Editorial Ethics Policy

La Técnica: Revista de las Agrociencias (p-ISSN 1390-6895/e-ISSN 2477-8982) is published twice a year. It circulates from January to June and from July to December, with continuous publication within the indicated periods, the articles are published as they are approved within each period. Special issues may also be published depending on the needs. It is directed to the scientific community of agro-science researchers. Its target audience and topics of interest are related to authors affiliated with institutions of higher education, private and state research organizations, on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, as well as works from agroindustry, animal production and health, life sciences, environmental protection and other disciplines that contribute original information to the knowledge of agricultural sciences, mainly as a result of research conducted in Latin America, but not limited to it.

La Técnica: Revista de las Agrociencias adheres to the guidelines established by the best editorial practices of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) as dictated by the "Guide of Good Practices for Journal Editors" (https://publicationethics.org/files/u2/Best_Practice.pdf) and the Editor's Code of Conduct.

In the expectation that authors, reviewers and editors will follow these ethical standards, La Técnica: Revista de las Agrociencias is committed to maintaining the integrity of the work it publishes. In addition, it pays special attention to issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other violations of best practices in publishing.

The objective of the journal in this regard is to protect the rights of the authors, thus, as a first step in the editorial process of the articles, the material received will be evaluated for its relevance by the Editorial Committee and submitted to the Compilatio anti-plagiarism detection system, to submit the manuscript for evaluation by blind peer review. In this way, the Editorial Team intends to protect the reputation of the journal against publication malpractices, and to comply with the periodicity already indicated.

The editorial committee of La Técnica: Revista de las Agrociencias will ensure that associate editors, reviewers, authors and others respect ethical principles during all phases of the editorial process, taking the necessary corrective measures in case of possible conflicts. All this with the purpose of providing readers and the general public with high quality works that comply with the ethical principles of a digital publication.

Objectives

  • To publish the scientific production in the field of agricultural sciences, product of research work, carried out at local, regional, national and international levels.
  • To strengthen the presence, social and humanistic value of the agricultural sciences through the construction of knowledge supported by instruments of scientific value.
  • Contribute to the consolidation of a scientific community in the agricultural sciences at the national and international level.
  • To encourage research in the field of agricultural sciences in order to promote reflection on crucial aspects of daily, agricultural, social and political life.
  • To encourage multidisciplinary research in the field of agro-sciences.
  • To disseminate an open access academic journal and comply with the norms and quality standards required by international indexing services.
  • Promote good practices in research and academic ethics.
  • To privilege spaces for reflection in the field of agricultural studies.

 

  1. Editorial Team

The Director, General Editor or Section Editors manage the manuscripts received, review compliance with formal aspects and monitor the adoption of good practices in the publication of research results. The Editorial Committee, made up of national and foreign academics, evaluates the thematic relevance of the submitted manuscripts and the Committee of Reviewers or Referees ensures the quality of the research, methodological relevance and scientific rigor.  The acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is the responsibility of the Editor based on the opinion of the corresponding academic peer review.

La Técnica: Revista de las Agrociencias presents the authors' affiliation data (institution, e-mail). In addition, it provides information on the development of the editorial process, arbitration, acceptance, galley proofs of manuscripts, as well as the criteria and procedures to be followed, such as: checklist, previous check, manuscript submission and citation rules, among others.

  1. Peer-review process

The academic peer-review process, which involves the evaluation of manuscripts and validation of the research, resorts to internal or external experts or referees, external to the institution from which the manuscripts are received, and is carried out through the double-blind modality.

Peer review ensures rigorous evaluation of the manuscripts and applies criteria of quality, credibility, relevance and feasibility of the research to be published by the journal.

  1. Principles for review

- Manuscript evaluation, manuscripts are sent for evaluation to up to five referees specialized in the subject.

- Impartiality, those involved in the evaluation process respect the values and intellectual freedom of the authors. Papers presenting negative research results should not be excluded.

- Honesty, those involved in the evaluation process must show transparency and objectivity in the evaluation of manuscripts.

- Confidentiality, there is an obligation to keep the contents of the manuscripts and the authors confidential.

- Evaluation or rejection of manuscripts, they must respond to the required principle of quality; comply with the areas of research or scientific objectives of the journal; comply with originality and not show evidence of scientific fraud.

- Retraction of published articles, due to lack of reliability of the results, errors, omission of sources or references, scientific fraud (data manipulation, plagiarism of texts or duplicate publication, among others). The journal will publish the retraction notice, although the article will be kept in the journal.

- Conflict of interest, those who are involved or have any kind of academic, work or personal relationship with the author of the manuscript should abstain from the evaluation.

- Originality, manuscripts are subjected to an authenticity (similarity) evaluation process using Compilatio software.

  1. Authorship standards

Authors must ensure that the data and results presented in the work are original and have not been copied, invented, distorted or manipulated. Plagiarism in all its forms, multiple or redundant publication, as well as the invention or manipulation of data constitute serious ethical misconduct and are considered scientific fraud. Authors submitting originals to the journal must agree not to submit it to another journal for consideration while the manuscript is under evaluation.

The journal requires that authors adhere to the ethical standards required for researchers and scientific writing. Specifically, the journal requires that all authors adhere to the ethical standards prescribed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

  1. Bibliographical references

The manuscript should acknowledge the publications incorporated in the work through citations and use original sources, and should not include irrelevant sources.

The journal does not restrict the number of references used in the manuscripts; however, it limits the excess and abuse of including citations from the authors themselves, which are not justified and pertinent to the research.

On the other hand, it considers important the use of references from articles published in national and international journals, limiting the use of publications of restricted circulation.

