Publications Ethics

The Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board, and publisher of the Anatolian Journal of Educational Leadership and Instruction (AJELI) believe that strict ethical guidelines must be respected and upheld across all academic publishing, and that the ownership of intellectual property must be fully recognized. AJELI is deeply committed to safeguarding the integrity of the research we publish. Because the value of scholarly literature depends entirely on the ethical conduct of its stakeholders, we encourage our authors, reviewers, and editors to refer closely to the resources provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

AJELI strictly aligns its policies with COPE’s Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. guarantee long-term digital preservation, in the eventualities that the journal ceases publication or the primary website becomes unavailable, all published articles will remain permanently accessible via the CLOCKSS open-access archiving network.

To maintain these rigorous standards, AJELI is committed to:
• Editorial Independence: Ensuring the absolute independence of journal editors in all peer-review and acceptance decisions.
• Ethical Management: Supporting our editorial team in managing volumes with complete transparency and in line with international best practices.
• Academic Integrity: Maintaining a transparent academic record by promptly publishing corrections, clarifications, errata, and formal retractions whenever necessary.

Statement on Diversity and Equity
As a journal, The Anatolian Journal of Educational Leadership and Instruction (AJELI), as a founding principle of ethics, supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly in the representation of minority groups. We are committed to representing all peoples with fairness, dignity and respect, regardless of age, health or disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and parental responsibility, race, ethnicity, religion and belief, social class, caste, or sexual orientation (or any other form of cultural or social axis of potential discrimination). In general, as academic publishers, we support the right to self-expression and freedom of speech, and we believe it is necessary and important to engage with difficult topics, which may , in some cases may cause offense to social or cultural groups. We also recognize and acknowledge that, as a journal involved in developmental and societal debates, some content may occasionally prove to offend members of the public. We strongly support the principle of supporting minority voices, particularly those who have been traditionally excluded from academic fora. As a journal, we strive to be anti-censorship and support the principles of open and honest debate within an academic context; nevertheless, we will also aim to avoid causing unnecessary hurt or harm to minority social groups or cultures, particularly in the use of stereotyped or demeaning, reductive representations (whether in image or words). Authors should take care when publishing images of objects or subjects that might have cultural significance, which potentially could cause offense. The Chief Editor on behalf of the Editorial Board and AJELI, reserves the right to refuse articles that may cause offense or hurt and/or are perceived to be violations of human dignity.

Conflicts of interest
The scientific reliability of the published articles is important, and thus any conflict of interest on the side of the author, peer-reviewer or the editors should be declared and avoided. These conflicts of interest can be on the personal, financial, political, academic or religious level. Authors, peer-reviewers or editors should, whenever these are relevant to the content being considered or published, declare their interests and affiliations, so that the appropriate measures can be taken by the Chief Editor on behalf of the Editorial Board. If necessary and in exceptional circumstances, a qualifying statement can be made in the journal that a specific person has a personal, financial, political, academic or religious conflict of interest with the topic.
Where there is a declared conflict of interest, alternative peer reviewers will be sought. Authors can also be prevented to publish their article in the journal if there is a clear conflict of interest. The existence of a conflict of interest should however not prevent someone of being included in the list of authors, if they qualify for authorship.

Funding
Readers should know who funded the research project or the publication of a document. This can be public or private funding through a charity or government department, university or commercial company. And so:
• Funders of a paper, in the form of persons, organizations, research institutions, companies or any other form should be mentioned.
• The role of the research funders or any other research contributors in the design or preparation of the article should be mentioned, if they are not mentioned in the list of authors. They can, for example, be mentioned in acknowledgment.
• If a funder wants to publish a supplement or separate section in an alternative publication within 2 years of publication in The Anatolian Journal of Educational Leadership and Instruction (AJELI), they should ask for the permission of Zenith Learning. Applications will be handled on a case by case basis.

