Ethics and Best Practices

Ethics and good publishing practices

Recognizing the need to clarify the criteria and procedures that should govern the relationships between scientific periodicals, their authors and reviewers, as well as to objectify the rights and responsibilities of each party in the process of participation in the public sphere, Revista Territorios y Regionalismos (RTR) sets out its ethical framework and good practices below. This framework is based on the guidelines proposed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in its Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors: http://publicationethics.org/

General criteria:

  • The document should contain sufficient detail and references to allow replication or debate of the
  • Fraudulent or intentionally inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior.
  • Ensure that the materials submitted to the journal are original and unpublished.
  • If the work of others has been used, it should be properly cited and referenced.

Duties and responsibilities of editors

General

  • Ensure the quality of the material published.
  • Defend freedom of expression.
  • Safeguard the integrity and confidentiality of academic records.
  • Prevent commercial needs from compromising intellectual and editorial standards.
  • Be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary.

Specific in relation to readers

Whether by direct mention or through specific requirements, the editorial team will always provide all information relating to the origin of the publication, sources of funding, the role of any funders or sponsors, and the origin or financial sponsors of the published articles. It will also make public information on editorial policy, editing criteria and indexing categories.

With regard to the authors

The editors will take all necessary steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, specifying, if applicable, the purposes and standards of the different sections in which the content is organized.

The journal's decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of a proposal for publication will be based exclusively on the importance, originality and clarity of the manuscript, as well as on its relevance to the orientation of the journal, as stated in About us.

On the journal's website, the journal will inform authors about the requirements for preparing manuscripts, the method of evaluating originals, review guidelines, response deadlines, appeal mechanisms, treatment of copyright, and resolution of conflicts of interest. Any changes in the persons and criteria of the editorial board of the journal shall not affect authors (or their work) accepted for publication prior to the date of the changes.

On peer review

The journal will publish the guidelines for the evaluation of original manuscripts, so that authors will know what aspects of their work the reviewers will focus on. RTR will take measures to ensure and safeguard the privacy of the identities of peer reviewers, as well as of those being reviewed, prior to publication, of course. Any changes in this regard will be duly communicated to the authors.

In the event of an unanswered or unsatisfied complaint by the authors or reviewers regarding an action taken by the journal's management, an impartial arbitrator will be appointed by mutual agreement by the parties and will make a final decision.

Regarding the promotion of debate

The journal's management will publish any justified criticism or opposition received regarding the publication of an article or opinion. The authors of the criticized materials will, in turn, have the opportunity to respond subject to the norms of respect and academic cordiality.

Regarding commercial considerations

The RTR is an open access and free journal. It does not charge any fee for the publication and/or consultation of its contents.

Authors' duties and responsibilities

  • Authorship is limited to those who have made significant contributions to the conception, planning, design, execution, data collection, interpretation and discussion of the results of the article. The person submitting the text will be responsible for ensuring that all authors are listed in the document and that they have approved the final version submitted to the journal.
  • To add or remove an author, the reason for the change must be sent, together with confirmation from all the authors that they agree with the addition, deletion or reorganization.
  • Likewise, the contribution of other collaborators who are not signatories or responsible for the final version of the work should be acknowledged in a note in the article by way of thanks.
  • If the journal or the authors of the article so request, the published version will briefly describe the individual contribution of each member of the group of authors to the collective work.
  • Authors are responsible for recognizing and declaring any conflict of interest that could bias their work.
  • Once the review process by the Editorial Committee has begun, the article must comply with all phases of the editorial process.
  • If the article submitted is part of a funded research project, this funding should be noted in the relevant sections.

Sources of funding

As indicated in the guidelines for authors, they should indicate in Template 1 and in the Submission Form whether the article was commissioned by an institution or whether it has been funded by a private or state entity, in order to determine whether or not this situation may affect the content of the article.

Duplicate publication

  • Not having published or intending to publish the same research results in more than one journal, if this is done it is considered a breach of editorial ethics.
  • Acknowledge properly the work done by others and cite such work.

Fraud and malpractice

In all its forms it constitutes unethical conduct in the publishing and academic fields, which is unacceptable. Scientific fraud is considered to be any of the following:

  • Partial or total fabrication of results by the author.
  • Partial or total fabrication of results using generative AI is unacceptable.
  • Falsification, manipulation or modification of data, research materials, images, equipment or processes by authors at their convenience.
  • Deliberately omitting or concealing a fact or
  • Incorrectness, omission or copying of bibliographic citations without

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when you present the work of another person as your own. It is an act of falsification, it is a crime. Failure to cite your sources, whether they come from the internet, paper documents or other sources, is considered an act of plagiarism. It occurs when:

  • An author presents as their own ideas, data or results created by
  • They make a direct copy of a text without quoting it and putting it in quotation marks
  • Paraphrasing and insufficient acknowledgement.
  • Copying texts generated by a generative AI such as ChatGPT may constitute an act of plagiarism.

