About the Journal

Policies

Shipping

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES  

The Journal of Research in Energy, Environment and Technology (RIEMAT):  is a biannual electronic publication of scientific character, with ISSN 2588-0721 (Electronic Version), edited by the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences of the Technical University of Manabi, oriented to the socialization of research results in areas of engineering, applied sciences, technologies and environmental aspects, which aims to promote research on theories and practices in different areas of engineering, science, technologies, engineering education, innovation, environmental management and teaching of these subjects.

 It is aimed at the scientific community and society, educational and business institutions, social and state organizations, interested in learning and publishing on these topics. Submissions of original articles in Spanish and English are accepted and will follow a blind peer review process. RIEMAT does not charge for processing, submission or publication costs.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

The Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT), is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available at no charge to the user or his/her institution. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full texts of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without seeking prior permission from the publisher or author. This is in accordance with the BOAI (Budapest Open Access Initiative) definition.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

LICENSE

All contents of the magazine are licensed under the Creative Commons International CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.


Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivative Works 4.0

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

The Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT), expresses that the content of the articles is the sole responsibility of the authors, who maintain their rights of authorship, and in no way of the journal or of the entities for which the authors work.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

PEER REVIEW POLICY

The Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT)T guarantees a review process for submissions that conforms to the principles of objectivity, non-discrimination, and scientific quality. RIEMAT performs a review of the originals submitted through the double blind peer review system.

The review of submissions will be carried out in two phases: first, a preliminary review of the submissions will be carried out by the editorial staff to assess whether they meet the requirements for preliminary evaluation as a scientific publication. Articles that meet the requirements established above will be evaluated anonymously by two expert reviewers in the subject, eliminating all identifying data of authorship. In the case of discrepancies between them, they will be sent to a third reviewer. All reviewers have public evaluation criteria on this platform. The acceptance or rejection of each paper will be based on a reasoned decision according to these reviewers.

The editor of the RIEMAT journal will guarantee the selection of the most qualified and scientifically specialized reviewers to issue a critical and expert appraisal of the work with the least possible biases. This will ensure the academic quality of the manuscripts submitted through an objective, balanced and fair review.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

PLAGIARISM DETECTION

The RIEMAT editorial board has the function of identifying the levels and percentages of similarity of the texts submitted for consideration for publication, compared with available open access information. For this reason, before sending for peer review, submissions are screened for plagiarism using the Compilatio anti-plagiarism system, in which the editor verifies that the article has not been published previously, that the content is self-authored, and that the intellectual property of other authors has been correctly referenced. Articles that exceed 10% similarity may be rejected or returned to the authors for correction. This process is licensed on the Compilatio platform.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

STORAGE AND BACKUP  

RIEMAT uses the Open Journal System (OJS), which is compatible with the digital archival preservation services LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) and  CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe). These services allow documents to be stored, preserved and restored as well as distributed to libraries; it is also possible to store and distribute journal content to participating libraries.  In addition, articles from each issue of the journal are stored in the Internet Archive in pdf format, a digital library that provides free access to researchers, academics and the general public.   

The journal will only use the names and e-mail addresses of users' registrations on the platform exclusively for the purposes established therein and will not be provided to third parties or for use for other purposes. In addition, the journal does not charge for the receipt, processing and publication of articles.

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

CODE OF ETHICS AND BEST PRACTICES  

By submitting an article to the Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT), the authors accept the parameters established by the journal when issuing the letter of acceptance of the publication rules, and therefore accept the processes designed for the selection process defined by the journal and its Editorial Committee.

All our collaborators, authors, reviewers and editors tacitly declare that they have read and understood these principles of Ethics and Good Practices declared by our editorial policy.

Editing formats

The files published in the official portal of the Journal of Research in Energy, Environment and Technology (RIEMAT), are available in easily reproducible and machine-readable formats (PDF, HTML and EPUB) from January 2023, and we are working to incorporate more formats.

