A.General Information

All submitted manuscripts first undergo Editorial Preliminary Screening as described below. Manuscripts with correctable technical or formatting deficiencies may be returned to the authors for correction, whereas manuscripts meeting the desk-rejection criteria may be rejected without external peer review.

Editorial Evaluation and Peer-Review Process

1. Editorial Preliminary Screening

All manuscripts submitted to MAS Journal of Applied Sciences undergo an editorial preliminary screening before being sent for external peer review. This preliminary screening is an internal editorial assessment and is separate from the external peer-review process. No external reviewer is appointed at this stage.

During the preliminary screening, the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or relevant Section Editor evaluates the manuscript with respect to:

-compliance with the journal’s aims and scope;

-suitability of the manuscript type for the journal;

-compliance with the journal’s submission and formatting requirements;

-completeness of the manuscript and required supplementary documents;

-adequacy and clarity of the language for scientific evaluation;

-originality and basic scientific relevance of the study;

-the presence of obvious and fundamental methodological or scientific deficiencies;

-compliance with publication ethics and research ethics requirements;

-plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, duplicate publication, or simultaneous submission to another journal;

-availability of ethics committee approval, informed consent, or other mandatory ethical documentation where applicable.

Following the preliminary screening, one of the following decisions may be made:

a) Proceed to External Peer Review: The manuscript meets the journal’s basic editorial, scientific, ethical, and technical requirements and is sent for external peer review.

b) Return for Technical or Editorial Correction: The manuscript contains correctable deficiencies related to formatting, presentation, language, missing documents, or other technical requirements. The authors may be asked to correct these deficiencies before further consideration.

c) Desk Rejection: The manuscript is rejected without external peer review when it clearly fails to meet the journal’s essential editorial, scientific, ethical, or scope requirements.

The Editor-in-Chief or an authorized editor may make a desk-rejection decision without obtaining external reviewer reports in cases including, but not limited to:

-the manuscript being outside the aims and scope of the journal;

-submission of an article type not considered by the journal;

-insufficient originality or scientific relevance evident during preliminary assessment;

-fundamental scientific or methodological deficiencies that prevent the manuscript from being considered for external review;

-language quality being so inadequate that reliable scientific evaluation is not possible;

-substantial non-compliance with the journal’s author guidelines, particularly when the deficiencies are not corrected after an editorial request;

-missing mandatory ethics approval or other essential ethical documentation;

-plagiarism, substantial unattributed text overlap, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, or other serious publication-ethics concerns;

-simultaneous submission of the manuscript to another journal.

Minor deficiencies in formatting, presentation, or language will normally result in a request for correction rather than immediate rejection.

A desk rejection is an editorial decision made before external peer review and should not be interpreted as a decision based on external reviewer reports. Authors are informed of the principal reason(s) for such a decision.

2. External Peer Review

Manuscripts that successfully pass the editorial preliminary screening are submitted to external peer review.

MAS Journal of Applied Sciences applies a double-anonymized peer-review process, in which the identities of the authors and reviewers are concealed from each other.

Each manuscript entering the external peer-review stage is evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers with appropriate expertise in the subject area. Reviewers are selected on the basis of their academic expertise and are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.

External reviewers evaluate the manuscript primarily with respect to:

-originality and scientific contribution;

-appropriateness and reliability of the methodology;

-validity of the results;

-adequacy of data analysis;

-consistency between the results and conclusions;

-scientific significance and relevance of the study;

-adequacy of the literature and references;

-clarity and scientific presentation of the manuscript; and

-compliance with relevant ethical and scientific standards.

Reviewers may recommend:

-Acceptance;

-Minor Revision;

-Major Revision; or

-Rejection.

Reviewer recommendations constitute expert advice to the editors and do not, individually, constitute the final editorial decision.

When the two principal reviewer reports provide substantially conflicting recommendations, particularly when one reviewer recommends acceptance and the other recommends rejection, the manuscript will normally be submitted to a third independent reviewer before a final scientific decision is made.

For a manuscript to be accepted for publication, at least two external reviewers must provide a favorable recommendation, subject to satisfactory completion of any revisions requested during the review process.

Authors may be required to submit a revised manuscript together with a point-by-point response explaining how each reviewer comment has been addressed. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers when further assessment is considered necessary.

3. Final Editorial Decision

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding manuscripts submitted to MAS Journal of Applied Sciences.

For manuscripts that have entered external peer review, the final decision is made by considering:

-the external reviewer reports;

-the authors’ responses to reviewer comments;

-the adequacy of revisions;

-the scientific quality and integrity of the manuscript; and

-compliance with the journal’s editorial, ethical, and publication policies.

