PUBLICATION ETHICS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
All research submitted for publication in the Journal of Nursing Effect (JNEF) must comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, as well as the ethical guidelines of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).
Peer-reviewed studies are essential components of the scientific method and contribute to the advancement of knowledge. It is therefore critical that all stakeholders in the publication process—authors, readers and researchers, publishers, reviewers, and editors—comply with ethical standards.
As part of its commitment to publication ethics, the Journal of Nursing Effect (JNEF) expects all stakeholders to fulfill the following ethical responsibilities:

LEGAL NOTICE
By signing the Copyright License Agreement, authors agree that, upon acceptance for publication, their articles will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Authors also agree to transfer copyright of the article to JNEF upon acceptance. However, authors retain the following rights:
• Patent rights or other registered rights excluding copyright,
• The right to use the article in all educational activities outside of journals and books without any fee,
• The right to reproduce the article provided it is not for commercial purposes.
The Copyright Transfer Form must be completed, signed by all authors, and uploaded to the journal’s online submission system.
All articles published in JNEF are licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which allows for use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial, and no modifications or adaptations are made. For details on the license, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
For commercial use (e.g., resale), prior permission from the copyright holder is required to protect author rights. The content may be used as references in scientific publications and presentations. For reuse beyond these terms, permission must be obtained from the editorial office.
This journal is the official publication of Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Nursing.

AUTHORS’ ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Authors submitting manuscripts to JNEF are expected to adhere to the following responsibilities:
• Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been previously published or under consideration elsewhere, either in full text or as a full-text conference paper.
• Authors must possess the rights to use the data presented in their work, and have obtained all necessary permissions for research and analysis. A signed informed consent form must be obtained from human participants. For submitted research articles, information regarding institutional permissions and ethical board approval—including the institution name, ethics approval date, and decision number—must be stated in the Methods and Acknowledgments sections. Ethics committee approval documents must be uploaded during submission.
• Research involving human participants must clearly state that informed consent was obtained. For individuals unable to consent (e.g., children or patients in a coma), informed consent must be obtained from their legal guardians.
• Manuscripts previously published abroad may be submitted to JNEF with written permission from the original publisher. If the work was presented at a congress or symposium, this must be disclosed in the cover letter.
• If financial support was provided for the submitted research, authors must disclose the name of the institution and any potential conflicts of interest.
• Authors are solely responsible for the ethical, scientific, and legal integrity of their manuscripts.
• Submissions under review elsewhere will not be accepted. Authors affirm during submission that their manuscript is not being considered by another journal. Any violation of this policy is the responsibility of the authors, and JNEF reserves the right to take necessary action.
• Submissions must be original. Any material borrowed from other works must be properly cited and/or quoted in full.
• In the acknowledgment section, the author contributions must be listed (e.g., A.B. for initials) under roles such as Concept, Design, Supervision, Data Collection and Processing, Analysis and Interpretation, Literature Search, Writing, and Critical Review. Those who do not contribute significantly to the content should not be listed as authors.
• Any potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed in the manuscript’s acknowledgment section.
• Information such as financial support, project sponsorship, or acknowledgments should also be stated in the acknowledgment section.
• Authors may be asked to provide raw data for their manuscripts during the review process and should be prepared to share this data upon request.
• If the authors identify a mistake or error in their published or submitted manuscript, they are obliged to inform the editor and cooperate in retraction or correction procedures.
• Once the review process has begun, requests to change authorship (add, remove, or reorder authors) will not be accepted.

