Trakya University Press is operating with the aim of publishing academic products with international standards following the local and global necessities by meeting the requirements of changing and developing publishing era.

Trakya University Press adopts international academic publishing standards and builds practices accordingly. All published material considers all suggestions and guides of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), WAME (World Association of Medical Editors), ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journals Editors), EASE (European Association of Science Editors) and CSE (Council of Science Editors).

Trakya University Press, strictly adheres to Trakya University's open access policies, supports open access and open science in its publications.

Open access publication of academic studies published in Trakya University Press will increase the visibility of these studies and make it possible to provide easy access to resources for new research and to increase the recognition of the university.

For more information on the open access policies of Trakya University press, you can refer to https://kutuphane.trakya.edu.tr/pages/t--u---acik-erisim-ve-kurumsal-arsiv-politikasi.

All submissions sent to Trakya University Press undergo a pre-evaluation by the editorial board of the relevant department and a decision is made for further processes. At this stage, the editorial board investigate the submissions to check whether they meet the minimum necessities of the relevant department.

Submissions with a positive decision for further processes are sent to at least 2 reviewers in the field of the subject. The reviewing system is double-blind for all steps. The final decision is made by the editor-in-chief of the relevant department when the author(s) complete all necessary changes considering reviewer suggestions.

In a conflicting situation between the authors and the reviewers, the editor can evaluate the situation, or consult the editorial board.

The editor has the right to reject a manuscript if the author(s) exceed the response time period determined by the relevant department. The peer-review duration depends on the availability of the reviewers and Trakya University Press does not commit for the duration.

In assignments of reviewers, special attention is paid;

1. ● to select reviewers expert in the subject of the submitted manuscript,
2. ● to select reviewers outside the organization/institution of the author(s),
3. ● to select reviewers with no conflict of interest with the author(s) or their organizations/institutions.

Reviewers are expected;

1. ● to start their reports with a summary of the submitted material,
2. ● to follow transparency,
3. ● be objective,
4. ● be contributive,
5. ● to present conclusions with a scientific basis,
6. ● to pay attention to peer-review duration,
7. ● to pay attention to the privacy policy,
8. ● to not to continue peer-review in a conflicting situation,
9. ● to make kind and constructive interpretations without a barbed tongue.

Publications of Trakya University Press can take advertisements. All material and nonmaterial cases related to the advertisements are evaluated with the editorial board of relevant departments.

However, the licensees of the relevant departments are responsible to select advertisements with regulatory compliances, free of ethical problems, respecting social values and free of deceptive information.

All material published by Trakya University Press should be original and should not be published elsewhere. Authors are strict to follow the ethical guidelines of COPE, OASPA and WAME. All submitted material undergoes plagiarism control by the editor of the submitted the relevant department for originality. The editor evaluates the plagiarism report not only in terms of the numerical value of quotation but also in terms of other ethical issues related to scientific quotations.

Ethical standards in medical and pharmacological investigations follow the Helsinki Declaration of World Medical Association (WMA) (last modified on October 2013) and Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals of World Association of Medical Journals.

Human and Animal Rights

Authors of studies involving experiments on humans or human tissues should declare compliance with the institutional or regional committee's ethical standards and include the committee's statement and, if necessary, informed consent in their cover letter. Researchers who do not have access to formal ethics committees should adhere to the principles set out in the Helsinki Declaration and should report this in their cover letter. Authors should not use patients' names, initials or hospital numbers in the manuscript or any descriptive material or database tables unless they have obtained written consent from each patient to use their personal data. Photographs of patients should be taken after permission and agreement of the patient or a legal authority acting on their behalf.

The welfare of animals used for research should be respected before, during and after treatment. The guidelines prepared by ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) should be followed for important stages such as the design of the study to be used in the research, the number of animals to be used and the experimental procedures. In addition, an ethics committee approval from the institution where the study was conducted and showing that the research was ethically approved should be documented. In this document, the name of the ethics committee and the relevant permission number should be stated. If necessary, the editor can contact the relevant ethics committee for more information. In addition, the editor has the right to reject the manuscripts in which correct practices cannot be made on animal welfare issues.

Informed Consent

Individual participants in studies have the right to decide what will happen to the identifiable personal data collected, what they say during a study or interview, as well as any photograph taken. Therefore, it is important that all participants give their written informed consent before inclusion in the study. Identity information (names, dates of birth, identification numbers and other information) of the participants participating in the research, written descriptions, photographs and genetic profiles are not published unless necessary for scientific purposes and without the written consent of the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is disabled or underage).

Authorship Rights

Trakya University Press follows the authorship criteria of COPE.

Since the author(s) should assume public responsibility for the content of the submitted materials, only the person or persons who meet the following authorship criteria can be authors.

