Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Journal of Awareness – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Journal of Awareness (J. Aware.) is an international, open-access academic journal that publishes original research in the humanities and social sciences, aiming to increase social and scientific awareness, based on a double-blind peer review system.

1. General Information

Q1. What is the name of your journal and what fields does it cover?
The name of our journal is Journal of Awareness (J. Aware.). J. Aware. is an international, open-access academic journal that publishes original research in the humanities and social sciences, aiming to increase social and scientific awareness, based on a double-blind peer review system.

Q2. In which languages do you accept articles?
Article submissions are accepted in both English and Turkish.

Q3. What is the publication format?
Starting with Volume 10, we have transitioned to a continuous publication model—once an article is accepted, it is published online without waiting for the entire volume to be completed.

2. Article Submission and Fees

Q4. Do you have a deadline for article submissions?
No. Article submissions are accepted continuously throughout the year. A deadline may be set for special issues; in this case, information will be provided on the “Announcements” page.

Q5. Do you charge article review and publication fees?
Our journal charges a $50 article submission fee for each article that passes editorial pre-screening. Once an article is accepted, no additional fees (Article Processing Charge (APC) or publication fee) are charged to authors under any name.

Q6. What is the copyright and licensing status?
Upon publication of the article, the author retains the copyright. Published articles are made available under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY·4.0).

3. Review Process

Q7. How does the review process work?
Our journal applies a double-blind peer-review model: The identities of the authors are hidden from the reviewers; the identities of the reviewers are hidden from the authors.

Submitted articles first undergo an ‘Initial Editorial Review’. The relevant steps are as follows:

  1. Initial check by the Editor-in-Chief (scope, format, plagiarism, etc.)
  2. Articles deemed suitable are assigned to the relevant Section Editor.
  3. They are sent to at least two independent reviewers.
  4. Based on the reviewer reports, the Section Editor and then the Editor-in-Chief make the final decision.
  5. Author revision process (if necessary)
  6. Final decision and publication preparation. Special deadlines are set for authors in cases requiring revision (e.g., 3 weeks for minor revisions, 8 weeks for major revisions).

Q8. What is the average decision time?
The standard time for referee evaluation is 30 days (approximately 4 weeks). The revision period is defined as 21 days for minor revisions and 60 days for major revisions, depending on the situation.
(Note: These are recommended times and may vary in special cases.)

Q9. Can authors appeal after a decision?
Yes. If authors wish to request a reconsideration of the decision based on grounds such as “unseen review, misinterpretation,” they may submit a written appeal with justification to the Editor-in-Chief.

4. Information for Authors

Q10. What should I pay attention to in the Author Guidelines?

  • Elements such as manuscript format, text length, title structure, reference style, table/figure standards.
  • File type to be submitted (e.g., MS Word, PDF).
  • Ethical statements: originality of the work, not published elsewhere during the same period, conflict of interest statement, ethics committee approval (if applicable).
  • Plagiarism declaration and the journal's “iThenticate” scanning application.
  • Language of the study (English or Turkish) and English title, abstract, keywords.

Q11. Is data sharing, additional materials, and/or code access required?
Authors may openly share the study's core dataset or code, or it may be “available upon request from the author.”

Q12. What happens after an article is accepted?
The accepted article is professionally typeset. The author is sent a “galley proof,” or pre-print proof copy, for final review. At this stage, only minor typesetting or typographical errors can be corrected; no substantial changes can be made to the content, data, or authorship.

5. Publication and Access

Q13. When will my article be published?
After acceptance, articles are published online as soon as possible (due to our continuous publication model, we do not wait for the entire issue to be complete).

Q14. What is the open access policy?
The article is made freely available to all readers upon publication (Gold Open Access).

Q15. What should I know about citations, DOI, and indexing?

  • Each article is assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
  • The journal is indexed in various indexes and databases, and this information is available on the “Index & Databases” page.
  • Authors may share their articles with their institutions, social media, or research network profiles after publication.

6. Ethical Rules and Policy

Q16. What ethical principles apply?
Our journal adheres to the following ethical principles:

  • Publication ethics detailed above, peer review process, plagiarism detection (use of iThenticate).
  • Disclosure of conflicts of interest.
  • Reliability of data, figures, and tables.
  • Principles of falsification, fabrication, and non-duplication.
  • Accurate declaration of authors' contributions.

Q17. What happens to rejected articles?
An article that has been declined will not be resubmitted to our journal; if the author wishes to revise and resubmit the same article under different conditions, it will be considered a “new submission.”

7. Technical Support and Communication

Q18. What should I do if I encounter a technical problem with the submission system (manuscript submission)?
For technical support regarding the submission system, you can contact our editorial office at joa.editorial@gmail.com and via WhatsApp: +90 530 638 70 17. Please specify the error you encountered, your browser, and a screenshot.

Q19. Who can I contact for general questions or suggestions about the journal?
Contact address for journal management and editorial office:

Journal of Awareness is published by Holistence Publications. Editorial decisions are independent and based solely on academic merit and ethical standards.