Fırat University Health Sciences Medical Journal is published three times a year in quarterly periods. Our journal is an open access journal with the feature of "peer-reviewed" journal in accordance with its publication policy, which is based on the application of scientific methods impartially. Our journal conducts its publication life on the basis of the objective evaluation, development and sharing of qualified scientific articles such as clinical and experimental research articles, original case reports and invited literature reviews in various branches of health.

In this context, authors, journal editors, referees and publishers; should act in accordance with the guidelines and policies published by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and the "Committe on Publication Ethics - COPE (https://publicationethics.org/)". Our journal accepts the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (2013) and WMA Statement on Animal Use in Biomedical Research (2016) standards and is based on ethical standards.

THE FOLLOWING ISSUES SHOULD BE COMPLIED WITH UNDER THE TITLE OF ETHICS IN THE STUDIES SUBMITTED TO OUR JOURNAL:

1. Ethics committee approval must be obtained for studies conducted in all branches of science and for clinical or experimental studies that require an ethics committee decision, and for studies conducted on humans and animals, and this approval must be stated and documented in the article. If the relevant document is not sent to the journal, the article will not be evaluated.
2. It is should be stated that research and publication ethics is complied with in the article.
3. In studies that require ethics committee permission, information about the permission (name of the committee, date and number) should be included in the materials and methods section. In case reports, it is obligatory to include information on the signing of the informed consent/consent form in the article.

RESEARCH REQUESTING ETHICS COMMITTEE PERMISSION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data  collection from the participants by using survey, interview, observation, experiment, interview techniques,
2. Studies in which humans and animals (including material/data) are used for scientific purposes as subjects
3. Clinical studies on humans,
4. Studies on animals
5. Retrospective studies in accordance with the personal data protection law

Additionally,

    * Obtaining and specifying permission from the owners for the use of scales, questionnaires and   photographs belonging to others,

    * It should be stated that copyright regulations are complied with for the intellectual and artistic works used. All these issues are the responsibility of the author.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EDITORS:

Publication decision

The editor first evaluates the compliance of an article with ethical rules, and in this context, the articles are checked with a suitable program for similarity. Articles with 20% or more similarity as a result of the control are rejected. Detecting plagiarism can result in an article being rejected even after acceptance.

 The editor examines the scientific importance, originality, scientific validity of the article and whether the subject is within the scope of the journal and forwards the article to the relevant field editors or referees. In the presence of a negative situation about the article, editor can use the right to reject the article without evaluation or send it back to the author. Manuscripts submitted for publication to the journal are evaluated without considering the race, gender, religious beliefs, ethnic origins and nationalities of the authors.

The editor is responsible for choosing at least two referees from among the academicians who are experts in their fields and keeping the referees "blind" to the authors. He/She is also responsible for presenting the corrections requested by the referees in an understandable language to the author.

Confidentiality

Editors and journal staff cannot share any information about the submitted articles with any person or institution other than the responsible author, referees, other editorial clients and the publisher.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Unpublished materials and information contained in a submitted article are not used by the editor or editors and members of the editorial board without the express written consent of the authors.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHORS:

Articles submitted to our journal must not have been published in another journal or sent for publication. If the abstract is presented as a text at congresses or meetings, this should be clearly stated during the article application.

Authors should have arranged their articles according to journal writing rules (http://tip.fusabil.org/tip.php3?id=120) and should have referenced all the information they used in the article. Studies submitted to the journal must be prepared within the framework of "ethical rules" and ethical responsibility belongs to the authors.

 Authors should ensure that the work done is their own work and that the article is free of plagiarism, and should emphasize their scientific contribution to the work. All article authors must have read the final version of the article. Every author who has signed the "Publication Rights Copyright Form" in the articles sent for publication has equal responsibility for ethical principles.

References should be numbered according to the order of use in the text, and should be cited in parentheses after a single spacing. All of the references used should be presented in a list at the end of the text and all the references should be used in the text. In cases where there are six or more authors; after the third name “et al.” should be used in English references. Responsibility for errors in the writing of references belongs to the author(s). Personal opinions and unpublished information should not be cited.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF REFEREES:

"Blind" refereeing is applied in the article evaluation process of the Fırat University Health Sciences Medical Journal. Reviewers cannot communicate directly with authors. Although the referees are appointed, if they are not experts in the article, they should not accept to evaluate the relevant article. The referees should make the evaluation confidentially and impartially. If they detect that there is a conflict of interest between the "author-author" or the "author-referee" in the articles sent to them, they should only report this to the editor.

The peer-review process assists the editor and the editorial board with editorial decision making and may also serve to improve the author's manuscript. Manuscripts submitted for evaluation should be evaluated as confidential documents and should not be shared or discussed with anyone other than those authorized by the editor. Referees must perform their duties objectively. Personal criticism of the author is not appropriate. Referees should express their views clearly and with supporting evidence. Reviewers should pay attention to whether information from other publications is available in the reference list.