Research and Publication Ethics

Clinical Science of Nutrition adopts and adheres to the ethical guidelines, frameworks, and standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Publisher's Responsibilities

The Turkish Society of Clinical Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition, as the publisher, is committed to ensuring the editorial independence of Clinical Science of Nutrition. The publisher guarantees that editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit and are not influenced by political, financial, or commercial considerations. The publisher provides the necessary resources and technical infrastructure for the journal and assists the editors in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

The editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. They are obliged to:

• Follow the COPE's Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
• Fair Play and Independence: Evaluate manuscripts exclusively on their academic merit without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy, or institutional affiliation.
• Confidentiality: Ensure that information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors is kept confidential.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for their own research without the express written consent of the author.
• Investigation: Take responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Peer reviewers assist the editor in making editorial decisions and may also assist the author in improving the paper. They are obliged to:

• Follow the COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
• Contribution: Assist in the decision-making process and help improve the quality of the manuscript objectively.
• Confidentiality: Treat any manuscripts received for review as confidential documents.
• Generative AI Use: Reviewers must not upload the manuscript or any part of it into generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, LLMs, Gemini) to generate the peer review report. Sharing the manuscript with such tools violates the confidentiality of the peer review process and the proprietary rights of the authors. Reviewers generally accept full responsibility for the content of their review report.
• Standards of Objectivity: Conduct reviews objectively, avoiding personal criticism of the author.
• Acknowledgement of Sources: Identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
• Conflict of Interest: Not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

• Original Content: The Journal publishes only original scholarly work. Manuscripts submitted to the Journal must not have been published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. However, authors can submit their manuscript to the Journal after receiving a rejection letter from another publisher. Theses and dissertations that are not archived online are considered original and unpublished. However, authors submitting a manuscript that uses content or data from theses or dissertations must declare this on the Title Page.
• Authorship: Authors must adhere to the authorship criteria outlined in the "Authorship" section and avoid gift or ghost authorship.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use: AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, LLMs) cannot be listed as authors as they cannot take responsibility for the work. Authors must disclose the use of any AI tools in the writing, editing, or data analysis process in the "Methods" or "Declarations" section.
• Redundant Publication: Authors must avoid submitting a manuscript for publication based on the same dataset, study, or experiment. Redundant publications are considered unethical.
• Citations and Plagiarism: Authors must cite relevant, verified literature to support their scholarly work. They must avoid any form of citation manipulation or misconduct when citing other scholarly works and must avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism.
• Fabrication and Falsification: Authors must avoid data fabrication and falsification of any content. Authors are obliged to ensure that the data presented in their manuscript is accurate and representative. Authors may be asked to submit their raw data or supplemental data to ensure transparency.
• Ethical Approval: Studies that require ethics committee approval should include approval statements in the Methods section and on the title page. The title page must include the ethics committee name, the date, and the approval number.
• Informed Consent: For case reports and studies involving human subjects, publication requires a statement that written informed consent was obtained from the participant (or their parent/legal guardian if the participant is a minor or incapacitated). This information should be included in the Methods or Case Presentation section.
• Studies Involving Human Subjects and Vulnerable Populations: All manuscripts submitted to the journal and all studies involving human subjects must comply with international guidelines (e.g., the Declaration of Helsinki) and the ethical principles established by the relevant authorities. Given the journal's scope, special attention is required for studies involving vulnerable groups (e.g., minors, prisoners, terminally ill patients, or cognitively impaired individuals). Authors must demonstrate that strict ethical procedures were followed to protect these participants.
• Animal Studies: For studies involving animals, authors must state that they followed international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals (e.g., ARRIVE guidelines).
• Sex and Gender in Research: Authors are encouraged to follow the SAGER (Sex and Gender Equity in Research) guidelines and to report sex and gender information where relevant. Authors should use the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances), carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms.
• Conflict of Interests: Authors must declare any financial, commercial, legal, or professional competing interests on their title page. If there is no conflict of interest, authors must explicitly state this in their manuscript.
• Error Notification: Authors are required to notify the journal editor or publisher of any significant inaccuracy or error in a published, preprint, or under-review manuscript and to cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief in correcting or withdrawing the manuscript.

Correction and Retraction Policy

Clinical Science of Nutrition is committed to preserving the integrity of the scientific record. Occasionally, it may be necessary to correct or retract articles.

1. Corrections (Errata and Corrigenda) can be issued for peer-reviewed articles to fix errors that do not impact the validity of the results or the main conclusions of the study.

• Erratum: Issued when a significant error is introduced by the publisher during the production process (e.g., missing figures, typographical errors in data).
• Corrigendum: Issued when the author discovers a significant error after publication (e.g., errors in the author list, figure labeling, or calculation errors that do not alter the final conclusion).

2. Retractions Clinical Science of Nutrition will initiate a retraction process for articles found to have serious ethical violations or errors that invalidate the results. These include, but are not limited to:

• Clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of major error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error) or as a result of fabrication or falsification (e.g., image manipulation).
• Plagiarism.
• Redundant publication (findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing).
• Unethical research or reporting practices.

The journal follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines in such cases. Retracted articles will remain online, marked as "RETRACTED," and linked to the retraction notice to preserve the scientific record.

For more information, please see the COPE Guidelines at https://publicationethics.org.

Complaints and Appeals

Clinical Science of Nutrition handles complaints and appeals in accordance with the COPE guidelines. Authors, reviewers, or readers may submit complaints regarding the editorial process, ethical concerns, or appeals against editorial decisions to the Editor-in-Chief via email ([email protected]).

All complaints will be treated seriously and investigated impartially. The Editor-in-Chief aims to resolve issues swiftly and constructively. If the complaint involves the Editor-in-Chief, it will be directed to the Publisher (Turkish Society of Clinical Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition) for an independent review.