Editorial Policies

Editorial Policies

About this topic

The following policies apply to the Journal of Latinamerican Sciences and Culture. Where the journal is hosted at Universidad Privada del Valle on behalf the Andean Road Countries for Sciences and Technology. Please read these policies in full before submitting your article, to ensure you’ve correctly followed all the requirements.

 

Affiliations

You and your co-authors must list all relevant affiliations to attribute where the research or scholarly work was approved and/or supported and/or conducted. For non-research articles, you must list your current institutional affiliation. If you have moved to a different institution before the article has been published, you should list the affiliation where the work was conducted, and include a note to state your current affiliation. If you do not have a current relevant institutional affiliation you should state your independent status.

 

Appeals and complaints

The Journal of Latinamerican Sciences and Culture follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals to journal editor decisions and complaints about a journal’s editorial management of the peer review process. We welcome genuine appeals to editor decisions. However, you will need to provide strong evidence or new data/information in response to the editor’s and reviewers’ comments. Where you, as an author, wish to comment on aspects of the journal’s editorial management please contact us at: editorial@journalasc.org

 

Authorship

Listing authors’ names on an article is an important mechanism to give credit to those who have significantly contributed to the work. It also ensures transparency for those who are responsible for the integrity of the content. Authors listed on an article must meet all of the following criteria:

Made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that’s in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas.

Have drafted or written, or substantially revised or critically reviewed the article.

Have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted.

Reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission, during revision, the final version accepted for publication, and any significant changes introduced at the proofing stage.

Agree to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the article and to share responsibility to resolve any questions raised about the accuracy or integrity of the published work.

 

The journal editor will not decide on order of authorship and cannot arbitrate authorship disputes. Where unresolved disputes between the authors arise, the institution(s) where the work was performed will be asked to investigate.

 

Consider details such as:

  • Corresponding authors
  • Changes in authorship
  • Assistance from scientific, medical, technical writers or translators
  • Assistance with experiments and data analysis
  • Acknowledgments
  • Author name change policy

 

Citations

Research and non-research articles must cite relevant, timely, and verified literature (peer-reviewed, where appropriate) to support any claims made in the article. You must avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation or prearrangements among author groups to inappropriately cite each other’s work, as this can be considered a form of misconduct called citation manipulation. If you’re the author of a non-research article (e.g. a Review, Opinion, etc) you should ensure the references you cite are relevant and provide a fair and balanced overview of the current state of research or scholarly work on the topic. Your references should not be unfairly biased towards a particular research group, organization or journal. If you are unsure about whether to cite a source you should contact the journal editorial office for advice.

 

Competing interests

You and all of your co-authors must declare any competing interests relevant to, or which can be perceived to be relevant to the article. A competing interest can occur where you (or your employer, sponsor or family/friends) have a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organizations, or with the people working with them which could influence the research or interpretation of the results. Competing interests can be financial or non-financial in nature. To ensure transparency, you must also declare any associations which can be perceived by others as a competing interest.

 

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions

Sometimes after an article has been published it may be necessary to make a change to the Version of Record (VoR). This will be done after careful consideration by the Editor who is also supported by Universidad Privada del Valle and the Andean Road Countries for Science and Technology to ensure any necessary changes are done in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Any necessary changes will be accompanied with a post-publication notice which will be permanently linked to the original article. This can be in the form of a Correction notice, an Expression of Concern, a Retraction and in rare circumstances a Removal. The purpose of this mechanism of making changes which are permanent and transparent is to ensure the integrity of the scholarly record. Read our full policy on corrections, retractions, and updates to published articles.

 

Data availability and deposition

Universidad Privada del Valle supports a number of open data initiatives and offers a suite of data-sharing policies. Contact us at: editorial@journalasc.org

 

Data repositories

A data repository is a storage space for researchers to deposit data sets associated with their research. And if you’re an author seeking to comply with a journal data sharing policy, you’ll need to identify a suitable repository for your data. Read our guide to choosing a data repository which includes some generalist repositories you may wish to consider in www.journalasc.org.

 

Community-endorsed public repositories

Where community-endorsed mandates exist for submission of data to public repositories, authors should submit the datasets to the appropriate repositories and provide the accession numbers (where available) in the paper. Examples of repositories community-endorsed public repositories include:

