Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

TAMGA- Turkish Journal of Semiotic Studies adopts Publication Ethics and Policies approved by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Accordingly, the ethical responsibilities, roles, and duties of authors, editors, reviewers, and publishers are as follows.

The Responsibilities of the Author:

In the articles sent to TAMGA- Turkish Journal of Semiotic Studies, all references should be referenced correctly in accordance with the referencing system set by the journal.

It is a prerequisite that the articles submitted to the journal have not been published before. Authors are required to declare that the articles they sent to the journal have not been published anywhere before or have not been evaluated for publication.

Papers presented at a scientific meeting can be accepted, provided that this is stated beforehand.

The acceptance of the transfer of the copyright of the article whose publication is finalized to the journal should be notified in written form by the authors.

Authors are also obliged to check the article with one of the anti-plagiarism software; namely, Turnitin or iThenticate and upload the similarity report to the journal system during article application. Articles with a similarity rate of 20% or more are not evaluated in any way. Texts can be examined in terms of plagiarism if deemed necessary by the editor.

The authors of the article must be determined before the article is uploaded to the system. It is unacceptable to include the names of those who did not contribute to the study (gift authorship) or not to include the names of those who contributed (ghost authorship) in the article sent to the journal. Changing the author responsibilities of a study in the evaluation process (such as adding an author, changing the order of authors, or removing an author) cannot be proposed. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are the responsibility of the authors and do not reflect the views of the journal; all scientific and legal responsibilities of the articles belong to the authors.

Copyrighted materials such as photographs, tables, figures, or value-added quotations in the articles accepted for publication can only be published with the valid permission and copyright approval of the copyright owners obtained by the authors.

It is the responsibility of the author(s) to include the author's name, title, institution, e-mail address, and ORCID information of the author(s) in the study in accordance with the publication principles of the journal and that the information is correct and belongs to the relevant author(s).

If the journal requests raw data from the authors within the framework of the evaluation processes, the authors are obliged to submit the expected data and information to the editorial board and scientific committee. Authors who detect a significant scientific error or inconsistency in their published article are also obliged to contact the editorship as soon as possible in order to withdraw the article or correct the error.

In the following cases that require legal/special permission from the articles sent to the journal, a permission document is requested from the author. In the articles to be published, whether ethical committee permission, legal/special permission is required or not is stated in the title footnote of the article. If it is necessary to obtain these permissions, it is requested from the authors to clearly state from which institution, on what date, and with which decision or issue number the permission was obtained, and the permission is published as an "Appendix" at the end of the article.

Conflicts of interest regarding the submitted article should be clearly stated with their reasons.

When authors detect an error in their work, they should inform the editor and the editorial board and cooperate for the correction or withdrawal process.

The responsibilities of the reviewers:

All articles submitted to the journal are evaluated by a double-blind peer-review process. In order to make an impartial, objective and independent evaluation in the double-blind peer-review process, the authors must be kept confidential from the reviewers and the reviewers from the authors. Articles are sent to the reviewers from the journal management system (www.e-tamga.com) for evaluation.

The ethical responsibilities and roles of the reviewers of TAMGA- Turkish Journal of Semiotic Studies are as follows:

After accepting the reviewer invitation, the reviewers are required to abide by the ethical principles and rules and international peer-reviewing standards.

Reviewers are only required to review articles related to their fields of expertise.

Peer reviews of the studies are based on authenticity, the method used compliance with ethical rules, consistent presentation of findings and results, and review of the literature.

Reviewers are expected to agree to review articles that do not have conflicts of interest. When reviewers realize any conflict of interest, they should notify the editor and refuse to review the article.

Reviewers should evaluate the articles impartially and objectively. Author name(s) is not sent to the reviewers, and the names of the reviewers are not notified to the authors. Reports are kept for five years.

Reviewers are required to fill in the form in the Article Tracking System on the journal site regarding the articles they evaluate, and they are expected not to mention their names in the forms in order not to harm the double-blind peer-review process.

In this form, the reviewers are required to state their decision on whether the article they are evaluating is publishable or not, and the reasons for their decision.