Editorial team

All participants in the editorial process undertake to maintain total confidentiality about the manuscripts received, their authors and the topics covered. In addition, the editors will ensure that decisions are based exclusively on technical considerations, quality and originality of the study, as well as respect for the accepted rules of scientific writing. The editorial team will select reviewers with extensive experience in the subject matter of the journal to guarantee a critical evaluation of the contents and will ensure the originality, clarity, relevance and contribution of the study to the editorial line. The confidentiality of article data and personal information of authors and reviewers will be maintained, rigorous and transparent evaluations will be carried out according to the established arbitration process, and the anonymity of authors and reviewers will be guaranteed during the peer review process. In addition, authors will be informed about the status of their article during the review process and the established deadlines will be respected. The editorial team undertakes not to use the contents of the articles received in the journal for its own research without the written consent of the author.

In its role as the highest responsible for the journal, the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Energy, Environment and Technology RIEMAT, is committed to:

  1. Join efforts to meet the needs of both readers and authors.
  2. Work for the continuous improvement of the magazine.
  3. Guarantee the quality of published material.
  4. To take care of the integrity of the scientific production published in the journal.
  5. Safeguarding freedom of expression.
  6. Preserve the academic integrity of the content.
  7. Prevent commercial interests from compromising intellectual standards.
  8. Make corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies after publication if necessary.
  9. Protect intellectual property and copyrights.
  10. Ensure that the editorial process is rigorous and clear.
  11. Explain to the authors the peer review and evaluation processes, as well as the application procedures and requirements, the conditions of access to the journal and the possibilities of use of the different articles within the framework of copyright.
  12. To resolve in a timely and sufficient manner any concerns presented by the actors involved in the editorial process.
  13. Decisions to accept or reject an article for publication should be based on the importance, originality and clarity of the article, as well as on the validity of the study and its relation to the journal's mission. Therefore, the RIEMAT editorial team guarantees quality and objectivity in the peer review and evaluation processes, as well as in the entire editorial process, respecting the commonly accepted rules of scientific writing.

Reviewers

The Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT), provides reviewers with an online form detailing the parameters of manuscript evaluation, preserving at all times the confidentiality of their identity. Reviewers are responsible for:

  1. Evaluate whether an article is suitable for publication, leaving a record in the Article Evaluation Form and providing comments in the original document.
  2. Justify the decision with solid reasons, especially when rejecting an article, detailing the evaluation in each aspect requested by the Journal.
  3. Evaluate the article in an unbiased manner, recognizing different perspectives without automatically disapproving, and through a rigorous evaluation based on science, originality and relevance of the information.
  4. Accept only those texts for which they have the necessary competence.
  5. Comply with the deadlines agreed with the Journal to submit evaluations through the evaluation protocol provided.
  6. Declare and disclose any conflicts of interest that may influence their ability to impartially review the text, whether of a personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious nature, and to inform the editor of any suspected irregularities in the evaluated text.
  7. Formulate respectful and constructive comments that arise as a result of the evaluation of the article.
  8. Provide the data required by the journal in the OJS system.

 Authors

As a fundamental principle, all authors must assume formal and public responsibility for the entire content of their article. They should be willing to provide any additional information that the journal may require to clarify doubts or concerns during the review process. In addition, it is necessary to disclose individual contributions, clearly indicating the participation of each author in the conception, design, analysis, writing and any other activity directly related to the study. In case there is no specific task attributable to an author, he/she should not be credited or included in the paper. In no case will "honorary" authorship by the journal be accepted. To establish authorship of scientific papers, the author is understood as the person who:

  • Participated in the formulation of the problem and hypothesis.
  • Conceptualized, created, thought about, studied, reviewed, analyzed or interpreted data.
  • Participated in the creative development of the manuscript or editing of the statistical analysis.
  • Had a prominent role in the final version of the paper or wrote a significant part of the text.
  • He participated in the interpretation of the results.
  • He is the principal investigator of the research project and has conceived the central idea of the entire manuscript.
  • Has the ability to explain and defend parts of the work or study in public or academic venues (CNRSI, 2008).

Those who do not meet any of these criteria may appear as contributors in the acknowledgements, but in no case as authors of the manuscript. Finally, the submission of a manuscript without the permission of at least one of the authors will not be accepted under any circumstances.

