Submissions

Author Guidelines

Before Submitting

All manuscripts must be submitted through the MERT Journal online submission system. Submissions must be original, unpublished, and not currently under review at another journal or conference. Self-plagiarism (re-using substantial portions of one's own published work without attribution) is also considered misconduct.

Manuscript Types

Word limits exclude abstract, references, tables, and figure captions.

Formatting Requirements

• Language: English (preferred) or Turkish. A title and structured abstract in both languages are required for all submissions (TR Dizin requirement).
• File format: Microsoft Word (.docx)
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt
• Line spacing: Double
• Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides
• Page numbers: Bottom centre
• Citation style: APA 7th Edition

Manuscript Structure (Research Articles)

1. Title — Concise and informative (max. 20 words). Provide in both English and Turkish.
2. Abstract — Structured: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion (max. 250 words). Provide in both English and Turkish.
3. Keywords — 4–6 keywords in both languages.
4. ORCID identifiers — Required for all authors (see below).
5. Introduction — Background, research gap, objectives, brief outline of the paper.
6. Literature Review — Theoretical framework and critical synthesis of prior work.
7. Methodology — Mathematical and statistical methods described in sufficient detail for reproducibility.
8. Results — Clear presentation with tables, figures, and numbered equations.
9. Discussion — Interpretation, comparison with literature, implications.
10. Conclusion — Main findings, limitations, directions for future research.
11. Author Contributions — Using CRediT taxonomy (e.g., Conceptualization: A.B.; Methodology: C.D.).
12. Funding — Acknowledge all sources of funding or state "This research received no external funding."
13. Conflict of Interest — Declare any competing interests or state "The authors declare no conflict of interest."
14. Ethics Statement — See below.
15. Data Availability Statement — State where data supporting the results can be found, or that data are available on request.
16. References — APA 7th Edition.
17. Appendices — If applicable (mathematical proofs, supplementary tables, code).

ORCID Requirement

All authors must provide their ORCID iD. Authors without an ORCID iD should register for free at orcid.org before submission. This is required for TR Dizin compliance.

Ethics Committee Approval

Research involving human participants, personal data, or animal subjects must include the name of the ethics committee, the approval number, and the date of approval in the Methods section and in the submission system. This requirement applies regardless of country of origin and is mandatory for TR Dizin indexing. Retrospective ethics approvals are not accepted.

Plagiarism and Similarity Policy

All submissions are screened using iThenticate or a comparable plagiarism detection tool. The overall similarity index must not exceed 20% (references and bibliography excluded). Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will be returned to the authors without review. Self-citation and self-similarity are also assessed.

Mathematical Notation

• All equations must be numbered consecutively in parentheses: (1), (2), (3).
• Use an equation editor (e.g., Microsoft Equation Editor, LaTeX via MathType) — do not submit equations as images.
• Define all symbols and variables upon first use.
• Matrices and vectors must be clearly formatted (bold uppercase for matrices, bold lowercase for vectors).

Figures and Tables

• All figures and tables must be numbered consecutively and given a descriptive title.
• Figures: minimum 300 DPI; supply as separate high-resolution files if requested.
• Tables: must be editable (not images); created in Word or embedded from Excel.
• All figures and tables must be cited in the text.

Article Processing Charge (APC)

MERT Journal is committed to open access. Details regarding APC will be published on the journal website before the first issue is released. Authors from low-income countries (as classified by the World Bank) may apply for a full or partial fee waiver by contacting the editorial office prior to submission.