Hüseyin ODABAŞAssoc. Professor., Atatürk

University, odabashuseyin@gamil.com

Publishing Ethics Awareness and Tendencies of

Academicians: The Case of Atatürk

University, Erzurum Turkey

Introduction: Key concepts Problem of the study Aim of the study Method Sampling Findings and Discussions Conclucion

Order of Presentation

Academic Publishing

Introduction: Key Concepts

There are councils like TUBITAK ( The Scientific and

Technological Research Council of Turkey), YOK (Higher Education Council),-both of them are at national level- and at universities to define and control the frame of the ethical codes related to the academic publishing

Due to the increasing number of both universities and scholars, there has been a gap at legal regulations about to define, practice, and control to the professional ethic codes. (for example there is no standard regulation to punish the scholar who made plagiarism by consciously)

Introduction: Present Situation in Turkey Related to the Academic

Publishing Ethics

The level of ethical conscious and awareness among both

academicians and members of such controlling councils Legal and institutional regulations are too limited The practicing of controlling process is not standard and

not objective. In other words it is subjective and mostly tend to save the individual who violated to the universal ethical codes.

And related to the previous reason, there is no standard approach among academicians to define what is ethic and what is not.

Why it could be happened?

Problem of the Study There is no standard regulation and type of practicing

about ethical codes in general, and particularly publishing issues in Turkish academic sphere. (ın this sphere there are councils both national and university levels, scholars, and legal issues)

Aims of the Study What are the opinions of academicians/participants about

academic publishing ethical codes (how they understand and practice these codes?)

What are the reasons of violation of ethical codes by both councils and individuals according to the participants?

Method A qualitative research was conducted. Semi-structured

interview was made by participants at Ataturk University, Turkey.

Sampling In total 15 academicians from Ataturk University

participated to the research Gender: 8 women and 7 men academicians Degree: 4 full time professor, 5 associate professor,

and 6 assistant professor Age: max: 64, min: 29

Participants’ Evaluations Related to the

Publishing Ethical Issues “Academicians are not aware of copyright issues, and this

may sometime result to the victimhood. For example most of academicians do not know the ethical issues during peer reviewing.” Men, professor

“For me the violation of ethical codes is not a new topic. Because of that, I suggest that the previous studies of academicians must be controlled again by using new Technologies. I claimed that, there are many academicians, who plagiarized before, today they behave like an angel and blame others”. Men, associate professor

Findings and Discussions I

“The most common violation of publishing ethics

in Turkish academia is adding the names of people who are not being an active part of study. And this is more prevalent in natural sciences” Men, assistant professor

“There must be indicating the contribution of each author to the study. For me joint author system is not moral. The names are added to the text to increase the number of each author’s publishing which is vital for academic promotions.” Women, associate professor

Participants’ Evaluations Related to the Publishing Ethical Issues

(Continued)

Participants’ Evaluations About the

Scientific Journals and Publishing Processes Participants’ Suggestions

“I suggest that, in the case of violation, the author should be declared to the scientific community. So everyone can know him/her. This is really too big penalty.” Men assistant professor

“From elementary school, these issues should be taught to the children.” Women, assistant professor

“The boundaries of ethical codes should be defined clearly and academicians should be educated in terms of these boundaries.” Men, associate professor

Findings and Discussions II

What is the situation? What should be done?

Conclusion

Thank you very much