The authors are responsible for:

  1. Ensure that the article submitted is original and unpublished, being subjected to analysis through the Compilatio anti-plagiarism system.
  2. Acknowledge that the authors retain their authorship rights, and in no way those of the journal or the entities for which the authors work.
  3. Provide complete information, including first name, last name, institution, city, province, country, e-mail and ORCID identifier.
  4. Avoid the submission of previously published manuscripts, considering situations such as previous integral publication, the inclusion of extensive fragments of previously published material or the submission of papers that are part of full-length published proceedings. These criteria apply to publications in any format (printed or electronic) and in any language.
  5. Disclose any conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, that may influence the results or interpretation of their work, including sources of research funding. In addition, avoid conflicts of interest in the publication of data and research results.
  6. Clearly cite and reference any fragment taken from the work of another author or from your own texts, including data sources, tables, figures and documents.
  7. Refrain from submitting the article to another journal while it is under refereeing process in La Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT). Detection of this conduct will result in the suspension of the corresponding review or publication process.
  8. Accept and adhere to the editorial standards, criteria and procedures established by The Journal of Research in Energy, Environment and Technology (RIEMAT).
  9. Ensure that all human or animal studies comply with national, local and institutional laws and requirements.  If necessary, provide details on how compliance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the NIH policy for the use of laboratory animals was ensured. For human studies with specific forms, obtain written informed consent and protect the privacy of participants.

 Policies on unethical practices

In general, those who participate in the process of publication of articles in the Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT) commit themselves to maintain an honest conduct, with a professional technical practice and in good faith, always considering that the process and the results reflect an ethical work.

Those involved in the editorial process undertake, within their possibilities and responsibilities, to follow up on any complaint or suspicion of scientific malpractice, reserving the right to take the measures they deem appropriate in cases where misconduct is verified in any work submitted for evaluation.

When faced with unethical behavior, the first decision will be made by the Editor-in-Chief, who will analyze the problem and reject any document that includes inappropriate behavior or practices. If the problem or situation is more serious, the Editor-in-Chief may first seek advice from the Editorial Committee and then from the Publications Committee of Editorial UTM.

Examples of these unethical practices may include:

  • Plagiarism: plagiarism is identified as the violation of copyright and intellectual property rights, punishable by law.
  • Self-plagiarism: an author is considered to be self-plagiarizing when reusing his or her own material that has already been published, without indicating the reference to the previous work.
  • Inappropriate use of quotations, such as excessive inclusion of irrelevant or related quotations, unjustified self-citations, and alteration of words that may distort the original meaning of a quotation.
  • Copying elements of another author's work (text, illustrations, graphs, formulas) that are not properly referenced according to international citation standards.
  • Incorrect application of quotation when taking fragments of texts from another author.
  • Reuse of an author's content that has been previously published.
  • Redundant or duplicate publication: the simultaneous or multiple submission of the same article to different journals.

The journal will follow the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the principles of transparency and best practices of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA):

https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparency-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/

https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf

 Handling of complaints and/or appeals

In RIEMAT, it is guaranteed that authors, reviewers and readers have the right to file complaints related to the journal. Especially for authors, they are granted the full right to appeal review and editorial decisions. All complaints will be handled on a factual basis; therefore, the author should argue his or her case exclusively on that basis. The Editorial Team is committed to a full and fair analysis of all reasons, facts and evidence presented.

To file a complaint or appeal, the interested party should send an e-mail to riemat@utm.edu.ec, addressed to the Editor of the journal. The communication should:

  • Formally confirm that all guidelines and procedures provided by the journal have been read, understood and followed without exception.
  • Indicate clearly, specifically and unequivocally the nature of the claim.
  • Present in an organized and detailed manner all the facts that support the case.
  • Attach all documents supporting the reasons and facts stated in the complaint.
  • Formally acknowledge that they will accept the decision of the review as final once the defined procedure has been completed.

 

Once the complaint or claim has been received, the Editorial Team will follow the following procedure:

  • Within 7 working days after receipt, an acknowledgement of receipt of the claim will be sent to the claimant.
  • Within 20 working days after acknowledgement, the Editorial Team will analyze the complaint, the facts supporting the complaint and the documents submitted. A preliminary response will be sent to the complainant.
  • The applicant will have 7 working days to respond, accepting or contesting the preliminary decision.
  • In the event of a challenge, additional justifications and evidence must be provided. If no formal response is received, the decision will be considered final, and the Editorial Team will execute the necessary actions as established in the communication issued. If the Editorial Team's preliminary decision is formally challenged, a special committee of specialists and colleagues will be established to analyze the case.
  • The decision of the Editorial Team will be issued within 20 working days and will be considered final, being executed as soon as possible after communication to the interested parties.