Data type Suggested repositories

  • DNA and RNA sequences Genbank
  • DNA and RNA sequences EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database (ENA)
  • Gene expression Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO)
  • Gene expression ArrayExpress
  • Genetic polymorphisms dbSNP NCBI
  • Genetic polymorphisms dbVar NCBI
  • Genetic polymorphisms European Variation Archive (EVA)
  • Linked genotype and phenotype data dbGAP NCBI
  • Linked genotype and phenotype data European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA)
  • Protein sequences Uniprot
  • Proteomics data PRIDE
  • Proteomics data PeptideAtlas
  • Metabolomics data Metabolomics Workbench
  • 3-D printable models NIH 3D Print Exchange
  • Neuroimaging data OpenNeuro
  • Neuroimaging data NeuroVault
  • Macromolecular structures Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (BMRB)
  • Macromolecular structures Electron Microscopy Data Resource (EMDB)
  • Macromolecular structures Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB)
  • Macromolecular structures RCSB Protein Data Bank (PDB)
  • Crystallographic data Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC)
  • Crystallographic data Crystallography Open Database (COD)
  • Earth and environmental science data PANGAEA
  • Earth and environmental science data NERC Data Centres
  • Earth and environmental science data World Data Center for Climate (WDCC)
  • Earth and environmental science data Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB)
  • Earth and environmental science data EarthChem
  • High Energy Physics Data HEPData
  • Archaeology Data Archaeology Data Service (ADS)
  • Paleontology Data Paleobiology Database
  • Humanities outputs CORE (Humanities Commons)

 

Custom computer codes, software tools, and mathematical algorithms

To enable full assessment of submissions, you must make available on request to Editors and/or reviewers any custom computer codes, software tools, or algorithms which have been used to generate the results and conclusions that are reported in your manuscript.

 

Designations of territories

Universidad Privada del Valle respects its authors’ decisions regarding the designations of territories in its published material. Universidad Privada del Valle’ policy is to take a neutral stance in relation to territorial disputes or jurisdictional claims in its published content, including in maps and institutional affiliations. Where a journal is owned by and published on behalf of the Andean Road Countries for Science and Technology, Universidad Privada del Valle will take into account that Andean Road Countries for Science and Technology’s policy on this issue to the extent it differs from Universidad Privada del Valle’s own.

 

Editor Code of Conduct

Universidad Privada del Valle Group’s journal program provides a home for validated, trusted research from the world’s brightest and best minds. The editor of a journal plays a vital role in advancing knowledge within fields of research. They do this by:

Maintaining and improving the quality of work the journal publishes and the integrity of its peer review process,

Supporting the journal’s authors and reviewers,

Maintaining and improving the journal’s reputation in collaboration with the journal’s wider editorial team and Universidad Privada del Valle.

 

To support this role, our Editor Code of Conduct sets out the minimum standards for all editors who have responsibility for decisions on journal content to help ensure our journals publish quality, trustworthy content.

 

Harassment

Universidad Privada del Valle will not tolerate any kind of harassment of our authors, editors, reviewers, staff, or vendors. We expect to work in an environment of mutual respect and will work with the Universidad Privada del Valle ethics team and legal team to deal with any cases of harassment. Advice for researchers experiencing harassment: As a researcher, you should expect your work to be scrutinized by the public, policy makers, and campaigners. However, some researchers working on high-profile subjects that attract controversy have also found themselves targeted with online harassment. To help researchers dealing with these issues, Universidad Privada del Valle has supported the Science Media Centre in producing an updated guide, including tips on how to deal with social media harassment.

 

Images and figures

You should only use images and figures in your article if they are relevant and valuable to the work reported. Please refrain from adding content of this type which is purely illustrative and does not add value to the scholarly work.

 

Using third party material

As a warranty in the Journal Author Publishing Agreement you make with us, you must obtain the necessary written permission to include material in your article that is owned and held in copyright by a third party, including – but not limited to – any proprietary text, illustration, table, or other material, including data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, musical notation, and any supplemental material.

 

Obtaining permission to publish identifiable or protected content

Content (e.g. photographs, video or audio recordings, 3D models, illustrations, etc) which can reveal the identity of patients, study participants or study subjects can only be included if they (or parents/guardians if they are underage or considered unable to provide informed consent, or their next of kin if participants are deceased) have provided Consent to Publish. If any of this type of content has been obtained from communities where additional permissions are required (e.g. an Elder or community leader in an indigenous community), or from a protected source (e.g. museum collections), then authors must obtain the required permissions for use prior to submission of the manuscript. These include specific considerations for arts, humanities, and social sciences research, relating to cultural sensitivities or restrictions associated with any images included. There are also specific considerations for science, technology, and medicine, including detailing any image modifications and our policies on inappropriate image manipulation.

 

Misconduct

Universidad Privada del Valle takes all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary action, in accordance with COPE guidelines, to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

  • Affiliation misrepresentation
  • Breaches in copyright/use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
  • Citation manipulation
  • Duplicate submission/publication
  • “Ethics dumping”
  • Image or data manipulation/fabrication
  • Peer review manipulation
  • Plagiarism
  • Text-recycling/self-plagiarism
  • Undisclosed competing interests
  • Unethical research

 

Peer review

Articles published in Universidad Privada del Valle journals (including its imprints) undergo thorough peer review and the Journal of Latinamerican Sciences and Culture endorses COPE guidelines for reviewers.

 

Journals may operate different peer review processes. Our guide to understanding peer review outlines several different peer review models, including:

  • Single-anonymous peer review (also called ‘single-blind peer review’)
  • Double-anonymous peer review (also called ‘double-blind peer review’)
  • Open peer review

 

Registered Reports

Every Universidad Privada del Valle journal publishes a statement describing the model of peer review used by the journal within the journal homepage. Generally, comments from a minimum of two independent experts are required to ensure complete assessment of the article.

