Publication ethics and malpractice statement

GENERAL ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR PUBLICATION

Universitas Philosophica is governed by these ethical publication guidelines

  1. Experiments with humans

Articles published in Universitas Philosophica are subject to compliance with the ethical principles contained in the Declaration of Helsinki (1964, reformulated in 1975, 1983, 1989, 1996 and 2000) of the World Medical Association, or to the specific legislation–if any–of the country in which the research was done. To this effect, the authors of articles accepted for publication, which present results of research involving human beings, such results must contain information on full compliance with ethical principles, informed consent and specific legislation with the signature of the form provided by the journal’s management.

Standards:

World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), 2001

http://www.wma.net/es/30publications/10policies/b3/

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), 2001

http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html

 

  1. Protection of the right to privacy

The right of the research subject to protect his or her integrity must always be respected. Every precaution should be taken to preserve their privacy and to minimize the effect of the study on their physical and mental integrity and on their personality.

In any research on human subjects, they should be adequately informed of the aims, methods, estimated benefits and possible risks of the study, and of the discomforts that may be involved. They should also be informed of their freedom to participate or not in the experiment, and to withdraw their consent at any time. The investigator should then obtain –preferably in writing–informed consent from the subject(s).

Standards:

ICMJE, 2001

WAME, 2001

 

  1. Scientific fraud

Assumptions of fabrication, falsification or omission of data and plagiarism:

Fabrication of results occurs when data are presented that do not exist and are invented by their authors; falsification when data are manipulated, modified and changed by the authors at their whim; and omission when the authors deliberately conceal a fact or data. Plagiarism occurs when an author presents ideas, data, or results created by others as his or her own. Plagiarism can occur in different degrees: direct copying of a text without quotation marks and citing the source, modification of some words in the text, paraphrasing, and insufficient thanks.

Standards:

European Association of Science Editors (EASE), 1994.

http://www.ease.org.uk/guidelines/index.shtml

ICMJE, 2001

Council of Science Editors (CSE) Style guide, 2000

http://www.councilscienceeditors.org

 

  1. Duplicate publication and recycling of text

The author, whenever submitting a paper, must ensure that the paper has not been published or accepted in another journal or publication. Likewise, he/she must prepare a complete list for the Editor in case there are previous presentations and reports that should be considered as redundant or duplicate publications of that paper or of any that are very similar, and inform the Editor if the paper includes aspects that have been previously published.

By submitting a paper to this journal, the author also pledges not to reuse in an identical manner significant sections of other texts of his or her authorship, already published or submitted for publication, and regardless of whether or not explicit attribution is made to those works.

A second publication in the same language as the first or in another language, especially if it is done in other countries, is justified and may be beneficial as long as it meets all of the following conditions:

  • Authors have the consent of the editors of both journals; the editor in charge of the second publication must have a photocopy, reprint or copy of the first publication.
  • The priority of the first publication will be respected with an interval of at least one week between both publications (unless otherwise negotiated by both editors).
  • The work for the second publication will be intended for a different group of readers; an abridged version may suffice.
  • The second version will faithfully reflect the information and interpretations of the first version.
  • In the second version, a footnote should inform readers, researchers and documentation centers that the article has already been published in part or in its entirety and the reference of the first publication should be stated. To be appropriate, the footnote should read as follows: "This article is based on a study first published in the journal [journal title and full reference]".
  • Permission for the second publication should be free of charge.

Standards:

WAME, 2001

ICMJE, 2001

CSE, 2000

Council of Biology Editors (CBE) Style guide, 1994:574

American Medical Association (AMA) Style guide, 1998:100

 

Authorship

  1. Requirements and criteria

The decision as to who is the author of an article should be established prior to the start of the article. Any conflicts about the signatories or the content of the article should be resolved by the contributors before submitting the paper.

All persons listed as authors must be qualified to be so. Each author must have participated in the work sufficiently to take public responsibility for the content.

General supervision of the research group is not sufficient to be listed as an author. Any part of an article that is essential to the fundamental conclusions of the article is the responsibility of at least one of the authors.

The journal management may ask the authors to specify what each author’s contribution is; this information may be published.

