the following actions:

Accept the manuscript for publication.
Accept the manuscript for publication after minor or major revisions and improvements have been made.
Request that the author(s) revise the manuscript in accordance with the reviewers' comments and initiate a new evaluation process.
Reject the manuscript.

3.6. Editorial Board Members

Care is taken to appoint suitably qualified editorial board members who can contribute to the development of the journal.
The composition of the editorial board is reviewed regularly.
The editor consults editorial board members regarding journal management, informs them of changes to journal policies, and holds regular consultations, for example annually, to plan for the journal's future.

3.7. Protection of Personal Data

Editors must reject manuscripts containing personal data if the explicit consent of the individuals concerned has not been obtained. Editors are also responsible for protecting the personal data of authors, reviewers, and readers.

3.8. Research Ethics Committees, Human Rights, and Animal Welfare

Editors must take care to ensure the protection of human rights and animal welfare in the studies they evaluate. They are responsible for rejecting manuscripts when the required ethics committee approvals for research involving human or animal subjects, or the necessary permits for experimental studies, have not been obtained.

3.9. Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights associated with all published articles and for safeguarding the rights of the journal and its author(s) in the event of potential infringements.

3.10. Constructiveness and Openness to Discussion

Editors consider criticism concerning works published in the journal and endeavour to respond to such criticism constructively.

3.11. Complaints

Editors carefully examine complaints received from authors, reviewers, or readers and endeavour to provide clear and explanatory responses.

4. Ethical Responsibilities of the Publisher

The Eastern Journal of Science:

Does not charge authors any fees.
Endeavours to protect the ownership and copyright of every published article and to maintain a record of each copy.

5. Plagiarism Screening

Reported research must be prepared in accordance with ethical principles, and all in-text citations must be properly provided. After the peer-review process has been completed and before publication, manuscripts submitted to the journal are screened using Turnitin to prevent plagiarism.

The maximum acceptable similarity index is 20%.

Reporting Ethical Misconduct

If you identify a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, or encounter any conduct or content that does not comply with the ethical responsibilities outlined above, please report the matter by email to dofebd@hakkari.edu.tr.