Evaluation Process
The decision to publish all articles submitted to the Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research belongs to the editor-in-chief. However, the editors develop these decisions in line with the recommendations of the reviewers.
The double-blind review process is the process of evaluating the work completely anonymously. For this system, only the editors know each stage. Authors do not know who the reviewer is, and the reviewers do not know whose work they are evaluating. Thus, biased evaluation of the work by the reviewers is prevented. In addition, since the author does not know the reviewers, he/she can not possibly contact the reviewer and influence him/her through 'special routes'. From this point of view, the double-blind review process is thought to provide objective evaluation and increase equal opportunity.
For these reasons, all studies submitted to the Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research are subject to double-blind review. At least two reviewers, an expert in their fields, will evaluate each submitted work. The editors spend every effort on quick evaluation of the articles. The editor is the final decision-making authority in the evaluation processes of all articles.
First Evaluation
The relevant editor or journal secretary examines the work regarding the purpose and scope of the journal, its conformity to the rules of writing, and its English and Turkish language proficiency. As a result of this assessment, the manuscripts that do not comply with the publication rules and the journal's publication policy are returned to the responsible author.
Preliminary Evaluation Process
In the pre-evaluation process, the study that left a positive impression on the editor is directed to the section editors. Section editors examine summary, introduction, material/method, discussion and conclusion sections of the manuscript and its scientific and formal conformity to the writing rules of the journal. As a result of this review, manuscripts that are found suitable are taken into the process of reviewers' evaluation.
Reviewers' Evaluation Process
According to the manuscript's content, at least two expert reviewers who had current studies in the relevant field are determined. The chief editor appraises the suggestions of the section editor regarding the selection of reviewers, and reviewers are assigned for the assessments of the manuscripts. The reviewers evaluate the study and prepare a report.
Reports of the Reviewers
The reviewers evaluate the objective, material/method, results and discussion sections of the study and its conformity to scientific principles. The work may be accepted directly; its revision may be requested or rejected. If a correction in the manuscript is required, the suggestions coming from the reviewers are communicated to the authors, and the authors are asked to revise their work. The reviewers reexamine the correction results provided by the authors, and their decisions are reported to the editor. If the assigned reviewers disagree, the manuscript is sent to a designated third reviewer.
Statistical Analysis
The reviewers' manuscripts deemed appropriate for publication are sent to the statistical editor. Articles that the statistical editor approves are accepted for publication.
Publication Process
Clinical studies or experimental research articles accepted for publication are usually included in the first issue to be published. Case presentations can wait 6-9 months according to the intensity.
Authors should avoid all identifying information about patients such as name, initials, reference numbers or photographs to appear in the article.
All articles submitted will be subjected to peer-review by the editorial board. The authors will be informed within 8 weeks. All articles may be subject to revision by the editorial board. Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal requirements may be returned without review at the discretion of the editors.
The plagiarism similarity criterion is not a percentage of matching in this journal. All studies submitted to our periodicals and passed the evaluation of the reviewers blinded to the studies are evaluated by us using Turnitin or iThenticate software programs.
A specialized team carries out auditing excluding percentages of matching but considering the parameters, such as identification of matching paragraphs, whether or not citations and references are written correctly by the writing rules of the journal, the places of the matching sentences/paragraphs in the article, and the sources with which they are matched. The prepared plagiarism report is sent to the relevant editor of the study. In consideration of the report, the editorial board may request from the author correction of the errors in the manuscript and send it again or accept or reject it. The acceptance of the study is on the initiative of the editor in chief.
Manuscript Preparation
Articles should be typed in 12 pt (Times New Roman), double-spaced throughout with margins of 2.5 cm, and pages must be numbered on the right upper corner. Manuscripts must be in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/). Original articles should not exceed 15 double spaced typewritten pages, and case reports should not exceed 10 pages. Articles should be typewritten in either "doc" or "txt" format and organized as follows: Title page: The title page should contain the article title, authors' names and complete affiliations, a running title not exceeding 40 characters and the address for the manuscript correspondence including e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers. If the article was presented at a scientific meeting, the authors should provide a complete statement, including the date and place of the meeting.