EDITORS’ ETHICAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
General Duties and Responsibilities
Editors of JNEF are responsible for all content published in the journal. Their responsibilities include:
• Meeting the information needs of readers and authors,
• Continuously improving the journal,
• Ensuring the quality of published content,
• Supporting academic freedom and integrity,
• Maintaining ethical standards and intellectual property rights,
• Ensuring transparency and honesty in cases requiring correction or clarification.
Relationships with Readers
Editors must consider the needs and expectations of readers, researchers, and practitioners. They should ensure that published content is original and contributes to both practice and the academic field. Editors must also respond to reader feedback constructively.
Relationships with Authors
Editors must:
• Base publication decisions on the manuscript’s importance, originality, clarity, and alignment with the journal's scope,
• Advance manuscripts with no major issues to the review process,
• Not disregard positive reviewer recommendations without valid reason,
• Respect editorial decisions made by previous editors unless there are compelling reasons for revision,
• Uphold a clear and published double-blind peer review policy,
• Provide authors with informative and constructive feedback.
Relationships with Reviewers
Editors must:
• Select reviewers with appropriate expertise,
• Provide reviewers with necessary guidance and materials,
• Monitor and prevent conflicts of interest between reviewers and authors,
• Maintain reviewer anonymity in accordance with double-blind review standards,
• Encourage reviewers to offer objective and scientific feedback,
• Evaluate reviewer performance and update the reviewer database regularly,
• Prevent unprofessional or biased reviews,
• Ensure a diverse and competent pool of reviewers.
Relationships with the Editorial Board
Editors must:
• Ensure board members follow publication policies and procedures,
• Keep members informed of journal developments,
• Encourage impartial and independent manuscript reviews,
• Appoint new board members with relevant expertise and qualifications,
• Assign submissions to board members based on their specialties,
• Maintain regular communication and hold periodic editorial meetings.

Relationships with the Publisher
The relationship between editors and the publisher is based on editorial independence. All editorial decisions are made independently, as defined in written agreements between editors and the publisher.

Editorial and Peer Review Processes
Editors must enforce and monitor compliance with the journal’s double-blind peer review policy. Every submission must undergo a fair, impartial, and timely review.
Quality Assurance
Editors are responsible for ensuring that all published content complies with the journal’s policies and international publication standards.
Protection of Personal Data
Editors must protect the confidentiality of individuals (subjects, reviewers, authors) and ensure that informed consent is obtained for any personal data or identifiable content.

Ethics Committees, Human and Animal Rights
Editors are responsible for ensuring that all human and animal research meets ethical standards. Clinical or experimental research involving human subjects must include documented ethics committee approval and a statement confirming informed consent.
For animal research, adherence to national and international ethical standards is required. Approval from an ethics board must be documented, and unnecessary suffering must be avoided. In this sense, the Helsinki declaration is taken as basis. see.
Manuscripts lacking necessary ethics approval documentation will be rejected without review. Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that fail to meet these ethical standards.
Authors must confirm that their research complies with ethical guidelines, approvals, and legal regulations. Identities of individuals must be protected, and the disclosure of personal data avoided.
In the event of ethical misconduct, the editorial board will follow COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.

Ensuring Academic Publishing Integrity
Editors are responsible for ensuring the scientific integrity of each published work. In this regard, if errors in information, methodological inconsistencies, misleading comments, or elements that could lead to scientific deception are detected in articles, the editor must ensure that necessary correction actions are taken promptly, transparently, and effectively.
The editor may request the author(s) to correct these errors, and if necessary, should publish a correction, retraction, or an expression of concern to inform readers. This ensures that the principles of reliability and academic accuracy in the literature are preserved.
Furthermore, the editor is responsible for verifying the accuracy of the sources used in published works, the appropriateness of references, and whether the information is presented in the correct context. Academic publishing integrity is not only a matter of ethical principles but also a social responsibility.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Editors are responsible for ensuring that all content published in the journal complies with intellectual property rights. It is crucial to conduct necessary checks regarding originality, copyright, and ethical suitability in the published articles to protect both the author(s)' and the journal’s legal rights.
Each author must ensure that the work they submit is original and has not been published elsewhere. Editors should regularly conduct plagiarism detection using similarity scanning systems (such as iThenticate) and initiate necessary investigations for any content suspected of violations.
Intellectual property rights do not only protect authors; they also protect the rights of third parties (e.g., images, tables, data sets, or content belonging to other publishers, authors, or institutions). Therefore, editors are required to take necessary measures to ensure that submitted works do not infringe on the copyright of other publications.
In the event of a violation, editors should carefully investigate the matter, suspend the work if necessary, inform the relevant parties, and proceed according to legal processes. In addition, the journal management will take necessary actions to protect the rights of author(s) in cases where a published work is used or modified without permission.

