Free-of-Charge Publication

No fee is charged from the authors during the submission, evaluation and publication process. Journal practices, ethical rules, technical information and necessary forms are specified on the journal's web page.

The manuscripts must be submitted via the https://medicaljournal.gazi.edu.tr/index.php/GMJ/login online article system, represented on the journal website.

Copyright & Open Access Policy

Gazi Medical Journal is an open access publication.

All published content is available online, free of charge at https://medicaljournal.gazi.edu.tr/.

Gazi Medical Journal is protected by copyright laws. The Copyright Agreement Form should be signed and attached to the submissions. As of 2023, the journal is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). By signing this form authors agree that the article, if accepted for publication Gazi Medical Journal , will be licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) which permits third parties to copy, distribute, or reuse the content for non-commercial purposes by giving the appropriate credit to the author and original work.

The copyright of the published article belongs to its author under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

The authors agree to transfer the commercial rights to Gazi University Faculty of Medicine if the article is accepted for publication.

CC BY-NC-ND license includes the following elements:

BY – Credit must be given to the creator

NC – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted

ND – No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted

Advertising Policy

This journal's advertising sales and editorial processes are separated to ensure editorial independence and reduce the effects of financial interests.

Advertisers are responsible for ensuring that their advertisements comply with applicable laws regarding deceptive and/or offensive content and ethical issues.

Material Disclaimer

Statements or opinions stated in articles published in the journal do not reflect the views of the editors, editorial board and/or publisher; The editors, editorial board and publisher do not accept any responsibility or liability for such materials. All opinions published in the journal belong to the authors.

Permission Requests

Permission required for use any published under CC BY-NC-ND license with commercial purposes (selling, etc.) to protect copyright owner and author rights). Republication and reproduction of images or tables in any published material should be done with proper citation of source providing author(s) name; article title; journal title; year (volume) and page of publication; copyright year of the article.

Digital Archiving and Preservation Policy

Digital preservation is a set of processes and activities that ensure the retrieval and distribution of information now available in digital formats to guarantee long-term, perpetual access. The preservation policy includes the following measures:

Website Archiving

All of the electronic content (website, manuscript, etc.) is stored in three different sources. Content on a server is online and accessible to readers. A copy of the same content is preserved as a backup on other servers. Should a server fail, other resources can be brought online, and the website is expected to be available in 24-36 hours.

Abstracting/Indexing Services

Our journal's Abstracting/Indexing services store essential information about articles. In addition, some of our journal’s Abstracting/Indexing services archive metadata about the article and electronic versions of the articles.In this way, copies of articles are presented to the scientific community through these systems as an alternative to journals.

Author Self-Archiving Policy

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their articles on personal and institutional websites after publication (while providing full bibliographic details and a link to the original publication).

Peer Review Policy

Initial evaluation and Peer review process

Manuscripts submitted to the Gazi Medical Journal undergo a double-blinded peer-review process. Each submitted article is reviewed by at least two external experts in the relevant fields who are independent of the journal's editorial management.

The initial step of the submission involves an evaluation of technical corrections, scope, and quality by the editorial members of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief assigns an editorial member to the submitted article, who then initiates the process. Technical corrections may be requested from the author at the editor's discretion. Articles determined not to be within the scope of the journal are rejected at this stage.

The second step involves the assignment of reviewers for the submitted articles. The Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editors are responsible for this step. Editors appoint two external reviewers, experts in the relevant subject, to evaluate the article considering its subject matter. Once the reviewer evaluation process is complete, the reviewer reports are sent along with the editorial decision. If the decision requires "minor" or "major" revisions, the author is requested to make the necessary corrections within a specified deadline. These reviewer reports are shared with the authors anonymously.

The ethical criterias of the journal for the peer review process are expressed in the detailed form by this guideline.

These criterias are based on COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers

When evaluating submitted manuscripts in terms of style and content, editors make their decisions based on guidelines such as CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, SPIRIT, STARD, TRIPOD, CARE, without being influenced by aesthetic grounds or personal preferences.

