Publication Ethics

Originality, integrity and authorship

Manuscripts submitted to JSTA must present original scholarly contributions and must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Related preprints, conference publications, or previously disseminated versions must be disclosed to the editorial office for assessment under the journal's publication policies.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge prior research, provide accurate citations, obtain necessary permissions for copyrighted material, and avoid plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, inappropriate image manipulation, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, and misleading reporting.

Authorship must reflect meaningful scholarly contributions. All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript, agree to the author order, and accept appropriate responsibility for the integrity of the work. Guest, gift, and ghost authorship are prohibited.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must include a documented explanation and written agreement from all affected contributors. Such changes are subject to editorial review and may require additional verification. Authorship changes are not automatically approved.

Research involving people, animals and sensitive information

Research involving human participants, patients, identifiable personal data, or animals must comply with relevant legislation, institutional requirements, and applicable disciplinary ethical standards.

Authors must provide details of ethics committee or institutional review approval where required. Where a study is exempt from formal approval, authors should provide an appropriate justification when requested by the editorial office.

Informed consent, consent for publication, participant confidentiality, and appropriate data protection safeguards must be reported where relevant. Identifiable information must not be disclosed without the necessary legal and ethical permissions.

Clinical trials must be registered in an appropriate public registry when required by applicable standards, preferably before participant enrolment. Registration identifiers should be reported in the manuscript.

Funding, competing interests and editorial independence

Authors must disclose relevant sources of funding, financial support, and financial or non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the conduct, interpretation, or reporting of their research.

Editors and reviewers must declare relevant competing interests, maintain confidentiality, and withdraw or recuse themselves from editorial assignments where impartiality could reasonably be compromised.

JSTA is owned by , who also serves as Editor-in-Chief . Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, editorial board members, close collaborators, family members, or individuals presenting other relevant conflicts must be assigned to an appropriately qualified, independent, non-conflicted handling editor.

The independent handling editor must exercise authority over reviewer selection, manuscript evaluation, and the editorial decision. Conflicted individuals must be excluded from these activities for the affected manuscript.

İstanbul Topkapı University Press serves as the journal's print publisher, with responsibility limited to printed editions. This role does not confer journal ownership or authority over scholarly editorial decisions.

Data transparency, reproducibility and artificial intelligence

Authors must describe research methods, analytical procedures, and relevant limitations with sufficient clarity to permit critical scientific evaluation and, where feasible, reproducibility.

Manuscripts should include an appropriate data availability statement. Where research data cannot be shared, legitimate restrictions involving participant consent, confidentiality, intellectual property, or legal obligations must be explained.

Substantive use of generative artificial intelligence in manuscript preparation, scholarly content creation, data analysis, coding, or figure generation must be disclosed in accordance with the journal's author instructions.

AI systems cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for research integrity or meet scholarly authorship requirements.

Human authors remain responsible for verifying the accuracy and reliability of all submitted content, including references, factual statements, analytical results, figures, and AI-assisted materials.

Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, confidential editorial correspondence, or sensitive research data must not be uploaded to external AI services without explicit authorization and adequate confidentiality and data protection safeguards.

Corrections, expressions of concern and retractions

Concerns identified before or after publication must be examined objectively, with consideration of the available evidence and the seriousness of the alleged issue. Relevant parties should have a reasonable opportunity to respond.

Where necessary, the editorial office may request original research records, clarifications, independent expert assessment, or input from relevant institutions. Investigations must respect confidentiality, procedural fairness, and applicable legal requirements.

Where warranted, JSTA may publish a clearly identified correction, expression of concern, or retraction. Such notices must explain the reason for the action and be linked to the original scholarly record.

Retractions and other post-publication notices must preserve the traceability of the scholarly literature. The reliability and integrity of the published record take precedence over personal, institutional, or commercial interests.

Complaints, appeals and ethical concerns

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other relevant parties may submit substantiated concerns about research integrity, editorial procedures, publication ethics, or the reliability of published material through the journal's verified official communication channels.

Complaints must be assessed fairly, confidentially where appropriate, and without retaliation. Relevant parties should have an opportunity to provide evidence and respond to material allegations.

Appeals against editorial decisions should identify substantive factual errors, procedural irregularities, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other material grounds for reconsideration. Disagreement with an academic judgment alone does not automatically establish a valid appeal.

Where a concern involves the Editor-in-Chief or another responsible editor, the matter must be assigned to a qualified, non-conflicted editor or an appropriately designated independent authority.

The process and any resulting corrective actions should be documented appropriately, with due regard for privacy, fairness, and the reliability of the scholarly record.