Review Process

Manuscripts submitted to Selcuk Medical Journal go through a three-stage process including preliminary review, peer review and preparation for publication. These processes are planned and managed by the Editors. The Editor and the Editorial Board endeavour to finalise this process within six weeks. However, this period may be longer due to unavoidable delays.

A. Preliminary Review
Articles are analysed in three stages.
1. Format review: The pre-screening editor checks the scope of the submitted article, the originality report, and the ethics committee approval, the copyright transfer, the conformity of the submitted article with the article template of Selcuk Medical Journal, the accuracy and actuality of the citations. Authors are informed with the preliminary review. Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal's writing rules and template will not be reviewed and will be returned to the author(s) within a maximum of 15 days for re-editing. To ensure that manuscripts are prepared in accordance with the journal's style guide, authors should review the style guide in advance and use the template file.

Manuscripts may be rejected or corrections may be requested if they are deemed insufficient (suitable) after the format review. Authors may resubmit manuscripts that are not rejected for scope but found insufficient in the format review.

Manuscripts that are appropriate in terms of writing rules and format are checked for plagiarism at the next stage. The plagiarism check is carried out in accordance with the similarity report uploaded by the author. The maximum similarity rate is accepted as 15 % in the journal.

If necessary, the Editorial Board may check the manuscript for plagiarism again. This involves a detailed analysis of the software-generated similarity for each study, and the extraction of similar parts with correct references and citations. Other similar parts are analysed and errors are detected and reported to the Editorial Board. After the Editorial Board makes a final decision about the manuscript in terms the plagiarism check report, it shares this report and decision with the author(s) when necessary. The Board may return the manuscript or ask the author to revise it.

2. Language editing:

Language Editors review the submitted papers for academic writing in English.  They sent the results of Language Review to the authors. The editor may reject or request corrections to papers that are found to be inadequate by the language review.

3. Preliminary Editorial Review Process: Manuscripts that comply with the journal's publication and writing rules as well as the similarity rate are included in the preliminary editorial review. Editorial Board review the introduction, method, findings and discussion sections of the articles in terms of the aim and scope of the journal as well as compliance with the research reporting processes. The manuscripts that are found to be inappropriate, inaccurate or unoriginal in terms of the journal's publication and writing rules and scope are rejected without peer review.

In preliminary review:
  • A plagiarism report is requested from the authors when the articles are uploaded. The similarity rate of this report is reviewed and approved by the editor.
  • Manuscript is checked in terms of its accordance with the journal writing guide.
  • Manuscript is reviewed for suitability to the scope and themes of the journal.
  • Manuscript is reviewed for the conformity of citations and references to APA.
  • Manuscript is checked to ensure that the required files (Copyright Transfer Form, Ethical Declaration Form, Originality Report, Title Page and Main Article Document) are uploaded in a complete and correct format. You can access these files on the downloads page of selcukmedj.org website: https://www.selcukmedj.org/tr-tr/indirmeler/

B. Peer Review Process
In all submissions that pass the pre-review stage, the review process is continued in two ways:
  • Depending on the nature of the study, it is sent to at least 2 reviewers who are experts in their fields and determined by the editors. The reviewers notify the Editorial Board whether or not they can evaluate the manuscript within 15 days. If the reviewer fails to notify the editor within the specified period, another reviewer will be assigned to the manuscript. When at least two reviewers opinions are obtained, the next stage is taken.
  • In order to reach a sufficient number of reviewer evaluations in a shorter time, the journal may request more than two reviewers at the same time. When sufficient opinions are obtained, it is at the discretion of the editors to cancel other reviewer invitations without waiting for the evaluation result.

The reviewers may not share any documents or details about the manuscript with anyone. The reviewers participating in the reviewer group are deemed to commit to this principle.
The review process is based on the "blind peer review". The Blind Peer Review is essential for the objective review of manuscript. It is favoured by many scientific journals to ensure that publications are produced of the highest quality. Reviewers' opinions are the main determinant of the publication quality of Selcuk Medical Journal. All manuscripts submitted to the Selcuk Medical Journal and found sufficient in the Preliminary Review are reviewed through double-blind peer review. Double-blind peer review means that both the identity of the reviewers is hidden from the authors and the vica versa.

Reviewers are given 15 days for the review process. The reviewers can approve the correction after review, or request corrections more than once if necessary. If corrections are requested, authors should make the corrections within three months and resubmit the manuscript to the journal. The revised manuscript will be re-evaluated by the reviewers, who request changes or corrections. The Editorial Board decides on the publication of the manuscripts in accordance with the reviewers’ opinions. In case of inconsistency in the reviewer opinions, the Editorial Board may send the manuscript to third reviewer. Please click for guidelines for reviewers.
Reviewers may;
• Accept for publication
• Ask to see it again after revision
• Reject it
The editors review the reviewers' decisions and opinions within 10 days. They notify the author(s) of their final decision. Selcuk Medical Journal aims to make a final decision on publication for all articles within 6 weeks after submission. However, this period may be extended due to reasons beyond our control.

Objection to Decision
Author (s) have the right to appeal the results of the review. The author(s) should send an e-mail to [email protected] with reference to the opinions and comments of reviewers and upload it to the system within 15 days after the decision. Editorial board review the objection within 1 month. Another reviewer is appointed for the objections of the author(s). The reviewer analyzes the manuscript, then a final evaluation is made with the opinions of other reviewers and the decision is notified to the author(s).

C. Preparation for publication
Layout Editor makes the preliminary editing of the article in the process of preparation for publication. The layout of the manuscript is forwarded to the authors for proofreading before publication. The authors may be asked to make some adjustments in format and to complete the deficiencies.
Following final editing by the authors, the manuscript will be assigned for publication in the earliest issue of the journal. The paper will be published in early view in the assigned issue of the journal.

D. Early View
Accepted papers are published as Articles in Print (Online First) in the order of acceptance date. An article in early view does not mean that it will be included in the next issue. During the early view, authors are required to review their manuscripts and notify the editorial board of any suggestions for corrections in terms of writing rules and layout. No correction can be made to the papers after publishing.