Ethical Policy

For studies involving human or animal participants, the authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human and animal experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration). Application or approvasl number/year of the study should also be provided. The editorial board are entitled to question authors regarding ethical aspects when concerns are raised or further clarifications are necessary and will act in accordance with COPE guidelines if an ethical misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication) is suspected.

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), Council of Science Editors (CSE), Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal is in conformity with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

It is the authors’ responsibility to carefully protect the patients’ anonymity and to verify that any experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the submission was performed with informed consent and following all the guidelines for experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated with. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed releases of the patient or of his/her legal representative should be enclosed.

Prospective human studies require both an ethics committee approval and informed consent by participants. Retrospective studies require an ethics committee approval with waiver of informed consent. Authors may be required to document such approval.

All submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (iThenticate by CrossCheck), and those with an overall similarity index of greater than 20%, or duplication rate at or higher than 5% with a single source are returned back to authors without further evaluation along with the similarity report.

Appeals and Complaints

Gazi Medical Journal treats appeals, complaints, and allegations of misconduct with utmost seriousness, regardless of the individuals' affiliation or the publication status. Appeal and complaint cases are handled within the scope of COPE guidelines by the Editorial Board of the journal.

The editor-in-chief will review appeals to editorial decisions, seeking additional input from the editorial board or external reviewers if the appeal is deemed valid.

If misconduct is reported, and either proven or strongly suspected, the journal is obligated to notify the relevant individual's institution, which may then initiate its own investigation.

If an individual has a complaint about an editorial decision, the editorial process, or actions by journal members, they should first contact the editor-in-chief. If the response is unsatisfactory or if the complaint is against the editor-in-chief, the matter should be raised with the publisher, who will investigate following COPE guidelines.

In instances involving allegations against a member of the publisher’s team, senior management will be apprised to oversee and supervise the investigation. In cases of potential conflicts of interest, independent individuals may lead the investigation, and when deemed necessary, the journal may contact other institutions to seek legal advice.

Correction

Occasionally, errors in published papers may come to light, necessitating the publication of a correction in the form of a corrigendum or erratum. Since articles are accessible and citable as soon as they are published, any subsequent alterations have the potential to affect those who have read and cited the initial version.

Retraction

In order to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record, the following policies will be applied when published content needs to be corrected; these policies take into account current best practice in the scholarly publishing and library communities.

Articles may be retracted for several reasons, including:

* honest errors reported by the authors (for example, errors due to the mixing up of samples or use of a scientific tool or equipment that is found subsequently to be faulty)

* research misconduct (data fabrication)

* duplicate or overlapping publication

* fraudulent use of data

* clear plagiarism

* unethical research

For any retracted article, the reason for retraction and who is instigating the retraction will be clearly stated in the Retraction notice. The retraction notice will be linked to the retracted article (which usually remains on the site) and the article will be clearly marked as retracted (including the PDF).

An article is usually only retracted at the authors’ request or by the publisher in response to an institutional investigation. It is important to note in the context of Gazi Medical Journal’s publication model, that ‐ as in traditional journals ‐ a retracted article is not ‘unpublished’ or ‘withdrawn’ in order for it to be published elsewhere. The reasons for retraction are usually so serious that the whole study, or large parts of it, are not appropriate for inclusion in the scientific literature anywhere.

The content of a retracted article would only be removed where legal limitations have been placed upon the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), for example, if the article is clearly defamatory or infringes others’ legal rights, or if the article is the subject of a court order. In such cases, the bibliographic information for the article will be retained on the site along with information regarding the circumstances that led to the removal of the content.

Under rare circumstances, for example, if false or inaccurate data have been published that, if acted upon, pose a serious health risk, the original incorrect version(s) may be removed and a corrected version published. The reason for this partial removal would be clearly stated on the latest version.

Editorial Note

If there is a potential, not yet resolved, problem with an article, it may be appropriate to alert readers with an Editorial Note. Such an Editorial Note may be added, for example, if Gazi Medical Journal receives information that research or publication misconduct might have taken place, or that there is a serious dispute between authors or between the authors and third parties. The Editorial Note will usually be posted while further investigations take place and until a more permanent solution has been found (e.g. the publication of a revised ‘corrected’ version, or a Retraction).