Standards:

ICMJE, 2001

CBE, 1994: 574

WAME, 2001

 

  1. Limits on the number of authors

They will be defined by the editorial board of each journal and the disciplines, institutions and scientific groups related to their work.

Standards:

ICMJE, 2001

CBE, 1994:574

WAME, 2001

 

  1. Order of authors

The order in which authors appear should be a joint decision of the co-authors. Because this order is assigned in different ways, its meaning cannot be inferred accurately unless it is indicated. Authors may wish to explain, in a footnote, the order in which they appear. When deciding on the order, authors should be aware that the journal may limit the number of authors listed in the subject index.

Standards:

ICMJE, 2001

CBE, 1994:574

WAME, 2001

 

Conflicts of interest

There are conflicts of interest in the publication of a manuscript when any participant in the publication process–author, referee, or member of the journal editorial staff–has ties to activities that may deleteriously influence his or her ability to judge, whether or not that possible influence has taken place. Financial relationships with industry (e.g., employment, consultancies, ownership of shares in companies, honoraria, expert testimony), whether direct or through immediate family members, are usually considered the most important sources of conflict of interest. However, conflicts of interest can also arise from personal relationships, academic rivalries, or intellectual vehemence.

Editors should avoid selecting referees with potential conflicts of interest, for example, people who work in the same department or institution as one of the authors. Participants in the review and publication of scientific texts shall disclose all influences that may involve them in a conflict of interest, especially in the face of editorials or criticisms, and publish such information if they believe it is important to readers.

Standards:

ICMJE, 2001

CSE, 2000

WAME, 2001

 

  1. Policy and procedures followed by the journal to prevent, detect and handle complaints and denunciations in this regard.

In order to prevent biased research from being published, the following measures will be implemented:

  • A signed declaration of potential conflicts of interest is required from authors.

The steps taken by the Editor in the event that a paper is found to be affected by a conflict of interest and the measures used to sanction this behavior are also outlined. In the event that the paper has been published, the journal must publish in subsequent issues a correction containing:

  • Headline of the notice with the heading "Correction".
  • Reason for the correction in the title. Example: Correction: Declaration of conflict of interest.
  • To appear in the summary of the issue citing the complete bibliographic reference of the original article.
  • The text of the note should explain its content.
  • A letter from the authors acknowledging and apologizing for this situation is acceptable.

Standards:

ICMJE, 2001

CSE, 2000

 

Confidentiality

Since the intellectual property of a manuscript submitted to a journal belongs to its author until the work is published, it is guaranteed that the original will be treated as confidential communication by the Editorial Committee of the journal in all phases of evaluation and publication. Its content may only be disclosed to the persons who are bound to read the work in the editorial work who review it on behalf of the same (referees) and who correct it.

Standards:

EASE, 1994

ICMJE, 2001

 

Creative Commons Licenses

The journal Universitas Philosophica is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Therefore, this work may be reproduced, distributed and publicly communicated in digital format, provided that the name of the authors and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are acknowledged. It is permitted to quote, adapt, transform, self-archive, republish and create from the material, for any purpose (including commercial), provided that authorship is properly acknowledged, a link to the original work is provided, and it is indicated if changes have been made. The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana does not retain the rights to the published works and the contents are the sole responsibility of the authors, who retain their moral, intellectual, privacy and publicity rights.

The endorsement on the intervention of the work (revision, style correction, translation, layout) and its subsequent dissemination is granted through a license of use and not through an assignment of rights, which means that the journal and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are exempt from any liability that may arise from ethical malpractice by the authors. As a consequence of the protection granted by the license of use, the journal is under no obligation to publish retractions or modify the information already published, unless the erratum arises from the editorial management process. The publication of contents in this journal does not represent royalties for contributors.

 

Adherence to international publication ethics standards

This scientific journal adheres to the international standards published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In turn, it is based on the Best Practice Guide for Editors of Scientific Journals and the Publication Ethics Resource Kit (PERK), developed by the Elsevier publishing group, in order to ensure transparency both in the publication of contributions and in the associated conflict resolution procedures.

The editorial team of this scientific journal will ensure that all parties (editors, peer reviewers and authors) fully follow ethical standards throughout the editorial process.