Clinical Trial Policy
All clinical trials, which are any research projects that prospectively assign individuals or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, in order to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome, must be registered in a public trials registry acceptable to the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE). Authors of randomized controlled trials must adhere to the CONSORT guidelines , and provide both a CONSORT checklist (for protocols, see the SPIRIT guidance) and flow diagram. We require that you choose the MS Word template at www.consort-statement.org for the flow chart and cite/upload it in the manuscript as a figure. In addition, submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the Abstract as evidence of registration. The Clinical Trial Registration Policy has been implemented in our journal as of September 2023. For more detailed instructions regarding clinical trials, please visit the guideline below:
Clinical Trials Guidelines
You can register for clinical trials by visiting the following link:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/
To register the relevant record in the system and learn more about the protocol to be followed, please review the link below:
https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/manage-recs/how-register
The other registries are accepted by ICJME:
www.anzctr.org.au
www.ISRCTN.org
www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm
www.onderzoekmetmensen.nl/en
https://eudract.ema.europa.eu/
Use of Large Language Models and Generative AI Tools
AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements. Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.” COPE Position Statement on Authorship and AI tools. Detailed information about the statement can be accessed at https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author
After reviewing the COPE statement, the editors of the Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research have decided that papers should include a statement in a section called “Declaration Regarding the Use of AI and AI-Assisted Technologies” to let readers know if AI or AI-assisted tools were used in the writing process. It's important to remember that all authors are responsible for the content of their work. This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, or references (such as Mendeley, EndNote, Zotero, and others). If there is nothing to declare, there is no need to add a statement.
It is suggested that authors follow this format when preparing their statement:
During the preparation of this work, the author(s) utilized [NAME OF TOOL(S) USED] to [DESCRIPTION OF HOW THE TOOL(S) WERE UTILIZED AND HOW THE VALIDITY OF THE OUTPUTS WAS EVALUATED]. After carefully reviewing and editing the content as necessary, full responsibility for the publication's content is taken by the author(s). This incorporation of AI tool usage primarily impacted [SPECIFY WHICH ASPECTS OF THE STUDY, ARTICLE CONTENTS, DATA, OR SUPPORTING FILES WERE AFFECTED/GENERATED].
Example:
During the preparation of this work, the author(s) utilized OpenAI's ChatGPT to generate summaries of research articles related to the topic. These summaries were evaluated by comparing them to manually written summaries by experts in the field. Upon confirming the accuracy and relevance of the generated summaries, they were integrated into the literature review section of the manuscript. After carefully reviewing and editing the content as necessary, full responsibility for the publication's content is taken by the author(s). This incorporation of AI tool usage primarily impacted the efficiency of literature review process and the comprehensiveness of the gathered research insights.
Abstract and keywords: Original articles should include Turkish and English abstracts. Turkish abstracts and keywords will be written by the editorial board for foreign authors. Abstracts must be no more extended than 250 words. The structured abstract should include objectives, materials and methods, results and conclusions in original articles. A structured abstract is not necessary for case reports. Abbreviations should not be used in the abstract.
The authors should list three to five keywords or phrases taken from Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html).
Text: Original articles should be organized in four main headings: introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion. Define abbreviations first mentioned in the text and in each table and figure. If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country). Case reports should include the following identifiable sections: introduction, case report(s), and discussion. An "acknowledgement(s)" section may be added following these sections to thank those who helped the study or preparation of the article if any. The acknowledgements are placed at the end of the article, before the references. This section contains statements of gratitude for personal, technical or material help, etc.
Submission and Retraction of the Manuscript
Submission of a manuscript: Authors who want to submit their articles for evaluation in our journal can upload their works by following the steps in the system after logging them into our journal management system at jag.journalagent.com/terh, Paying attention to the items in the checklist for authors before uploading will speed up the publication process of your work.
Article Withdrawal: As per our publication policies, the article's author has to cooperate with the journal editor in withdrawal procedures.
The author, who wants to withdraw his/ her work during the evaluation process, should submit the petition containing his/ her explanation to the editorial board electronically or in a printed wet signed form indicating that all authors have approved the withdrawal.
The Editorial Board analyses the incoming request and returns it to the author within ten days. If the copyright of the article was transferred to the Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research during the submission process, the author could not send the work to another journal for evaluation unless the request for withdrawal of this work is approved.
