Editorial Ethics

This policy addresses the establishment of the journal's policy regarding ethical aspects and good research practices that both the journal and the authors must uphold.

Intellectual property of the journal

The journal does not hold any intellectual property rights over the published articles. The intellectual property rights will always belong to the authors. The journal will not have intellectual property rights, not even over internal reports and records that may be generated. Intellectual property is always guaranteed to individuals and not to the journal.

Data sharing and reproducibility

The journal ensures open access to all metadata of the published works. It encourages authors to link research data in open access. The journal allows for the dissemination and reuse of all published material while respecting intellectual property and under the same license terms. The use of metadata by libraries and repositories is guaranteed. Authors have the right to deposit or reuse their articles without restrictions. The journal is committed to not manipulate metadata for unfair purposes.

Conflict of interest

The journal ensures that published articles have no conflict of interest. The editorial committee ensures that the peer review process is conducted by individuals from different countries or institutions. The editorial committee reviews to ensure that authors are not publishing manipulated research to benefit an interested group. The journal ensures that published articles are not propagandistic or dangerously biased.

Ethics Committee and Ethical Oversight of the Journal

The ethics committee is a body convened to address serious cases of research misconduct. It is composed of one of the chief editors of the journal and a minimum of two members unrelated to the editorial committee, ensuring that at least one member is not affiliated with the journal. This committee is not permanent and will be convened as needed.

Throughout the year, it will be the editorial committee's responsibility to oversee compliance with the journal's ethics. Additionally, starting in 2023, the journal will publish an annual report with all observations regarding the editorial practices of the journal. The report will include topics such as the peer review process, response times to authors, treatment of citations, and plagiarism prevention. The report will be published in the last quarter of the year (October-December).

Management of Complaints, Reports, and Appeals

Any author has the right to lodge complaints if their manuscript has not been reviewed within the communicated timeline. Every individual has the right to inquire about the status of their review. Every author has the right to file a complaint if the journal has not utilized all available means to disseminate their article. In all such instances, the editorial committee, through its editor-in-chief, must provide a response within a maximum of seven days.

Any individual can file a report regarding research misconduct. These reports will be reviewed by the editorial committee, and if the seriousness of the allegation warrants it, an ethics committee may be convened to address the matter.

All authors have the right to appeal in cases of research misconduct allegations, but they do not have the right to appeal against the sanctions imposed after an investigation conducted by the editor-in-chief or an convened ethics committee. Authors do not have the right to appeal rejections of their manuscripts.

Contributions of the Authors

Authors must ensure that their articles are original, unpublished, and have not been simultaneously submitted to other journals. They must not overstate the importance and applicability of their research findings; therefore, they must be critical and specific in this regard. They should cite all the works they have used within the body of the article, as failure to do so could even be considered plagiarism. The reference list should only include material explicitly cited within the main text of the article.

If their research has received any form of funding, it must be declared in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Failure to include such information may result in the article being removed, even after its publication. Furthermore, authors should specify if their research involved the participation of additional contributors.

Authors should adopt a receptive stance towards criticism and suggestions and deliver the requested corrections within the designated timelines. They also have the opportunity to inform the editorial team of any errors they may identify in their own submissions during the evaluation period.

Authors will adhere to all editorial policies of the journal and will never present works with discriminatory language (sexist, racist, classist, among others).

Authors pledge to declare authorship of their manuscripts without engaging in practices such as honorary authorship. In cases where there are multiple authors, they must explicitly indicate each individual's contribution. Only those who have actively contributed to the construction of the manuscript will be considered authors, and the inclusion of individuals solely based on directing a research project in which the manuscript is incorporated will not be permitted.

Authors will not manipulate citations in their manuscripts.

About Conduct and Obligations of the Editorial Committee

It ensures that each publication will provide scientific quality and maintain the declared frequency as continuous publication. It will be impartial and evaluate all works submitted for peer review in a double-blind peer review system, including a similarity report. Manuscripts will be accepted or rejected based on the review process.

It will ensure the quality of the published material even after its publication date. If any research misconduct, such as plagiarism, source misrepresentation, or data fabrication, is detected, it will address the situation depending on the severity of the misconduct, including the possibility of convening an ethics committee to resolve the conflict. It will also ensure that the publications in each editorial period do not repeatedly feature the same authors to avoid biases, with exceptions being allowed.

The editorial committee is obliged to respond to cases of research misconduct allegations. Depending on the severity of the allegations, an ethics committee may be convened. In serious cases where plagiarism is determined, the editorial committee, through its editor-in-chief, will communicate the retraction of the accused article and issue a formal letter of apology to the affected individual.

