The publication processes of Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal have been shaped by the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and National Information Standards Organization (NISO).
Our journal complies with the ‘Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing’ (doaj.org/bestpractice).
Re-Publication
Articles must not have been published anywhere before and must not have been sent to another journal for publication (except for oral presentations and poster presentations published in connection with scientific meetings, provided that they have not been published in full text, with the condition of notification).
Simultaneous Submission of the Same Study to More Than One Journal
Authors cannot submit the same article to more than one journal at the same time. If the editor learns of a possible simultaneous submission, he/she reserves the right to consult with the other editor(s) receiving the article. In such a case, the editor may return the article without reviewing it or reject it without considering the reviews. The editor may make these decisions himself/herself or may decide to not accept article submissions from the authors for a certain period after discussing it with the other relevant editor(s) and may decide not to accept article submissions from the authors. In addition, the editor may write to the authors' employers about this situation or may implement all of these measures together.
Control to Prevent Plagiarism
It is to present the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works of others to their owners, in accordance with scientific rules, without citation, as if they were his/her own work, in part or in whole.
Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal scans all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. The studies submitted for review are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin & İthenticate software. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 20%. The main measure for the similarity rate is the author's compliance with the citation and citation rules. If the similarity rate appears to be 1% but the citation and citation are not made properly, plagiarism may still occur. In this respect, the citation and citation rules should be known by the author and carefully applied. Articles with similarities exceeding the academic citation limit and articles that are not prepared by the publication rules will not be evaluated.
Attribution, plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, publication by slicing, copyright violation, and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviors. All articles that do not comply with the accepted ethical standards will be removed from publication. This also includes articles with possible irregularities and inappropriateness detected after publication.
Fraud
Producing data that is not based on research, editing or changing a presented or published work based on false data, reporting or publishing these, and presenting a research that has not been done as if it has been done. Falsifying research records and obtained data, presenting methods, devices, and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that is not compatible with the research hypothesis, manipulating data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, falsifying or shaping research results in line with the interests of the persons and institutions that receive support. Articles in which fraud is detected will not be evaluated, and those that have been published will be removed from publication. In the event of detection, the editor may write to the employers of the authors and relevant institutions about the study in which fraud is found.
The editors of the Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal will take measures to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct occur. In no case will editors knowingly allow such misconduct to occur. Editors will follow COPE’s guidelines in dealing with allegations of research misconduct in the event that they become aware of any allegations of research misconduct in an article published in their journal.
Ethical Violation Notifications
Readers may notify Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal by sending an e-mail to info@mevlanamedsci.org, editor@mevlanamedsci.org if they notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in the Journal of Medical Sciences, or if they have any complaints regarding editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.). We welcome submissions as they provide us with opportunities for improvement and respond promptly and constructively.
Allegations of Scientific Misconduct
There are different definitions of scientific misconduct. Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal addresses these issues on a case-by-case basis while following guidance established by major publication ethics bodies. Editors are obliged to take action if they suspect or allege an ethical violation. This duty covers both published and unpublished articles. The editor should not simply reject articles that raise concerns about possible misconduct. They are ethically obligated to follow up on alleged cases. The editor should follow the COPE flowcharts where appropriate. Editors should first seek a response from the individuals suspected of misconduct. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers or institutions to investigate. The editor should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that a proper investigation is conducted into the alleged misconduct. The editor should insist on a resolution of the problem and make all reasonable attempts to do so. This is an arduous but important task.
Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal undertakes to apply COPE flow charts when faced with allegations of misconduct on the following topics or similar topics.
•When duplicate publication is suspected,
•When plagiarism is suspected,
•When fabricated data is suspected,
•When requests for authorship change,
•When an undisclosed conflict of interest is suspected,
•When unfair or gift authorship is suspected,
•When an ethical problem is suspected in an article,
•When an ethical violation is directly reported via e-mail, etc.,
•When an ethical violation is suspected via social media,
Complaint Procedure
This procedure applies to complaints about content, procedures, or policies that are under the responsibility of our journal or our editorial staff. Complaints can provide an opportunity and incentive for improvement. Therefore, we aim to respond to your complaints quickly, courteously, and constructively.
Complaints should be sent directly to "info@mevlanamedsci.org", or "editor@mevlanamedsci.org". All complaints will be treated confidentially. The editor responds to complaints immediately. The editor follows the procedure outlined in the COPE flowchart for complaints. A full response will be provided within two weeks if possible.
Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may issue corrections if minor errors are detected in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, or conclusions. Editors may retract the article in cases of major errors/violations that invalidate the findings and conclusions. Editors may issue an expression of concern if there is a possibility of research or publication misconduct by the authors; if there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and that the authors' institutions did not investigate the incident, or if the possible investigation appears to be unjustified or inconclusive. COPE and ICJME guidelines are followed regarding corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern in our journal.