Peer Review, Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Peer-Review
Submission is considered on the conditions that papers are previously unpublished and are not offered simultaneously elsewhere; that authors have read and approved the content, and all authors have also declared all competing interests; and that the work complies with the Ethical Approval and has been conducted under internationally accepted ethical standards. If ethical misconduct is suspected, the Editorial Board will act in accordance with the relevant international rules of publication ethics (i.e., COPE guidelines).
Editorial policies of the journal are conducted as stated in the rules recommended by the Council of Science Editors and reflected in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication. Accordingly, authors, reviewers, and editors are expected to adhere to the best practice guidelines on ethical behavior contained in this statement.
Submitted manuscripts are subjected to double-blinded peer-review. The scientific board guiding the selection of the papers to be published in the journal consists of elected specialists of the journal and, if necessary, selected from national and international experts in the relevant field of research. All manuscripts are reviewed by the editor, section associate editors and at least two external expert reviewers. All research articles are interpreted by a statistical editor as well.
Human and Animal Rights
For the experimental, clinical and drug human studies, approval by ethical committee and a statement on the adherence of the study protocol to the international agreements (World Medical Association of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects,” amended October 2013) are required. In experimental animal studies, the authors should indicate that the procedures followed were by animal rights (Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals), and they should obtain animal ethics committee approval. The Ethics Committee approval document should be submitted to The Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research together with the manuscript.
The approval of the ethics committee, statement on the adherence to international guidelines mentioned above and that the patient's informed consent is obtained should be indicated in the Material and Method section and is required for case reports whenever data/media used could reveal the identity of the patient. The declaration of the conflict of interest between authors, institutions, acknowledgement of any financial or material support, aid is mandatory for authors submitting a manuscript, and the statement should appear at the end of the manuscript. Reviewers are required to report if any potential conflict of interest exists between the reviewer and authors, institutions.
For persons under 18 years of age, please provide a consent form that includes the signature of both parents, or of the person's legal guardian or supervisor.
PLAGIARISM AND ETHICAL MISCONDUCT
This journal uses "iThenticate" to screen all submissions for plagiarism before publication.
It is essential that authors avoid all forms of plagiarism and ethical misconduct as represented below.
Plagiarism: To Republish whole or part of a content in another author's publication without attribution.
Fabrication: To publish data and findings/results that do not exist.
Duplication: Using data from another publication that includes republishing an article in different languages.
Salamisation: Creating multiple publications by supernaturally splitting the results of a study.
Data Manipulation/Falsification: Manipulating or deliberately distorting research data to give a false impression.
We disapprove of such unethical practices as plagiarism, fabrication, duplication, data manipulation/falsification and salamisation and efforts to influence the review process with such practices as gifting authorship, inappropriate acknowledgements, and references in line with the COPE flowcharts.
Submitted manuscripts are also subjected to the evaluation of plagiarism, duplicate publication by automatic software. Authors are obliged to acknowledge if they published study results in whole or in part in the form of abstracts.
A. Duties of Publisher:
Duties of the Publisher
Handling of unethical publishing behaviour
The publisher will take all appropriate measures to modify the article in question, in close cooperation with the editors, in cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum, disclosure, or retraction of the affected work in the most severe case. Together with the editors, the publisher will take reasonable steps to detect and prevent the publication of articles in which research misconduct occurs and will under no circumstances promote or knowingly allow such abuse to occur.
Editorial Autonomy
The Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research is committed to ensuring the autonomy of editorial decisions without influence from anyone or commercial partners.
Intellectual Property and Copyright
The Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research protects the property and copyright of the articles published in the journal and maintains each article's published version of the record. The journal provides the integrity and transparency of each published article.
Scientific Misconduct
The Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research’s publisher always takes all appropriate measures regarding fraudulent publication or plagiarism.
B. Duties of Editors:
Decision on Publication and Responsibility
The editor of the journal keeps under control everything in the journal and strives to meet the needs of readers and authors. The editor is also responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published and guided by the policies subjected to legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor might discuss with reviewers while making publication decisions. The editor is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. Editor ought to provide a fair and appropriate peer-review process.
Objectivity
Articles that are submitted to the journal are always evaluated without any prejudice.
Confidentiality
The editor must not disclose any information about a submitted article to anyone other than editorial staff, reviewers, and publisher.
Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure
The Editor of the Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research l does not allow any conflicts of interest between the parties such as authors, reviewers and editors. Unpublished materials in a submitted article must not be used by anyone without the express written assent of the author.
