Ethics & Policies
Archiving Policy
The content published by Koşuyolu Heart Journal is electronically preserved by using Internet archive (https://www.kosuyoluheartjournal.com/archive)
Authorship Policy
The viewpoints and opinions expressed in manuscripts published in Koşuyolu Heart Journal are solely those of the author(s). In accordance with the guidelines set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), authorship should be justified by meeting the following four criteria:
1. Significant contributions to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the work; AND
2. Active involvement in drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content; AND
3. Approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring investigation and resolution of accuracy or integrity issues.
Additionally, authors should trust in the integrity of their co-authors' contributions and be able to specify the responsibilities of each co-author for different components of the work.
All individuals identified as authors must meet all four criteria, and anyone who fulfills these criteria should be recognized as an author. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged separately on the title page and in the Acknowledgements section at the end of the manuscript.
Koşuyolu Heart Journal mandates that corresponding authors submit a signed and scanned copy of the authorship contribution form during the initial submission phase. This form is vital for establishing and respecting authorship rights and preventing ghost or honorary authorship. The final manuscript will list authors in the order specified on this form. Instances of suspected "gift authorship" will lead to immediate rejection of the submission. The corresponding author must also provide a concise declaration accepting full responsibility for authorship during the submission and review process.
Complaint and Appeal Policy
The Editorial Board of the journal processes appeal and complaint cases in accordance with the COPE guidelines. Appeals must be grounded in the scientific content of the manuscript. The Editor in Chief holds the authority to make the final decision on such appeals and complaints. For cases that are beyond internal resolution, the appointment of an Ombudsperson or an Ethical Editor is considered to facilitate resolution. Authors wishing to submit appeals or complaints are encouraged to contact the Editor in Chief via email at kare@karepb.com. This policy is shared with the understanding that it can be freely used, adapted, and distributed by others, provided that the original source is attributed and that any derivative versions are shared under the same terms.
Corrections Policy
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
Ethics Policy
The Editorial Board of Koşuyolu Heart Journal, in conjunction with the Publisher, is committed to upholding the ethical standards as prescribed by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the World Medical Association (WMA), and the European Association of Science Editors (EASE).
In alignment with the journal's ethical framework, all research studies are mandated to obtain approval from an ethics committee that adheres to international agreements, such as the "WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects" (last updated in October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil), the "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals" (8th edition, 2011), and/or the “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals” (2012). Manuscripts lacking requisite ethics committee approval are subject to review under the guidelines provided by COPE (Guidance for Editors: Research, Audit, and Service Evaluations) (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/guidance-editors-research-audit-and-service-evaluations). Should ethical approval be deemed necessary, authors will be prompted to furnish such documentation to further the review process. Failure to provide the required approval will result in manuscript rejection and subsequent notification to the authors' affiliated institutions and relevant national authorities, emphasizing the necessity for ethics committee approval for such studies.
If post-review by the editorial board, a study is determined not to require ethics committee approval, the authors will be requested to submit either an ethics committee waiver or a statement from an independent committee corroborating the exemption according to the research integrity standards within their jurisdiction. Provision of either document will allow the review process to continue; absence of such documentation may lead to manuscript rejection.
Articles involving experimental research on human subjects must include a declaration of patient informed consent, obtained after a comprehensive explanation of the procedures that may be undertaken. The journal reserves the right to request a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval from the relevant authorities. Informed consent is also a requisite for case reports and clinical images.
Research involving human or animal subjects should receive approval from the corresponding institutional and local Ministry of Health ethics committees. Compliance with international agreements is imperative for experimental, clinical, and pharmacological studies, as well as for certain case reports. Authors may be asked to provide ethics committee reports or an equivalent official document. Manuscripts that involve experimental research on humans must contain a statement confirming that written informed consent was secured. For animal studies, it should be clearly stated what measures were taken to mitigate pain and suffering. Details concerning patient consent, the ethics committee's name, the date of approval, and the committee's reference number must be disclosed in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. It is incumbent upon the authors to rigorously maintain the anonymity of all patients.
Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the international guidelines* below.
| Randomized Controlled Trial ** | CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) |
| Non-Randomized Trial ** | TREND (Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomised Designs) |
| Trial Protocol | SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items Recommendations for Interventional Trials) |
| Observational Epidemiologic Studies (cohort, case-control, cross-sectional) | STROBE (the STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology) |
| Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses | PRISMA (the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) |
| Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocol | PRISMA-P (the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses - Protocol) |
| Qualitative Research | - SRQR (the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research) - COREQ (COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research: interviews and focus groups |
| Methodological Studies (Translating and Adapting Tests) | ITC (International Test Commission) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests |
| Methodological Studies (Developing Tests) | COSMIN (COnsensus based Standarts fort the selection of Health Measurement Instruments-Study Design for Patient-reported outcome measurement instruments) |
| Case Report | CARE (CAse REport) |
* Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency of Health Research (equator network)
** Koşuyolu Heart Journal encourages the registration of all clinical trials (randomized and non-randomized) via ClinicalTrials.gov or one of the registries of the WHO’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). The name of the trial registry and the registration number together should be provided at the end of the abstract.
Fee Waiver Policy
There is no fee waiver.
Funding Sources Policy
All authors are required to declare what support they received to carry out their research. Declaring funding sources acknowledges funders’ contributions, fulfills funding requirements, and promotes greater transparency in the research process.
Each author must individually declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. This information includes the name of granting agencies, grant numbers, and a description of each funder’s role. If the funder has played no role in the research, this must be stated as well.
