Introduction and Ethical Vision: The Journal of Nationalism Studies places publication ethics at the centre of all its processes in order to safeguard the accuracy and impartiality of scientific research. These principles reflect our responsibility to both the academic community and society by ensuring the transparent advancement of knowledge. Our journal fully complies with the Press Law, the Intellectual and Artistic Works Law, the Higher Education Institutions Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines, and the decisions of the Turkey Editors Workshop during the publication process. Furthermore, our journal has adopted the international ethical publishing principles established by COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics, DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals, and BOAI: Budapest Open Access Initiative. These national and international standards serve as a guide at every stage of scientific production.

Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity: The Journal of Nationalism Studies upholds the principles of integrity, accuracy and transparency at every stage of scientific production. In this context, works submitted for publication must be prepared in accordance with the following criteria:

  • Data Integrity: It is essential that the data obtained during the research process and the images used are presented accurately. Fabricating data, manipulating it, or deliberately altering it to support the results is absolutely unacceptable.
  • Accuracy of Visual Materials: The graphs, photographs or other visual data used in the study must not be digitally manipulated in a way that could mislead the reader or alter the context of the study.
  • Methodological Transparency: To ensure the reliability of the research, the data collection process, analysis methods and tools used should be reported with clarity that is verifiable and reproducible by other researchers.

  • Ethics Committee Approval and Documentation: For experimental, applied, or participant-focused studies (surveys, interviews, etc.) requiring ethics committee approval, such approval must be obtained, stated in the study, and documented. In case reports, it is mandatory to include information in the article that the informed consent form has been signed.

Plagiarism and Publication Ethics Review: The Journal of Nationalism Studies supports original academic production and pursues a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of scientific misconduct. Authors are obliged to comply with the following requirements when submitting their work:

  • Citation and Referencing Methods: When using ideas, data, visuals or text belonging to others, the source must be cited completely and in accordance with writing rules.
  • Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism: Not only unauthorised quotations from others' works, but also large-scale transfers from the author's own previously published works without citing the source are considered ‘self-plagiarism’.
  • Text Recycling: The author repeating expressions from their own previous works in a new work is not acceptable as it undermines the originality of the work.

  • Similarity Report: All articles submitted to our journal are screened using iThenticate or Turnitin software during the preliminary review stage. If the similarity ratio exceeds 15%, excluding the bibliography, or if block copying is detected within the text, even if the ratio is low, the work will be rejected.

Generative Artificial Intelligence Usage Policy: The Journal of Nationalism Studies supports the use of technological capabilities in scientific production within ethical boundaries. The following rules apply to the use of generative artificial intelligence tools during the article preparation process:

  • Author Status: Even if generative artificial intelligence tools contribute to the design, text or analysis of a study, they cannot be considered ‘authors’ and cannot be listed as such. Authorship is a status reserved solely for human researchers, requiring free will, academic responsibility and ethical obligations.
  • Disclosure Requirement: Authors must clearly state in the relevant section of the article (Methods or Acknowledgements) if they have utilised artificial intelligence technologies in drafting the work, data analysis, visual preparation, or language editing. The disclosure must include the name of the technology used and the purpose for which it was used.
  • Responsibility and Accuracy: Human authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of content generated by artificial intelligence, the validity of source citations, and the originality of the work. Errors, misdirections, or ethical violations arising from these tools do not absolve the author of responsibility.

  • Ethics and Privacy: Authors should ensure that they do not violate data privacy and security protocols when transferring unpublished research data or participants' personal information to these platforms.

Authorship and Levels of Contribution: In accordance with the principles of protecting academic work and transparency, the Journal of Nationalism Studies requires that the roles of all researchers involved in the work be accurately defined.

  • Authorship Criteria: For a person to be listed as an ‘author’ of an article, they must have made a significant and intellectual contribution to the design of the research, the data collection process, or the analysis or interpretation stages; they must have prepared the draft of the article or critically revised it.
  • Author Order: The order of authors should be determined by mutual agreement based on the level of contribution to the research. Any changes to the author order after the process has begun require the written consent of all authors and a valid reason.
  • Contributors: Those who have only provided technical assistance, such as data collection, funding, language editing, or general administrative support, should be acknowledged in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section at the end of the article, rather than listed as ‘authors’.

  • Ghostwriting and Gift Authorship: Adding individuals as authors who have not actually contributed to the work, or removing the name of someone who has contributed, constitutes a serious breach of ethics and is absolutely unacceptable to our journal.