The reviewers are required to complete their evaluations within the time frame and are expected to abide by the ethical responsibilities set forth herein.

Reviewers cannot share any process, part, or whole of the articles they evaluate.

The Responsibilities of the Editor:

Editor must abide by the ethical responsibilities that take part in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors by the Committe on Publication Ethics (COPE) and listed below.

The editor is responsible for all articles published in the journal. The ethical duties and responsibilities of the editor are as follows:

Relations with the reviewers

The editor is to ask the reviewers to evaluate the articles according to their knowledge and expertise. It should be ensured that the articles are evaluated appropriately by experts in the field.

The editor is obliged to request reviewers’ statement that declares there are no conflicts of interest regarding the article before evaluating it.

The editor is required to convey all necessary information to the reviewers regarding the evaluation process and what is expected from the reviewers.

The editor should ensure that the peer-review process is carried out with the double-blind peer-review method and should not disclose the reviewers to the authors and the authors to the reviewers.

The editor should evaluate the reviewers according to their timing and performance.

The editor should create a database of reviewers and update the database according to the performance of the reviewers.

The editor should remove the reviewers who make rude and unqualified comments or give late feedback from the list.

The editor should constantly renew and expand the list of reviewers according to the reviewers’ fields of expertise.

Relations with Authors

The Editor should constantly update the Author Guidelines and Publishing Principles regarding what is expected from authors.

The editor should evaluate the articles submitted to the journal in terms of journal author guidelines, importance, and authenticity, and if he decides to reject the article during the first submission process, s/he should clearly and impartially inform the authors the reason behind. In this process, if it is decided that the article needs to be revised in terms of grammar, punctuation and/or author guidelines (margins, appropriate referencing, etc.), the authors should be informed and they should be given time to make the necessary corrections.

Copyrights and Transfer:

For the mutual benefit and protection of authors and publishers, authors are required to give written permission to the journal prior to the publication of their work.

Authors whose manuscripts are approved and decided to be sent to the peer-reviewing process are sent a Copyright Transfer Form via the journal e-mail. When the authors sign this form and send it to the journal editor, they are deemed to have given this permission and the reviewing process of the article starts.

Publication Evaluation Process and Result:

The time given to the reviewers for the peer-review process is 5 weeks. Corrections from reviewers or editors must be completed by the authors within 15 days. Reviewers can decide on the suitability of a study by examining the corrections and can also request more than one correction if necessary.

If one of the reviewer’s reports is positive and the other is negative, the article is sent to a third reviewer. The authors review their articles by taking criticism and suggestions of the Editorial Board and the reviewers into account. Authors who object to this issue can prepare a report with their justifications and submit it to the Editorial Board. A copy of the articles that are not deemed suitable for publication can be returned to their authors upon request.

Opinions from the reviewers are examined by the editors within 2 weeks. As a result of this examination, the editorship makes its final decision to submit to the Publication Board.

Plagiarism and Unethical Behaviors:

All articles sent to TAMGA- Turkish Journal of Semiotic Studies are analysed via iThenticate or Turnitin program and uploaded to the system with the similarity report. The highest accepted similarity rate is 20%. Articles exceeding this rate are examined in detail and sent back to the authors for revision or correction if deemed necessary. If plagiarism or unethical behaviour is detected, they are rejected.

Some unethical behaviours:

Including those who did not contribute intellectually to the study as authors.

Not including those who contributed intellectually to the study as authors.

Failure to indicate if the article was produced from the author's master's/doctoral thesis or a project.

Slicing, that is, publishing more than one article from a single study.

Not reporting conflicts of interest regarding submitted articles.

Exposure of the double-blind peer-review process.

Responsibilities of the Publisher:

The publisher accepts that the decision maker and the peer-reviewing process are the responsibility of the editor in the article publishing process. Publisher provides open, electronic and free access to the journal: www.e-tamga.com

TAMGA- Turkish Journal of Semiotic Studies uses Open Journal Systems 3.1 documenting version developed, supported and distributed by the Public Knowledge Project under the name of General Public License.