ETHICAL POLICY

With the awareness of responsibility as a being the first Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Turkey, we consider the principles of transparency, confidentiality and accountability within the framework of ethical rules in the whole process of national and international dissemination of knowledge. We also aim to continuously improve all processes in an efficient and competitive structure with a quality-oriented approach.
We expect all authors/reviewers to read and understand our ethics policy before submitting/evaluating a manuscript. The chief goal of our policy is to provide advice for the ethical responsibilities to authors, editors and reviewers.
Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi follows the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, (https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-ethics_code-of-conduct_en.pdf). (1). Refereed articles are studies require scientific methods and they provide objectivity. All components of publication process (publisher, editors, authors, reviewers and readers) should obey ethical rules for scientific production. Within this context, the policies of ‘publication ethics’ and ‘open access’ also require all components of publication process to obey the ethical principles, in direction of guides and policies of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” and “COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors”.The authors are expected to fulfil the criterias proposed by McNutt et al.,(2018) (2). The editorial and publication processes of the journal are managed according to the regulations by Council of Higher Education (Turkey) (3).

General rules
- Original research articles, reviews, case reports and short communications on all aspects of veterinary science, which had not been previously published elsewhere in whole or in part except abstract not exceeding 250 words, are published in the journal.
- All manuscripts are checking by plagiarism checker (iThenticate) and allowing for peer-review under %25 score after filtering the references.
- The manuscript copyright release form is signed by all authors.
- Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi uses a double-blind review procedure, in which both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from each other throughout the process. The authors approve to submit their manuscript in compliance with the double-blind review policy.
- The authors are responsible for the article published in the journal.
- Studies comparing products with trade names are not the interest of this journal.
- Any materials or products used in the study should not include their trade names.
- Studies based on animal experiments should include an approval statement of the Ethical Committee in the materials and methods section.

Please take into consideration the recommendations for following ethical codes:
• Authorship
• Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism)
• Data fabrication / data falsification
• Duplicate submission
• Corrections and retractions
• Human and Animal Rights
• Conflicts of interest / Competing interests
• Intellectual property


The Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors

It is expected that the author (s) who submit the study to the Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi comply with the following ethical responsibilities:

- The works submitted by the author (s) are expected to be original.
- If the author (s) benefit from other studies or use other studies, they must cite completely and accurately.
- People who do not contribute to the content intellectually in the creation of the study should not be specified as an author.
- If the study sent for publication has situations and relations that may constitute a conflict of interest, it should be explained.
- The raw data regarding the articles can be requested from the author (s) within the framework of the evaluation processes, in such a case the author (s) must be ready to present the expected data and information to the editorial board and the scientific board.
- In the event that the author (s) notices a mistake or error related to the published, early-view or evaluation phase, there is an obligation to inform the editor of the journal or the publisher, to cooperate with the editor in correction or withdrawal.
- Authors cannot submit their work to the evaluation process of more than one journal at the same time.

Ethical Duties and Responsibilities of the Editors
The editor and field editors of the Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi should follow the the guidelines of "COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" and "COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

- Making efforts to meet the information needs of readers and authors,
- Continuous development of the journal,
- Carrying out processes to improve the quality of the works published in the journal,
- Ensuring academic integrity,
- Continuing business processes without compromising intellectual property rights and ethical standards,
- Show clarity and transparency in terms of publication on issues requiring correction and explanation.
- Editors should make a positive or negative decision based on the importance of the work including the originality, validity, clarity of expression, and the goals and objectives of the journal.
- Unless there is a serious problem for the studies that are suitable for publication, they should take the preliminary evaluation stage.
- The editors should not ignore the positive reviews of the referees unless there is a serious problem with the work.
- New editors should not change the decisions made by the previous editor (s) for the work unless there is a serious problem.
- The editor must determine the referees in accordance with the subject of the study.
- It is obliged to provide the information and guides that the referees will need during the evaluation phase.

Ethical Responsibilities of Referees
The process of evaluating the Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi is carried out with the principle of double-sided blind refereeing. Reviewers cannot communicate directly with the authors, and the reviews and comments are shared through the journal management system. In this process, the review forms and the referee comments on the full texts are sent to the author (s) through the editor. In this context, the reviewers who evaluate the study for the Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi are expected to have the following ethical responsibilities:

- The referee should only accept to evaluate work related to his area of expertise.
- The referee should evaluate the assessment in neutrality and confidentiality.
- If the referee thinks he/she is facing a conflict of interest during the evaluation process, he/she should refuse to review the study and inform the journal editor.
- The referee should make the assessment objectively only in relation to the content of the study. Nationality, gender, religious beliefs, political beliefs and commercial concerns should not affect the assessment.
- The assessment should be constructive and kindly.
- The referee should perform the evaluation on time.

If you encounter an unethical situation or content in the Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi, please report it to Vfdergi@veterinary.ankara.edu.tr


References
1. ALLEA - All European Academies (2017): European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, Revised Edition. Available at
https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-ethics_code-of-conduct_en.pdf
2. McNutt, MK, Bradford, M, Drazen, JM, et al (2018): Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115, 2557-2560.
3. YÖK - Yükseköğretim Kurulu (2018): Yükseköğretim Kurumları Bilimsel Araştırma ve Yayın Etiği Yönergesi. Available at https://www.yok.gov.tr/Sayfalar/Kurumsal/mevzuat/bilimsel-arastirma-ve-etik-yonetmeligi.aspx


JOURNAL POLICY

- There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for publication in Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi.
- The journal employs double blind reviewing. For publication of articles, two positive reports are required. It is anticipated that the publication review process of the studies submitted to Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi be completed in 6 months. However, the period during which editors or reviewers ask the author(s) to do editing and the author(s) complete the editing is not included in this time frame.
- No correction can be made in a published article.