ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY PRESS

Publishing correction is considered if minor errors that do not affect the results, interpretations and conclusions of the published paper/content are detected. Retraction is considered if major errors and/or mis-conduction that invalidate results and conclusions are detected.

An expression of concern is considered if there is evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors; there is evidence that the findings are not reliable and institutions of the authors do not investigate the case or the possible investigation seems to be unfair or nonconclusive.

The guidelines of COPE and ICJME are taken into consideration regarding correction, retractions or expression of concern.

Retraction

Journal follows COPE’s Retraction Guidelines in case of retraction.

The editor has the right to retract an article if:

• There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable; either as a result of a major error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (e.g. of data) or falsification (e.g. image manipulation).
• It contains plagiarised content.
• It has been published elsewhere without proper attribution.
• It contains material or data without authorisation for use.
• There is copyright infringement or there is some other serious legal issue.
• It reports unethical research.
• There is evidence that the peer-review process is compromised or manipulated.
• The author(s) failed to disclose a significant competing interest (also known as a conflict of interest) that, in the opinion of the editor, would have unduly influenced the interpretation of the work or the recommendations of the editors and peer reviewers.

In case of retraction the following steps are followed:

• Retraction notice including article title is published in a subsequent issue of the journal. The retraction notice is paginated and listed in the table of contents.
• A link is provided between the retraction notice and the original article in the electronic version.
• The online article is preceded by a page containing the retraction notice; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
• The original article remains unchanged, except for a watermark on the .pdf on each page stating that it has been "retracted”.

Article Removal for Legal Reasons

In the following circumstances, except the metadata (title and authors), the text of the article is removed and a page informing that the article has been removed for legal reasons replaces the article.

• The article is found to be defamatory or to infringe the legal rights of others, and retraction is not deemed to be an adequate solution.
• The article has been, or is reasonably likely to be the subject of a court order.
• There is a significant risk to public health.

All publications of Istanbul University are open access and all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Except for commercial purposes, users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the  BOAI definition of open access.

The open access content is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

Authors publishing with the Istanbul University Press retain the copyright to their work licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) and grant the Publisher non-exclusive commercial right to publish the work. CC BY-NC 4.0 license permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

All expenses of the publications are covered by the Istanbul University. Processing and publication are free of charge. There is no processing charges or submission fees for any submitted or accepted manuscripts.

All expenses of the publications are covered by the Istanbul University.  Advertising of any kind is not allowed in journals and books published by the Istanbul University Press.

Works submitted to Istanbul University Press journals and books are regarded as authors’ private, confidential property. Editors and reviewers are required to treat works confidentially.

• Authors are required to declare if they have used AI-assisted technologies (such as large language models [LLMs], chatbots, or image generators) in the creation of their submitted work.
• Authors should explain, both in the cover letter and in the appropriate section of the submitted paper (as a footnote and/or in the methods section), which AI tool and which version of it they have used and for what purpose.
• Authors should also indicate how they used the AI tool and how they assessed the validity of the results obtained using this technology, and what aspects of the paper, manuscript content, data or supporting files were influenced by the use of the AI tool or were generated by AI.
• It is the authors' responsibility to ensure the accuracy, validity and appropriateness of content and citations generated by AI-assisted technologies and to eliminate potential errors, inconsistencies and biased results.
• Authors should always check the original sources to eliminate possible plagiarism, recognising that there is a potential for plagiarism in texts produced with AI-assisted technologies. They should confirm that they have checked and that the sources are original. 
• AI-assisted tools (such as ChatGPT) cannot be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are essential to authorship. Therefore, authors are responsible for all material involving the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should ensure that all statements in the article that state the hypotheses, interpretations, conclusions, limitations, and implications of the study represent their own opinions. 
• Studies created by authors using AI tools in the following ways, which substitute for the basic researcher's and author's responsibilities, violate the principles of scientific publishing and publication ethics, and such studies are not eligible for inclusion in publications:

• Generation of text or code without rigorous review,
• Generation of synthetic data to replace missing data without a robust methodology,
• Creation of any inaccurate, synthetic content, including abstracts or supplementary materials,
• Creation and manipulation of images and figures (pictures, graphs, data tables, medical images, image snippets, computer codes and formulae) or original research data (enhancing, hiding, moving, removing or adding a particular feature within an image or figure) using AI.

It is essential to maintain confidentiality in the peer review process and not to share or use the reviewed work in this process. (COPE – Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)

• Reviewers should not upload a manuscript or part of a manuscript submitted to them for review to generative AI tools or large language models to assist in the review, evaluation or decision-making process, as uploading content to such AI tools by reviewers violates the authors' privacy and property rights. 
• Reviewing a scientific paper is a responsibility that can only be undertaken by human beings. The critical thinking and original evaluation required for peer review is beyond the scope of this technology, and there is a risk that the technology will produce inaccurate, incomplete or biased conclusions about the paper. The peer review report and decision letters should reflect the personal assessment of the reviewers and editors of the submitted content. The reviewer is responsible and accountable for the content of his/her report.
• AI tools may be used in a limited way to improve the quality of the language of the peer review report (for translation or language editing) in the context of peer review. If such use is made, the reviewer must declare the use when submitting the report.
• Reviewers who suspect inappropriate or undisclosed use of generative AI in a submission should report their concerns to the editor.

Editors are obliged to ensure that the confidentiality of the manuscripts submitted to the journal is maintained during the evaluation process, and it is essential that the peer-reviewed work is not shared or used outside the parties involved in that process. (COPE - Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors) (COPE – Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors).

• Editors should not upload a submitted article, or any part of it, to generative Artificial Intelligence tools or Big Language Models to assist in the review, evaluation or decision-making process, as this may violate authors' privacy and property rights.
• Managing the editorial review of a scientific article implies responsibilities that can only be attributed to humans. Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies should not be used by editors to assist in the evaluation or decision-making process of an article, as the critical thinking and original evaluation required for this task is beyond the scope of this technology and there is a risk that the technology will produce inaccurate, incomplete or biased conclusions about the article. The editor is responsible and accountable for the editorial process, the final decision and its communication to the authors.
• Editors should not use generative AI tools to compose decision letters or abstracts of unpublished research.
• Editors may use generative AI tools to help find appropriate reviewers.
• If editors suspect the use of generative AI in a submitted manuscript or a submitted referee report, they should conduct an editorial review of the matter and consider the policy.

IUPress adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below.

-    Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.

-    The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.

-    The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.

-    Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.

-    Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.

-    The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.

-    In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.

-    If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.

-    In studies with human subject, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained.

Istanbul University Press publications take as principle to comply with the ethical standards of World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and WMA Statement on Animal Use in Biomedical Research.

Approval of research protocols from national or local ethics committees must be submitted together with the manuscripts. Manuscripts that report the results of experimental investigation with human subjects must include a statement that informed consent was obtained after the procedure(s) had been fully explained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, authors are asked to include information about whether the legal custodian’s assent was obtained.

Authors, editors and reviewers are required to disclose existing or potential conflicts of interest. Conflict of interest exists when a participant in the publication process (author, peer reviewer or editor) has a competing interest that could unduly influence (or be reasonably seen to do so) his or her responsibilities in the publication process (submission, peer review, editorial decisions, and communication between authors, reviewers and editors).

To disclose potential conflicts of interest, the ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (http://www.icmje.org/) should be filled in and submitted by all contributing authors. Cases of a potential conflict of interest of the editors, authors, or reviewers are resolved by the  Editorial Board within the scope of COPE and ICMJE guidelines.

All financial support received to carry out research must be declared while submitting the paper. The role of the funder in the research must also be declared.