Expression of Concern

In rare cases, Gazi Medical Journal may decide to publish an Expression of Concern, which is linked to the problematic article, if there are serious concerns about an article but no conclusive evidence can be obtained that would unequivocally justify a Retraction. This may include:

* if there is inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct

* there is evidence that there are problems with the article, but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case

* an investigation into alleged misconduct has not been impartial or conclusive

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All sources of financial support should be disclosed. All authors ought to disclose a meaningful conflict of interest in the process of forming their study. Any financial grants or other support received for a submitted study from individuals or institutions should be disclosed to the Editorial Board of Gazi Medical Journal. 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 it is inevitable that they will undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and the science. These conflicts can be caused by individual relations, academic competition, or intellectual approaches. The authors should refrain as much as possible from making agreements with sponsors in the opinion 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 In order to prevent conflicts of interest, editors should refrain from bringing together those who may have any relationship between them during the evaluation of the studies. The editors, who make the final decision about the articles, should not have any personal, professional or financial ties with any of the issues they are going to decide. Authors should inform the editorial board concerning potential conflicts of interest to ensure that their articles will be evaluated within the framework of ethical principles through an independent assessment process.

If one of the editors is an author in any manuscript, the editor is excluded from the manuscript evaluation process. In order to prevent any conflict of interest, the article evaluation process is carried out as double-blinded. Because of the double-blinded evaluation process, except for the editorial board members, none of the international advisory board members, or reviewers are informed about the authors of the manuscript or institutions of the authors.

Our publication team works devotedly to ensuring that the evaluation process is conducted impartially, considering all these situations.

The conflict of interest form that each author has to sign must be uploaded during the manuscript submission.

Editorial Duties

Editorial policies of the journal are conducted as stated in the rules recommended by the Council of Science Editors and reflected in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals. Accordingly, authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to adhere to the best practice guidelines on ethical behavior contained in this statement.

DUTIES OF PUBLISHER:

Due to our editorial policy, the publisher assumes various responsibilities related to unethical behavior, editorial autonomy, intellectual property, and copyright. In case of potential abuses in this regard, our journal may take actions such as publishing a correction, disclosing the situation, or retracting the affected work.

Our journal evaluates unethical behavior within the framework of the following principles.

Plagiarism: Presenting someone else's work, whether it be data, words, or theories, as if it were one's own, without giving due credit or acknowledgment.

Data Falsification: Engaging in the manipulation of research data with the aim of creating a deceptive perception. This manipulation encompasses actions such as altering images (e.g., micrographs, gels, radiological images), excluding outliers or undesirable results, modifying, adding, or omitting data points, and similar practices.

Data Fabrication: Creating false data or results involves intentionally inventing information to deceive, misrepresent the scientific process, and compromise research integrity.

Citation Manipulation: Inflating citation counts for personal gain involves behaviors such as excessively citing one's own work, overemphasizing citations to the journal publishing the citing article, and coordinating excessive citations between journals.

Peer Review Manipulation: Manipulating the scholarly evaluation process entails deceptive practices like submitting fake reviews or colluding to bias assessments, compromising the integrity of the review system.

Authorship Misconduct: Unethical actions related to attributing authorship involve unauthorized inclusion or exclusion, misrepresentation of contributions, and improper credit assignment, undermining transparency and fairness in scholarly collaboration.

The publisher also has certain responsibilities in terms of "editorial autonomy" and "intellectual property and copyright”. The publisher is committed to ensuring the autonomy of editorial decisions without influence from commercial partners.

The publisher protects the property and copyright of the articles published in the journal and maintains each article's published version of the record. The journal provides the integrity and transparency of each published article.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS:

The journal expects its experts serving as referees to take on specific responsibilities within our structure. The relevant duties are as follows:

- All information pertaining to submitted articles is held in strict confidence. Reviewers should not be disclosed to others unless authorized by the editor.

- Reviewers aid the editor in making publication decisions and may also support the author in enhancing the manuscript.

