Ethical principles and publication policy

Principles of publication ethics
Publication Ethics can be defined as a self-regulatory mechanism that insists on honesty on the part of authors, reviewers and publishers to establish higher standards of editorial processing. Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public confidence in scientific findings, and respect for people's opinions. 

  • Honest researchers do not plagiarize.
  • Does not cite sources incorrectly.
  • They do not hide objections that they cannot refute.
  • They do not distort opposing views.
  • They do not destroy or hide data.

Peer-reviewed studies are studies that support and implement the scientific method. At this point, it is of great importance that all parties involved in the publication process (authors, readers and researchers, publisher, referees and editors) comply with ethical principles. The European Chemistry and Biotechnology Journal (EUCHEMBIOJ) adheres to national and international standards on research and publication ethics. It complies with the Press Law, the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works and the Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics for Higher Education Institutions. EUCHEMBIOJ has adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). In addition, Türkiye undertakes to comply with the Decisions of the Editors' Workshop.

  • Press Law (National Legislation)
  • Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (National Legislation)
  • Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Directive (National Legislation)
  • Transparency and Best Practice Principles in Academic Publishing (International Criteria)
  • Türkiye Editors' Workshop Decisions (National Criteria)

Ethical issues with republishing
Republishing is the publication of the same article or substantially similar articles in more than one journal. The editor sends such article back without reviewing it. After this, the editor may impose an embargo for a certain period of time on the author who attempts to re-publish, may announce this situation to the public in the journal in which the author has previously published (perhaps as a simultaneous announcement with the editor of the journal that published the previous article), or may apply all of these measures together.

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 possible simultaneous submission, s/he reserves the right to consult with the other editor(s) receiving the manuscript. In addition, the editor may return the article without reviewing it or reject it without taking the reviews into account, or may make this decision by discussing it with other relevant editor(s) and may decide not to accept article submissions from authors for a certain period of time. They can also write to the authors' employers or implement all of these measures together.

Control to prevent plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting the ideas, methods, data, applications, writings, figures, or works of others as one's own work, in whole or in part, without attributing them to their owners in accordance with scientific rules. EUCHEMBIOJ scans all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. The articles submitted for review are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin & Ithenticate software. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 20%. The main criterion in the similarity rate is that the author complies with the rules of citation and quotation. Even though the similarity rate appears to be 1%, if citation and quotation are not made properly, plagiarism may still occur. In this respect, citation and quotation rules should be known by the author and applied carefully.
Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, publication by slicing, copyright infringement, and hiding conflict of interest are considered unethical behavior. All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from publication. This includes articles containing possible irregularities or improprieties detected after publication.

Forgery
Producing data that is not based on research, editing or changing the presented or published work based on unreal data, reporting or publishing these, and presenting 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 taking into consideration data that does not comply with the research hypothesis, tampering with data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, and falsifying or shaping research results in line with the interests of the individuals and organizations receiving support.

Protection of participants' personal data
EUCHEMBIOJ requires that all research involving personal or sensitive data or material relating to human participants that is not legally available to the public be subject to formal ethical review.

Handling allegations of research misconduct
EUCHEMBIOJ complies with COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. EUCHEMBIOJ editors will take action to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct occur. In no case will EUCHEMBIOJ editors knowingly allow such abuse to occur. If EUCHEMBIOJ editors become aware of any allegations of research misconduct relating to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines regarding the allegations.

Ethical violation notifications
Readers can report a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in EUCHEMBIOJ or if they have any complaints regarding editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.) by sending an e-mail to editor@euchembioj.com. We welcome applications as they will provide opportunities for us to develop, and we respond quickly and constructively.

Correction, retraction, expression of concern
Editors may consider publishing corrections if minor errors are identified in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations, or conclusions. Editors should consider retracting the manuscript in the case of major errors/violations that invalidate the findings and conclusions. If there is a possibility of misuse of research or publication by the authors; If there is evidence that the findings are unreliable and the authors' institutions have not investigated the incident, or if the potential investigation appears unfair or inconclusive, editors should consider publishing an expression of concern. COPE and ICJME guidelines regarding corrections, retractions or expressions of concern are taken into account.

