Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement :

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences journal is committed to the highest standards of publication ethics, integrity, and transparency in all editorial and publishing processes. The journal adheres to the following internationally recognized guidelines:

• COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)
• ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)
• WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) 
• Declaration of Helsinki (for human studies)

All submissions must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Each manuscript is reviewed by one of the editors and at least two referees under a double-blind peer review process. 
We reserve the right to use plagiarism-detecting software to screen submitted papers at all times. The journal may screen submissions for plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, and other forms of research or publication misconduct.
The journal also evaluates allegations of misconduct identified after publication and takes appropriate action in accordance with COPE guidance.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

• Submitted manuscripts must be original, not previously published, and not under review elsewhere.
• All references must be accurately cited; plagiarism in any form is strictly prohibited.
• Any potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed.
• All listed authors must have made significant contributions to the manuscript and take public responsibility for its content.
• Studies involving human participants must have obtained ethics committee approval and informed consent; these must be stated in the manuscript.
• Studies involving animals must adhere to national/international animal welfare regulations.
• Authors are required to submit their roles in the research according to the CRediT Taxonomy.
• Data falsification, fabrication, or manipulation is strictly prohibited. If such misconduct is identified, the manuscript may be rejected or withdrawn from consideration. When appropriate, the authors’ institutions or relevant authorities may be notified.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

• Editors evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors.  Editors evaluate manuscripts based on scientific quality and ethical compliance without any bias.
• The editorial process is conducted transparently and fairly. Editors ensure that manuscripts are evaluated through a fair, confidential, unbiased, and timely peer-review process. They ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the content they submit. However, the editors are responsible for ensuring that all manuscripts are evaluated through a fair, confidential, unbiased, and ethically sound editorial and peer-review process.
• Editors may issue retractions, corrections, or expressions of concern where necessary.
• Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief has overall responsibility for the editorial process, including reviewer assignment and final publication decisions, while ensuring that conflicts of interest are appropriately managed.
• Aiming to establish ethical assurance in scientific periodicals, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences journal adopts the principles of the "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

3. Responsibilities of 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.
• Reviewers must provide objective, constructive, and timely feedback.
• Reviewers 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. Moreover, if a reviewer detects unethical conduct or significant flaws, they should notify the editor.
• If a reviewer has a conflict of interest, they must decline the review.
• Reviewers should identify the relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. 
• Please review the COPE publication ethics guidelines on:

http://publicationethics.org/files/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf

4. Publisher's Responsibility

• The publisher ensures an independent, ethical publishing environment.
• All content is permanently archived and made accessible through open access and DOI systems.
• Backup and preservation policies are in place to protect published content.

5. Ethical Misconduct Handling

• Plagiarism, duplicate submission, data fabrication, ghost authorship, and lack of ethical approval are considered serious ethical violations.
• Upon detection, actions are taken based on COPE guidelines, including retraction or correction, and notifying the authors’ institutions if necessary.

6. Misconduct Reporting Process

If any ethical misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, ghost authorship, duplicate publication, lack of ethical approval) is identified or reported in a submitted or published article, the journal follows the steps below:

Notification:

• Ethical concerns can be reported to the editorial team by editors, reviewers, readers, institutions, or third parties.
• Notifications should be sent via muhammedtayyib.kadak@iuc.edu.tr

Preliminary Evaluation:

• The editorial board assesses the validity and seriousness of the concern.
• Authors may be asked to respond to the allegations.

Formal Investigation:

• Actions are taken in accordance with the COPE Flowcharts.
• If needed, ethical committees, institutional authorities, or independent experts are consulted.

Decision and Action:

• If misconduct is confirmed, the editorial board may decide to: reject the manuscript, issue a retraction, publish a correction, or release an expression of concern.
• When applicable, the author’s institution may be officially informed.

