Ethics and Best Practices Guidelines

FOR THE EDITORS

The evaluation of the submitted manuscripts will happen exclusively concerning their academic merit (importance, originality, validity of the study, clarity and coherence) and their relevance to the scope of the Journal. Race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, political philosophy, or institutional affiliation will not be considered.

Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or any other institution outside the Journal itself. The editor has full authority over the editorial content of the Journal in keeping with its mission and objective, as well as the time of publication of said content.

Editors and editorial staff will not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript until its publication, except to authors, reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher, as appropriate.

Editors and editorial board members will not use the unpublished and revealed information in the submitted manuscript for their research purposes without the author's explicit consent. Insider information or ideas obtained by editors due to research management will be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

Editors will recuse themselves regarding research in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative or other relationships with the authors of the manuscript and related companies or institutions. In this case, they will ask another editorial board member to carry out the activities with the manuscript.

The editors will ensure that all submitted manuscripts being considered for publication are reviewed by at least two experts in the field. The publisher will decide which manuscripts will be published, based on the validation of the work in question, its importance to researchers and readers, the comments of the reviewers and the current legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The publisher may consult with other editors or reviewers to make this decision.

The editors will investigate any activity that violates ethics and that is denounced to them. If such acts are found to be sufficiently founded, a correction, a retraction, an expression of concern or another that corresponds will be published. This action will happen regardless of the time that has elapsed since the publication.

FOR ACADEMIC PEERS

Peer review helps editors make editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with the authors of the manuscript, can help them improve their research. Peer review is essential to formal academic communication and is at the heart of the scientific effort. Academics who wish to contribute to the scientific process must also act in review processes and, to a large extent, in review processes.

Any invited arbitrator who feels incompetent to review the manuscript or knows that its prompt revision will be impossible for them must immediately notify the editors and reject the invitation in order that other reviewers may be contacted. Manuscripts received for review are confidential documents and should be treated as such. They should not be shown or discussed with others except if the editor authorizes them in absolutely exceptional and specific cases. This criterion also applies to invited reviewers who reject the review invitation. The examination of the manuscript must be carried out objectively. The comments will be clearly formulated and supporting arguments so authors can use them to improve their research. Personal criticism is inappropriate. Reviewers should identify relevant published papers not cited in the manuscript. The citation of the relevant sources must accompany any observation, derivation or argument that is sustained in previous publications. The reviewer must also notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the research under review and any other (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge. Guest academic peers with conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative or other relationships with authors or research-related institutions, must immediately notify the editors to declare their conflicts of interest and decline the invitation. Unpublished material in a manuscript should not be used in the reviewer's research without the author's written consent. Insider information or insights gained through peer review should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain. It also applies to peers who reject the review invitation.

FOR THE AUTHORS

For the sake of science and research, the authors of the original research must present an accurate description of the work done and the results, followed by an objective discussion of the importance of the work. The research should contain enough detail and references to allow others to replicate the work, if applicable. Review articles should be accurate, objective, and complete, while opinions or editorial perspective pieces should be clearly identified as such. Fraudulent or imprecise statements are unethical behavior and are unacceptable. Authors may be asked to provide the raw data from their research for editorial review and to make them available to the public. In any case, the authors must guarantee the accessibility of said data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably through an institutional or subject data repository or any other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants and the legal rights linked to this data can be protected. Authors must ensure that they have written and presented original works and verify that they have adequately cited the sources (works and words) used. Publications that have influenced the determination of the nature of the work reported in the investigation should also be cited. Plagiarism takes many forms: passing the academic article or research of others as their own, copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of the investigations of others without attribution of authorship, and claiming results of investigations carried out by others, among others. Plagiarism, in all its forms, constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. The authors must ensure that they have adequately recognized the information obtained in private (from a conversation, correspondence or discussion with third parties) and that it cannot be used or reported without the explicit written permission of the source. Authors should not use information obtained while providing confidential services, such as manuscript arbitration or grant applications, unless they have obtained explicit written permission from their holders. Personal data should be anonymized. Papers describing the same research should be published in at most one Journal or primary publication. Therefore, authors should not submit for consideration a manuscript that has already been published in another journal. Submission of a manuscript simultaneously to more than one Journal is unethical and unacceptable publication behavior. Exceptionally, the publication of some types of articles (such as translations or protocols) in more than one Journal can be justified, provided that the following conditions are met: the authors and editors of the interested journals must accept the secondary publication, it must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document and the primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication. Only people who meet these authorship criteria should be listed in a manuscript as authors, as they must be able to assume public responsibility for the content:

(a) who made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, acquisition of data, or analysis or interpretation of the study

(b) who wrote the manuscript or critically revised it with important intellectual content

(c) who saw and approved the final version of the document accepting its presentation for publication.

All persons who made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (such as technical assistance, editing and editing assistance, and general support) but who do not meet the stated authorship criteria should not be listed as such, but they must be referred in acknowledgments (this section is admissible if you have the written permission of those who collaborated). Whoever submits the manuscript to the Journal must ensure that all the people who have co-authorship are referred, verify that they have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and accepted its publication. Authors should, at the earliest possible stage (usually by submitting a written statement at the time of submission of the manuscript, as well as by including a statement in the manuscript itself), express any conflicts of interest that may influence research results or interpretation (for example, and not limited to, funding disputes such as fees, educational grants or other funds, membership participation, employment, consulting, stock ownership, license agreements; as well as not financial, such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs on the subject or materials discussed in the manuscript). All sources of financial support for the research must be disclosed. If the research involves using animals or human participants, the authors should ensure that all procedures follow the relevant and current regulations. The manuscript must contain a statement to this effect. Authors should also include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for data collection or experimentation with human participants. The privacy rights of human participants must always be observed. Authors must participate in the peer-review process and cooperate fully, responding promptly to publishers' requests for raw data, ethical clarifications and evidence, informed consents, and intellectual property permits. In the case of a first correction or revision decision, the authors should respond to the reviewers' comments systematically, point by point and promptly, reviewing and forwarding their manuscript to the Journal within the indicated period. When authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work, they must promptly notify the editors of the Journal and cooperate with them to correct their manuscript by typos or retraction. If the editors know through third parties that a published manuscript contains significant errors or inaccuracies. In that case, the authors will be required to quickly correct or withdraw the document or provide evidence to the journal editors of the correctness of the document. U.C.B. is not responsible for the opinions, comments, and content of the articles published in this Journal, which are the sole responsibility of their author/s.

FOR THE EDITORIAL

In cases of alleged scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the editors will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and modify the article in question. It includes the prompt publication of an erratum, clarification or, in the most severe case, the retraction of the affected work. Besides, they will take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of documents where investigative misconduct has occurred. No such misconduct will be encouraged or consciously allow such conduct to occur. The principal editor is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of academic research, ensuring its accessibility.