Publication of studies based on surveys and interviews
In order to create ethical assurance in scientific periodical publishing, EUCHEMBIOJ 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 this context, the following points must be observed in studies submitted to the journal:
1) For research conducted in all branches of science that require ethics committee permission (ethics committee approval must be obtained, this approval must be stated and documented in the article.
2) In research requiring ethics committee permission, information about the permission (committee name, date and issue number) can be found in the method section, as well as on one of the first/last pages of the article; In those articles, information about signing the informed consent/consent form should be included in the article.

Special issue publishing policy
A special issue may be published in our journal once a year upon the request of the Editorial Board. Articles submitted for inclusion in the special issue are first subjected to editorial preliminary review. It is then examined for compliance with the journal's spelling rules and similarity scanning is performed to prevent plagiarism. After these stages, it is taken into the peer evaluation process where the double-blind model is used.

Editorial confidentiality obligation
EUCHEMBIOJ's editors treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents; This means that they will not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone without the authors' permission. During the article review process, the following people can access the articles: Editors, Referees, Editorial Board Members. The only time details about a manuscript may be passed on to a third party without the authors' permission is if the editor suspects serious research misconduct.

Allegations and suspicions of scientific misconduct
There are different definitions of scientific misconduct. We address these issues on a case-by-case basis, while EUCHEMBIOJ follows the guidance established by major publishing ethics bodies. If the editor suspects or alleges an ethical violation, they are obliged to take action. This role covers both published and unpublished articles. The editor should not simply reject articles that raise concerns about possible abuses. S/He is ethically obligated to pursue alleged cases. The editor should follow COPE flowcharts where appropriate. Editors should first seek a response from those suspected of misconduct. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers or institution to investigate. The Editor must use all reasonable endeavors to ensure that an appropriate investigation is conducted into the alleged misconduct; If this does not happen, the editor must make all reasonable attempts to insist on a solution to the problem. This is a demanding but important task. EUCHEMBIOJ complies with COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. EUCHEMBIOJ editors; will take action to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication and other research misconduct occur. In no case will EUCHEMBIOJ or its editors knowingly allow such abuse to occur. If EUCHEMBIOJ editors become aware of any allegations of research misconduct relating to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines regarding the allegations. When reviewers suspect misconduct in research or publication, they should report the situation to the Editor. The editor is responsible for carrying out the necessary actions in accordance with COPE recommendations.  EUCHEMBIOJ undertakes to apply the COPE flowcharts when faced with allegations of abuse in the following or similar matters.

  • What to do when republishing is suspected
  • What to do when plagiarism is suspected
  • What to do when fabricated data is suspected
  • What to do when requesting a change of authorship?
  • What to do when an undisclosed conflict of interest is suspected
  • What to do when unfair or gift authorship is suspected
  • What to do when an ethical problem is suspected in an article
  • Suspicion of ethical violations via e-mail, etc. What to do when notified directly by:
  • What to do when a suspected ethical violation is announced via social media

Complaint procedure
This procedure applies to complaints regarding content, procedures or policies that are the responsibility of EUCHEMBIOJ or our editorial staff. Complaints can provide an opportunity and incentive for improvement and we aim to respond quickly, courteously and constructively. The complaint must relate to content, procedures or policies that are the responsibility of EUCHEMBIOJ or our editorial team. Complaints should be emailed directly to editor@euchembioj.com and will be treated confidentially. The editor responds to complaints immediately. The editor follows the procedure outlined in the COPE flowchart regarding complaints. Complaints are reviewed by the relevant member of the editorial team and if they cannot be resolved, the following processes are followed:

  • If this initial response is deemed inadequate, the complainant may request that their complaint be referred to a more senior member of the journal.
  • If the complainant is dissatisfied, complaints can be forwarded to the editor-in-chief.
  • A full response will be given within two weeks if possible.