7. Retraction Policy

An article may be retracted if:

• It contains a serious scientific error.
• Plagiarism, data fabrication, or ethical approval violation is detected.
• Author contribution manipulation is proven.
• The article is published in more than one journal (duplicate publication).
• Legal requirements (e.g., court order) necessitate retraction.

The retraction process includes:

• Adding a clear "Retracted" watermark to the article PDF and title.
• Publishing a formal retraction notice explaining the reason.
• The DOI remains active but is marked as “Retracted”.
• The article stays accessible for the record with a retraction statement attached.

8. Complaints and Appeals

The journal considers complaints and appeals concerning editorial decisions, peer-review procedures, publication ethics, and published content in a fair, objective, and timely manner. Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision must submit a reasoned written request to the editorial office, clearly explaining the grounds for appeal and providing a detailed response to the editorial and reviewer comments where applicable.

Appeals are evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief or by an independent editor who was not involved in the original decision. Additional expert opinion may be sought when necessary. The outcome of the appeal is considered final.

Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, ethical concerns, or journal policies may be submitted to the editorial office. All complaints are handled confidentially and in accordance with COPE guidance.

9. Manuscripts Submitted by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, associate editors, editorial board members, or journal staff are handled in a manner that ensures editorial independence and prevents conflicts of interest. Such manuscripts are assigned to an independent editor who has no conflict of interest with the authors.

The submitting editor or editorial board member is excluded from all stages of the editorial evaluation, peer-review process, and final decision-making for that manuscript. These submissions undergo the same peer-review and ethical evaluation procedures as all other manuscripts.

10. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

The journal supports transparency, reproducibility, and responsible data sharing in scientific research. Authors are encouraged to make the data, materials, protocols, and analytical methods underlying their findings available whenever ethically and legally possible.

For original research articles, authors may be required to provide a data availability statement. If the data cannot be shared due to ethical, legal, privacy, consent, institutional, or other restrictions, the reason should be clearly stated in the manuscript.

The journal encourages the use of recognized public repositories where appropriate and expects authors to retain the underlying data for a reasonable period after publication.

11. Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Generative artificial intelligence tools and large language models cannot be listed as authors, as they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, or ethical compliance of the work.

Authors must disclose the use of AI-assisted tools in the preparation of manuscripts, including writing, editing, translation, data analysis, image generation, or other content creation, where applicable. Authors remain fully responsible for the entire content of the submitted manuscript, including any material generated or edited with the assistance of AI tools.

Reviewers and editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts, figures, tables, supplementary files, or confidential editorial correspondence to publicly available AI tools unless confidentiality, privacy, and data protection are fully ensured.

12. Corrections, Erratum, Corrigendum, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and accuracy of the scholarly record. When necessary, the journal may publish corrections, errata, corrigenda, expressions of concern, or retraction notices.

A correction may be published when an error is identified that affects the accuracy, interpretation, indexing, or metadata of an article but does not invalidate the overall findings.

An erratum may be published when an error introduced during the editorial or production process is identified after publication.

A corrigendum may be published when an error made by the authors is identified after publication and requires formal correction, provided that the error does not invalidate the main findings or conclusions of the article.

An expression of concern may be issued when serious concerns have been raised about the integrity or reliability of a published article and an investigation is ongoing or inconclusive.

A retraction may be issued in cases of unreliable findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, unethical research, serious methodological error, or other forms of major misconduct. Retraction notices remain linked to the original article and clearly state the reason for retraction. The original article remains accessible as part of the scholarly record and is clearly marked as retracted.

13. Special Issues and Supplements

Special issues and supplements, when published, are subject to the same editorial standards, peer-review procedures, conflict of interest requirements, and publication ethics policies as regular issues.

Guest editors, if appointed, must disclose any conflicts of interest and must follow the journal’s editorial and ethical policies. The Editor-in-Chief retains final responsibility for all content published in special issues and supplements.

Any sponsorship or funding related to special issues or supplements will be clearly disclosed.