Copyright and License

Novel Forensic Research (NOFOR) requires each submission to be accompanied by a Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship Form (available for download at www.nofor.org). By signing the Copyright Agreement and Acknowledgement of Authorship Form, authors retain the copyright of their work and agree that the article, if accepted for publication by Novel Forensic Research will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 International License, which permits third parties to share and adapt the content for non-commerical purposes by giving the apropriate credit to the original work.

Ethical Procedures

An approval of research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international agreements (World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects,” amended in October 2013, www.wma.net) is required for experimental, clinical, and drug studies and for some case reports. If required, ethics committee reports, or an equivalent official document will be requested from the authors. Submissions which do not have ethical approval will be reviewed according to COPE’s Research, Audit and Service Evaluations guideline.

Such manuscripts can be rejected after editorial review due to the lack of ethics committee approval.

For manuscripts concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that written informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo.

It is the authors’ responsibility to protect the patients’ anonymity carefully. For photographs that may reveal the identity of the patients, signed releases of the patient or their legal representative should be enclosed, and the publication approval must be provided in the Methods section.

For studies carried out on animals, an approval research protocols by the Ethics Committee in accordance with international agreements (Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals, 8th edition, 2011″ and/or “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals, 2012”) is required. Also, the measures taken to prevent pain and suffering of the animals should be stated clearly in such studies.

Information on patient consent, the name of the ethics committee, and the ethics committee approval number and date should also be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript.

Plagiarism and Ethical Misconduct

Policy of screening for plagiarism: Novel Forensic Research is extremely sensitive about plagiarism. All submissions are screened by a similarity detection software (iThenticate by CrossCheck) at any point during the peer-review and/or production process. Even if you are the author of the phrases or sentences, the text should not have an unacceptable similarity with the previously published data. Those with an overall similarity index of greater than 25%, or duplication rate at or higher than 5% with a single source are returned back to authors without further evaluation along with the similarity report.

When you are discussing others’ (or your own) previous work, please make sure that you cite the material correctly in every instance.

Authors are strongly recommended to avoid any form plagiarism and ethical misconduct that are exemplified below.

Self- plagiarism (text-recycling): Overlapping sections or sentences with the author’s previous publications without citing them. Even if you are the author of the phrases or sentences, the text should not have unacceptable similarity with the previously published data.

Salami slicing: Using the same data of a research into several different articles. Reporting the same hypotheses, population, and methods of a study is into different papers is not acceptable.

Data Fabrication: It is the addition of data that never occurred during the gathering of data or the experiments. Results and their interpretation must be based on the complete data sets and reported accordingl.

Data Manipulation/Falsification: It means manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images (e.g. micrographs, gels, radiological images), removing outliers or ‘inconvenient’ results, changing data points, etc.

In the event of alleged or suspected research misconduct, e.g., plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, the Editorial Board will follow and act according to COPE flowcharts.

PREPRINT

Novel Forensic Research does not consider preprint publications as prior publication. In other words, authors are allowed to present and discuss their findings on a non-commercial preprint server before submission to a journal.

Authors must provide the journal with the pre-print server deposition of their article accompanying its DOI during initial submission.

If the article is published in the Novel Forensic Research, it is the responsibility of the authors to update the archived preprint and link it to the published version of the article.

Declaration of Interest

Novel Forensic Research requires and encourages the authors and the individuals involved in the evaluation process of submitted manuscripts to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest, including financial, consultant, and institutional, that might lead to potential bias or a conflict of interest. Any financial grants or other support received for a submitted study from individuals or institutions should be disclosed to the Editorial Board. To disclose a potential conflict of interest, the ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form should be filled in and submitted by all contributing authors. The journal’s Editorial Board resolves cases of a potential conflict of interest of the editors, authors, or reviewers within the scope of COPE and ICMJE guidelines.

Appeals and Complaint

The Editorial Board of the journal handles all appeal and complaint cases within the scope of COPE guidelines. In such cases, authors should get in direct contact with the editorial office regarding their appeals and complaints. When needed, an ombudsperson may be assigned to resolve claims that cannot be resolved internally. The Editor in Chief is the final authority in the decision-making process for all appeals and complaints.

Archiving Policy

The content published by the Novel Forensic Research is electronically preserved by using Internet Archive.

Publication Fee Policy

The Novel Forensic Research (NOFOR) uses Ejmanager article tracking system software. With the journal infrastructure, instant open access to articles is provided and articles published in journals are made available online free of charge all over the world. You do not need to be a member to access the articles. All articles in the system can be accessed and read without being a journal user. No fee is charged for article submission, evaluation and publication. In addition, authors are not paid royalties for their articles.

Editorial and Publication Process

The editorial and publication processes of the journal are shaped in accordance with the guidelines of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and National Information Standards Organization (NISO). The journal conforms to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (doaj.org/bestpractice).

Originality, high scientific quality, and citation potential are the most important criteria for a manuscript to be accepted for publication. Manuscripts submitted for evaluation should not have been previously presented or already published in an electronic or printed medium. The journal should be informed of manuscripts that have been submitted to another journal for evaluation and rejected for publication. The submission of previous reviewer reports will expedite the evaluation process. Manuscripts that have been presented in a meeting should be submitted with detailed information on the organization, including the name, date, and location of the organization.

Advertisement Policy 

Novel Forensic Research is can publish advertisement images in the journal’s website upon the approval of the Editor in Chief. Potential advertisers should contact the Editorial Office. Advertisers have no effect on the editorial decisions or advertising policies.

Disclaimer

Statements or opinions expressed in the manuscripts published in Novel Forensic Research sreflect the views of the author(s) and not the opinions of the editors, the editorial board, or the publisher; the editors, the editorial board, and the publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such materials. The final responsibility regarding the published content rests with the authors.

Erratum
The correction requests submitted by the authors are reviewed by the Editorial Board and the corrections are applied based on the decision of the Editorial Board. In case of corrections in the published text, the readers are informed by publishing the Erratum text in the number following the correction. The edited article is updated on the journal web page and in the indexes when the journal is scanned.

Post-Publication Correction Requests and Retractions

All post-publication correction requests are subjected to editorial decision. Editors review the cases considering journal policies and the highest editorial standards that are adhered to ICMJE and COPE guidelines. If the correction/change is accepted to be implement, the article will be updated with an Erratum or Correction Notice and the journal record will be updated in the related indexes. 

In the cases of ethical misconduct concerns, the case will be investigated by the editors according to COPE guidelines. A retraction notice will be issued if the investigation results in the verification of the concern. The paper will remain in the online version of the journal and the retraction notice will be enclosed in the article’s record. The article record will be updated in the related indexes.

Funding Sources Policy

All authors are required to declare what support they received to carry out their research. Declaring funding sources acknowledges funders’ contributions, fulfills funding requirements, and promotes greater transparency in the research process.

Each author must individually declare all sources of funding received for the research submitted to the journal. This information includes the name of granting agencies, grant numbers, and a description of each funder’s role. If the funder has played no role in the research, this must be stated as well.

Authors are not required to provide the complete list of every single grant that supports them if the grant is not related to the research published.