Publication Ethics, Malpractice Statement and Publication Policy
Communications Faculty of Sciences University of Ankara Series C Biology (Comm. Ankara Biol.) is a single-blind peer reviewed open access journal which has been published biannually since 1948 by Faculty of Sciences of Ankara University, accepts original research articles written in English in the fields of Biology.
Faculty of Sciences of Ankara University takes its duties of guardianship over all stages of publishing extremely seriously and we recognize our ethical and other responsibilities.
The editorial board pursue the best practice guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). To guaranty the integrity of the published papers, Commun. Fac. Sci. Univ. Ank. Ser. C editors are guided for using COPE’s flowcharts whenever they suspect an ethical issue about the paper they process. The authors, reviewers, editors and owner of the journal are expected to strictly committed to ensuring the policy of publication ethics and malpractice, and respect to the following statements:

Actions Contrary to Scientific Research and Publication Ethics
• Plagiarism: Representing the original ideas, methods, data or works of others as one's own work in whole or in part without citation in accordance with scientific rules,
• Forgery: Using non-existent or falsified data in scientific research,
• Distortion: Falsifying research records or data obtained, falsifying devices or materials that were not used in the research, falsifying or shaping the results of the research in line with the interests of the persons and organizations receiving support,
• Republishing: Presenting duplicate publications as separate publications for academic appointments and promotions,
• Slicing: Inappropriately and inappropriately dividing the results of a research into parts in a way that disrupts the integrity of the research and publishing them in more than one issue and presenting these publications as separate publications in academic appointments and promotions,
• Unfair authorship: Including or excluding people who have not made active contributions, changing the order of authors in an unjustified and inappropriate manner, removing the names of active contributors from the work in subsequent editions, using one's influence to have one's name included among the authors even though one has not made active contributions,

Ethics Committee Permission
Our journal requires that the relevant ethics committee decision must be obtained for all studies in all disciplines that require ethics committee approval. In this context, authors should write the date and number of Ethics Committee approval in the “Sampling and Methods/ Materials and Methods” section. In case presentations, the information that the informed consent form has been obtained must be included in the article.
In line with the regulations implemented by Ulakbim TR Index since 2020, studies that do not have ethics committee permission are not evaluated in our journal.

Studies Requiring Ethics Committee Approval
In our journal, researches that require ethics committee permission include the following studies:
• All research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that involve collecting data from participants through methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, experiments and interview techniques,
• Studies in which humans and animals (including materials or data) are used for experimental or other scientific purposes,
• Clinical trials conducted on humans,
• Scientific research on animals,
• Retrospective studies within the framework of the Personal Data Protection Law.
In order for such studies to be included in the evaluation, the relevant ethics committee permissions must be obtained and these permissions must be clearly stated in the text of the article.

NOTE: Scientific research on humans and animals must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and ARRIVE guidelines and approval must be obtained from the relevant ethics committee. Studies without ethics committee approval are not evaluated in our journal.

Plagiarism and self-plagiarism
Plagiarism is unacceptable and any suspicion of plagiarism will be investigated by the editorial team. The article must be clean in terms of ‘plagiarism’, and the legal and ethical responsibility of the article belong to the author. Duplication of authors’ previous works (self-plagiarism) should also be avoided, or if necessary, it should be reported transparently and be fully cited in the publication itself.
The objectivity and transparency in research, and the principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed. Authors must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the results presented in their manuscript. Authors who already published papers on the same topic are expected to include citation of these papers, but they are expected to avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation.
There is no page limitation for the papers. That is why, data and results gathered in the same framework should not be broken up into smaller publishable units. The authors are expected to publish their results obtained in a single framework as a unique and original publication.

If plagiarism is detected in an article submitted or published in our journal, our journal acts in accordance with the COPE principles (Plagiarism in a submitted manuscript - Plagiarism in a published article).