Peer Review Process: The Journal of Nationalism Studies implements a ‘Double-Blind Peer Review’ system to preserve and enhance the scientific value of all studies submitted for publication. The following principles are fundamental to this process:

  • Impartiality and Objectivity: Referees evaluate submissions solely on the basis of scientific merit, methodological accuracy, and contribution to the literature. The evaluation is conducted in an objective manner, completely independent of the authors' religious, political, commercial, or personal affiliations.
  • Confidentiality: The review process is based on the principle of confidentiality. Reviewers may not share any information about the works they evaluate with third parties, nor may they use unpublished data from these works in their own research.
  • Timely Feedback: The evaluation process is designed to be swift and efficient to ensure that scientific knowledge remains up to date. Reviewers are expected to submit constructive and detailed reports within the specified timeframes; in the event of delays, the editor is responsible for expediting the process.

  • Declaration of Conflict of Interest: Referees should immediately inform the editor and withdraw from the review process if they identify any conflict of interest (academic competition, collaboration or other relationships) with the work being reviewed.

Management of Allegations of Misconduct and Ethical Violations: The Editorial Board of the Journal of Nationalism Studies takes allegations of misconduct arising before or after publication seriously. It follows the procedures below to ensure transparency at every stage of the scientific publication process:

  • Reports and Notifications: All concerns raised by authors, referees or readers regarding plagiarism, data manipulation, lack of ethics committee approval or violation of authors' rights are carefully investigated. The identity of the complainant may be kept confidential.
  • Review Process: The Editorial Board uses COPE Flowcharts as a guide when evaluating allegations. If a suspicious situation is identified, the first step is to request an explanation from the author. If deemed necessary, the author's affiliated institution may be contacted.
  • Pre-publication Detection: If irregularities are detected in a work during the evaluation phase, the article is immediately rejected and a reasoned notification is sent to the author/institution.
  • Post-Publication Detection: If a serious error or ethical violation is detected in a published work, one of the following options is applied depending on the severity of the error: ‘Correction’, ‘Editor's Note’ or complete ‘Retraction’ of the article.

  • Transparency: All processes are recorded and decisions are based on evidence within the framework of the principle of impartiality.

Data Management, Storage and Confidentiality: The Journal of Nationalism Studies demonstrates a high level of sensitivity regarding the responsible collection, recording and protection of scientific data. Authors must adhere to the following principles in the data management process:

  • Data Collection and Recording: Research data should be collected using objective methods and recorded meticulously in a manner that allows for the analysis processes to be audited.
  • Privacy and Anonymisation: Participants' personal data (name, address, institution, etc.) must be protected in research studies. Data must be anonymised during the analysis and reporting stages to prevent the identification of individuals.
  • Data Retention: Authors are expected to retain the raw data underlying their published work for at least one year from the date of publication and to provide it upon request by the Editorial Board or reviewers.

  • Data Sharing and Transparency: Our journal encourages authors to share their data in open-access data repositories (subject to ethical and legal constraints) in order to support scientific transparency.

Post-Publication Discussions and Correction Policy: The Journal of Nationalism Studies values the continuation of scientific debate after publication and provides a transparent mechanism to maintain the accuracy of published works.

  • Scientific Debate and Criticism: Readers and researchers may submit evidence-based criticism or contributions regarding published works to our journal via ‘Letter to the Editor’. The Editorial Board evaluates these criticisms and, when deemed necessary, grants the author the right to respond or publishes the debate.
  • Correction of Errors: If an honest error (calculation error, technical omission, etc.) is detected in a published article, our journal publishes a ‘Correction Note’ to rectify the situation. This note is recorded in association with the original article.
  • Editor's Statement of Concern: In the event of an ongoing investigation or serious but as yet unproven allegations regarding the reliability of an article, the editor may publish a ‘Statement of Concern’ to inform readers.

  • Retraction: In the event of scientific misconduct (fabrication of data, serious plagiarism, unethical research, etc.) or the discovery of fundamental errors that invalidate the main findings of the article, the article will be retracted in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guide. Retracted articles remain in the system but are marked with the label ‘RETACTED’.

Conflict of Interest and Financial Disclosure: The Journal of Nationalism Studies requires the transparent disclosure of any relationship that could cast doubt on scientific impartiality. A conflict of interest exists when a researcher, referee or editor has secondary interests (financial, personal or academic) that could influence their objective judgement of the research.

  • Authors' Declaration: Authors are obliged to declare any financial support (project support, scholarships, sponsorships, etc.) and personal/institutional relationships that may influence the results or interpretation of the study at the time of article submission. If there is no conflict of interest, this should be clearly stated.
  • Responsibility of Reviewers: Reviewers should withdraw from the review process if they have previously or currently had a collaborative, competitive, or personal relationship with the authors of the work being reviewed, stating that they cannot remain impartial.
  • Editorial Impartiality: Editors do not manage work in which they are involved or which carries the potential for a conflict of interest; in such cases, the evaluation process is conducted by another member of the editorial board.
  • Transparency: All declared conflicts of interest are included at the end of the published article so that readers can evaluate the research from the correct perspective.