Ethical Principles and Publication Policy

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Herbarium Turcicum is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and pays regard to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing

All submissions must be original, unpublished (including as full text in conference proceedings), and not under the review of any other publication synchronously. Each manuscript is reviewed by one of the editors and at least two referees under double-blind peer review process. Plagiarism, duplication, fraud authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, salami slicing/salami publication, breaching of copyrights, prevailing conflict of interest are unethical behaviours.

All manuscripts not in accordance with the accepted ethical standards will be removed from the publication. This contains any possible malpractice discovered after the publication.


Research Ethics
Herbarium Turcicum adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.

Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.
The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.
The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.
Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.
The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.
In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.
If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.
In studies with human subject, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained.

Research Involving Flora and Fauna

Research on wild plants, including collection of plant material must follow international principles and guidelines. The journal advises authors to comply with with the "Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and IUCN Commission Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction

In accordance with the Environmental Law and the Convention on Biodiversity, the Permit Certificate required for the collection of all kinds of biological materials (plants, animals, microorganisms, etc.) or samples containing biological materials from nature throughout Turkey obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks must be acquired. The journal recommends following these rules.

Collection of research materials from nature for scientific research for flower bulbs, whose collection, production, harvest and export from nature are subject to quota, is subject to the permission of the Ministry. The permit must be obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Plant Production (BÜGEM). To collect “Plant Genetic Resources”; Permission from BÜGEM is not sufficient. In accordance with the Environmental Law and the Convention on Biodiversity; a permit must also be obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks. In case of entering forest, national park, wetland, conservation area etc to collect “Plant Genetic Resources”; the required permit document(s) for these areas must be obtained separately. The journal recommends following these rules.

Author Responsibilities
It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. Authors must ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright material (e.g., tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.

All the authors of a submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contribution to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analysing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection or supervision of the research are not sufficient for being accepted as an author. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form.

The individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, assisting writing, providing a general support, providing material or financial support are examples to be indicated in acknowledgement section.

All authors must disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.


Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. S/he provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.

Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. S/he must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.

Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.

Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.

Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor 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 and excuse himself from the review process.

The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.