External reviewers make recommendations, whereas the Editor-in-Chief makes the final editorial decision.

For research manuscripts that have entered the peer-review process, acceptance is not granted solely on the independent judgment of the Editor-in-Chief without the required external peer review. A manuscript must receive the required favorable external reviewer evaluations before it can be accepted for publication.

The Editor-in-Chief may, however, reject a manuscript even after favorable reviewer recommendations if a serious ethical violation, research-integrity concern, undisclosed conflict of interest, legal concern, fundamental methodological problem, or significant breach of the journal’s publication policies is identified during or after the peer-review process. The reason for such a decision will be documented.

Accordingly, the distinction between the two stages is as follows: before external peer review, manuscripts may be rejected solely by editorial decision according to the desk-rejection criteria stated above; after external peer review has begun, scientific publication decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief on the basis of the external reviewer reports, the authors’ revisions and responses, and compliance with the journal’s editorial and ethical standards.

All authors listed in the manuscript must complete and sign the Author Declaration and License to Publish form and upload it to the submission system. Authors retain copyright in their work and grant MAS Journal of Applied Sciences a non-exclusive license to publish and disseminate the article under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. The license becomes effective only if the manuscript is accepted for publication. A maximum of two (2) works of an author may be published as the first name in the same issue. An author can publish a total of six (6) works in a year.

Language

Although articles in English and Turkish are accepted, priority is given to articles written in English to increase international readability and citation. Articles must comply with the standard grammar and spelling rules of the language in which they are written (English or Turkish) and punctuation marks.

Article Types

It publishes studies in the form of research articles, scientific compilations and technical notes that include analytical and numerical solutions on experimental and theoretical advances.

Manuscript Submission

The article, when submitted together with the Author Declaration and License to Publish signed by all authors, guarantees (confirms) that it is original and has not been published elsewhere, and that it has been approved - implicitly or explicitly - by all co-authors and the responsible authorities in the unit/institute where the work was done. In case of any claim for compensation, the publisher will not be held legally responsible.

While starting

To submit your article prepared in accordance with the guide to the MAS Journal of Applied Sciences, please click here and after logging in to your account (if you do not have an account, create an account at https://masjaps.com/index.php/mas/about/submissions). Your default login ID is is your e-mail address. Use your existing account, do not create new accounts with new submissions) and start submitting with the "Make a Submission" button on the main page of the journal. Do not forget to check the Submission Checklist before submitting an article.

After logging in, the article submission process is completed in 5 steps. Upload your article information, article file and other necessary documents correctly, step by step. There is no transition to the next step until one step is completed.

To follow the article status;

When you log in to the system with your user information and click on the panel, the relevant magazine appears. By clicking on the journal, the article status can be followed.

After you submit your article via the online system, you will be able to track the status of your article and you will be automatically notified by e-mail if there is any action.

Similarity Report

In order to verify the originality of the submitted article, a similarity report should be obtained using plagiarism detection software (Turnitin, iThenticate: Plagiarism Detection Software) services. This report should be uploaded as a separate file with the name "similarity report".

Ethics in Publishing

Please see our information on Ethical Principles and Publication Policy. Before submission, do not forget to read the "Ethical Responsibilities of the Authors".

Please ensure that any manuscript you submit to this Journal conforms to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommendations for ethics, Best Practice Guidelines and as well as to the rules of MASJAPS.

B. Preparation of Manuscripts

Article text; It should be written on one side of A4 size paper, in 12 point font size (including all headings), in Times New Roman font, and single spaced. The margins of the page should be 3 cm from the top, bottom, left and right, and each page and line of the article should be numbered (numbering is continuous). Paragraph indents within the article text should be 0.5 cm.

The entire article should be in a single file, including full text, references, figures, and tables. Figures and tables should be given in relevant places within the article.

Tables and Figures

All visuals (drawings, photographs, paintings, graphics, etc.) other than tables should be defined as 'Figure'. Tables and figures should be numbered as "Table 1, Figure 1" using consecutive Arabic numerals, unless there is a single table or a single figure in the text. Each table and figure should include a brief title. Table and figure captions should be placed in appropriate places. Tables and figures should be included in the article after being cited in the relevant text.

Tables

Tables must be prepared with the table tool in Word; tables with images will not be accepted.

The table title should be placed above the table.

. The table title should be written in Times New Roman font, 11 point.

. If there are table notes and abbreviations, please place them below the table body.

. Prepare tables vertically. Avoid large paintings.