Ethics Committee Approvals
Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal adopts the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers” in order to create ethical assurance in scientific periodical publishing. In this context, the following points must be adhered to in studies submitted to the journal:
1) For studies conducted in all branches of science that require ethics committee approval (ethics committee approval must be obtained, this approval must be stated and documented in the article.
2) In studies that require ethics committee approval, ethics committee approval information (board name, date, and issue number) must be stated in the Materials and Methods section of the article. In addition, information that the informed consent/consent form was signed must be included on one of the first/last pages of the article; in case reports.
Ethics committee approval is required for the compliance of research protocols of experimental, clinical, and drug studies and some case reports with international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects,” amended in October 2013, www.wma.net) and documentation of this approval will constitute the basis for publication of the articles.
Research Ethics Principles
Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal observes the highest standards in research ethics and adopts the international research ethics principles defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of articles with ethical rules.
•The principles of integrity, quality, and transparency should be ensured in the design of the research, the review of the design, and the conduct of the research.
•The research team and participants should be fully informed about the purpose, methods, and possible intended uses of the research; the requirements of participation in the research, and the risks, if any.
•The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed in a way that protects the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
•Research participants should take part in the research voluntarily and should not be under any coercion.
•Harm to the participants should be avoided. The research should be planned in a way that does not put the participants at risk.
•Research independence should be clear and explicit; conflicts of interest should be stated if any.
•In experimental studies conducted with human subjects, written informed consent should be obtained from the participants who decide to participate in the research. The consent of the legal guardian of children and those under guardianship or those with confirmed mental illness must be obtained.
If the study will be conducted in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization for the study to be conducted.
In studies with human elements, it must be stated in the “method” section that “informed consent” was obtained from the participants and that the ethics committee approval was obtained from the institution where the study was conducted.
Special Issue and Supplementary Issue (congress abstracts) Publication Policy
Upon the request of the Editorial Board, our journal may publish one special issue per year and one supplementary issue containing abstracts from a scientifically valid congress. Articles sent for inclusion in the special issue are first subject to an editorial preliminary review. Then, they are examined for compliance with the journal’s spelling rules and a similarity scan is performed to prevent plagiarism. After these stages, they are taken to the peer review process where the double-blind model is used.
Abstracts to be published in the supplementary issue are published by the journal’s supplementary issue publishing procedure and with the same standards as other supplementary issues. Content such as congress boards and covers are included. The refereeing process is not applied to these abstracts that have been peer-reviewed by the congress boards. They are numbered with separate page numbers starting from 1, independent of the journal's regular issues.
Editorial Confidentiality Obligation
The editors of Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal treat all submitted articles as confidential documents; this means that they will not disclose information about an article to anyone without the authors' permission. The following people can access the articles during the article review process: Editors, Reviewers, and Editorial Board Members. The only situation where details about an article may be shared with a third party without the authors' permission is if the editor suspects serious research misconduct.
Responsibility for Articles and Conflicts of Interest
All responsibilities (ethical, scientific, legal, etc.) of the articles published in the journal belong to the authors. It is at the discretion of the Editorial Board to review or not to review articles that are not prepared by the writing rules. All publishing rights of the articles accepted for publication belong to the journal. This right is determined by a specially prepared publication rights transfer form and the signatures of all authors. A Copyright Transfer Form signed by the responsible author must be sent to the journal through the article acceptance system. A separate form must be submitted for each article. Articles sent without the Copyright Transfer Form will not be accepted. Authors must confirm that they will not submit their works to another journal, will not publish the original or in another language, or will not allow a third party to use the article without the written permission of Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal. In the event of rejection of the article, all copyrights are deemed to have been returned to the authors.
It must be declared that there is no financial conflict of interest at any stage of the study, including data collection, experimental phase, writing, and language editing. Commercial sponsorship, if any, should be declared in the study.
Mevlana Medical Sciences Journal requests and encourages authors and individuals involved in the evaluation process of submitted articles to declare any current or potential conflicts of interest, including financial, institutional, and other relationships that may lead to a potential conflict of interest or bias.
Protection of Personal Data
It is the responsibility of the authors to carefully protect the anonymity of the patient. If a patient can be identified from a photograph or another photograph or any accompanying text, these should be covered. Identifiable images should be anonymized. In cases where patient identification is available, a patient consent form should be obtained and added to the system. In cases where the patient is not identified in any way, consent is not required. In articles related to experimental research involving humans; a statement stating that written, informed consent was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that patients and volunteers may undergo should be added.
The Editorial Board of the Journal processes objection and complaint cases within the scope of COPE guidelines. Authors can directly contact the Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Board for objections and complaints. When necessary, a neutral representative is appointed for issues the Editorial Board cannot resolve.
The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision on objections and complaints. The publisher and editor are always ready to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.
