Journal of Data Applications

Journal of Data Applications is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to users. Except for commercial purposes, users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

The articles in Journal of Data Applications are open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0)(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/deed.en).

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

Authors publishing with Journal of Data Applications retain the copyright to their work, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license and grant the publisher non-exclusive right to publish the work.

Editor should consider publishing correction if minor errors that do not effect the results, interpretations and conclusions of the published paper are detected. Editor should consider retraction if major errors and/or misconduction that invalidate results and conclusions are detected.

Editor should consider issuing an expression of concern 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.

To guarantee that all papers published in the journal are maintained and permanently accessible, articles are stored in Dergipark which serves as a national archival web site and at the same time permits LOCKSS to collect, preserve, and serve the content.

Additionally, authors are encouraged to self-archive the final PDF version of their articles in open electronic archives with that conform to standards of Open Archives Initiative (https://www.openarchives.org/). Authors should provide a link from the deposited version to the URL of IUPress journal website.

• 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.

Journal of Data Applications adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.

• 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.

It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. Authors must ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.

All the authors of a submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contribution to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analyzing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection or supervision of the research are not sufficient for being accepted as an author. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form.

The individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, assisting writing, providing a general support, providing material or financial support are examples to be indicated in acknowledgement section.

All authors must disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.

All authors are responsible for making all changes requested by the referees. Manuscripts that do not fulfill the referee's correction requests will not be published. Manuscripts that do not fulfill the referee evaluations within the specified time will be rejected.

Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.

Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.

Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.

Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.

Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.

Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.

Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.

Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.

Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.

Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.

Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.

Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by editor-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope. Editor-in-chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors and ensures a fair double-blind peer review of the selected manuscripts.

The selected manuscripts are sent to at least two national/international external referees for evaluation and publication decision is given by editor-in-chief upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.

Editor-in-chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal. Reviewers’ judgments must be objective.

Reviewers’ comments on the following aspects are expected while conducting the review.

- Does the manuscript contain new and significant information?

- Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the manuscript?

- Is the problem significant and concisely stated?

- Are the methods described comprehensively?

- Are the interpretations and conclusions justified by the results?

- Are references made to other works in the field adequate?

- Is the language acceptable?

Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and they must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.

A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the reviewing process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and members of editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees is important.

The peer review process of the articles sent to the journal is determined as 3 months at the most.

The editor may appoint a new referee to the study when he/she deems it necessary.

Journal of Data Applications complies with APA (American Psychological Association) style 7th Edition for referencing and in-text citations. References should be listed in alphabetical order. Accuracy of citations is the author’s responsibility. All references should be cited in the text. It is strongly recommended that authors may use Reference Management Software such as Zotero, Mendeley, etc.

Copyright Agreement Form

Author Form

Title Page

Ensure that the following items are present:

• The title page is prepared according to the journal rules.
• The study has not been submitted to any other journal.
• The study was checked in terms of English.
• The study was written by paying attention to the full-text writing rules determined by the journal.
• The references are arranged by the APA-7 reference system.
• The Copyright Agreement Form is uploaded.
• The Author Contribution Form has been uploaded.
• Permission of previously published copyrighted material (text-picture-table) if used in the present manuscript.
• Ethics Committee Report (if necessary) is uploaded, and the ethics committee report date and number are given in the study text. Otherwise, please upload a word file to the system explaining why the ethics committee report was not submitted for this study. This statement will then be added to the end of your article.
• Reviewing journal policies.
• All authors have read and approved the latest version of the manuscript.