Publication Language: Our journal accepts original research articles written in English.

Author Guidelines

These guidelines have been prepared for authors wishing to submit a manuscript to Tourist Destination. To maintain the quality and standards of our journal, we kindly request that you review these guidelines carefully before submission. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the specified rules may be returned to the author without entering the review process.

1. Publication Policy & Ethics

All manuscripts submitted to our journal must comply with the following ethical principles and publication policies:

• Originality: Submitted manuscripts must be original, not have been previously published in any other peer-reviewed journal, and not be under consideration by any other journal simultaneously. An abbreviated version of the content presented at a scientific meeting is not considered a prior publication.
• Authorship and Responsibility: All authors must certify that they have made a substantial scientific contribution to the paper and that they approve of its final form. The authors are jointly responsible for all content within the manuscript, including arguments, data, analyses, and conclusions.
• Author Limits: It is recommended that a manuscript has a maximum of 7 authors. When author count exceeds seven, a detailed contribution statement may be requested.
• Copyright and Licensing:
  • Authors warrant that they hold the copyright to their manuscript and all materials within it or have obtained necessary third-party permissions.
  • Published articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.
  • Authors grant Tourist Destination the right to publish, store, distribute, and reproduce their articles electronically. Authors retain copyright in their work.
• Conflicts of Interest (Two-Stage Disclosure): Authors must declare in the submission system or on the separate Title Page whether any financial, commercial, or personal relationship exists that might constitute a conflict of interest. If no conflict exists, state: "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Conflict-of-interest statements containing author identity must not be included in the blinded manuscript.
• Ethics Committee Approval (Two-Stage Model): Studies involving human or animal subjects require formal ethics approval. Complete committee and protocol details must be provided in the online system / Title Page. The blinded manuscript must include only an anonymized statement to safeguard the double-blind review. Full details are added to the final manuscript upon acceptance.
• Artificial Intelligence Usage & Synthetic Data: Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors. If AI is used, a full disclosure must be provided in the submission system / Title Page (and included in the accepted final version). The use of AI for legitimate synthetic data modeling or simulation must be detailed in the Methodology section. Fabricating empirical research data using AI is strictly prohibited.
• Data Sharing & Availability: Authors are strongly encouraged to share their raw datasets and code in open repositories (such as Zenodo, TÜBİTAK Aperta, OSF, or institutional archives). A Data Availability Statement is required in the final manuscript.
• Persistent Identifiers & Institutional Attribution (ORCID & ROR): All authors are required to provide their 16-digit ORCID iDs. In addition, author affiliations are disambiguated and linked via the Research Organization Registry (ROR) global database to ensure interoperability and precise institutional attribution.
• Publication Fees: The journal charges no submission fees, editorial processing fees, APCs, page charges, colour charges, or any other author-side fees (Zero APC / Diamond Open Access).

2. Manuscript Submission Process

• Submission System: Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively via the Tourist Destination online submission tracking system.
• File Format: The main manuscript must be submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) or PDF (.pdf) format.
• Double-Blind Peer Review Preparation (Two-Stage Model): The journal strictly adheres to double-blind peer review. Authors must ensure:
  • Blinded Manuscript: Must not contain author names, affiliations, email addresses, acknowledgments, or explicit ethics approval committee names / protocol numbers that reveal identity.
  • Title Page & Metadata: Full author details, complete ethics approval numbers, conflict of interest, and AI statements must be entered into the online submission metadata fields and/or uploaded as a separate Title Page.
  • Post-Acceptance: Upon acceptance, all author and disclosure information is fully integrated into the final published article.

3. Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

3.1. Structure & Word Count

• Word Limit: Research articles should ideally not exceed 12,000 words. Research notes should target 3,000 to 5,000 words.
• Language: English.
• Section Order: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Main Text (Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings/Results, Discussion and Conclusion), Appendices, References, and Tables/Figures.

3.2. Title, Abstract, and Keywords

• Title: Sentence case.
• Abstract: 150 to 300 words summarizing objectives, methods, principal results, and conclusions.
• Keywords: 3 to 7 keywords.

3.3. In-Text Elements (Tables, Figures, Equations)

• Tables: Numbered sequentially with table title above (e.g., Table 1: Result of measurement model) and source explicitly indicated below (e.g., Source: Authors' elaboration).
• Figures: Numbered sequentially with figure title below; high resolution (minimum 300 DPI).
• Equations: Sequentially numbered in parentheses flush right: (1), (2)...

3.4. References

• Must strictly adhere to APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Association). DOIs and URLs must be included where available.

4. Author Declarations & Warranties

Authors submitting to Tourist Destination warrant that:

• The corresponding author is authorized to act on behalf of all co-authors.
• The manuscript represents original scholarship, infringes no copyrights, respects third-party rights, and upholds international research ethics standards.