Peer-Review, Publication Ethics, and Malpractice Statement

Peer-Review

Submissions are considered on the condition that they are previously unpublished and are not concurrently submitted elsewhere; that all authors have read and approved the content and declared all competing interests; and that the work complies with the ethical approval and has been conducted under internationally accepted ethical standards. If ethical misconduct is suspected, the Editorial Board will act according to the relevant international rules of publication ethics (i.e., COPE guidelines).

The editorial policies of the journal are consistent with the rules recommended by the Council of Science Editors and reflected in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication (http://www.icmje.org/). Accordingly, authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to adhere to the best practice guidelines on ethical behavior contained in this statement.

Submitted manuscripts are subjected to double-blinded peer review. The scientific board guiding the selection of papers to be published in the journal consists of elected specialists of the journal and, if necessary, selected national and international experts in the relevant field of research. All manuscripts are reviewed by the editor, section associate editors, and independent expert reviewers.

Human and Animal Rights

For experimental, clinical, and drug human studies, approval by an ethics committee and a statement confirming adherence of the study protocol to international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki "Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects," amended October 2013) are required. For experimental animal studies, the authors should obtain animal ethics committee approval and indicate that the procedures followed complied with animal rights (Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals). Ethics Committee approval documents should be submitted to the Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology together with the manuscript.

Ethics committee approval and statements regarding adherence to the abovementioned international guidelines and obtaining patient informed consent should be indicated in the "Materials and Methods" section and are required for case reports whenever data/media used could reveal the identity of the patient. Any conflicts of interest among the authors or institutions and receipt of any financial or material support must be declared by authors submitting a manuscript. These statements should appear at the end of the manuscript. Reviewers must also report if any potential conflict of interest exists between the reviewer and the authors of the manuscript or their institutions.

To align with our established protocols and ethical standards, it is crucial that patients provide explicit consent, signifying their approval for the use of photographs or images that reveal their identity. This consent is granted by signing the designated permission form.

Plagiarism and Ethical Misconduct

This journal uses "iThenticate" to screen all submissions for plagiarism before publication.

Authors must avoid plagiarism and ethical misconduct, as represented below:

We disapprove of such unethical practices as plagiarism, fabrication, duplication, data manipulation/falsification, and divide and publish, as well as efforts to influence the review process through practices such as gifting authorship, inappropriate acknowledgments, and references, in line with the COPE flowcharts.

Submitted manuscripts are also evaluated for plagiarism and duplicate publication by automatic software. Authors are obliged to acknowledge if they published study results in whole or in part in the form of abstracts.

DUTIES OF THE PUBLISHER:

Handling of Unethical Publishing Behavior

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, the publisher will take all appropriate measures to modify the article in question, in close cooperation with the editors. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, disclosure, or retraction of the work in the most extreme case. Together with the editors, the publisher will take reasonable steps to detect and prevent the publication of articles in which research misconduct has occurred and will not knowingly promote or allow such abuse to occur.

Editorial Autonomy

The Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology is committed to ensuring the autonomy of editorial decisions without influence from any person or commercial partner.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology protects the property and copyright of the articles published in the journal and maintains each article's published version. The journal ensures the integrity and transparency of each published article.

Scientific Misconduct

The publisher of the Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology takes all appropriate measures to prevent fraudulent publication and plagiarism.

DUTIES OF THE EDITORS:

Publication Decisions and Responsibility

The editor of the journal stays abreast of everything in the journal and strives to meet the needs of readers and authors. The editor is also responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published and which should be subjected to legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor may confer with reviewers while making publication decisions. The editor is responsible for the contents and overall quality of publications and should strive to ensure a fair and appropriate peer-review process.

Objectivity

The editor evaluates all articles submitted to the journal without bias.

Confidentiality

The editor must not disclose any information about a submitted article to anyone other than the editorial staff, reviewers, and publisher.

Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure

The editor of the Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, reviewers, and editors. Unpublished materials must not be used in a submitted article without the author's express written consent.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

Authors are obliged to notify the journal's editors or publisher immediately and to cooperate with them to correct or retract the article if a published work is found to contain significant errors or inaccuracies. If the editors or publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a material error or inaccuracy, the authors must promptly correct or retract the article or provide the journal editors with evidence of the article's accuracy.

DUTIES OF THE REVIEWERS:

Evaluation

Reviewers evaluate submitted manuscripts without knowledge of the origin, gender, sexual orientation, or political philosophy of the authors and ensure a fair blinded peer-review.

Confidentiality

All information related to submitted articles is kept confidential. The reviewers must not discuss with others unless authorized by the editor.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Reviewers should have no conflict of interest regarding parties such as the authors, funders, editors, etc.

Objectivity

Reviewers evaluate manuscripts objectively and express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.

Contribution to the Revision and Decision Process

Reviewers may provide feedback to the authors to assist in improving their manuscript. Reviewers also help the editor make decisions on whether or not to publish the relevant work.

Acknowledgement of Sources

If the reviewers notice that the scientific study is not cited, it should be stated by the reviewers.

Reviewers will also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

DUTIES OF THE AUTHORS:

Reporting Standards

A submitted manuscript should be original, and the authors declare that the manuscript has never been published previously in any journal. The study data should be represented accurately in the article. A manuscript should include adequate detail and references to allow others to replicate the study. The scientific and ethical liability of the manuscripts belongs to the authors. Authors are responsible for the contents of the manuscript and accuracy of the references.

Originality

Authors who want to submit their study to the journal must ensure that their study is entirely original. Phrases and sentences taken from the literature should be appropriately cited.

Multiple Publications

Authors should not submit the same study for publication in any other journal. Concurrent submission of the same study to multiple journals constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Stating References

The work of other researchers should be cited appropriately. Authors should cite publications that were influential in specifying the work. All sources covering the process of the study should be cited.

Authorship of a Paper

Authorship is limited to those who have made substantial contributions to the study. If others participated in the research in a lesser capacity, they should be recognized as contributors in the Acknowledgements statement. One of the authors will serve as the corresponding author who is in communication with the journal editor. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are listed at the time of submission. Other authors cannot be added later during or after the peer review process.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All sources of financial support should be disclosed. All authors must disclose any significant conflict of interest related to the study or its publication. Any financial grants or other support received for a submitted study from individuals or institutions should be disclosed to the Editorial Board of the Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology. The ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form should be filled in and submitted by all contributing authors to disclose a potential conflict of interest. The journal's Editorial Board determines cases of a potential conflict of interest of the editors, authors, or reviewers within the scope of COPE and ICMJE guidelines.

Conditions that provide financial or personal benefit bring about a conflict of interest. The reliability of the scientific process and the published articles is directly related to the objective consideration of conflicts of interest during the planning, implementation, writing, evaluation, editing, and publication of scientific studies.

Financial relations are the most easily identified conflicts of interest, and they will inevitably undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and the science. These conflicts can be caused by individual relationships, academic competition, or intellectual approaches. The authors should refrain as much as possible from making agreements with sponsors with the aim of gaining profit or any other advantage that restrict their ability to access all data of the study or analyze, interpret, prepare, and publish their articles. During the peer review process, editors should refrain from bringing together those who may have any relationship to avoid conflicts of interest. Editors should not have any personal, professional, or financial ties related to the manuscripts for which they make the final publication decision. If one of the editors is an author of any manuscript, the editor is excluded from the manuscript evaluation process. Authors should inform the editorial board concerning potential conflicts of interest to ensure that their articles will be evaluated within ethical principles through an independent assessment process.

Our publication team strives to consider all of these situations to ensure that the evaluation process is conducted impartially.

You can review the related link to get more detailed information about conflicts of interest.

The conflict of interest form, signed by each author, must be uploaded during manuscript submission.