SMER Publications is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics across all its journals. All editorial and publishing activities are guided by the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aligned with international best practices for scholarly publishing and open access dissemination.
1. Peer Review Process
All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process, ensuring that neither authors nor reviewers are aware of each other’s identities. This multi-stage evaluation safeguards scientific quality, originality, and ethical compliance.
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2. Editorial Responsibility
Editorial teams are responsible for ensuring fair, unbiased, and confidential handling of manuscripts. Editorial decisions are based exclusively on academic merit, originality, and ethical compliance.
Editors and reviewers must:
Maintain strict confidentiality
Declare conflicts of interest
Avoid discriminatory practices
Refrain from using unpublished materials for personal advantage
3. Publishing Fees (Article Processing Charges)
Publishing fee information is provided transparently at the journal level. SMER operates under an open access model, and editorial decisions are independent of any financial considerations.
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4. Copyright and Licensing Policy
Authors retain full copyright of their published work. All SMER publications are open access and are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license unless otherwise specified.
5. Research Misconduct and Plagiarism Screening
All manuscripts are screened using plagiarism detection systems (e.g., iThenticate or equivalent). Manuscripts with unacceptable similarity or evidence of misconduct may be rejected or retracted in accordance with COPE guidelines.
6. Responsibilities
Authors: Responsible for originality, accuracy, and ethical compliance
Editors: Responsible for unbiased editorial evaluation
Reviewers: Responsible for objective, constructive, and timely peer review
All parties must disclose conflicts of interest.
7. Corrections and Retractions
SMER follows COPE guidelines for post-publication integrity:
Erratum/Correction: For minor errors not affecting validity
Retraction: For confirmed misconduct or major ethical violations
8. Ethics Approval and Informed Consent
Policies regarding human and animal research ethics are strictly enforced.
9. Ownership and Management
SMER Publications operates as an independent scholarly publisher with a centralized editorial structure. The publisher has been active since 2020 and is headquartered at:
Apartment 221, Door 305, 3rd Floor, Trump Tower, No. 12 Mecidiyeköy Yolu Street, Kuştepe Neighborhood, Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey.
Technical infrastructure and publishing systems are supported by internationally recognized scholarly publishing platforms. Post-publication services, indexing support, and digital preservation are managed through established global academic communication networks to ensure long-term accessibility and integrity of published content.
10. Open Access and Accessibility
All SMER publications are freely accessible online without subscription or registration barriers.
11. Advertising Policy
SMER does not accept third-party advertising in its journals or publication platforms.
12. Archiving and Preservation
The publisher maintains regular electronic backup of the journal website and all published materials to safeguard against data loss. All published articles are securely stored in a secondary archiving system and are continuously backed up to ensure permanent availability and access. These measures guarantee the preservation of scholarly records and support the sustainability of the academic archive over time.
13. Communications and Complaints
All complaints and ethical concerns are handled transparently by the editorial office in accordance with COPE best practices.