- Reviewers should not limit their reports to simple yes-no questions but should create them with comments that provide scientific contributions to the authors.

- Reviewers provide impartial judgments and assessments, articulating their perspectives clearly with relevant supporting arguments.

- Reviewers are expected to pinpoint pertinent published studies that the authors have overlooked.

- Additionally, reviewers should bring to the editor's notice any significant similarities or overlaps between the manuscript and other published papers within their personal knowledge.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS:

- The submitted manuscript should be original, and the authors ensure that the manuscript has never been published previously in any journal.

- Data of the research ought to be represented literally in the article. A manuscript ought to include adequate detail and references to allow others to replicate the study.

- The words and sentences getting from the literature should be appropriately cited. All of the sources that used the process of the study should be remarked.

- Convenient acknowledgement of the study of others has to be given. Authors ought to cite publications that have been efficient in determining the study.

- Authors should not submit the same study for publishing in any other journals. Simultaneous submission of the same study to more than one journal is unacceptable and constitutes unethical behaviour.

-Authorship of a paper ought to be limited to those who have made a noteworthy contribution to the study. If others have participated in the research, they should be listed as contributors. Authorship also includes a corresponding author who is in communication with the editor of a journal. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in a paper.

Clinical Trial Policy

All clinical trials, which are any research projects that prospectively assign individuals or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, in order to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome, must be registered in a public trials registry acceptable to the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE). Authors of randomized controlled trials must adhere to the CONSORT guidelines , and provide both a CONSORT checklist (for protocols, see the SPIRIT guidance) and flow diagram. We require that you choose the MS Word template at www.consort-statement.org for the flow chart and cite/upload it in the manuscript as a figure. In addition, submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the Abstract as evidence of registration. For more detailed instructions regarding clinical trials, please visit the guideline below:

Clinical Trials Guidelines

You can register for clinical trials by visiting the following link:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/

To register the relevant record in the system and learn more about the protocol to be followed, please review the link below:

https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/manage-recs/how-register

The other registries are accepted by ICJME:

www.anzctr.org.au

www.ISRCTN.org

www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm

www.onderzoekmetmensen.nl/en

https://eudract.ema.europa.eu/

Policy on Artificial Intelligence Usage:

In our pursuit of scholarly excellence, this policy outlines the principled use of artificial intelligence (AI) in our journal. Authors employing AI tools must transparently disclose their methods, ensuring ethical conduct and full accountability. This policy underscores the importance of transparency, responsible authorship, and the prohibition of AI-generated content as primary sources. Through these guidelines, we maintain the integrity of our academic contributions while embracing the evolving landscape of AI technology.

1. Authorship and AI: Authors utilizing AI tools in manuscript writing, image/graphical element production, or data collection and analysis must transparently disclose the specifics of AI tool usage in the Materials and Methods (or equivalent) section of the paper. This disclosure should include details on how the AI tool was employed and which specific tool was utilized. Authors retain full responsibility for the content of their manuscript, even sections generated by an AI tool, and are accountable for any violations of publication ethics. Authors must confirm the absence of plagiarism in text or images produced by AI, ensuring proper attribution and full citations for all quoted material.

2. Transparency in AI Usage: Authors are required to openly acknowledge the use of AI tools in their submissions, detailing their role in manuscript creation, image/graphical element production, or data analysis. The involvement of AI, along with the specific tools used, must be clearly stated in the Materials and Methods section. Authors are liable for any potential ethical breaches, including plagiarism, in materials generated by AI assistance.

3. Editorial Transparency: Editors incorporating AI tools in the manuscript evaluation process must maintain transparency in their approach. The utilization of AI should be clearly stated by the editorial board to uphold the integrity of the peer-review process.

4. Citation of AI-Generated Material: Citation of AI-generated material as a primary source is not permissible in our journal. Authors must rely on human-generated content for primary sources, ensuring the credibility and integrity of the research presented.

By adhering to these guidelines, our journal aims to ensure the responsible and transparent integration of artificial intelligence, upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and scholarly rigor in our publications.

Journal Policies