Authors
All contributors and their sources have to be properly acknowledged in the article’s publication according to guidelines. Authors of research papers should state whether they had complete access to the research data that supports the article and if not, they should state this in the article.
When the article is written by a group of authors, the individual authors who have direct responsibility for the manuscript should be mentioned. When a group author manuscript is submitted, the corresponding author should indicate the preferred citation or acronym of the group name as well the names of the individual authors.
COPE also provides extensive resources on authorship and authorship disputes, and we encourage anyone involved in editorial decisions to familiarize themselves with these resources.

Confidentiality
It is important that authors and peer-reviewers handle all information carefully and that informants and research subjects are protected in respect of confidentiality.
Across the scholarly disciplines, there are variations in practice and standards around privacy and confidentiality. In educational sciences, written consent of subjects or their parents/caretakers is important. This must be obtained where relevant, such as in questionnaire, observation or intervention studies, and must be available for the journal to see if requested. Authors should strive to treat the privacy of research subjects with as much care as possible and anonymize the data unless otherwise requested by the participant.
The journal's policy requires that authors who discuss a clinical trial, demonstrate that the clinical trial is registered in a publicly accessible database. Authors should include the name of the trial register and their clinical trial registration number at the end of their abstract. If you wish the editor[s] to consider an unregistered trial, please explain briefly why the trial has not been registered.

Data Integrity
• Accuracy: Data presented in the manuscript must be accurate, complete, and free from manipulation or falsification.
• Transparency: Authors must provide sufficient details about their methods and results to enable reproducibility by other researchers.
• Data Retention: Authors may be asked to provide raw data during the review process and should retain such data for a reasonable period after publication.

Ethical Research Practices
• Compliance with Ethical Standards: Research involving human or animal subjects must comply with relevant ethical guidelines, including obtaining approval from institutional ethics committees.
• Informed Consent: Authors must ensure that informed consent has been obtained from all participants, and this should be stated in the manuscript.
• Respect for Privacy: Identifiable personal information about participants must not be disclosed unless explicitly approved.

Research Involving Vulnerable Populations
Research involving vulnerable populations—such as children and minors, students, individuals with disabilities, economically or socially disadvantaged groups, refugees or migrants, or other individuals with limited autonomy—requires special ethical consideration. Authors must ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect the rights, dignity, and welfare of participants.
Where applicable, authors must confirm that the study received approval from a recognized Institutional Review Board (IRB), Ethics Committee, or equivalent body, and that informed consent was obtained from participants or from parents or legal guardians when participants are minors. Participation must be voluntary, and participants must be informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time without consequences.
Authors must ensure that research procedures minimize potential harm and protect the privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity of participants. Manuscripts that fail to demonstrate appropriate ethical consideration for vulnerable populations may be rejected during editorial review.

Citation manipulation policy
AJELI takes very seriously any attempts made by Journal Editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, Reviewers and Authors to distort the published record. AJELI will take necessary actions, in line with the guidance issued by COPE to correct the record, when it becomes aware of any activities related to manipulation or stacking of citations during submission screening or peer-review.
Excessive self-citation, unnecessary or gift-citations as well as other attempts to manipulate citations activity is a breach of publication ethics.
Suspected citation manipulation by the authors may result in the submission being rejected and the authors will be reported to their institutions. Reviewers, Guest Editors and Editorial Board members using their position on a journal to coerce authors into citing their publications will be removed from the peer-review or decision-making process. Authors are encouraged to report such requests or attempts by peer-reviewers to AJELI.

Special Issue Policy
Anatolian Journal of Educational Leadership and Instruction follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in relation to editorial independence, special issues, guest editorial responsibilities, peer-review integrity, conflicts of interest, and publication ethics.
AJELI follows may publish special issues devoted to significant, emerging, or interdisciplinary topics that fall within the journal’s aims and scope. A special issue may be proposed by members of the Editorial Board, prospective Guest Editors, scholarly organizations, or other qualified researchers.
All special-issue proposals must be reviewed and formally approved by the Editor-in-Chief before a call for papers is announced. Proposals should include:
• the proposed title and rationale for the special issue;
• its relevance to the journal’s aims and scope;
• the names, affiliations, qualifications, and brief biographies of the proposed Guest Editors;
• a preliminary list of topics or potential contributions;
• the proposed submission and publication schedule; and
• a plan for promoting the call for papers to an international scholarly audience.
Approval of a special-issue proposal does not guarantee the acceptance or publication of any manuscript.