About Conduct and Responsibilities of the Individuals Involved in the Peer Review Process

They will carry out the requested review within the designated timeframe. Their review will assess originality, scientific contribution, handling of sources, and proper use of concepts and theories. They will report the detection of research misconduct, such as plagiarism, conflicts of interest, attempts at multiple publications, or article duplications. They will use respectful language to communicate their observations and will keep all worked information in strict confidentiality.

They will maintain a critical stance towards their own work, disqualifying themselves in cases where they consider their experience or knowledge to be insufficient to proceed and declining any involvement that could generate conflicts of interest.

 

 

Identification and Treatment of Misconduct in Research

Prevention of Misconduct

The journal is committed to promoting good research practices. To ensure these practices, specific actions are taken:

• Utilization of similarity detection software: The journal employs the "Plagiarism Checker X" software to detect similarities in received manuscripts. Any similarity percentage below or equal to 10% will be considered normal. Any percentage between 11 and 20% will require human review to determine if the software's similarity report includes perfectly identified paraphrased citations within that range. Any percentage between 21 and 25% will be deemed highly suspicious and will necessitate human inspection to ascertain the presence of misconduct. Percentages exceeding 26% will be rejected due to high similarity.
• Thorough review of citation usage and references in manuscripts: The journal does not allow the use of a bibliography; only a reference table is permitted. The journal carefully examines each citation within the manuscript's body and prohibits the inclusion of works in the reference table that were not utilized in the main body of the work. The journal does not permit citations for everyday phrases that could have been said by anyone. Citations made in footnotes are not to be included in the reference table. The journal disallows any citation solely intended to enhance the document, such as quotes from renowned authors. The journal requires manuscripts to be submitted with references categorized by type, with scientific journal articles grouped separately to avoid misconduct. Cases involving up to five uncited references will be directly eliminated. In instances of six to ten uncited references, the manuscript will be returned to the author for correction, including the appropriate citations and an explanation for their justification. More than ten uncited references will be considered highly suspicious. Regarding self-citations, the journal advises against excessive self-citation. Every self-citation, even a single one, will be reviewed with special care to determine its justifiability.
• Peer-review process: The peer-review process explicitly requests the identification of any detected misconduct.

 

Handling Detected Misconduct or Reports of Misconduct in Research

In cases where the journal identifies research misconduct or receives a report of such misconduct against a published article, the following procedures will be followed:

When the detection or report of misconduct is established, both chief editors of the journal will determine whether the situation requires immediate resolution or further investigation.

Immediate resolution falls under the responsibility of the editor-in-chief and the chief editor of the journal. The following list includes instances of misconduct that can be immediately resolved:

• Unjustified or excessive self-citation.
• Unjustified citation usage.
• Detection of simultaneous submissions to multiple journals.
• Detection of self-plagiarism.

 

Reports of misconduct that require further investigation will be resolved by an ethics committee convened for this purpose. The following list includes instances of misconduct that require the intervention of an ethics committee:

• Plagiarism.
• Malicious use of citations.

 

In general, reports of research misconduct should be handled by the ethics committee as follows:

1. Receipt of the report: The journal should receive the report of research misconduct, whether directly from an affected author or from a third party.
2. Preliminary evaluation: A preliminary evaluation of the report should be conducted to determine if there is sufficient evidence or indication of misconduct to justify a more thorough investigation.
3. Investigation: If the report is deemed meritorious, a comprehensive and fair investigation must be carried out. This may involve gathering evidence, conducting interviews with the involved parties, and consulting experts in the relevant field.
4. Confidentiality: Confidentiality should be maintained for both the reporter and the accused during the investigation process, to the extent possible.
5. Due process: The accused individual should be provided an opportunity to respond to the allegations and present their side of the story. Principles of due process should be followed, ensuring that both parties have a chance to be heard.
6. Findings and actions: Once the investigation is concluded, the results should be communicated to all parties involved. If research misconduct is confirmed, appropriate actions should be taken, such as retracting a publication, imposing disciplinary sanctions, or reporting to relevant authorities.

 

Regarding the use of non-discriminatory language

This journal will not accept the use of discriminatory or offensive language in any form. All expressions of sexist, racist, classist, and any other forms of language that undermine the dignity of individuals or groups of people are strictly prohibited.

Failure to comply with this policy will result in the requirement to remove all parts of the manuscript that engage in such misconduct, and non-compliance with this requirement will lead to manuscript rejection. This policy is non-negotiable, and failure to comply will result in a record of misconduct.

This policy is considered highly important, and its violation is always deemed serious. In cases considered extremely severe, the sanctions may include a permanent ban on participating in any editorial activities of Ediciones nuestrAmérica desde Abajo.