Relations with Journal Owner and Publisher
The relationship between the editor and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence. In accordance with the written contract between the editor and the publisher, all editorial decisions are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.

Correction, Retraction, Expression of Concern
Editors may consider publishing a correction if minor errors are identified in the published article that do not affect the findings, interpretations and conclusions. In the case of major errors/violations that invalidate findings and conclusions, editors should consider retracting the article. COPE principles are taken into account in relation to correction, withdrawal or expression of concern.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Our journal is obliged to protect the intellectual property rights of all published articles and to defend the rights of the journal and the author(s) in possible violations.

Protection of Personal Data of Participants
All personal data sent to our journal are protected in accordance with legal regulations and ethical rules.

Complaints
Communications Faculty of Sciences University of Ankara Series C Biology any unethical behavior on the part of editors, referees, authors, or any unethical situation related to a manuscript in the review process, in early view, or published should be reported to commun@science.ankara.edu.tr. Our journal follows the procedure outlined in the COPE flowcharts for complaints.

Conflicts of Interest
There is a conflict of interest when someone is influenced in his/her choices or actions by a personal or financial interest such as recommendation of a reviewer, an editor’s decision or interpretation of a result by an author. In this case, every suspicion of a conflict of interest should be reported to the editorial team of Communications Faculty of Sciences University of Ankara.
Authors should declare that they have no potential conflict of interest (financial or non-financial). If any, Authors must declare all potential interests in a ‘Conflicts of interest’ section, which should explain why the interest may be a conflict. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the editor and reviewers and included in the published article. If conflicts of interest are found after publication, this may be embarrassing for the authors, the Editor and the journal. It may be necessary to publish a corrigendum or reassess the review process.

Change of Author
Only the article is processed before acceptance. Authors are required to carefully review the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the exact list of authors at the time of original submission.

Use of Artificial Intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence in processes that do not affect the originality of the article, such as literature review or language control, is acceptable in studies submitted to our journal. However, the use of artificial intelligence should be carried out within the framework of ethical rules and should never be used for unethical purposes such as fabricated data and manipulation.
For studies involving the use of artificial intelligence, it is mandatory to inform our journal about this situation at the article submission stage. All responsibility for the use of artificial intelligence belongs to the authors themselves.

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

1- Responsibilities of the Editors
• Communications Faculty of Sciences University of Ankara Series C accepts original research articles written in English in the field of Biology. The editor-in-chief makes the final decision of acceptance or rejection, based on the reviewers’ reports and the recommendation of the field editor in charge of the review process. If there is any conflict of interest between an editor and an author, the editor in question will not be involved in the review and the decision processes.
• The “Submission/Managing System” which is used for manuscript submission/processing in Communications Faculty of Sciences University of Ankara uses a single-blind peer reviewed system that hidden the reviewers’ comments to authors. Reviewers can also send attached files that can be communicated to the author with the reviewer’s name anonym.
• The names, affiliations and email addresses entered in our journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
• Every suspicion of ethical issues will be investigated by the journal. Any suspicious case on ethical issues, misconduct or conflict of interest can be reported to the editor in chief or the field editor who conduct the investigation. Editorial Board and reviewers/authors are encouraged for their opinion for the treatment of ethical issues. I the case of the involvement of other journals, editor in chief will contact the journal to make a common decision if possible.
• In the case of plagiarism, the retraction of a publication can be decided. The readers and all persons involved in the decision and publication process of the article and employer of the incriminated author (or reviewer) works will be notified.
• Editors should decline to be involved with a submission when they have a financial interest, a recent publication, current submission, a collaboration, close personal connection with any author of submission. Editors must also declare if they have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.
• The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (living and fossil animals) and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants are rigorously followed by our editors.
• Editors protect the intellectual property rights of published works and defend the rights of both the authors and the journal in case of violation. In addition, they meticulously carry out plagiarism and similarity checks to ensure that the articles do not violate the copyrights of other works.
• All kinds of complaints, opinions and suggestions received by the journal are meticulously examined; necessary explanations are provided in a timely, clear and constructive manner.