Fundamental Errors in Published Works
Authors are obliged to notify the journal's editors or publisher immediately and to cooperate with them to correct or retract the article if significant errors or inaccuracies are detected in the published work. If the editors or publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a material error or inaccuracy, the authors must promptly correct or retract the article or provide the journal editors with evidence of the accuracy of the article.
C. Duties of Reviewers:
Evaluation
Reviewers evaluate manuscripts without origin, gender, sexual orientation or political philosophy of the authors. Reviewers also ensure a fair blind peer review of the submitted manuscripts for evaluation.
Content of the Reviewer Report
Reviewer reports should be in the same language as the published article. The reviewers should also specify their academic titles in these reports.
Confidentiality
All the information relative to submitted articles is kept confidential. The reviewers must not be discussed with others except if authorized by the editor.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
The reviewers have no conflict of interest regarding parties such as authors, funders, editors, etc.
Contribution to editor
Reviewers help the editor in making decisions and may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.
Contribution to the author
The reviewers should prioritize scientific contributions in their reports. They should provide meaningful feedback to the author in terms of scientific contribution. Relevant reports should not be limited to simply answering 'yes' or 'no' questions.
Objectivity
They always do objective judgment evaluation. The reviewers express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers ought to identify a relevant published study that the authors have not cited. Reviewers also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
D. Duties of Authors:
Reporting Standards
A submitted manuscript should be original, and the authors ensure that the manuscript has never been published previously in any journal. Data of the research ought to be represented literally in the article. A manuscript ought to include adequate detail and references to allow others to replicate the study.
Originality
The authors who want to submit their study to the journal must ensure that their study is entirely original. The words and sentences getting from the literature should be appropriately cited.
Multiple Publications
Authors should not submit the same study for publishing in any other journals. Simultaneous submission of the same study to more than one journal is unacceptable and constitutes unethical behaviour.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Convenient acknowledgement of the study of others has to be given. Authors ought to cite publications that have been efficient in determining the study. All of the sources that used the process of the study should be remarked.
Authorship of a Paper
Authorship of a paper ought to be limited to those who have made a noteworthy contribution to the study. If others have participated in the research, they should be listed as contributors. Authorship also includes a corresponding author who is in communication with the editor of a journal. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors are included in a paper.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All sources of financial support should be disclosed. All authors ought to disclose a meaningful conflict of interest in the process of forming their study. Any financial grants or other support received for a submitted study from individuals or institutions should be disclosed to the Editorial Board of the Anatolian Journal of General Medical Research. The ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form should be filled in and submitted by all contributing authors to disclose a potential conflict of interest. The journal’s Editorial Board determines cases of a potential conflict of interest of the editors, authors, or reviewers within the scope of COPE and ICMJE guidelines.
Conditions that provide financial or personal benefit bring about a conflict of interest. The reliability of the scientific process and the published articles is directly related to the objective consideration of conflicts of interest during the planning, implementation, writing, evaluation, editing, and publication of scientific studies.
Financial relations are the most easily identified conflicts of interest, and it is inevitable that they will undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and the science. These conflicts can be caused by individual relations, academic competition, or intellectual approaches. The authors should refrain as much as possible from making agreements with sponsors in the opinion of gaining profit or any other advantage that restrict their ability to access all data of the study or analyze, interpret, prepare, and publish their articles In order to prevent conflicts of interest, editors should refrain from bringing together those who may have any relationship between them during the evaluation of the studies. The editors, who make the final decision about the articles, should not have any personal, professional or financial ties with any of the issues they are going to decide. Authors should inform the editorial board concerning potential conflicts of interest to ensure that their articles will be evaluated within the framework of ethical principles through an independent assessment process.
If one of the editors is an author in any manuscript, the editor is excluded from the manuscript evaluation process. In order to prevent any conflict of interest, the article evaluation process is carried out as double-blinded. Because of the double-blinded evaluation process, except for the Editor-in-Chief, none of the editorial board members, international advisory board members, or reviewers is informed about the authors of the manuscript or institutions of the authors.
Our publication team works devotedly to ensuring that the evaluation process is conducted impartially, considering all these situations.
You can review the related link to get more detailed information about conflict of interest. The conflict of interest form that each author has to sign must be uploaded during the manuscript submission.
