Editorial Best Practice Guidelines

Being aware of the importance of maintaining high standards of ethics and the responsibility inherent in scientific publication, the editorial board and the scientist committee of the Intropica Journal contemplate in its editorial processes, actions necessary to prevent and avoid bad practices in their content, fraud and plagiarism. In this regard, it is proposed below this document which constitutes a guide for authors in these issues.

Editorial policy

The authors who wish to publish in the Intropica journal must register on Open Journal System (http://revistas.unimagdalena.edu.co/index.php/intropica/user/register) and send from this platform the manuscript. Alternatively, the author may submit the same information through the mail-mail of the journal (revistaintropica@unimagdalena.edu.co).

Furthermore, and in order to ensure the originality of the articles and the respect for copyrights, the Intropica Journal submits all articles received in their calls for a review of originality, for which it is used the software Turnitin. When it is detected a complete coincidence of the manuscript which has been submitted with another text (without corresponding citations), the manuscript is rejected immediately. So it will not be sent to evaluation and the author will be notified about the reason for the rejection, according with the provisions of the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20flowcharts_0.pdf). In the event that the similarity is only partial, the author will be notified to make any necessary adjustments (including citations, paraphrasing, use of quotation marks, etc.) to continue the editorial process.

Articles review and editorial process

Each article submitted to the Intropica journal is considered a confidential document. For this reason, the evaluation/review process for both reviewers and authors is secret (double-blind), it means that the identity of the reviewers and the authors remain anonymous.

Author's responsibilities

The responsibility for the content of articles falls upon the authors and not the editor, the editorial board, Intropica journal’s scientific committee or the Universidad del Magdalena.

The authors manifest that they are independent on the regard of the funding and the institutional support, and that during the execution of work or article writing there have not been interests or values other than those usually carried out in research. They are only considered the articles in which the authors have no conflict of interest. In some cases it will be necessary that authors specify the support received (funding, equipment, personnel, in-kind, etc.) from people or public or private institutions for the study, as well as personal and institutional relationships which can affect execution, the results, their interpretation and writing of the article. These funding and/or support institutions should be indicated only in the acknowledgments section.

When an author reproduces a figure, a table or similar to a book or a journal article, it is necessary to make sure that it is not violating copyright (intellectual property rights). In the event that an author reproduces tables, photographs or other illustrations, it should be cited the source, by presenting the permissions for reproduction in case they are necessary.

The material extracted from letters, manuscripts and interviews, which have not been published will not be accepted unless the permission of the author is obtained, that means, a document signed where it is authorized the publication of the material in printed, digital media or any other means of dissemination, ensuring that it will be used for academic purposes only. The author always make proper acknowledgment of any material that is supplied.

Authors should ensure that the results presented through figures, tables or texts are originals which have not been plagiarized, distorted or product of their imagination. It should noted that plagiarism, in all its forms, is a serious matter which goes beyond the limits of ethics and it is considered as a bad scientific practice.

It will not be allowed an inclusion or removal of authors of articles once they have been submitted to the Intropica journal. This will only be approved in strictly exceptional cases, for which it must be obtained the written consent of the authors to be included or removed, as well as it must be obtained a signed permission from the other authors of the article, mentioning in detail the contribution of each person during the process of preparation and completion of the research. People who, in some way or another, made substantial contributions to the article, but who are not considered as authors, must be appointed in the acknowledgments.

When an error is detected in any data from the article which may alter the content of a publication, the author or authors are obliged to inform the Intropica journal, so it can be modified, removed or published an errata sheet. In the case that the error is discovered by a member of the journal, authors will be notified in order to demonstrate that their work is correct.

It must be avoided the division of manuscripts without justification. Being a very extensive study or research, it may be published in several parts, so that each of them develops a specific aspect of the original research. Authors should ensure that the various related works will be published in the same journal in order to facilitate the interpretation of study by readers in general, preventing publications are made consecutively between editions.

Editorial responsibilities

The editorial board of the Intropica journal are responsible for the selection of articles to be published, taking as main reference expert peer reviewers. The criteria for this choice are based on the characteristics of articles, such as quality, relevance, originality, unpublished character and contributions to the knowledge. In this sense, the the editorial board will also take into account the diversity and plurality of the contents of the journal. If an article is rejected, the author based on these aspects will be justified.

The editorial team of the Intropica Journal is responsible for the style review in Spanish, layout, publication and printing of all papers accepted for publication. Similarly, the dissemination and distribution of the published edition, in this case a maximum of five copies will be sent to the main author of each article, free of charge, and to the repositories and systems of national and international indexing as agreed.

Responsibility of the Peer Reviewers

The first stage of review of an article which is submitted to the Intropica journal, is the review of form and basis by the editorial team of the journal. This stage includes the review of originality of the manuscript, which is done with the help of the software Turnitin. Then the article will be submitted to a process of evaluation by at least two national or international peers, who will consider on issues related to the originality, depth and theoretical contributions

Confidentiality of manuscripts in the evaluation/review process

When carrying out a written evaluation, this should be seen as a document of great confidentiality, in any step of the publishing process and until its publication is made. It will not be released any other document or fragment revision, neither for the own benefit of the reviewer or of others, nor that can harm others with such information. However there are exceptions, such as help from other experts in the field to strengthen the review process, with prior permission of the publisher responsible for the publication. 

Declaration on ethical issues

In case of studies or collections requiring the approval of a committee or any entity of institutional or regional character responsible for the supervision of research projects, the authors must indicate in Methods section whether the application of ethical standards were considered.