AURUM Journal of Social Sciences
Editorial Policies and Ethical Guidelines
AURUM Journal of Social Sciences (JSS) adheres to rigorous publishing ethics involving authors, editors as well as reviewers. Its editorial policies and ethical guidelines aim to maintain the integrity of the whole publication process.
Peer Review Statement
All research articles in AURUM Journal of Social Sciences undergo rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by two anonymous referees. All correspondence between the editorial office, authors and reviewers is considered private and confidential.
Ethical guidelines for journal editors
The editors of AURUM JSS are committed to adhere to the following policies and ethical guidelines:
• The editors of AURUM JSS give unbiased consideration to each manuscript submitted for publication. They judge each on its merits, without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author(s).
• They keep the peer-review process entirely confidential, and do not share information about a manuscript with anyone outside of the peer-review process.
• If a journal editor receives a credible allegation of misconduct by an author, reviewer, or journal editor, then s/he has a duty to investigate the matter further.
• The editors of AURUM JSS may reject a manuscript without formal peer review if it fails to comply with the ethical standards of the journal and outside its scope.
• They are responsible for processing submissions in due time.
• The editors need to decline considering any manuscript that may have conflict of interest with themselves. Such manuscripts will be re-assigned to another editor.
• If a journal editor receives convincing evidence that the main substance or conclusions of an article published in the journal are incorrect, then, in consultation with the editorial board, s/he ensures the publication of an appropriate note of correction.
Ethical guidelines for authors
AURUM JSS expects all authors to adhere to the following ethical standards:
• Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it.
• Authors must avoid gift (guest) authorship where someone is added to the list of authors who has not been involved in writing the paper; and ghost authorship where someone has been involved in writing the paper but is not included in the list of authors.
• Prior to submission, the authorship list and order must be agreed between all authors, and they must also agree on who will take on the role of corresponding author. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to reach consensus with all co-authors regarding all aspects of the article including the authorship order and to ensure all correct affiliations have been listed.
• Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged.
• Authors must ensure submitted manuscripts are the original works of the author(s). AURUM considers plagiarism a serious offense and is committed to eliminating manuscripts with possible cases of plagiarism from its review and publication process. The editors use plagiarism detection software to check each manuscript for possible cases of plagiarism.
Manuscripts that are found to contain unacceptable level of similarity with other published works are immediately rejected.
• Authors must avoid duplicate submissions. They must ensure the submitted manuscript is not under consideration by another journal. Duplicate submission also includes the submission of the same/similar manuscript in different languages to different journals.
• Authors should include only relevant citations. Inclusion of citations that are not relevant to the work is strongly discouraged. Similarly, irrelevant self-citation to increase one’s citation is unethical.
• Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript.
• According to TR Index Criteria, The Statement on the Contribution of the Researchers; The Statement on Support and Acknowledgement, if there is any; and The Statement on Conflict should be indicated.
Ethical guidelines for reviewers
AURUM JSS expects all peer reviewers to follow the code of conduct and ethical guidelines below:
• Each submission in AURUM JSS goes through a double blind review process.
• Before accepting to review a manuscript, reviewers should ensure that the manuscript is within their area of expertise.
• Reviewers must give unbiased consideration to each manuscript submitted. They should judge each on its merits, without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author(s).
• They must declare any conflict of interest before agreeing to review a manuscript. This includes any relationship with the author that may bias their review.
• Reviewers must keep the peer review process confidential. They must not share information or correspondence about a manuscript with anyone outside of the peer review process.
• Reviewers need to provide a constructive, evidence based, and appropriately substantial peer review report.
• Reviewers must avoid making statements in their report which might be deemed as impugning any person’s reputation.
• Reviewers need to submit their report on time and should inform the editor if this is not possible.
• Reviewers should call to the journal editor’s attention any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any published paper or submitted manuscripts of which they are aware.
• They must not use information obtained during the peer-review process for their own or any other person’s or organization’s advantage, or to disadvantage or discredit others.
Ethics approval
According to ULAKBİM TR Index Criteria, an ethics committee approval must be obtained for research conducted in all disciplines since 2020. The research which require an ethics committee approval are listed below:
• All kinds of research which are conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using questionnaires, interviews, focus group, observation, experimentation, interview techniques,
• Using humans and animals (including material / data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
• Clinical research conducted on humans,
• Research conducted on animals,
• Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on the protection of personal data.
A report prepared for studies requiring ethic committee approval must include the name of the ethics committee and if it is available the reference number. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Manuscripts, which are detected that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework, are not published in AURUM JSS. If your study does not require ethics committee approval, you must sign the declaration form indicating the relevant reasons for your manuscript.
