Journal Policies
An article is first reviewed by the editor regarding format and scope. The editor may reject a manuscript without further review if it does not fit the scope of the journal. If the manuscript is deemed appropriate for the journal, it is sent to 2 reviewers from the reviewer board. Peer reviewers are experts in their field and are selected from different institutions. Reviewers assess the paper based on the reviewer form. When the reviewers submit two different evaluations of a manuscript, the editor or a third reviewer will assess the manuscript.
The journal has double blind peer review process for all the journal sections except the ediorial section.
JIBA is published twice a year; April and October. The journal may publish a special issue each year at the discretion of the editorial board. The manuscripts for a special issue are subject to the same review process as the manuscripts submitted for regular issues.
The manuscripts that are accepted after the review process and whose process for publication is complete are published electronically as online first articles. Later, these articles are assigned page numbers and published in a future volume and issue. Minor editing may be done on the final version to be published.
Journal of Inquiry Based Activities provides immediate open access to its content aiming widespread use and believing that education will improve through sharing scientific knowledge. All content of the journal is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution.
All articles published in JIBA are licensed with a "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License". Users are allowed to read, adapt, download, print, or copy the full texts of the articles under the condition of providing references, without asking for prior permission from the publisher or the author. If you build upon the journal material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license.
The articles published before 2021 were licensed with "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY 4.0)".
This journal uses LOCKSS system to support librarys' archiving.
Publication Language
Manuscripts can be submitted in Turkish or English. Title, abstract, and keywords of the manuscripts accepted for publication should be written in both Turkish and English. Manuscripts prepared in Turkish will be translated into English if accepted for publication.
The Journal of Inquiry Based Activities adheres to Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). The reviewers and authors are expected to follow Guidelines for peer reviewers and Guidelines for authors of COPE.
- Editors' Responsibilities
Publication decisions: The editor is accountable for all of the articles that are published in the journal. The editor decisions are not affected by the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, or political philosophy. The editor conducts the initial evaluation of the manuscript based on the paper’s importance, originality, and its relevance to the journal's scope.
Confidentiality: The editor and the other editorial staff are responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of any material submitted to the journal while under review.
Disclosure and conflict of interest: Reviewers are asked to reveal any potential conflict of interest before accepting to review a manuscript. Editors do not manage the review process of their own papers.
- Reviewers' Responsibilities
Professional responsibility: Reviewers are expected to accept to review a manuscript if they have the necessary expertise for evaluating the manuscript. The review process assists the editor in making editorial decisions about the manuscripts. The feedback received from the reviewers also guides the authors in improving their papers.
Competing interests: Reviewers should not agree to review manuscripts when they have competing or conflicting interest with the research, authors, or institutions.
Timeliness: Reviewers should agree to review a manuscript if they are able to complete the peer-review process within the proposed time frame. Any referee who cannot fulfill the original agreement should notify the editor and either require an extension or withdraw from the review process.
Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat the manuscripts received for review as confidential documents. They must refrain from disclosing the content of the manuscript or discussing it with others unless obtaining permission from the journal.
Bias: Reviews should be conducted objectively and should not be affected by the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, or political philosophy. Referees should write their evaluation of the manuscript using supporting arguments.
Suspicion of ethics violations: When reviewers notice any misconduct occurred during the research process or writing the paper or any ethical concern, they should contact the editor.
- Authors' Responsibilities
Soundness and reliability: The authors should be ethical in conducting their research and writing the manuscript.
Honesty: Authors should present their original research reports accurately and provide an objective discussion of its significance. A manuscript should include sufficient information for other researchers to replicate the work.
Originality: Authors should certify that their work is unique and original. Authors should not submit papers describing essentially the same research to more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal is considered as an unethical publishing behavior and is not acceptable.
Transparency: All sources of research funding should be disclosed.
Authorship of the paper: Authorship should include people who have significantly contributed to the design, implementation, and/or analysis of the research data and/or to drafting or revising the article. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper.
Plagiarism and acknowledgement of sources: Authors are responsible for ensuring the submitted work is not plagiarized. If the research is based on prior research, appropriate citation should be reported.
Accountability and responsibility: Manuscripts should be written according to author guidelines. Authors should notify the editor if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work.
- Consequences of Publication Fraud and Plagiarism
Publication fraud and plagiarism in submitted manuscript: The manuscript will be rejected. The authors will be informed with a letter explaining the plagiarism detected in their work. If it is a major plagiarism, the authors’ institutions will be notified.
Publication fraud and plagiarism in published manuscript: The authors will be informed with a letter explaining the plagiarism detected in their work. If it is a major plagiarism, the authors’ institutions will be notified and the article will be retracted.