1. ● Individuals making significant contributions to the concept, design, execution, data collection or analysis/interpretation of the study,
2. ● Individuals preparing the draft of the manuscript or revised the manuscript with important critical approaches,
3. ● Individuals who have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to submit it for publication can become authors

In the manuscripts, all persons who have made significant contributions to the study (such as technical assistance, writing and editorial assistance, general support) but do not meet the above authorship criteria are not listed as authors, these persons are indicated in the "Acknowledgements" section of the manuscript after their written permission is obtained for the use of their names. The corresponding author should ensure that all eligible co-authors (according to the definition above) are added as authors to the manuscript, and that contributors who are not eligible for inclusion are not included in the author list, and must verify that all co-authors have seen and approved the final manuscript and agree to submit it.

Conflict of Interest

Trakya University Press accepts and follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJJE) in case of financial and non-financial relations and activities and conflicts of interest. In a case of conflict of interest, it is important that the participants (authors, referees, editors and relevant department staff) clearly state the situations that occur in terms of financial gain, as well as the impact on the welfare of the people or the validity of the research.

Çıkar çatışmasında, kişilerin refahı veya araştırmaların geçerliliğinin sağlanması anlamında yapılan etkinin yanında, mali kazanç sağlama açısından da oluşan durumların katılımcılar (yazarlar, hakemler, editörler ve yayın organı çalışanları) tarafından açıklıkla belirtilmesini önemlidir.

The corresponding author submitting a manuscript to Trakya University Press has to send/upload the conflict of interest declaration form to the relevant department, having all other co-authors sign it, if any. Authors are obliged to disclose all relations and activities that may create prejudice with their work in the conflict of interest declaration.

Referees invited to evaluate a manuscript should reject the invitation in case of any conflict of interest regarding the manuscript subject or authors. The reviewers are recommended to contact and consult with the editor if they have any doubt about situations that may lead to a conflict of interest.

Plagiarism

All manuscripts sent to Trakya University Press are put into iThenticate plagiarism detection application by the editor against possible plagiarism. Manuscripts found to be unacceptably similar to other published works are immediately rejected. As a result of the plagiarism control, the editor evaluates the manuscript not only in terms of numerical values but also in terms of other ethical points to be considered in citations. Trakya University Press follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines in cases of suspected plagiarism.

Data Sharing

Trakya University Press asks the authors to choose at least one appropriate data sharing statement and specify it in their manuscript as standardized below. Authors may select more than one statement if their research data are under different conditions.

Authors are encouraged to visit the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations web page for more information.

Selected statement(s) are published under the title of “Data Sharing” at the end of the article.

1. • The data is in a public open access repository. The author should clearly state the repository's name, web page address, and the repository's conditions for using the data.
2. • Data is available on request. The conditions for author(s) to provide data when requested, and special conditions, if any, regarding their use should be given in detail.
3. • Data obtained by third parties can be provided upon request. It should be stated by which institution or organization the data is provided. It should be clearly stated what the data is, the conditions for third parties to provide data when requested, and special conditions, if any, regarding their use should be given in detail.
4. • All data is included in the study. It is enough to write this statement.
5. • No data set is obtained. In such cases, the term “not applicable” is enough.
6. • There is no data. If the study is not based on data, the term “not applicable” is enough.
7. • Data will not be shared. It is enough to write this statement.

Misconduct Investigations and Complaints

Suspicion of misconduct and complaints about any article published or in the process of being published in Trakya University Press are evaluated by the editorial board of the relevant department. The editorial boards adhere to the COPE and ICMJE guidelines when considering suspected misconduct or complaint. In all steps, an ombudsman who has no connection with the complaining parties is determined, and it is ensured that the whole process is carried out and decided. Complaints can be made using the e-mail address of the relevant department.

Post-publication Corrections and Withdrawals

Correction of minor errors, changes in authors lists, removal or additions of author names, or withdrawals after publication of the articles are evaluated with an application sent to the e-mail address of the relevant department. The reason and evidence must be presented in the e-mail. The reasons and evidences presented are discussed and decided by the editorial board of the relevant department. When the above-mentioned change and withdrawal requests occur, the articles sent by all authors to the relevant department affiliated with the publisher are automatically rejected during the processing period.

Correction Policy

Trakya University Press follows guidelines of COPE and ICMJE for correction processes.

Acceptable and minor errors in a published article that do not affect the content or scientific integrity of the article (e.g. typographical errors, broken links, incorrect page numbers, etc.) can be corrected by issuing an "erratum".

However, in cases where important errors are detected in a published article, a “corrigenda” should be published. Generally, such errors affect the scientific integrity of the manuscript and may change in size. Reasons for publishing corrigenda may include changes in authorship, unintentional errors in published research findings and protocols, errors in the labelling of tables and figures, etc.

Complaints from authors or readers about the articles published in Trakya University Press are evaluated by the editorial boards of the relevant department, and the HTML and PDF versions of the article that is decided to be withdrawn are removed from the web page of the relevant publication (metadata is not removed) and replaced by HTML and PDF versions including the reason for the withdrawal of the published article. The phrase "withdrawn" is placed in front of the article name.