Ethics Policies

The Turkish Journal of Sense of Place and Urban Studies is committed to maintaining high standards of ethical behavior in the conduct of research and publication. We follow the guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in all aspects of our publishing operations.

All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to abide by the ethical principles set forth by COPE, including principles related to plagiarism, fabrication and falsification of data, conflicts of interest, and data sharing.

In the event of a suspected violation of ethical principles, the journal will take appropriate action, which may include the retraction of published articles. The journal's editors will work with the authors, reviewers, and other relevant parties to resolve any ethical issues that may arise.

We encourage all authors, reviewers, and editors to familiarize themselves with the COPE Ethical Guidelines and to consult these guidelines in the event of any questions or concerns. By following these guidelines, we aim to maintain the highest standards of ethical behavior in the conduct of research and publication.

Ethics Guideline for the Editors of the Journal
  • The editors are responsible for conducting the editorial review of submissions to decide whether to initate the peer-review process. This decision should be based on evaluating the submission for the following criteria:
    • Plagiarism and suspicion of any kind of ethical violations
    • Aim and scope of the Journal
    • Originality, quality, and unique value of the submission
    • The visible contribution factor of the submission to the literature
  • The editors should not allow unpublished material and other information and data in the submissions to be used by other parties. Hence, the editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of authors when they make their submissions to the Journal.
  • Editors should maintaint and monitor the evaluation processes of submissions in accordance with completely open, transparent, scientific, and objective criteria without any prejudice.
  • The editors should not disclose information about submissions to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers, and publisher. All identifying information about submissions holders should be disclosed by the editors to any other parties. Editors can only share the anonymized manuscript with reviewers through journal management system to ensure double-blind peer-review process.
Ethics Guideline for the Editorial Board
  • The Editorial Board should keep the information regarding all submitted manuscripts confidential.
  • The Editorial Board should strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
  • The Editorial Board should strive to improve the quality of the journal.
  • The Editorial Board should give utmost importance to scientific quality and originality.
  • The Editorial Board should always be ready to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary.
Ethics Guideline for the Reviewers

  • The Editorial Review consists of but is not limited to the following:

    • The research's originality and contribution to the field.
    • The research's compatibility with the Journal's scope and aim.
    • The research's language proficiency.

    Should the submission is deemed to be included in the reviewing cycle of the Journal, at least two reviewers are assigned to the manuscript for comprehensive evaluation. The peer-review process follows a double-blind process, which means that neither the authors nor the peer reviewers know each others’ identities.

    We encourage reviewers to follow the COPE's Ethical Guidelines for the reviewing process. The reviewers are assigned to the manuscripts considering their field of expertise and trust in their knowledge and ethical principles. To achieve a high-quality and ethical peer-review process, reviewers should:

    • Decline the invitation if they feel uncomfortable about their expertise on the proposed manuscript.
    • Decline the invitation if they cannot complete the process within the requested timeframe due to their schedule.
    • Decline the invitation or notify the Editors upon their acceptance of the invitation if there are any competing interests in which they may be involved.

    After acceptance of the invitation, reviewers should strictly follow the ethical guidelines below:

    • Their use of language throughout the review report cannot be degrading or humiliating.
    • They cannot be biased against any race, religious belief, nationality, gender, or locale.
    • They should clearly and explicitly indicate the points in the manuscripts throughout their reviews when they would like to comment or make suggestions.
    • They should conduct a comprehensive, detailed, and objective evaluation of the manuscript.

    Any conflict of these ethical guidelines by the reviewers will be resulted in ignoring their review and notifying their institutions about their ethical violation of the peer-review process.

    After completing the detailed review of the manuscript, the reviewers should make one of the following recommendations about the manuscript to the Editors:

    • The manuscript is deemed to be publishable in its original form in TJSOP.
    • The manuscript is not deemed to be publishable in TJSOP.
    • The manuscript needs major revisions to be published in TJSOP.
    • The manuscript needs minor revisions to be published in TJSOP.
  • Reviewed manuscripts should be treated as confidential documents and should not be shown or discussed with anyone other than those authorized by the editor.
  • Reviewer criticism should be objective, fair and in accordance with scientific ethics. No personal criticism should be directed against the author. Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts without regard to the origin, gender, sexual orientation or political philosophy of the authors.
Ethics Guideline for the Authors
  • A manuscript submitted to Journal must be original, and the authors must confirm that the manuscript is an original work that has not been published in any other journal before.
  • Authors may be asked to provide relevant raw data in connection with their work that may be needed at the review stage, so they should be prepared to provide access to this data and retain it for a reasonable period of time following publication of their work.
  • Authors should write completely original manuscripts and if they use the work and/or words of others, they should cite them appropriately. By submitting manuscript to Journal, authors guarantee that their manuscripts are original and in accordance with ethical standards, that the references used are fully cited, and that they are not similar to other articles in print or in the process of publication. In this context, authors should agree that their submissions will be checked by Editorial Office for plagiarism through software (iThenticate, Turnitin, etc.).
  • Authors must cite previous publications that have influenced the substance of their reported work.
  • Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, implementation or interpretation of the reported work. All significant contributors should be listed following the first author. In order to request a change in the author rankings after submission of the manuscript, the Editors must be notified via the Journal management system and editorial@journalsenseofplace.com before the acceptance decision, explaining the rationale for the change in author rankings by all authors.
  • Changes in the author ranking can only be possible on the grounds that the contribution rates of the authors change during the revision phase of the revised manuscripts. For notifications made before the acceptance of the manuscript for publication, all authors should be added to the e-mail correspondence and the copyright form and author contribution rate declaration form should be filled out again and signed by all authors and attached to the e-mail. Requests for changes in the author ranking or author changes after the acceptance of the study for publication are not evaluated.
  • All authors are obliged to declare any financial resources or conflicts of interest that may affect the results or interpretations in their work.
  • If an author becomes aware of a significant inaccuracy or defect in their published work, it is the author's obligation to notify the journal editor immediately and to cooperate with the editor to correct the inaccuracy or defect. Authors have an obligation to work with the editor to ensure that errors are corrected. Notifications made after this period will only be published as corrections.

Notifying the Editors Regarding Ethical Violations

In case of any behavior that does not comply with the ethical principles regarding the editors, reviewers, and authors in Turkish Journal of Sense of Place and Urban Studies, or if an unethical situation is encountered regarding a sumbission during the review, early view publication or full-paper publication, it should be reported to editorial@journalsenseofplace.com via e-mail.