The editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pan Health Sciences is responsible for evaluating the scope and quality of each article. One of their most important tasks is to determine whether an article is suitable for publication in the journal.
Subject editors are responsible for making recommendations based on the results of peer reviews. Language editors review the articles submitted by authors to ensure they comply with the Pan Health Sciences writing rules and are linguistically valid.
The editorial board is responsible for ensuring that the journal publishes high-quality research and complies with ethical and other publication standards. It holds regular meetings before each issue.
In addition, the editor-in-chief and field editors are responsible for providing guidance on journal policy and scope, developing the editorial board, and recruiting new members. Furthermore, they are responsible for encouraging the submission of high-quality articles, ensuring the continuity of articles to be submitted to the publisher, identifying the need for conferences and meetings on specific topics to improve the journal’s publication processes and contributing to these processes, organising periodic editorial board meetings, and promoting the journal among colleagues.
Article Management
Editorial Review Process
The editorial and peer review processes for articles submitted to the Journal of Pan Health Sciences are conducted through the journal’s online article tracking system. First, the journal secretariat checks the article files for compliance with writing rules and evaluates any deficiencies. In addition, the Turnitin programme is used to detect plagiarism, and the scan results are monitored and reported to the chief editor. For an article to be accepted for review, the plagiarism rate must be 20% or below.
Once this preliminary evaluation is complete, the articles are reviewed by the chief editor. If any unclear or contradictory issues are identified in terms of format, methodology, or content, the author(s) may be requested to make the necessary corrections. Articles that are not in line with the journal’s publication policies and subject area or that have low scientific contribution are rejected without being sent to the peer review process.
An area editor is assigned to articles accepted for the evaluation process. The field editor is determined by the editor-in-chief, taking into account factors such as the field of study, current workload, and affiliation with one of the authors, and receives an evaluation invitation via email. After reviewing an article, the field editor reports its suitability for publication to the editor-in-chief. At this stage, articles that receive a negative evaluation are rejected without being included in the peer review process.
All other articles are sent for peer review, and this process is completed within a maximum of 21 days. For details about the process, please refer to the Pan Health Sciences flow chart at the end of the section.
Determination of Reviewers
At least two reviewers are invited by the area editors to evaluate the articles. The following criteria are required to serve as a reviewer for the Journal of Pan Health Sciences:
Having completed at least a doctoral level of academic education,
Having published at least one article in a nationally or internationally indexed journal in their field,
Being able to devote time to article evaluation.
The journal’s online system contains information about reviewers’ fields of work, experience, and publication history, along with reviewer recommendations.
Factors to Consider in Referee Selection
The first factor considered in the selection of referees is impartiality. Referees must not work at the same institution as any of the article authors or have collaborated with them recently. In addition, if a conflict of interest or a situation that could cause a perception of bias is identified, a different referee is appointed in place of the relevant referee.
The second important factor is the qualification of the referee. Referees must have significant expertise in the relevant field. Field editors can review the publication history to evaluate the experience of referees. However, qualified referees may not always have the time to accept the invitation.
The following methods can be used to find qualified referees:
Searching for relevant keywords through abstracting and indexing services,
Identifying researchers working on similar topics through the article’s reference list,
Selecting referees from the field editors’ existing academic networks.
These processes ensure that referees are selected from among qualified, impartial, and expert individuals in their field.
Revision Decision Process
Each reviewer who reviews the article may prepare a report based on their evaluation and recommend one of the following decisions: accept, minor revision, major revision, requires rewriting, or rejection.
Minor Revision: The article can be made suitable for publication with only minor corrections.
Major Revision: The article must be comprehensively revised in accordance with the recommendations of the referee and field editor.
Re-writing Required: The article must be rewritten from scratch, taking into account the recommendations of the referee and field editor.
The field editor communicates their final opinion on the article to the chief editor based on the reports of at least two reviewers and their own evaluation.
Final Decision
The final decision on the article is made by the chief editor based on the opinions of the field editor and reviewers. This decision may be acceptance, rejection, or a recommendation for editor revision.
If both referees recommend rejection of the article, it should be rejected. However, even if the referees recommend acceptance or minor revision, the chief editor or field editor may reject the article if there is a fundamental flaw.
The Journal of Pan Health Sciences aims to publish only original works. Therefore, highly derivative or replicative studies are not accepted. Submitted articles should contribute to scientific knowledge and reflect original research. If the reviewers identify serious methodological flaws, previously published results, or other insurmountable issues, the editor-in-chief may decide to reject the article.
Confidentiality
All submitted manuscripts are kept strictly confidential. Editors may not use any information related to the content of the article prior to publication. The Journal of Pan Health Sciences employs a double-blind review process; reviewers do not know the authors’ identities, and authors do not learn the reviewers’ identities.
Publication Ethics
The Pan Health Sciences Journal regularly checks submitted articles and publication records for plagiarism and other research misconduct.
If an editor detects ethical violations such as plagiarism, authorship disputes, duplicate submissions, data manipulation, or figure manipulation, they should report this to the journal’s editorial board via [pan@yeniyuzyil.edu.tr].
The editorial board of Pan Health Sciences Journal is responsible for assigning a blind field editor and reviewers to articles authored by editorial board members to ensure editorial impartiality. Additionally, the publication rate of articles authored by editorial board members in the journal cannot exceed 15% of the total number of articles published annually.
Peer Review
All research articles, review articles, case reports, and other types of articles published in the Pan Health Sciences Journal undergo a detailed evaluation process by independent editors and reviewers.
Letters submitted to the editor are evaluated by the editor-in-chief, who decides whether they will be published.