As an author submitting to The Journal of Inquiry Based Activities (JIBA), you are expected to adhere strictly to the highest ethical standards of academic publishing. In accordance with guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), authors must comply with the following principles.
- Authorship and Collaborations
- Substantive Contribution: All listed authors must have made a significant intellectual contribution to the conceptualization, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported inquiry-based activity or research.
- Consent: The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission for publication.
- Ghost/Guest Authorship: Excluding individuals who contributed significantly (ghost authorship) or including individuals who did not contribute (guest/gift authorship) is strictly prohibited.
- Originality and Plagiarism
- Original Work: Authors must ensure that their submitted work is entirely original.
- Plagiarism: Textual plagiarism, self-plagiarism (recycling substantial portions of your own previously published work without attribution), data fabrication, or falsification are severe violations of academic integrity and will result in immediate rejection or retraction.
- Appropriate Citation: If authors have used the work, ideas, or language of others, this must be appropriately cited or quoted.
- Data Integrity and Reporting Standards
- Accurate Reporting: Authors of original research or field-tested activity reports must present an accurate account of the work performed, followed by an objective discussion of its significance.
- Data Access: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data or pedagogical materials associated with their paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data if practicable.
- Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication
- Single Submission: Authors must not submit a manuscript that describes essentially the same research or pedagogical activity to more than one journal concurrently.
- Prior Publication: Submitting a manuscript that has already been published elsewhere is a breach of ethics, except under specific circumstances (e.g., expanding significantly on a brief conference abstract, which must be fully disclosed to the editors upon submission).
- Conflicts of Interest
- Disclosure: All authors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships with people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work.
- Funding: All sources of financial support for the project must be explicitly declared within the manuscript.
- Ethical Treatment of Human Participants
- Institutional Approval: If the inquiry-based activity involved gathering data from human participants (such as students, teachers, or minors) via surveys, interviews, or observations, authors must confirm that the study received approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee.
- Informed Consent: Authors must secure informed consent from participants (or parents/guardians in the case of minors) and ensure anonymity and privacy are maintained.
- Fundamental Errors in Published Works
- Notification: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
Malpractice Repercussions
If an author is found to have violated any of these policies, the Editorial Board of The Journal of Inquiry Based Activities reserves the right to take action, which may include:
- Immediate rejection of the manuscript.
- Issuing a formal retraction or erratum if the paper is already published.
- Banning the author(s) from submitting to the journal for a specified period.
- Informing the author's institution or funding body of the ethical infraction.
Research Ethics: Our journal requires full compliance with the WMA Helsinki Declaration and relevant international standards in conducting research.
Publication Ethics: International publication ethics rules, as defined by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), are meticulously applied at every stage of the publication process.
Policies for Authors
Within the Journal of Inquiry Based Activities (JIBA), the application of Artificial Intelligence is strictly limited to enhancing the linguistic quality and readability of the manuscript. Authors maintain full responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of their work; they are required to rigorously vet all AI-generated suggestions to ensure the content remains technically sound. Consequently, AI tools do not meet the criteria for authorship and must never be listed as an author or co-author. Any utilization of these tools during the writing process must be explicitly declared within a dedicated disclosure statement in the final published manuscript.
The integrity of visual data is paramount. The use of AI to create, alter, or modify scientific figures—including the addition or removal of specific features—is strictly prohibited. Exceptions are only made when AI is a core component of the research methodology itself, such as in specialized biomedical imaging analysis; in these instances, the process must be described with enough detail to ensure full reproducibility. While AI-generated graphical abstracts are not permitted, AI-produced cover art may be considered for publication, provided the authors obtain prior editorial approval and confirm all necessary copyright clearances.
To safeguard the intellectual property of authors and maintain strict data privacy, reviewers are prohibited from uploading manuscripts or peer-review correspondence into any AI platform. Peer review is fundamentally a human intellectual exercise requiring critical thinking and nuanced judgment; therefore, AI tools cannot be employed to evaluate submissions or assist in making editorial recommendations. This restriction extends to the drafting of the review reports themselves—reviewers must compose their feedback personally to ensure the critique is authentic and grounded in expert knowledge. Reviewers should also verify that authors have included the required AI disclosure section, which is typically located immediately preceding the reference list.
Policies for Editors
Editors are entrusted with the confidentiality of the peer-review process and must ensure that manuscripts, decision letters, and internal communications are never processed through AI systems. All editorial evaluations and final decisions regarding a manuscript’s suitability for publication must be performed by the editor to ensure transparency and accountability. While editors will oversee the inclusion of author disclosures regarding AI use, they are also responsible for monitoring potential policy violations. If an editor suspects an author or reviewer has misused AI tools in a manner that contradicts these guidelines, they are obligated to notify the publisher for further investigation.