Some other rules of importance are listed below:

Editor, Co-Editor and Web Editor:

- Ensure that the members of the editorial committee, editorial advisory board and reviewers correspond to the corresponding profiles, in order to actively contribute to the development and good management of the journal.

- Provide details on the functions and duties of the members of the editorial committee and editorial advisory board, reviewers and authors.

- Consult members of the editorial committee in a timely manner to evaluate their opinions on the operation of the journal and on scheduled changes to the journal's policies and guidelines.

Decisions related to editing and publication remain intact in the face of external pressures or government regulations. The Managing Editor has the final say on the editorial content of the journal and when it is published.

Editorial Committee and Editorial Advisory Board:

  • Promote discussion and input from authors, readers, reviewers, and editorial board members on ways to improve editorial processes.
  • Encourage and value academic peer review processes, continuously evaluating editorial processes.
  • Support initiatives aimed at reducing academic misconduct and educating authors about publication ethics.
  • Update the journal's objectives and policies considering the performance of authors and reviewers.
  • Encourage responsible behavior and discourage misconduct.

Reviewers:

  • Know the guidelines for reviewing papers, responding in an assertive and timely manner.
  • Report any potential conflicts of interest related to the review of a paper.
  • Comment on ethical issues and possible research misconduct raised in the papers.
  • Guarantee the originality and confidentiality of the work, being attentive to redundant publication and plagiarism.
  • To have tools to detect related publications, by consulting the executive editor or associate editors.

Authors:

  • Be familiar with the journal's rules for the publication of papers.
  • Review information related to copyright, authorship criteria, code of ethics, anti-plagiarism policies and others that guarantee ethical conduct in the editorial process.
  • Respond in an assertive and well-founded manner to the review of their work.
  • Abide by the guidelines and recommendations issued by the journal's coordination, in order to guarantee the quality of the papers.
  • Report conflicts of interest related to the work or to the editorial process of the journal.

In no case will authors pay for any of the phases of review and publication of their articles.

Editorial and peer review processes:

  • Ensure that those involved in the editorial process receive adequate training and are informed about the latest guidelines, recommendations, and developments in peer review and journal management.
  • Guarantee simple and timely mechanisms in the processes of reception, evaluation, information and publication of the papers received, ensuring their prompt publication.
  • Review peer review practices periodically, in order to adopt immediate corrective measures that guarantee a successful, ethical and timely process.

Quality assurance:

  • Maintain a vigilant and critical conduct focused on detecting falsified data or controversial information in the papers received.
  • Guarantee a quality review by academic peers, through timely information of the review guidelines and compliance by the authors of the recommendations emanating from this process.
  • Ensure that the published version of the paper corresponds to the one corrected by the authors in accordance with the academic peer review.

Protection of individual data:

- Ensure the confidentiality of data related to published papers and the individuals involved.

Details about submitted papers remain confidential, limited to the author, potential reviewers, editorial advisors and our editorial team.

Academic integrity:

  • To encourage ethical conduct in the research process involved in the development of the work presented by the authors, especially when it involves people, animals, or the environment.
  • All manuscripts undergo a review based on their academic merit. This includes relevance, originality, validity of the research, clarity, and fit with the focus of the journal. Reviews are free of bias, regardless of the author's origin, beliefs, nationality, orientation, political position, or institutional association.

Intellectual Property:

  • Implement the anti-plagiarism policy in the papers received, through the use of specialized computer programs, routinely and especially when there are suspicions of plagiarism.
  • Support authors whose copyrights have been violated or who have been victims of plagiarism.

La Técnica: Revista de las Agrociencias expresses that the content of the contributions is the sole responsibility of the authors, who maintain their rights of authorship, and in no way of the journal or the entities for which the authors work. The journal has a Creative Commons license which allows sharing, copying, distributing and publicly communicating the contents under the following conditions:

- Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivative Work (BY-NC-ND): the material may be distributed, copied and exhibited by third parties if shown in the credits. No commercial benefit can be obtained. No derivative works may be made, allows derivative works under the same or similar license.

Publishing entity:

  • Ensure the establishment of guidelines that guarantee harmonious relations between the different entities involved in the editorial process.
  • Establish regular communications with the coordination and editorial committee of the journal, in order to know and promote the development plans related to the editorial process.
  • Recognize the performance of the personnel involved in the editorial process and promote the intellectual production of the journal at a national and international level.

Openness and conflict resolution

Unpublished information from submissions is not used for personal research by our editorial team without the author's consent. All sensitive data acquired during manuscript evaluation remains private and is not used for personal gain. If conflicts arise that link editors to authors or affiliated institutions, those editors will recuse themselves, relying on another board member.

Recommends that reviewers carefully discuss their potential conflicts of interest related to the evaluation of the manuscript before conducting the review. Sometimes, the reviewer may have a potential conflict of interest in reviewing a particular manuscript. For example:

  • May be a close colleague of the author(s).
  • May be conducting research or publishing on the specific topic of the author(s) of the manuscript.
  • May be involved in a project that would benefit from the authors' work if the journal accepts the article for publication.
  • May have assisted the authors in the completion of their work.

If one or more of the above situations arise, or if any reviewer, for any other reason, feels uncomfortable reviewing an anonymous manuscript, he/she should inform the Editor, so that the journal can decide whether it is necessary to find a different reviewer. It is recommended that the reviewer refuses to review a document if he/she has a possible conflict of interest, or declares such conflict in the early evaluation stage, in order to avoid later accusations that compromise the objectivity of his/her report, as well as not to delay the review process.

If necessary and due to the nature of the type of research, the editorial team of the journal La Técnica, will resort to the Bioethics Committee of the Universidad Técnica de Manabí, in special cases that merit its intervention. The procedure will be guided by the norms established in its regulations.