Editorial Confidentiality Obligation
The editors of the Journal of Religious Studies treat all submitted articles as confidential documents, which means that they will not disclose information about an article to anyone without the authors' permission. During the manuscript review process, the following people have access to the manuscripts: Editors, Reviewers, Editorial Board Members. The only situation in which details of a manuscript may be communicated to a third party without the authors' permission is when the editor suspects serious research misconduct.
Allegations - Suspicions of Scientific Misconduct
There are different definitions of scientific misconduct. At the Journal of Religious Studies, we address these issues on a case-by-case basis while following the guidance established by publication ethics bodies. If the editor suspects or alleges an ethical violation, they are obliged to take action. This duty extends to both published and unpublished articles. The editor should not simply reject articles raising concerns about possible misconduct. They are ethically obliged to follow up on 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 employer or organization to investigate. The editor should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that an appropriate investigation into the alleged misconduct is conducted; if this fails, the editor should make all reasonable attempts to insist on a resolution to the problem. This is a laborious but important task.
The Journal of Religious Studies follows COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12). The editors of the Journal of Religious Studies will take measures to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct has occurred. In no case will the Editors knowingly allow such misconduct to occur. If the Editors become aware of any allegations of research misconduct in relation to a published article, they will follow COPE's guidelines regarding allegations.
Reviewers should inform the Editor if they suspect research or publication misconduct. The Editor is responsible for taking the necessary action in accordance with COPE recommendations.
The Journal of Religious Studies is committed to following the COPE flowcharts when faced with allegations of misconduct in the following or similar matters.
Complaint Procedure
This procedure applies to complaints about content, procedures or policies that are the responsibility of the Journal of Religious Studies. Complaints can provide an opportunity and incentive for improvement and we aim to respond quickly, courteously and constructively.
Complaints should be emailed directly to [email protected] 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 not resolved, the following processes are followed:
If this initial response is deemed inadequate, the complainant may request that the complaint be escalated to a more senior member of the journal.
If the complainant is not satisfied, the complaint may be referred to the editor-in-chief.
If the complainant is not satisfied with what the editor-in-chief considers to be a definitive response, the complainant may file a complaint with the Institute of Theological Studies.
If possible, a full response will be given within two weeks.
COPE publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific journals. This will facilitate the resolution of disputes with editors, journals and publishers, but only after the journal's own grievance procedures have been exhausted.
Appeal Process
We welcome serious objections to the evaluations made by editors and reviewers. If you feel that we have rejected your paper because we misunderstood its scientific content, please send an appeal message to our editorial team at [email protected]. Do not attempt to submit a revised version of your article at this stage. If, after reading your appeal letter, we realize that your appeal is justified, we may invite you to submit a revised version of your manuscript. Your paper will then be resubmitted to the external reviewer process. Please include as much detail as possible in the appeal letter. Finally, we can only consider one appeal per article, so please take the time and effort to write a detailed letter to make your appeal clear - you have one chance, so use it well. We have found that prolonged deliberation over rejected manuscripts is often unsatisfactory for both authors and editors, so we do not process multiple appeals for the same study.
Conflicts of Interest
A conflict of interest occurs when professional judgment about a primary interest may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal competition). We believe that we need to know the competing interests of the authors in order to make the best decision about how to handle an article, and that readers need to know them if we publish the article.
Any interest, financial or otherwise, that could cause one to be conflicted in one's work, significantly impair one's objectivity, or give an unfair advantage to any person or organization. All sources of financial support received during the conduct of the research and preparation of the manuscript and the role of sponsors in the study should be disclosed. If there is no source of funding, this should also be indicated. Examples of potential conflicts of interest that should be disclosed include consultancies, salaries, grants. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.
The Journal of Religious Studies has a set process for handling submissions from editors, staff or editorial board members to ensure impartial review. Such submissions are first referred to other journals. If this is not possible, the author of the submission is suspended from the journal. These submissions are reviewed in a double blind process.
The editor should not be involved in decisions about papers written by him/herself or family members. Furthermore, such a paper should be subject to all the usual procedures of the journal. The editor should follow the COPE guidelines on disclosure of potential conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers.
Publication Ethics Principles
Publication Ethics can be defined as a self-regulatory mechanism that insists on integrity on behalf of authors, reviewers and publishers to establish higher standards of editorial processing. Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and respect for people's opinions.
