Ethical Statement

Online Journal of Art and Design has the commitment to maintain the highest standards of publication ethics. It is committed to objective and fair double-blind peer-review of submitted work considering their scientific and intellectual value only without any regard to race, ethnicity, gender, citizenship or religion. The work reported in the articles must be undertaken in an ethical manner. Authors must submit their manuscripts for publication as their original work and declare that the submitted work has not been copied or plagiarized from other sources.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Online Journal of Art and Design is a double-blind peer reviewed journal. All the parties that involve in the act of publishing an article for this journal such as the editors, the authors, the reviewers and the publisher must comply with the ethical rules and follow the ethical behaviors indicated in the COPE's Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. In order to warrant high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive appropriate and sufficient credits for their ideas, the ethical standards for publication are followed. In this context, the following are the ethical standards and policies set for Online Journal of Art and Design.

Duties/Responsibilities of Authors

· All manuscripts must be previously unpublished and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submission of a manuscript concurrently to more than one journal or publishing the same work again is an unethical behavior and unacceptable.

· All manuscripts must be the original work of authors and not plagiarism. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes an unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Therefore, a zero tolerance approach will be taken to plagiarized manuscripts.

· Authorship of a manuscript should be limited to authors who have made significant contributions.

Only persons who meet the following authorship criteria should be listed as authors in the manuscript as they must be able to take public responsibility for the content: (a) made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, and analysis/interpretation of the study; (b) drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and (c) have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

· All persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical help, editing assistance, translations, general support) but who do not meet the criteria for authorship must not be listed as an author; they should be acknowledged in the appropriate section of the manuscript.

· The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate coauthors (according to the above definition) are included in the author list and verify that all coauthors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

· Authors must properly and accurately acknowledge the work of others. Information obtained privately through conversation or correspondence must not be used or reported without written permission from the sources.

· Authors should disclose any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript and acknowledge individuals or organizations that have provided financial support for research reported in the manuscript.

· Authors of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed and the results obtained, followed by an objective discussion of the significance of their work. The manuscript should contain sufficient details and references to permit others to replicate the work when needed. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviors and are unacceptable.

· Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with manuscripts for editorial review, and should prepare to provide public access to such data if possible.

· Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and cooperate fully by responding promptly to editors’ requests. In the case of a decision of "revisions necessary", authors should respond to the reviewers’ comments systematically, point by point, and in a timely manner.

· If the work submitted involves materials, equipment or procedures that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript. If the work involves the use of animals or human participants, the authors should ensure that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines.

· When authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editors and cooperate with them to either correct the article in the form of an erratum or to retract it. If the editors or publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error or inaccuracy, then it is the authors’ obligation to promptly correct or retract the article or provide evidence to the editors of the correctness of their work.

Duties/Responsibilities of Editors

· Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the entire editorial content of the journal and the timing of publication of that content. 

· Editors evaluate submitted manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their academic merit and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy or institutional affiliation.

· The journal utilizes a double blind peer review process. Editors ensure the integrity of the publication review process by not revealing either the identity of authors of manuscripts to the reviewers, or the identity of reviewers to the authors.

· Editors receive all manuscripts for review in confidence and do not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, assigned reviewers, editorial advisors, and the publisher.

· Privileged information or ideas obtained by editors and editorial board members as a result of handling the manuscript will be kept confidential and not used for their personal advantage.

· The Editor-in-Chief or the assigned members of the editorial board shall conduct proper and fair investigation into ethical complaints.

· The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal will be published based on the journal policies reflecting scientific rigor and legal requirements.

Duties/Responsibility of Reviewers

· Any invited referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should immediately notify the editors and decline the invitation to review so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

· Reviewers keep all information regarding manuscripts confidential and treat them as privileged information. This applies also to invited reviewers who decline the review invitation.

· Reviewers conduct their business of review objectively, with no personal criticism of the author.

· Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments that will constructively guide the editorial decision by the Editor-in-Chief.

· Reviewers should complete their reviews within the journal stipulated timeframe.

· Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships/connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

· Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited.

· A reviewer should notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other work (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.

Duties/Responsibilities of the Publisher

· In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question.

· The publisher will be fully committed to the permanent availability and preservation of scholarly research and ensures accessibility by partnering with organizations and maintaining the digital archives of the journal.

Plagiarism and Malpractice Policy

· By submitting a manuscript to Online Journal of Art and Design, authors confirm that: (a) They understand that plagiarism is against the professional ethics; (b) No copyrighted materials have been used in their manuscript without proper permission; (c) Their manuscript is free from plagiarism and has not been published previously; and (d) They will take the full responsibility for the opinion expressed in the manuscript and for settling in all disputes arising from using any copyrighted materials in the manuscript without appropriate permission.

· Editors will take responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised with regard to a submitted manuscript or published article. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior will be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.

· Authors will be required to clarify the plagiarism issue in their manuscript within one week if it is found to be suspected of plagiarism during any stages even after publication. Without a timely and reasonable explanation, the manuscript will be automatically rejected and removed from the journal’s system. Any manuscript submitted by the same author –even as a coauthor- will not be considered for publication.

Copyright and Licensing

All the published articles and other contents in Online Journal of Art and Design are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) and the authors are the copyright holders of their publications or their content. The license means that the published contents can be used elsewhere by giving appropriate credits and references. The author(s) and reader(s) are free to reproduce and/or spread the published and/or electronic content in Online Journal of Art and Design, without any commercial purposes.