Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statements

As a double blind peer reviewed journal, one of The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology [TOJET] priorities is to ensure high standards of publishing. Publication ethics and publication malpractice statement are an important concern. Therefore, editors, peer-reviewers, and authors should pay great attention to meet the ethical standards. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology is committed to keeping the integrity of the research papers we publish. The value of academic publishing depends on every person involved behaving ethically. Ethical duties and responsibilities are written in the light of the guides made by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Retrieved from:  https://publicationethics.org/about/what-we-do/our-story/why-code-conduct-journal-editors-was-replaced-core-practices

Authors’ Responsibilities:

Authors who want to submit their manuscripts to TOJET:

• must ensure that they pay attention to a variety of responsibilities including reporting standards, data access and retention, originality and plagiarism, multiple, redundant or concurrent publication, acknowledgement of sources, authorship of the paper, hazards and human or animal subjects, disclosure and conflicts of interest, fundamental errors in published works.

• must confirm that their manuscripts have not been formerly submitted or published in other journals. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously is an unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

• must ensure the originality of the manuscripts and all others’ works have to be properly cited according to TOJET’s references format. All authors must ensure that they have cited published works that have been used in determining the nature of the submitted work.

• must ensure that all people who have made a significant contribution to the submitted manuscript are inclusive and acknowledged. The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

• must ensure that if the work involves chemicals, human subject approvals, or animals, it must be clearly identified and clarified in the submitted manuscript.

• must ensure that they have disclosed any financial or other substantive conflict of interest in their submitted manuscript that might be construed to affect the results of their manuscript.

• The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual should be used in formatting the document to be submitted.  Information can be found at the following websites:

o    https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

o    https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

o    https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format

Chatbot/Generative AI Use Policy:

        TOJET contends that all authors of a submitted manuscript are responsible and will be held accountable for all of the content of the submitted manuscript, including but not limited to graphics, text, data sets, analysis of results, generated graphics, and         manuscripts published and unpublished. The use of chatbots/Generative AI tools must have human oversight and control to maintain a high level of critical thinking and expertise in the journal. It is expected that all authors read the following and make         necessary changes to meet the Chat/Generative AI Use Policy of TOJET.

1.     Chatbots and any generative AI software cannot be an author or co-author.

2.     Author’s and co-authors must acknowledge where a chatbot or generative AI has been used in development of graphics, content, methods, etc.  This includes acknowledging writing assistance and providing in the Methods section detailed information about how the study was conducted and the results generated. An Acknowledgment statement at the end of the manuscript is required when a chatbot/Generative AI is used to draft new text including all prompts used to generate the new text or to convert text or text prompts into tables or illustrations (e.g., analytical work, reporting results tables and figures, coding). The acknowledgment should appear at the end of the manuscript with citations and references to be indicated within the manuscript where the chatbot/Generative AI information occurs.  Follow the Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition for citation and reference formatting.

3.     No content can be uploaded to a Chatbot/Generative AI that infringes on the author’s or TOJET’s intellectual property.

4.     The author must verify the accuracy, impartial of cultural references, and authenticity (not plagiarized) of all content returned by the chatbot/Generative AI from submitted prompts for content development of a manuscript.

5.     Author must make sure that the use of chatbot/Generative AI is transparent to the TOJET reviewers and readers of the manuscript submitted for review. TOJET will use AI identification software to screen each manuscript.

6.     Members of TOJET taking part in the review of submitted journal articles as well as the Editor-in-Chief and Editors must make clear any use of AI in corresponding with authors.

7.     It is critical that the manuscript submitted by the author represents and original contribution with all chatbot/Generative AI use exposed to the public at submission.

TOJET wishes to acknowledge the use of information from the following two websites in the development of this Chatbot/Generative AI Use Policy. These two cites may provide additional clarification on the use of Chatbots and Generative AI in manuscript preparation and are certainly worthy of a review by authors planning to submit to any journal.

·        Elsevier: (April 19, 2026). The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the review process. Retrieved from https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/the-use-of-generative-ai-and-ai-assisted-technologies-in-writing-for-elsevier.

·        WAME: (April 19, 2026). Chatbots, Generative AI, and Scholarly Manuscript. Retrieved from https://wame.org/page3.php?id=106.

TOJET’s Editor’s responsibilities for Publication decisions:

TOJET’s editor is in charge of determining manuscripts submitted to the journal that will be published without looking at authors’ backgrounds such as race, gender, country, religion. TOJET’s editor will decide based on the manuscript’s significance, uniqueness, and relevance to the scope of TOJET. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology with the help of its editors takes plagiarism extremely seriously. Our authors are cautioned against this. TOJET with the help of its editors/reviewers will not accept research articles or manuscripts submitted for publication elsewhere.

Confidentiality: 

TOJET’s editor and all editorial members have to keep any information related to authors and submitted manuscripts confidential and must not share such information with anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and publisher.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest:

Rejected manuscripts, papers, or articles and their materials submitted to TOJET are not allowed to be used by TOJET’s editor and/or any editorial members for their own interests and purposes. All will be archived in the system confidentially.

Reviewers' responsibilities for helping TOJET’s editorial decisions:

Research articles or Manuscripts submitted to TOJET are initially reviewed by the editors for general fit with the TOJET focus and scope and for the writing quality. Only those research articles meeting the TOJET focus, and scope will be sent to reviewers for a double blind review. Review time is typically 4-6 months.

Confidentiality: 

The function of the peer-reviewing process is to help TOJET’s editor and its members to make decisions through reviewer’s professional, scientific, and objective arguments on the reviewed manuscript. All reviewers must treat all manuscripts confidentially and must not discuss about with others without an authorization from the TOJET’s editor. Reviewers must do their review processes objectively using the review form provided to reviewers by TOJET. Personal reviews and blame to the author of manuscript are extreme and seriously not allowed. All reviews must be supported by professional, scientific, and objective arguments.

Detecting plagiarism:

Another function of the peer-reviewing process is to help TOJET’s editor and its members to identify others’ work that has not been cited using in-text reference and in the reference section. TOJET’s reviewers have to make sure that the authors of manuscript being reviewed provide appropriate sources. When TOJET’s reviewers find the manuscript being reviewed similar to other published manuscript, they must inform TOJET’s editor as soon as possible as the TOJET takes plagiarism extremely seriously. Our authors are cautioned against this. TOJET uses the software “iThenticate” to review all submissions for plagiarism.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: 

TOJET’s reviewers must not use confidential information obtained from reviewing any manuscripts for personal purposes. They must keep all information confidential. TOJET’s reviewers must NOT review any manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest due to their relationships with the authors of the reviewed manuscripts. They must inform the editor as soon as possible if they find the case.