Authors are not required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them if the grant is not related to the research published.
Licenses and Copyright Policy
Authors who publish with this journal maintain copyright over their work, which is now licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This license grants the Publisher a non-exclusive right to publish the work commercially. The CC BY-SA 4.0 License allows for the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original work is properly credited and any changes made to the work are also shared under the same license.
Open Access Policy
Koşuyolu Heart Journal supports the Budapest Open Access Initiative's principles, promoting free access to research literature. According to this initiative, open access to academic literature means its free availability on the internet, allowing users to read, download, copy, print, search, and link to the full texts, and use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inherent in accessing the internet. Sharing information is considered a public good, vital for scientific advancement. Consequently, articles in this journal are freely accessible for use by researchers and other readers without the need for permission from the author or the publisher, as long as the author and the original source are properly acknowledged and any derivatives are shared under the same license. Articles in the Koşuyolu Heart Journal are available through search engines, websites, blogs, and other digital platforms. Further information on the Budapest Open Access Initiative and its guidelines is available on their official website.
In line with the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the Koşuyolu Heart Journal applies the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license to the articles it publishes. By submitting a paper for publication, authors agree to have the CC BY-SA 4.0 license applied to their work. This license permits anyone to copy, distribute, and reuse the content of articles for any purpose, even commercially, as long as the original work is properly cited and any modifications are distributed under the same license. The corresponding author will be required to sign the Creative Commons License Agreement once their articles are accepted.
Open Access Statement
This journal is an open access journal, providing all content freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal, and to use them for any other lawful purpose, without prior permission from the publisher or the author, in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. The articles published in this journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license, promoting sharing and reuse of information under the same terms as the original work.
Peer Review Policy
Manuscripts submitted for consideration must be unanimously approved by all authors and must not have been previously published or submitted to another journal for review.
Upon submission, manuscripts undergo an initial screening followed by a plagiarism check using iThenticate software. Manuscripts that pass this stage are then reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief for originality, methodology, relevance, and alignment with the journal's scope. The Editor-in-Chief assesses submissions based on their scientific merit without discrimination based on the authors' ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religious beliefs, or political views, and oversees a fair double-blind peer review process for those selected for further evaluation.
Manuscripts deemed suitable are sent to at least two national or international reviewers. The publication decision, following any required modifications based on reviewer feedback, rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who also ensures there are no conflicts of interest among authors, editors, and reviewers, and holds the final say on the publication of manuscripts in the journal.
Reviewers are expected to provide objective assessments focusing on the novelty and significance of the information, clarity and accuracy of the abstract, the significance and clarity of the problem statement, the comprehensiveness of the methods, whether the interpretations and conclusions are supported by the results, the sufficiency of references to other works in the field, and the quality of the manuscript's language.
Reviewers are obliged to treat all submitted material as confidential and to alert the editor to any potential copyright infringement or plagiarism by the authors.
Should a reviewer feel unqualified to assess a manuscript or unable to provide a timely review, they are expected to inform the editor and withdraw from the review process.
The editor ensures reviewers understand that manuscripts are confidential and the review process is a privileged communication. Discussions about the manuscript with third parties or any breach of anonymity for the reviewers are strictly prohibited.
Plagiarism Policy
All submissions are screened using similarity detection software at least two times: on submission and after completing revisions. In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, or data falsification/fabrication, the editorial board will follow and act in accordance with COPE guidelines. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, that is identified at any stage will result in rejection of the manuscript.
Publication Charges Policy
Koşuyolu Heart Journal assesses no submission fees, publication fees, or page charges.
Retraction Policy
In adherence to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0), the publisher commits to rectifying the article in question with diligent collaboration from the editors in any situation involving allegations or confirmation of scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism. Remedial actions will include the immediate issuance of an erratum, public disclosure, or, in the gravest situations, retraction of the impacted work.
Furthermore, in partnership with the editors, the publisher pledges to implement effective measures to identify and avert the publication of articles where research misconduct is present and shall in no event endorse or deliberately permit such malpractice.
Withdrawal Policy
Koşuyolu Heart Journal is committed to providing high quality articles and uphold the publication ethics to advance the intellectual agenda of science. We expect our authors to comply with, best practice in publication ethics as well as in quality of their articles.
Withdrawal of a manuscript will be permitted only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons. For withdrawal of a manuscript authors need to submit an "Article withdrawal Form", signed by all authors mentioning the reason for withdrawal to the Editorial Office. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from the editorial office.
In a case where a manuscript has taken more than five months’ time for review process, that allows the author to withdraw manuscript.
Manuscript withdrawal penalty: After receiving the Article withdrawal Form, Koşuyolu Heart Journal Editorial Board will investigate the reason of withdrawal.
If the reason finds to be acceptable, the author is allowed to withdraw the manuscript without any withdrawal penalty. If not Koşuyolu Heart Journal will not accept any manuscripts from the same author for one year.
Important notes: Manuscripts may be withdrawn at any stage of review and publication process by submitting a request to the editorial office. Manuscript withdrawal will be permitted after submission only for the most compelling and unavoidable reasons.
If the author wants to withdraw a manuscript, the author needs to submit a completed "Article withdrawal Form", signed by all authors of the manuscript stating the reasons for manuscript withdrawal.
The manuscript will not be withdrawn from publication process until a completed, signed form is received by the editorial office. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification to this effect from Koşuyolu Heart Journal editorial office.