Peer Review and Editorial Oversight
Manuscripts submitted to a special issue must meet the same academic, ethical, and editorial standards as manuscripts submitted to regular issues. All submissions undergo:
1. an initial editorial screening for relevance, originality, scholarly quality, ethical compliance, and adherence to the journal’s submission requirements;
2. plagiarism and similarity screening where appropriate;
3. double-blind peer review by at least two independent experts in the relevant field;
4. revision, when required, in response to the reviewers’ and editors’ comments; and
5. a final editorial decision based on the manuscript’s quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field.
Special-issue manuscripts are not accepted solely because they were invited or because they form part of an approved collection. The journal reserves the right to reject any manuscript that does not meet its scholarly or ethical standards.
Guest Editors may coordinate the review process and make recommendations; however, the Editor-in-Chief retains oversight of the entire special issue and has final responsibility for all publication decisions. The Editor-in-Chief may request additional reviews, appoint an independent editor, reject a recommended manuscript, or discontinue a special issue when necessary to protect the journal’s standards and integrity.

Conflicts of Interest
Guest Editors must disclose any personal, professional, institutional, financial, or academic relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their editorial judgment.
A Guest Editor must not manage the peer review of:
• their own manuscript;
• a manuscript authored by a close collaborator, student, supervisor, colleague, family member, or institutional associate where a conflict exists;
• a manuscript in which they have a financial, professional, or personal interest; or
• any submission for which their impartiality could reasonably be questioned.
Such manuscripts will be assigned to the Editor-in-Chief or another independent editor who has no relevant conflict of interest. The Guest Editor will have no access to reviewer identities, reviewer reports, editorial discussions, or the decision-making process for that submission.
The number of articles authored by Guest Editors or members of the journal’s Editorial Board in a special issue must remain limited and must not compromise the independence or credibility of the collection.

Transparency and Publication
Published special issues will clearly identify:
• the title and theme of the special issue;
• the names and affiliations of the Guest Editors;
• the editorial oversight arrangements;
• the origin of the special issue, where relevant; and
• any funding, sponsorship, or competing interests associated with the collection.
Commercial sponsorship, institutional support, or external funding will not influence peer review or editorial decisions. Any relevant support must be transparently disclosed.
The journal may cancel, postpone, restructure, or convert a proposed special issue into a regular collection if submission numbers, manuscript quality, ethical concerns, missed deadlines, or editorial circumstances prevent the issue from meeting the journal’s standards.

Guest Editor Policy
Guest Editors are appointed to provide scholarly expertise and assist in developing and coordinating an approved special issue. They must be recognized researchers with relevant subject expertise, an appropriate publication record, and experience in scholarly peer review or editorial work.
The appointment of Guest Editors is subject to approval by the Editor-in-Chief. The journal may request a curriculum vitae, publication record, institutional profile, ORCID identifier, conflict-of-interest declaration, or other information before confirming an appointment.

Responsibilities of Guest Editors
Guest Editors are expected to:
• develop the intellectual focus and rationale of the special issue;
• prepare the call for papers in collaboration with the journal;
• ensure that the proposed topic aligns with the journal’s aims and scope;
• promote the call fairly and internationally without guaranteeing acceptance;
• conduct an initial assessment of submissions when authorized by the Editor-in-Chief;
• recommend suitably qualified and independent reviewers;
• ensure that manuscripts receive rigorous and timely double-blind peer review;
• evaluate authors’ revisions and reviewer reports objectively;
• provide evidence-based editorial recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief;
• monitor deadlines and communicate appropriately with authors, reviewers, and the journal office;
• protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and peer-review records;
• disclose and appropriately manage all competing interests;
• report suspected plagiarism, duplicate submission, fabricated data, manipulated citations, unethical research, or other misconduct;
• ensure that invited and unsolicited submissions are evaluated according to the same standards;
• propose the final order of accepted articles; and
• prepare an editorial introduction summarizing the special issue, when requested.