. Give a short title for each column.

. Make sure that the data presented in the table do not repeat results described elsewhere.

. Please avoid using vertical lines, color or shading in table cells.

Figures

Figures must be in electronic format of appropriate size, JPEG or TIFF, and with a resolution of at least 300 DPI. Do not send files that are too low resolution or disproportionately large for the content.

Photos can be color or grayscale. Photographs and all figures (graphs, maps, etc.) must be in clear format. Graphics should be pasted in an editable format and not converted to image format. If necessary, after the evaluation process is completed, original copies of the figures will be requested from the author(s) in separate files. Times New Roman font should be used in the graphics in the figure. A brief title containing a description of the figure should be given below the figure, but should also explain all symbols and abbreviations used. The figure title should be written in 11-point Times New Roman font.

Permissions
If authors include figures, tables or text passages published elsewhere, or use of software, questionnaires and scales that require permission in the study, they should obtain permission from the copyright holders. Please note that some publishers do not provide electronic rights for free and MAS Journal of Applied Sciences will not be able to reimburse or be responsible for any costs incurred in obtaining these permissions. In such cases, materials from other sources should not be used.

Footnotes
Footnotes should be numbered consecutively. Those in tables or figures should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters. Asterisks should be used for significance values and other statistical data. Footnotes should never include the bibliographic details of a reference.

In-Text Citation

One Author:

Consider the following examples:

-................................................................(Seydoşoğlu, 2020).

-Seydoşoğlu (2020).................................................................report

- in (2020) Seydoşoğlu's study of freshwater ecology showed that.......

Two authors:

If there are two authors, the surnames of both authors should be indicated and separated from each other by "and", (Kökten and Seydoşoğlu, 2022).

Consider the following examples:

-Kökten and Seydoşoğlu (2020)...................

- Similar results were expressed by Kökten and Seydoşoğlu (2022), Turan (2021).

More than two authors:

In citations with more than two authors, only the surname of the first author should be given, followed by “et al.” should be written. In Turkish articles, it should be 've ark.'. Then, the date should be given (Seydoşoğlu et al., 2021)

See the examples below:

- Seydoşoğlu et al. (1971) …………………reports (For the article sent in English)

-.......................................................................(Seydoşoğlu et al. 2021)

Two or more works by different author:

When two or more works must be cited together, in-text citations should be arranged alphabetically in the order in which they appear in the reference list, and a semicolon should be used to separate citations.

For example: Several studies reported similar results (Geldi and Ergen, 2021; Kocataş, 2022; Tunçtürk, 2024).

Two or more works by the same author:

If there are two or more works by the same author, list the years of publication, earliest first.

For example: (Seydoşoğlu, 2017, 2018, 2019) or Seydoşoğlu (2017, 2018, 2019)

Citation to authors with more than one work in the same year:

Works are named a, b, c, etc. after the date. should be referred to as. These letters should be listed alphabetically according to the surname of the first author in the bibliography list.

For example:

-Kökten and Seydoşoğlu, 2022a

-Kökten and Seydoşoğlu, 2022a, b

No authors:

For English publications;

Anonymous, 2021. Crop Production Statistics. Turkish Statistical Institute, (http://www.tuik.gov.tr), (Access date: 20.02.2020).

For Turkish publications;

Anonim, 2021. Bitkisel Üretim İstatistikleri. Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu, (http://www.tuik.gov.tr), (Erişim tarihi: 20.02.2020).

Information Retrieved from the Internet

Anonymous, 2021. Crops and Livestock Products. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL), (Accessed: 20.04.2020).

Internet Sources;

Anonim, 2021. Turkey's Total Biomass Energy Potential. Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, General Directorate of Energy Affairs, Biomass Energy Potential Atlas, (https://bepa.enerji.gov.tr/), (Accessed:10.09.2020)

C. Additional Files

In addition to the article text, the following documents and documents on the journal's website must be prepared and uploaded to the system during the application:

. Title Page in Word format, which includes the name-surname and institutional information of the author(s) and the contact information of the corresponding author,

. "Author Declaration and License to Publish" signed by all authors and scanned in pdf format,

. Ethics Committee Report, if necessary.

D. Manuscript Submission

Prepared manuscript and related additional files should only be uploaded using the "Submit a Submission" section of the web site of the MAS Journal of Applied Sciences (https://masjaps.com/index.php/mas/about/submissions) by corresponding author who is responsible for the manuscript.

Authors will be able to follow progress of their manuscript from the journal web site. Authors who cannot complete the article loading steps can send an e-mail to submission@masjaps.com to ask for help.