COPE publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific journals. This will facilitate the resolution of disputes with editors, journals and publishers, but can only be submitted after the journal's own complaints procedures have been exhausted.

Objection process
We welcome serious objections to evaluations made by editors and reviewers. If you believe we rejected your article because we misunderstood its scientific content, please send an objection to our editorial team at editor@euchembioj.com. Do not try to submit a revised version of your article at this stage. If, after reading your objection letter, we find that your objection is justified, we may invite you to submit a revised version of your article. Thus, your work will be re-sent to the external referee process. Please include as much detail as possible in the appeal letter. Finally, we can only consider one objection per article, so please take the time and effort to write the letter in detail to clearly outline your objection – you have one chance, so make good use of it. We have found that prolonged deliberation on rejected manuscripts is often unsatisfactory for both authors and editors, so we do not process multiple objections for the same work.

Principles of research ethics
EUCHEMBIOJ observes the highest standards in research ethics and adopts the international principles of research ethics defined below. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the articles comply with ethical rules.

  • The principles of integrity, quality and transparency must be ensured in the design of the research, review of the design and conduct of the research.
  • The research team and participants, the purpose of the research, its methods and potential anticipated uses; They should be fully informed about the requirements and, if any, risks of participating in the study.
  • Confidentiality of information provided by research participants and confidentiality of respondents must be ensured. Research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of participants.
  • Research participants must take part in the research voluntarily and must not be under any pressure.
  • Harm to participants should be avoided. The research should be planned in a way that does not put participants at risk.
  • Be clear about research independence; If there is a conflict of interest, it should be stated.
  • In experimental studies conducted with human subjects, written informed consent must be obtained from participants who decide to participate in the research. The consent of the legal guardian of children and those under guardianship or with a certified mental illness must be obtained.
  • If the study will be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.
  • In studies involving a human element, it should be stated in the "method" section that "informed consent" was obtained from the participants and ethics committee approval was obtained from the institution where the study was conducted.

Human Subjects and Animal Use in Research, Ethics Committee Approval and Informed Consent

As a matter of practice, The European Chemistry and Biotechnology Journal adheres to the ethical principles set forth in the WMA’s Declaration of Helsinki (on the Ethics of Medical Research involving Human Subjects), the Basel Declaration (on the Ethical Principles of Biomedical Research), and the WMA Statement (on the Animal Use of Biomedical Research). For experimental, clinical and drug studies and some case reports, the Ethics Committee must approve the research protocols in accordance with the international standards mentioned above. If necessary, the Ethics Committee will request an ethics committee report or an equivalent formal document from the author. For a manuscript relating to experimental research on human subjects, a statement must be included to demonstrate that written informed consent was obtained from patients and volunteers after a thorough explanation of the procedures to be followed. Information regarding patient consent, name of ethics committee, and ethics committee approval number must also be included in the materials and methods section. It is the author’s responsibility to protect the patient’s obscurity. Photographs that may reveal the patients’ identity should be enclosed with signed releases of the patients or their legal representative. Experimental research on vertebrates or on regulated invertebrates is required by the journal to meet institutional, national and / or international guidelines and authors are encouraged to clearly state their adherence to these guidelines. For animal studies, an ethics committee must approve the research protocols. The ethics committee reviews the protocols to ensure that they meet applicable regulations and guidelines such as the guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011), international council for laboratory animal science (ICLAS) guidelines and the international guidelines for biomedical research involving animals (2012). The guidelines provide detailed guidance on how to conduct animal research in an ethical and humane manner and are widely accepted as the standard for such research. Authors should include a clear account of the ethical treatment of animals in their articles, including precautions taken to avoid pain and discomfort. This is critical to ensuring the study's humane conduct and enabling verification that it meets the appropriate ethical standards.