2-Responsibilities of Referees
• The reviewers are expected to evaluate the paper in an objective manner. Reviewers are expected to inform the Field Editor for potential conflict of interest and they should decline to be involved with a submission when they have a financial interest, a recent publication, current submission, a collaboration, close personal connection with any author of submission. Reviewer must also declare if they have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.
• Confidentiality of the manuscripts they are reviewing should be maintained. Potential reviewers who decline to review a paper are encouraged to state the declining reason.
• Reviewers should demonstrate an impartial, objective and scientific approach to the evaluation process. They are expected to provide evaluations based solely on academic content, free from personal bias.
• Criticism and evaluations should be text-centered; statements that damage the personal rights of the author(s), humiliating or subjective statements should not be included. It is essential to evaluate within the framework of scientific respect and courtesy.
• All information and documents submitted to the evaluation process should be handled within the scope of the principle of confidentiality; they should not be shared with third parties under any circumstances or used for personal gain.

3-Responsibilities of Authors
• Authors should only submit original work. The ideas or sentences of others should not be used without proper attribution.
• The same work should not be submitted simultaneously to more than one journal.
• All citations and references must be properly acknowledged.
• All potential conflicts of interest must be clearly declared.
• In studies requiring ethics committee approval, ethics committee approval must be obtained and must be stated in the article.
• The article should not be sent to another journal before the referee process is completed.

PUBLICATION POLICIES

General Principles
• Communications Faculty of Sciences University of Ankara Series C Biology is a single-blind peer reviewed and open access journal which has been published since 1948 by Ankara University, accepts original research articles written in English in the fields of all areas of Biology. Review articles written by eminent scientists can also be invited by the Editor.
• The journal encompasses a wide range of topics within the biological sciences, reflecting the diversity and interdisciplinary nature of the field. Areas of focus include, but are not limited to, agriculture, anatomy & morphology, behavioral sciences, biochemistry & molecular biology, biodiversity & conservation, biotechnology & applied microbiology, cell biology, environmental sciences & ecology, genetics & heredity, marine & freshwater biology, microbiology, mycology, physiology, plant sciences, virology and zoology. The journal welcomes original research and reviews that contribute to the advancement of knowledge across these and related domains.
• The target audience of our journal consists of academicians, researchers, experts, professionals and students studying at the undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and specialty level who are interested in the fields in which articles are accepted.
• Original manuscripts, which have not been published anywhere else before and are not under evaluation in another journal, and whose content and submission have been approved by each author are accepted for evaluation.
• The manuscripts submitted to our journal are evaluated by at least two independent reviewers within the scope of unilateral blind review. In order for the manuscripts submitted to our journal to be published, at least two referees must give a publishable decision. If one referee gives a positive opinion and one referee gives a negative opinion, the article is sent to a third referee. The final decision on the manuscripts submitted to our journal is made by the editor-in-chief. The decision of the editor-in-chief is final.
• Our journal is an open access journal. Based on the principle of dissemination of knowledge, it provides free access to all articles, including archives. The copyright of the works published in our journal belongs to the authors and is published as open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
• Articles published in our journal are digitally archived in DSpace and LOCKSS In addition, published articles can be accessed by the author in the institutional archive of the university where the author works, in thematic archives or in any other archive without an embargo period. Thus, anyone can immediately access this publication free of charge. Articles published in our journal can be accessed free of charge at https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/communc/archive.

Special Issue Policy
With the decision of the Editorial Board, a special issue may be published once a year. For articles to be published in the special issue, the publication and evaluation principles are applied as applied in the planned issues.

Price Policy
Article submission, evaluation and publication processes in our journal are completely free of charge. No fee is charged for articles submitted or accepted for publication. In accordance with our publication policy, sponsorship and advertising are not accepted and all expenses of our journal are covered by the publisher.