Research & Writing Ethics

Research Ethics

Research ethics provides guidelines for the responsible conduct of research. In addition, it educates and monitors scientists conducting research to ensure a high ethical standard. The following is a general summary of some ethical principles:

Honesty: Honestly report data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data.

Objectivity: Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research.

Integrity: Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought and action.

Carefulness: Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities.

Openness: Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas.

Responsible Publication: Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career. Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication (https://libguides.library.cityu.edu.hk/researchmethods/ethics).

Writing Ethics

The authors who submit their manuscripts to Turkish Studies are expected to comply with the following ethical responsibilities:

• 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.
• People who have not contributed to the study at the intellectual level should not be indicated as author.
• If the manuscripts submitted to be published are subject of conflicting interests or relations, these must be explained.
• 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.
• Author(s) bears the responsibility to inform the editor of the journal or publisher if they happen to notice a mistake in their study which is in early release or publication process and to cooperate with the editors during the correction or withdrawal process.
• 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 Turkish Studies.
• Author responsibilities given in a study (e.g., adding an author, reordering of author names) cannot be changed if the review process has begun. EASE Ethics Checklist for Authors

Violation of publication ethics

“Violation of publication ethics is a global problem which includes duplicate submission, multiple submissions, plagiarism, gift authorship, fake affiliation, ghost authorship, pressured authorship, salami publication and fraud (fabrication and falsification) but excludes the honest errors committed by the authors.”[1]

Data fabrication and falsification: “Data fabrication means the researcher did not actually do the study but made up data. Data falsification means the researcher did the experiment, but then changed some of the data. Both of these practices make people distrust scientists. If the public is mistrustful of science, then it will be less willing to provide funding support”.[2]

Plagiarism: “In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.”[3]

              “Students plagiarise in four main ways;

1. Stealing material from another source and passing it off as their own, e.g.

(a) buying a paper from a research service, essay bank or term paper mill (either

pre-written or specially written),

(b) copying a whole paper from a source text without proper acknowledgement,

(c) submitting another student’s work, with or without that student’s knowledge (e.g. by copying a computer disk).

2. Submitting a paper written by someone else (e.g. a peer or relative) and passing it off as their own.
3. Copying sections of material from one or more source texts, supplying proper documentation (including the full reference) but leaving out quotation marks, thus giving the impression that the material has been paraphrased rather than directly quoted.
4. Paraphrasing material from one or more source texts without supplying appropriate documentation”.[4]

Multiple submissions of a paper: “It is unethical to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. This is also a waste of time for editors and peer reviewers and can give rise to prejudices at the reputation of journals if published in more than one”.[5]

Redundant publications (or 'salami' publications): “This means publishing many very similar manuscripts based on the same experiment. It can make readers less likely to pay attention to your manuscripts”.[6]

Improper author contribution or attribution: “All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. Don't forget to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution”.[7]

Unethical Behavior

Should you encounter any unethical act or content in the journal apart from the ethical responsibilities listed above, please notify the journal by e-mail at turkishstudiesbaski@gmail.com

[1]    Mueen Ahmed vd., “Violation of publication ethics in manuscripts”, 94.

[2]    Springer (Springer Nature), “Publication ethics” (9 May 2020).

[3]    The Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices” (30 December 2019).

[4]    Chris Park, “In Other (People's) Words: Plagiarism by university students--literature and lessons”, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 28/5 (2003), 475.

[5]    Nature, “Publication ethics”.

[6]    Nature, “Publication ethics”.

[7]    Nature, “Publication ethics”.