Section A: Publication and authorship
1. All submitted papers are subject to a strict peer-review process by at least two international reviewers that are experts in the area of the particular paper. Reviewers are being selected by Associate Editors and Editor in Chief. The author also can propose reviewers for some journals and article types.
2. The factors that are taken into account in the review are relevance, originality, readability, statistical validity, and language.
3. The possible decisions include acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions, or rejection.
4. If authors are encouraged to revise and resubmit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
5. Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
6. The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
7. No research can be included in more than one publication, whether within the same journal or in another journal.

Section B: Authors’ responsibilities
1. Authors must certify that their manuscript is their original work.
2. Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or even submitted and been reviewed in another journal.
3. The authors must participate in peer-review and follow the comments.
4. Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
5. All Authors mentioned in the paper must have significantly contributed to the research. The level of their contribution also must be defined in the “Authors’ Contributions” section of the article.
6. The authors must state that all data in the paper are real and authentic.
7. The authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest.
8. The authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript.
9. Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.
10. Authors must not use irrelevant sources that may help other researchers/journals.
11. Authors cannot withdraw their articles within the review process or after submission, or they must pay the penalty defined by the publisher.

Section C: Peer review/responsibility for the reviewers
1. Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information.
2. Reviews should be conducted objectively, with no personal criticism of the author. No self-knowledge of the author(s) must affect their comments and decision.
3. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in 500 to 1000 words.
4. Reviewers may identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
5. Reviewers should also call to the Editor in Chief’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper they have personal knowledge of.
6. Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Section D: Editorial responsibilities
1. Editors (Associate Editors or Editor in Chief) have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article.
2. Editors are responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication.
3. Editors should always consider the needs of the authors and the readers when attempting to improve the publication.
4. Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record.
5. Editors should publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
6. Editors should have a clear picture of research funding sources.
7. Editors should base their decisions solely on the paper's importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the publication’s scope.
8. Editors should not reverse their decisions or overturn previous editors' ones without serious reason.
9. Editors should preserve the anonymity of reviewers (in half-blind peer-review journals).
10. Editors should ensure that all published research material conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
11. Editors should only accept a paper when reasonably certain.
12. Editors should act if they suspect misconduct, whether a paper is published or unpublished, and make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem.
13. Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions; they should have proof of misconduct.
14. Editors should not allow conflicts of interest between staff, authors, reviewers, and board members.
15. Editors must not change their decision after submitting a decision (especially after rejecting or accepting it) unless they have a serious reason.

Section E: Publishing Ethics Issues

The Editorial Board of the Journal of Bursa Faculty of Medicine complies with the criteria of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
1. All editorial members, reviewers, and authors must confirm and obey the rules defined by COPE.
2. The corresponding author is the main owner of the article, so she/he can withdraw the article when it is incomplete (before entering the review process or when a revision is asked for).
3. Authors cannot make major changes in the article after acceptance without a serious reason.
4. All editorial members and authors must will to publish any kind of corrections honestly and completely.
5. Any notes of plagiarism, fraudulent data, or other kinds of fraud must be reported completely to COPE.