Constructive Criticism and Openness to Discussion
Editors should:
• Take into account persuasive critiques of the works published in the journal and adopt a constructive attitude towards these criticisms.
• Provide authors with the right to respond to critiques of their work.
• Not ignore or exclude works that contain negative results.
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Complaints
Editors are responsible for carefully considering complaints received from authors, reviewers, or readers and providing clear and informative responses.
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Political and Commercial Concerns
The publisher, the journal owner, and any other political or commercial interests should not influence the independent decision-making of the editors.
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Conflicts of Interest
Editors are responsible for ensuring that the publication process is completed independently and impartially, taking into consideration potential conflicts of interest among authors, reviewers, and other editors.

Withdrawal Policy
Articles submitted to the Journal of Nursing Effect and under editorial review may only be withdrawn under specific conditions. To prevent the misuse of withdrawal requests, the following rules apply:

1. Conditions for Withdrawal Requests
If the article is to be withdrawn before the peer review process begins, a written withdrawal request, signed by all authors with justification, must be submitted to the journal.

Withdrawal requests made after the peer review process has started will only be considered if based on serious ethical, scientific, or technical reasons.

After the article has been accepted for publication, withdrawal is only possible in cases of serious scientific misconduct, such as plagiarism, data falsification, or ethical violations, and this must be documented with official reports from relevant committees.

2. Withdrawal Process
Withdrawal requests must be submitted in writing by the corresponding author, along with a signed letter from all authors, to the journal editor.

The request will be reviewed by the Editorial Board, and if deemed appropriate, the process will be initiated.

If the request is accepted, an official notification confirming the withdrawal of the article will be sent to the corresponding author, and if necessary, a public notification will be posted on the website.

3. Ethical Rules and Sanctions
If authors withdraw an article for unethical reasons, such as simultaneous submission to another journal, sanctions, including publication bans, may be applied to the involved authors.

In such cases, the author(s)’s affiliated institution(s) will be officially notified.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
The quality of publications is directly impacted by the use of "Blind Peer Review." This process ensures the objective and independent evaluation of submissions, which in turn provides reliability. JNEF operates with a double-blind peer review system, meaning reviewers and authors remain anonymous to each other. Reviewers cannot communicate directly with authors; evaluations and comments are submitted via the journal management system. In this context, reviewers evaluating work for JNEF are expected to follow these ethical responsibilities:
• Only accept to review works related to their area of expertise.
• Conduct the evaluation impartially and with confidentiality.
• If they have a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, they should decline to review the work and inform the editor.
• Reviewers should destroy the works they have reviewed after the evaluation process, following the confidentiality principle.
• They should only use the final version of the work after it is published.
• Reviewers should base their evaluation solely on the content of the work, avoiding any influence from nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political opinions, or commercial interests.
• Reviews should be conducted in a constructive and respectful manner, avoiding hostile, defamatory, or insulting personal comments.
• Reviewers should perform evaluations within the agreed timeline and adhere to the ethical responsibilities mentioned above.

Publisher’s Ethical Responsibilities
JNEF’s Editors and Editorial Board act with the awareness of the following ethical responsibilities:
• Editors are responsible for all stages of the publication process of the articles submitted to JNEF. In this context, editors are the decision-makers, free from any economic or political gain.
• Editors commit to ensuring that editorial decisions are independent.
• JNEF retains ownership and copyright of every article published and assumes the responsibility to archive every published issue.
• Editors are responsible for addressing any scientific misconduct, citation manipulation, and plagiarism related to published articles.