Limitations of the Guest Editor Role
Guest Editors may recommend editorial decisions but do not have independent authority to guarantee publication or make an unreviewable final acceptance decision. Final decisions remain with the Editor-in-Chief or an authorized independent editor.
Guest Editors must not:
• guarantee acceptance to prospective authors;
• bypass or weaken the journal’s peer-review procedures;
• select reviewers who have inappropriate relationships with the authors;
• pressure authors to cite the Guest Editors, the journal, or unrelated publications;
• manipulate citations or journal metrics;
• use unpublished manuscripts or confidential information for personal advantage;
• allow commercial, political, institutional, or personal considerations to influence decisions;
• require authors to include irrelevant citations;
• manage manuscripts for which they have a conflict of interest; or
• interfere with an independent editorial decision.
Guest Editors must not upload submitted manuscripts to unauthorized third-party platforms or generative artificial intelligence tools. They must comply with the journal’s confidentiality, peer-review, research-integrity, and artificial-intelligence policies.

Manuscripts Authored by Guest Editors
Guest Editors may submit manuscripts to their special issue only when such submissions are academically justified and remain limited in number. Their manuscripts will be handled independently by the Editor-in-Chief or another qualified editor without a conflict of interest.
Guest Editors will not participate in selecting reviewers, viewing confidential reports, recommending decisions, or making final decisions concerning their own manuscripts.

Removal or Replacement of a Guest Editor
The Editor-in-Chief and publisher may remove or replace a Guest Editor when there is:
• failure to follow the journal’s editorial or ethical policies;
• unmanaged conflict of interest;
• breach of confidentiality;
• inappropriate interference with peer review;
• excessive delay or failure to meet agreed deadlines;
• citation manipulation or coercive citation practices;
• discriminatory, abusive, or unprofessional conduct;
• suspected research or publication misconduct; or
• any conduct that may compromise the credibility of the journal or special issue.
When a Guest Editor is removed or becomes unable to continue, the Editor-in-Chief may appoint a replacement, assume direct responsibility for the issue, revise its timetable, or discontinue the special issue.

Editorial Independence
The American Journal of Qualitative Research follows is committed to editorial independence, academic freedom, impartial peer review, and transparent decision-making.
All editorial decisions are based exclusively on the scholarly merit, originality, methodological rigor, clarity, ethical integrity, relevance, and contribution of the submitted work. Decisions are made without discrimination based on an author’s nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, institutional affiliation, career status, political views, disability, or other personal characteristics unrelated to the scholarly quality of the manuscript.

Authority for Editorial Decisions
The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility and authority for decisions concerning:
• whether a manuscript is sent for peer review;
• the selection or approval of reviewers;
• requests for revision;
• acceptance or rejection;
• the appointment and supervision of Guest Editors;
• corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or withdrawals; and
• the resolution of appeals, complaints, and publication-ethics concerns.
Associate Editors, Section Editors, and Guest Editors may manage submissions and make recommendations within their assigned responsibilities. However, the Editor-in-Chief may review, modify, or overrule a recommendation when necessary to maintain scholarly quality, procedural fairness, or publication integrity.

Media Relations
Some scientific findings are in the interest of community, mainstream, and social media. So, publishers, editors and writers can contact the media or publish findings on social media. While doing this they will give precise information, fair summary of work and exact findings to the media to prevent speculation. Publishers will also inform authors if journalists are invited to a meeting.

Advertising
Advertising may be an important source of revenue for many scientific publications.
On our online academic content platform, the publisher may allow for restricted, suitable, and occasionally targeted advertising. We have the right to refuse or delete any advertisement that we believe violates the ethical issues or influences editors, authors, and the public in a decisive way or violates any code of ethics.
In this direction we are careful that editorial procedures should not be affected by ad income: editorial and marketing management should be completely separated.
Misleading advertisements will be rejected, and editors must be prepared to publish comments that meet the same standards as the rest of the journal's content.