Self-plagiarism

Repeating part of a published paper in a new article. In this case, the author should consider whether the study is very relevant, take the main parts and quote them without exceeding their use in the new paper.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of generative Artificial Intelligence to create or produce content from the research and/or writing submitted is not permitted. Its use is only allowed in specific cases that do not affect the originality of the work. For this reason, the following guidelines must be followed:

  • It is mandatory to report the use of generative Artificial Intelligence and to specify the information provided to the AI tool.
  • The appropriate use of services, sources and tools that only influence form, wording and style is acceptable (for example, correctors, correction tools, spell checkers, thesaurus).
  • The use of Artificial Intelligence is permitted when it is used appropriately as a support tool for data analysis in established applications, such as Atlas.ti.
  • The use of generative Artificial Intelligence must be cited and the corresponding reference added. To this end, the following example is provided, established by APA citation standards: OpenAI. (Year). ChatGPT [Computer program]. Retrieved from https://www.openai.com/research/chatgpt

Fictitious authorship

The list of authors should only include those people who have made an intellectual contribution to the development of the work. Collecting data or having participated in a technique are not, in themselves, sufficient criteria to be listed as an author. To be an author, the following requirements must be met:

  • Participate in the conception and realization of the work that has resulted in the article in question.
  • Participate in the writing of the text and in the possible revisions of the
  • Having approved the version that will finally be
  • Duplicate publication. The author must inform the Editor of the existence of previous reports or similar works that could be considered as duplicate publications of the article

Fragmented publication

When splitting a large study into several articles, the level of contribution of each of them, separately or as a whole, must be taken into account.

  • It is considered unacceptable practice for fragments of a split study to share the same hypotheses, sample and methods.
  • Avoid inappropriately splitting the data from a study into two or more

Inflated publication

Articles that are published with the same conclusions as a previous one to which only more data or cases have been added.

The journal Revista Territorios y Regionalismos uses Compilatio software to detect cases of text overlap, similarity in the texts presented and the use of generative AI.

Ethical considerations for reviewers

The evaluator undertakes to apply rational and impartial criteria in their reviews, and to avoid as far as possible any bias in their evaluation due to their prejudices about the subject or the results shown.

  • The evaluator may accept an evaluation as long as they judge that they have adequate experience or knowledge of the subject matter and that they are capable of delivering their report by the requested date.
  • The reviewer undertakes to handle the work entrusted to them with the utmost confidentiality, with a total prohibition on discussing the material with third parties.
  • The reviewer must inform the editors if they have any conflicts of interest with the material or their point of view and excuse themselves from the review if this conflict of interest is insurmountable.
  • The evaluator may not make any use of the entrusted work until it has been made public, especially if it is intended to benefit or harm any person or organization.
  • The evaluator must refuse to review the work if he or she has been involved in any of the stages of conception or development of the work being evaluated.
  • The reviewer should notify the editors if they detect any ethical irregularity, such as an obvious similarity to a previously published work or the presence of implausible data.
  • The reviewer should bear in mind that peer review is a reciprocal effort by the entire academic community that aims to be fair to the efforts made by each researcher in the search for or dissemination of new knowledge.

Procedures for dealing with inappropriate behavior

Ethics violations or fraud can be reported to the editor at any time, by anyone, who must provide sufficient information and evidence to initiate a formal investigation.

The editor will make the decision to initiate an investigation, consult, seek advice from the publisher or the legal department, as appropriate.

Depending on the case or behavior, one or more of the following measures may be taken:

  • Inform the author or reviewer that a misunderstanding or misconduct has been identified.
  • Inform the author or reviewer by means of a more robust letter explaining the inappropriate conduct and serving as a warning for the future.
  • Publish an editorial detailing the conduct.
  • Send an official letter to the director of the department to which the author or reviewer belongs.
  • Formally withdraw the article from the
  • Officially embargo an author's articles for a period
  • Send a report on the case and its outcome to a professional organization
  • competent authority for investigation and action.

Open access policies

The Revista Revista Territorios y Regionalismos is an open access publication, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). The names and email addresses entered in the Revista Territorios y Regionalismos journal will be used exclusively for the purposes stated by this journal and will not be available for any other purpose or other person.

Similarity policy

The journal Revista Territorios y Regionalismos uses Compilatio software to detect cases of text overlap, similarity and the use of AI in the texts submitted.

Conflict of interest

Editors, authors and reviewers should disclose any conflict of interest that could affect their ability to submit or review a manuscript objectively. Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to, financial, personal, political or religious interests. Authors should describe relevant funding, including the purposes of such funding, as well as any relevant patents or stocks and shares they hold.

Privacy statement

The names and e-mail addresses entered in this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes established in it and will not be provided to third parties or for their use for other purposes.