Reporting Unethical Situations
If you encounter any unethical behavior or content not covered by the ethical responsibilities mentioned above, please report it via email to aylin_durmaz@yahoo.com.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY
JNEF operates under an open-access policy.
Privacy Statement
• Personal information such as names and email addresses entered into the journal management system will only be used for scientific purposes related to this journal. This information will not be used for any other purpose or section, nor shared with third parties.
Archiving
• All metadata and full-text articles published in JNEF are stored in a closed-access manner in Word, XML, and PDF formats.
• Additionally, through the TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM Database, all articles are stored and made accessible in Word, XML, and PDF formats on ULAKBİM servers.

PUBLICATION POLICY
• JNEF is freely accessible and full-text can be accessed via the Dergipark Directory over the internet.
• Authors are not charged any fees for the evaluation or publication of their articles.
• Priority will be given to publishing articles related to COVID-19.
• All submitted articles undergo a double-blind peer review process, where the identities of both authors and reviewers are kept confidential. After the review process, the responsible author is notified whether their manuscript has been accepted or not.

Evaluation Process
• The evaluation process begins with the manuscript submission through the online submission system. The author team uploads the main manuscript file, Ethics Committee Approval Form (except for review articles), Institutional Consent (for case reports), and the Copyright Author Approval Form.
• Articles submitted in English undergo language editing by the language editors registered in the JNEF Dergipark page before being requested from the authors.

Author Responsibilities
• The statements and opinions expressed in JNEF are the responsibility of the author(s).
• The responsibility for ensuring that the manuscript meets the scientific language and ethical requirements of the research lies with the authors.
• If the corresponding author does not make requested technical corrections or follow the writing guidelines after being informed three times, the article will be removed from the evaluation process, and this will be communicated to the author.
• Authors are given four (4) weeks to address minor and major reviewer suggestions.
• Reviewer suggestions on the text are highlighted in different colors and the corrections made are compiled into a document before being uploaded to the system.
• Authors are not informed about the issue in which the accepted manuscript will be published.
• The publication order of accepted articles is based on the acceptance order.
• The final version of an accepted manuscript is sent to the corresponding author in PDF format for approval before being published. No changes can be made after approval.
• Authors of rejected articles are informed, and reviewer comments are included in the rejection notice.
• The article evaluation process for the journal is at least six (6) months.

Editor and Reviewer Responsibilities
• The editor rejects articles deemed unsuitable for publication without sending them to reviewers, based on the editor and section editor’s decision.
• The editor reviews the decisions made by the section editors on the articles. The decision is communicated to the section editors via the secretariat.
• Two (2) assistant editors are responsible for the scientific content and the web and archive committee.
• The term of the assistant editors is three (3) years.
• The assistant editor responsible for scientific content performs a preliminary evaluation of the articles submitted through the Dergipark system. They assess writing guidelines and provide feedback for corrections. Articles that do not meet the required standards are rejected.
• Articles with sufficient originality and meeting the submission requirements are forwarded to the relevant section editors for scientific evaluation.
• The assistant editor responsible for technical matters plans and carries out the journal’s publication process in collaboration with the editor and section editor every three (3) months.
• Section editors are responsible for tracking submissions and assigning them to reviewers via the Dergipark system. After receiving feedback from reviewers, the results of the evaluation are communicated to the author within at least six (6) months.
• Delays caused by the author in fulfilling revision requests are considered grounds for rejection.
• Each article is reviewed by three (3) independent reviewers in the relevant field. Once the article is approved by the section editor, it is forwarded to the chief editor for final approval. The final decision on publication lies with the chief editor.
• Reviewers are given four (4) weeks to respond to review invitations.
• Reviewers are given 30 days to evaluate the article. Reviewers who repeatedly fail to accept or delay evaluations for three consecutive times will be removed from the JNEF reviewer pool.
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Archiving Policy
The archives of the Journal of Nursing Effect are maintained through the "LOCKSS" system, which provides long-term preservation services.