 Post-publication correction and retraction

To request post-publication corrections or retractions, authors should follow the steps below:

  1. Carefully identify and document errors or ethical problems in your published work.
  2. Once identified, authors should contact the Editor-in-Chief directly at riemat@utm.edu.ec, providing a detailed description of the problem and any relevant evidence.
  3. Authors should provide any additional information that may be required and respond in a timely manner to requests from the Editor-in-Chief.

By following these steps and working closely with the journal, authors can contribute significantly to ensuring the integrity and accuracy of their papers.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

CONFLICT OF INTEREST  

Conflicts of interest are all those situations that could exert undue influence on the submission, review, or publication of a manuscript. These conflicts may be financial, academic or professional, contractual or personal, or of any other nature not explicitly expressed.

All persons involved in the processing of a manuscript must declare any potential conflicts of interest that may interfere with the objectivity or integrity of a publication. This includes authors who submit a manuscript, reviewers who are asked to evaluate a manuscript, and editors who handle the manuscript.

This declaration should be made at the time of submission of the manuscript, in the case of authors, or as soon as the manuscript is received for handling or review, in the case of editors and reviewers.

Authors and reviewers must affirm that, during the two years following submission of the article, they have no actual or potential conflicts, whether financial, personal, or of any other nature, that could adversely affect the integrity of the article.  

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

INBREEDING IN PUBLICATIONS  

The editorial staff in its publication policies has decided to minimize inbreeding within the Journal of Research in Energy, Environment and Technology (RIEMAT), to consider a proportion of 80% of articles of external affiliation to the Technical University of Manabi, i.e. only 20% of internal research will be accepted in its publications, for each issue published.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

TARGET AUDIENCE OF THE MAGAZINE  

The publications are aimed at teachers, researchers, students and the community in general, who are interested in reading quality scientific publications in the areas associated with information and communication technologies.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

SOURCES OF FINANCING  

The RIEMAT journal is financed by the budget of the Universidad Técnica de Manabí.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS

The journal receives for evaluation articles of scientific content and that are not simultaneously submitted to other journals or editorial bodies. The articles must make a rigorous and interesting analysis on a specific scientific topic of common interest to researchers and professionals. Articles may include figures, photos, diagrams, diagrams, tables or charts. These may be of one or more types, but always an adequate amount and the condition to argue or replace text, not duplicate it. The classification given by the standards of the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th (seventh) edition is used to consider the types of articles, which is explained below:

  1. a) Original scientific articles

These are the highest priority papers for scientific publication in the Journal. This type of articles refer to authentic and original research reports, must include analyses that demonstrate the verification of the hypothesis and generate new and diverse analyses not contained in other publications. Its objective is to communicate the findings to the scientific community. This type of article will replicate the entire research procedure. The text must be well structured, divided into sections or paragraphs logically ordered to facilitate its comprehension.

  1. b) Review articles

These are works in which a critical evaluation of previously published research is carried out. A definition and clarification of the problem should appear in its development, as well as a synthesis of the research previously carried out, which will allow informing on the state of the research to be carried out. The author will reflect the common points of opinion and contradictions that he/she has found with respect to the reviewed literature and will make suggestions of the steps that he/she proposes to follow to solve the detected problem. These articles consider in their structure the description of the bibliography search methods. It is very important to use updated bibliography of the subject, never less than 20 titles, in which at least 70% are dated from the last 5 years. Seriousness and rigor in the selection of the information presented is required. The purpose of the review, the sources and databases consulted, the search strategy, the criteria used for the selection of articles, and the citation of primary sources are mandatory.

