The Karadeniz International Scientific Journal mandates the transparent, clear, and objective disclosure of conflicts of interest to ensure the reliability of scientific research and published articles. Situations that may result in economic or personal benefit are considered conflicts of interest. The integrity of the scientific process depends on the appropriate management of conflicts of interest during the planning, execution, analysis, writing, evaluation, and publication stages of the research.
1. Responsibilities of Authors Authors are:
Obliged to clearly declare all financial, institutional, and personal conflicts of interest regarding their work.
Required to disclose relationships with sponsors or supporting organizations that may influence any stage of the research.
Required to avoid agreements that restrict access to data or influence the process of analysis and interpretation.
Required to submit a “no conflict of interest” statement in cases where no conflict exists.
Obliged to state the conflict of interest declaration explicitly under a separate heading within the article.
2. Responsibilities of Reviewers Reviewers:
Must not participate in the evaluation process if there is any conflict of interest regarding the study under review.
Must notify the editor if they have personal, academic, or financial relationships with the authors.
Must withdraw from the evaluation in circumstances that may affect their impartiality.
3. Responsibilities of Editors Editors:
Are obliged to maintain impartiality during the evaluation process.
Avoid assigning individuals and reviewers who have a conflict of interest to the same evaluation process.
Must not have any personal, academic, or financial conflict of interest regarding the studies they evaluate.
Must transfer the process to another editor in the event of a potential conflict of interest.
4. Declaration and Transparency All authors, reviewers, and editors are obliged to report potential conflicts of interest to the journal. These disclosures:
Ensure the transparency of the evaluation process.
Support the independence of editorial decisions.
5. Ethical Compliance The journal adheres to international ethical standards in the management of conflicts of interest and conducts these processes in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
6. International References This policy has been prepared based on the following international sources:
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – Principles of Transparency and Best Practice: https://doaj.org/bestpractice