Honest researchers do not plagiarize.
They do not misattribute sources.
They do not hide objections they cannot refute.
They do not distort opposing views.
They do not destroy or hide data.
Peer-reviewed studies are studies that support and actualize 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. Journal of Religious Studies adheres to national and international standards of research and publication ethics. The Journal of Religious Studies has adopted the International Ethical Publishing Principles published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).
Republishing
Republishing is the publication of the same article or substantially similar articles in more than one journal. The editor sends such an article back without review. Thereafter, the editor may embargo the attempted republication for a certain period of time, publicize it in the journal in which the author has previously published (perhaps by simultaneous announcement with the editor of the journal that published the previous article), or all of these measures together.
Simultaneous submission of the same work to more than one journal
Authors may not submit the same article to more than one journal at the same time. If the editor learns of possible simultaneous submission, he/she reserves the right to consult with the other editor(s) receiving the manuscript. In addition, the editor may return the manuscript without review or reject the manuscript without considering the reviews, or take this decision in discussion with the other editor(s) involved, and may decide not to accept submissions from authors for a certain period of time. It can also write to authors' employers or implement all of these measures together.
Control to Prevent Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting the ideas, methods, data, practices, writings, figures or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citing the authors in accordance with scientific rules.
The Journal of Religious Studies screens all submitted articles to prevent plagiarism. Studies submitted for review are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin software. The similarity rate is expected to be less than 15%. The main measure of similarity is the author's compliance with the citation and citation rules. If the similarity rate is 1%, but the citation and citation are not done properly, plagiarism may still be in question.
Plagiarism, duplication, false authorship/confessed authorship, research/data fabrication, article slicing, slicing and dicing, copyright infringement and concealment of conflict of interest are considered unethical behaviors. All articles that do not comply with accepted ethical standards are removed from publication. This includes articles that contain possible irregularities or non-compliances detected after publication.
Forgery
Producing data that is not based on research, editing or modifying the work presented or published on the basis of untrue data, reporting or publishing them, and presenting a research that has not been conducted as if it has been conducted.
Falsifying research records and data obtained, showing methods, devices and materials that were not used in the research as if they were used, not evaluating data that do not comply with the research hypothesis, manipulating data and/or results to fit the relevant theory or assumptions, falsifying or shaping the research results in line with the interests of the persons and organizations supported.
Protection of Participants' Personal Data
The Journal of Religious Research requires that all research involving personal or sensitive data or materials relating to human participants that are not legally publicly available be subject to formal ethical review.
Addressing Allegations of Research Misconduct
The Journal of Religious Studies follows COPE's Ethical Toolkit for a Successful Editorial. Editors will take measures to prevent the publication of articles in which plagiarism, citation manipulation, data falsification, data fabrication, and other research misconduct has occurred. In no case will editors knowingly allow such misconduct to occur. In the event that the editors become aware of any allegations of research misconduct related to an article published in their journal, they will follow COPE's guidelines for dealing with allegations (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.12).
Ethical Violation Notifications
If readers notice a significant error or inaccuracy in an article published in the Journal of Religious Studies, or if they have any complaints about the editorial content (plagiarism, duplicate articles, etc.), they can send an e-mail to [email protected]. We welcome applications and respond quickly and constructively, as they provide opportunities for improvement.
Research Ethics
The Journal of Religious Studies 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 manuscripts comply with ethical guidelines.
The principles of integrity, quality and transparency must be ensured in the design, review of the design and conduct of the research.
The research team and participants should be fully informed about the purpose of the research, its methods and possible anticipated uses, and the requirements and risks, if any, of participation in the research.
Confidentiality of information provided by research participants and confidentiality of respondents must be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
Research participants should take part in the research voluntarily and should not be under any coercion.
Harm to participants should be avoided. The research should be planned in a way that does not put participants at risk.
Research independence must be clear and explicit; any conflict of interest must be disclosed.
In experimental studies with human subjects, the written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. Consent must be obtained from the legal guardian of children and those under guardianship or with a confirmed mental illness.
If the study will be conducted in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization that the study will be conducted.
In studies with a human element, it should be stated in the “method” section that “informed consent” has been obtained from the participants and ethics committee approval has been obtained from the institution where the study is conducted.