Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Anatomy is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and observes the following principles of Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement which is based on the recommendations and guidelines for journal editors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Council of Science Editors (CSE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
All submissions must be original, unpublished (including as full text in conference proceedings), and not under the review of any other publication synchronously. Each manuscript is reviewed by one of the editors and at least two reviewers under double-blind peer review process. We reserve the right to use plagiarism detecting software to screen submitted papers at all times. We check for plagiary and fraudulent data, falsification (fabrication or manipulation of research data, tables, or images) and improper use of humans or animals in research. All manuscripts not in accordance with these standards will be removed from the publication. This also contains any possible malpractice discovered after the publication. In accordance with the code of conduct, we will report any cases of suspected plagiarism or duplicate publishing.
We follow the COPE Ethics Flowcharts for dealing with cases of possible scientific misconduct and breach of publication ethics. For more details please visit the link http://publicationethics.org/ resources/flowcharts

Ethical Policy
Anatomy publishes articles that comply with ethical and scientific standards. The ethical, scientific, and legal responsibility for the content of the published manuscripts belongs to the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the editorial board.
Ethics committee approval is not required for every submission; however, it is mandatory for all manuscripts—whether based in Türkiye or abroad—that involve studies requiring such approval.
Research requiring ethics committee approval includes:
• All qualitative or quantitative studies involving data collection from participants through surveys, interviews, focus group studies, observations, experiments, or similar methods.
• Research involving the use of humans or animals (including materials and data) for experimental or scientific purposes.
• Clinical trials conducted on humans.
• Animal research.
• Retrospective studies conducted in accordance with personal data protection regulations.

In addition:
• Case reports must include a statement confirming that an “Informed Consent Form” was obtained. Please fill out the Patient Consent Form when necessary and upload it to the system during your submission.

• Permission must be obtained and clearly stated for the use of scales, questionnaires, photographs, or any other materials owned by third parties.

• Compliance with copyright regulations must be explicitly indicated for any intellectual or artistic content used in the manuscript.

For clarification on whether a study requires ethical approval, please refer to the ethical approval decision flowchart available at: EtikKurulOnayBelgesiSeması.pdf
For all prospective studies, including those involving experimental animals, and for retrospective studies where applicable, ethics committee approval must be obtained. Manuscript repoting the results of experimental investigations on human subjects must include a statement in the Patients and Methods section that the institutional review board has approved the study and the informed consent were obtained from patient or parentsThe authour(s) should state the accordance to the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/). Also, the experimental studies must be approved by the ethics commitee for animal use and proper ethics.
In studies where patient confidentiality is essential, identifying details and photographs must not be published without the written informed consent of the patient (or their legal guardian). A statement such as “Written informed consent was obtained from the patient (or legal guardian) for the publication of their medical data” must be included under the “Ethics Approval” section. 
For animal studies, ethics approval must be obtained from the appropriate institutional animal ethics committee in accordance with international standards. Additionally, any measures taken to minimize pain, suffering, and distress in animals must be explicitly described in the manuscript (for guidance, see: www.nap.edu/catalog/5140.html).
Manuscripts submitted to the journal must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. If the manuscript is based on a study previously presented at a conference, this must be clearly stated in the cover letter to the Editor. If the manuscript shares content with the author(s)’ previous publications, this should also be disclosed in the cover letter, and a copy of the earlier work should be uploaded alongside the current submission.

The approval number and the date of approval (day-month-year) should be clearly indicated in a separate section titled “Ethics Approval”, placed after the “Conclusion” section of the manuscript.
Individuals, institutions, or organizations contributing to the study but not meeting authorship criteria may be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgments” section.
No changes (additions, deletions, or reordering) to the author list will be permitted after final acceptance of the manuscript.


Author Responsibilities
Authors should ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions should be followed. Copyright material (e.g., tables, figures or extensive quotations) should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources should be appropriately credited and referenced.
The author(s) of the original research articles (including short communications) must declare that they were involved in at least 3 of the 5 stages of the study as "designing the study", "collecting the data", "analyzing the data", "writing the manuscript" and "confirming the accuracy of the data and the analyses". All authors should disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment. All financial contributions, supports or sponsorship of projects should be clearly explained.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author's obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
For more detailed information about Authorship and Author Responsibilities by ICMJE, please visit the link http://www.icmje. org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities

Responsibility for the Reviewers
Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. They should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments should be objective. The average time during which the reviews of manuscripts are conducted should not be more than 60 days. The average time in which the article is published aimed to be 90 days.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. They must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the Editor-in-Chief if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author's side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor-in-Chief and excuse himself from the review process.
To read the PDF document of COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers that can be found at http://publicationethics.org/files/ Peer review guidelines.pdf

Editorial Responsibilities
Editors evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. They provide a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication, and ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.
Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. They should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only she/he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in Anatomy.
To read the PDF document of COPE General Duties and Responsibilities of Editors that can be found at http://publicationethics.org/files/u2/New_Code.pdf