The ethical responsibilities of authors, editors, and reviewers in the Akdeniz University Journal of the Faculty of Architecture are determined in accordance with the guidelines and policies published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors:
• Authors are expected to submit original work.
• If authors use information from other works, they must reference them accurately and completely.
• Submitted works should not have been published elsewhere or submitted to more than one journal at the same time.
• Individuals who did not contribute to the work should not be listed as authors, and all authors should have knowledge of the work.
• If there are any conflicts of interest that could affect the publication of the work, they should be disclosed.
• If the work is derived from a thesis or project, this should be clearly stated.
• Data from sources used in the work should be objectively interpreted.
• If authors notice any errors in their work during the process, they should inform the editor or publisher about corrections or retractions.
• Authors should have documentation indicating that they have obtained necessary permissions for the use of data and for any quantitative or qualitative methods that require approval by an ethics committee, and that they have obtained consent from subjects.
• For all research requiring approval by an ethics committee, authors must have the necessary permissions and documentation indicating that they have obtained the consent of the subjects, and in articles requiring approval by an ethics committee, information regarding the permissions obtained must be provided.
• Requests such as adding, removing, or changing the order of authors should not be made for works that are in the evaluation process.

Editors' Ethical Duties and Responsibilities:
• Editors should make efforts to meet the information needs of readers and authors, improve and develop the journal, and enhance the quality and content of the works to be published in the journal.
• Editors should support the freedom of thought of the authors and protect their intellectual property rights.
• Editors should ensure that the content published in the journal is consistent with the journal's publication policies, does not violate human and animal rights, and has obtained the necessary ethical committee approvals, and should continue the business processes without compromising ethical standards.
• Editors should ensure that the journal's publication and writing rules and information about the peer-review process are current and accessible.
• The criteria for accepting or rejecting an article by the editor should be based on its importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope,
• Ensuring academic integrity,
• Demonstrate clarity and transparency in publication regarding correction and explanation issues.
• The editor is responsible for explaining to the author why an article was rejected during the pre-review process,
• The editor should ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected based on their knowledge and expertise and should take care not to create conflicts of interest situations.
• The editor responsible for the implementation of the double-blind peer-review process should keep the identity information of both reviewers and authors confidential.
• The editor should constantly update the list of reviewers according to their expertise areas and should try to expand the reviewer database as much as possible,
• The editor should clearly express their expectations from the reviewers and should ensure that the evaluation forms of the reviewers are clear and understandable.
• The editor should ensure that the evaluations received from the reviewers are made timely, scientifically, and ethically, and impartially, and should remove the reviewers who do not make evaluations in this direction from the database,
• The editor is responsible for informing the authors of the requested changes in the article at the end of the pre-review or peer-review process, and for giving them the necessary time for correction,
• The editor should provide information to the authors in a way that does not violate the double-blind peer-review if they request information about the process,
• The editor should determine the members of the publication board according to the criterion of active contribution to the development of the journal and should hold regular meetings,
• The editor should consider the areas of expertise for the evaluations to be made by the members of the publication board,
• The editor should take into account the criticisms of the journal's content and approach them constructively, and should give the authors of the criticized articles the right to respond,
• The editor should objectively evaluate possible complaints and respond in an explanatory and clear manner,
• The editor should keep the records and relevant correspondences of each article in electronic format.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers:
COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers were used to prepare the ethical responsibilities of reviewers.
• Reviewer should accept to review articles in their field of expertise and conduct the evaluation themselves.
• Reviewer who notices any conflict of interest within the scope of impartiality and confidentiality principles should inform the editor.
• Reviewer is responsible for the confidentiality of the work until the article being evaluated is published, according to the principle of confidentiality.
• Reviewer should fill out the evaluation form completely with the required data requested by the journal, taking into account only the content of the article evaluated objectively.
• Reviewer should explain their evaluations, corrections, and suggestions in a clear and convincing manner, avoiding personal comments, insults, and rude language and making them in an academic, polite, and constructive manner.
• Reviewer who accepts to review is obliged to prepare the review report within the given time and in accordance with ethical responsibilities.
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers:

The COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers were used in the preparation of the ethical responsibilities of reviewers.
• Reviewers must accept to be a reviewer for studies related to their expertise and must perform the evaluation themselves.
• When a reviewer who is performing the evaluation within the scope of impartiality and confidentiality principles realizes any conflict of interest, they must notify the editor.
• Reviewers are responsible for the confidentiality of the work until it is published, in accordance with the principle of confidentiality.
• Reviewers must fill in the data requested in the evaluation form completely by considering only the content of the article objectively.
• Reviewers must explain their evaluations, corrections and suggestions in a explanatory and convincing manner, avoiding personal comments, insults, and rude language.
• Reviewers who agree to perform the evaluation are obliged to prepare the review report within the given time and in accordance with ethical responsibilities."

"Unethical Behaviors:
When a study that is not in compliance with ethical principles is detected in accordance with the determined principles, it will be reported via e-mail. In this scope;
• Editors are responsible for requesting ethical committee approval for the protection of human and animal rights in the study. They may reject the study if it is not available.
• Editors are responsible for protecting the intellectual property rights of published articles and ensuring that the contents do not violate the intellectual property rights of other publications.
• The authors section must comply with the Ethical Principles and Responsibilities presented under the Publishing Ethics section. Initially submitted articles are checked for similarity reports with iThenticate® (Plagiarism Detection Software) (or Turnitin program), and a similarity rate of no more than 20% is required.

Protection of personal data:
Editors are responsible for protecting personal data included in the studies, and may reject the study if explicit consent of the individuals concerned is not provided. In addition, editors are responsible for protecting the individual data of authors, reviewers, and readers.
Relationships with the Journal Owner and Publisher:
The relationship between editors and publishers is independent according to the principle of editorial independence, and all decisions made by the editors are independent of the publisher and journal owner. In addition, the publisher must take care to protect the ownership and copyright of each published article and keep records of each copy.

Policy of Not Charging Fees:
Akdeniz University Journal of the Faculty of Architecture is an open access journal and does not charge any article processing charges (APC) or article submission charges (ASC). The content of the journal is accessible online free of charge.
Conflict of Interests:
Editors ensure that the publication process is independent and unbiased, taking into account any conflicts of interest among authors, reviewers, and other editors.