  1. c) Methodological articles

They address a new methodological approach or modifications of previously proposed research methods. They must provide researchers with data that allow them to apply the new methodology proposed. They have the characteristic of allowing comparison between methods.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION

The Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT), is a biannual publication, with 2 volumes per year with 1 issue each. The scheduled publication dates are January-June and July-December; however, the reception of articles is continuous.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLE REVIEW PROCESS

Article submissions should be made through our Open Journal Systems (OJS). It is necessary to register including the ORCID identifier and log in to submit article proposals with the editorial standards established by the journal and to check the status of current submissions.

Review process

RIEMAT is a refereed journal, which uses blind review by anonymous academic peers for the approval of articles, according to a rigorous procedure, as described below:

1) We receive, through the Open Journal Systems (OJS), the submissions (article without author information), the letter of acceptance of the publication rules (signed by the corresponding author) and the checklist of requirements (in the proposed format).

2) Submissions will be reviewed by the Editorial Board to verify if they comply with the journal's editorial guidelines and standards and if they meet the requirements for preliminary evaluation as a scientific publication. Articles that meet the requirements established above will continue with the editorial process. Those that do not, will be notified that they do not comply with the journal's editorial policies and the editorial process will be terminated.

3) Articles that meet the preliminary evaluation are analyzed to detect plagiarism, i.e., content with similarities to other works. This is done through the anti-plagiarism compilatio system, in which the editor verifies that the article has not been published previously, that the content is self-authored and that the intellectual property of other authors has been correctly referenced. Articles that pass the anti-plagiarism check (maximum 10% similarity) continue with the editorial process.

4) Submissions will be reviewed anonymously by two academic peers who are experts in the subject matter of the article. During the editing process, authors may be consulted if difficulties arise and clarifications are needed through (up to) two rounds of review.

5) Once the result of the review by academic peers is known, the Editorial Board will formally communicate the response to the authors. If deemed pertinent, the authors may rectify the text and send it within a maximum of 15 days from the moment they receive the notification to be reviewed again. If no response is received from the authors within the indicated period, the Editorial Board may definitively reject the work. When an article is not accepted for evaluation, but the topic is relevant to the journal, the authors are invited to make the pertinent modifications for resubmission.

Diagram of the steps for the evaluation of the articles. Phase 1.

  1. Valuation

In this section the reviewer makes a brief synopsis of the article and then points out the main contributions of the article, its novelty, or other aspects that the reviewer considers relevant.  

  1. Remarks

In this section, the reviewer communicates in detail each of the aspects that he/she considers that the author should modify, explain or eliminate. The following questions are considered: Does the introduction adequately argue the relevance of the work and clearly establish the contribution based on the literature review? If experiments are included, have the materials and methods used been correctly described, and have the results been presented in a clear and concise manner, and their discussion allows the understanding of the results of the research carried out?

  1. Novelty of the item (Excellent; Good; Fair; Poor; Insufficient)
  2. Technical content (Excellent; Good; Fair; Poor; Insufficient)
  3. Quality of article presentation (Excellent; Good; Fair; Poor; Inadequate)

Evaluation criteria.  Phase 2

  1. Verification of requested changes.

In this section it is requested to communicate in detail each of the aspects that the reviewer considered necessary to correct during the previous round of review. You should indicate whether or not the suggestions of your review have been included. If necessary, attach the original manuscript indicating the changes not made. The author(s) may have justified why the suggestions were not accepted. In this case you should indicate whether or not you agree with the justification given.

Reviewers' decision

Based on the results of the article evaluations, the following response criteria are considered for each submission:

  • Accept this shipment: The shipment has been accepted as is.
  • Publishable with modifications: Submission requires minor changes and will be accepted once changes have been completed.
  • Resubmit for review: The submission needs significant revision. A new file should be submitted and another round of expert peer review will be conducted.
  • Not publishable: The submission was not accepted for publication in this journal because it was considered to be of insufficient quality.

If the article is accepted, the authors are informed and if it is rejected, they are informed of the reasons that led to this decision.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

ITEM PROCESSING AND SHIPPING COSTS

The Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT) does not charge for reading, processing, submission or publication costs.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

REVIEW/PUBLICATION TIMES

The editorial board of the Revista de Investigaciones en Energía, Medio Ambiente y Tecnología (RIEMAT), tries to give a quick response to authors who submit articles. On average, from the receipt of the article to the acceptance letter, 8 weeks.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

MAGAZINE STATISTICS