 

The details of the comments as well as the overall recommendations by peer reviewers will be considered by the Editor when making a decision, but ultimate responsibility for acceptance or rejection lies with the Editor. In accordance with COPE recommendations on ethical editing for new Editors, Editors will assign any submissions they cannot handle (e.g. if they are the author of an article submitted to their own journal) to a member of the Editorial Board or a guest editor. The majority of journals at Universidad Privada del Valle do not permit you to recommend peer reviewers. If you wish to suggest potential reviewers this information can be included in the covering letter, but it is at the discretion of the Editors to consider these reviewers or not. Providing any false information about potential reviewers may lead to rejection of the article.

 

Confidentiality of peer review

It is a requirement to maintain confidentiality and integrity of the peer review and editorial decision-making process at all stages, complying with data protection regulations (including GDPR). The invited reviewer should declare any competing interest before submitting their report to the journal. If they wish to involve a colleague as a co-reviewer for an article, they should ask the journal editorial office before sharing the manuscript and include their names, affiliation and any relevant competing interests in the comments for Editors when they return their report. In the process of investigating an ethical query, the submitted manuscript, author, reviewer, and any other person (including whistleblowers) involved will be treated in confidence. During an investigation it may be necessary for the Editor to share information with third parties, such as the ethics committee and/or the authors’ institution.

 

Plagiarism

Trust and integrity are among what readers value the most in scholarly peer-reviewed journal content. That’s why the Journal of Latinamerican Sciences and Culture takes the issue of plagiarism very seriously. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) defines plagiarism as: “When somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgment.” For Universidad Privada del Valle, this applies to data, images, words or ideas taken from any materials in electronic or print formats without sufficient attribution. The use of any such material either directly or indirectly should be properly acknowledged in all instances. You should always cite your source.

 

Preprints, preprint servers, and early reporting of scholarly work

We support the need for authors to share early versions of their work before peer review publication. There are also a number of options for Universidad Privada del Valle authors to share the final Version of Record of their published article.

 

Preprints and preprint servers

A preprint, also known as the Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM), is your article before you have submitted it to a journal for peer review. Preprint servers are online repositories which enable you to post this early version of your research paper online. If you upload your AOM to a non-commercial preprint server, you can subsequently submit the manuscript to a University Privada del Valle journal. We do not consider posting on a preprint server to be duplicate publication and this will not jeopardize consideration for publication. If you’ve posted your AOM to a preprint server, we ask that, upon acceptance, you acknowledge that the article has been accepted for publication as follows: “This article has been accepted for publication in [JOURNAL TITLE], published by Universidad Privada del Valle.”

 

After publication please update your preprint, adding the following text to encourage others to read and cite the final published version of your article (the “Version of Record”): “This is an original manuscript of an article published by Universidad Privada del Valle in [JOURNAL TITLE] on [date of publication], available online: http://XXXXX/[Article DOI].”

 

Sharing your published article

If you’ve published in Universidad Privada del Valle journal, there are many ways you can share different versions of your article with colleagues and peers.

 

Research ethics and consent

All research published in Universidad Privada del Valle journals must have been conducted according to international and local guidelines ensuring ethically conducted research.

 

Research involving humans

All research studies on humans (individuals, samples or data) must have been performed in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Prior to starting the study, ethical approval must have been obtained for all protocols from the local institutional review board (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committee to confirm the study meets national and international guidelines for research on humans. A statement to confirm this must be included within the manuscript, which must provide details of the name of the ethics committee and reference/permit numbers where available.

This includes:

  • Prospective studies on humans
  • Clinical trials
  • Clinical Case reports
  • Organ or tissue transplants
  • Human embryos and human stem cells
  • Consent for research involving children, adolescents and vulnerable or incapacitated study participants
  • Retrospective studies
  • Survey studies
  • Covert observational research
  • Research on indigenous communities
  • Communication research
  • Social media research

 

Participant/patient privacy and informed consent

Universidad Privada del Valle endorses the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which emphasizes that patients and study participants have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. In accordance with the principles outlined in the Nuremberg Code, the Belmont Report, and the American Anthropological Association, informed consent must be voluntarily obtained from the participant who should be fully informed of the study including any of the benefits and risks involved.

 

Research involving animals, plants, and heritage sites

Studies involving vertebrates or regulated invertebrates (e.g. cephalopods), field studies and other non-experimental research on animals must have been carried out after obtaining approval from the relevant institutional ethics committee or the institutional animal use and care committee. Research procedures must be carried out in accordance with applicable national or international guidelines. In field studies authors must have also obtained any necessary permits for access to lands. Authors must include a statement within the manuscript to provide details of the name of the ethics committee(s) which approved the study and include the permit or animal license numbers where available.

 

Biosafety, biosecurity, and emerging biotechnology

Universidad Privada del Valle journals will only consider research which has been carried out in compliance with institutional biosafety and biosecurity policies, which in turn should be informed by national or international recommendations.

 

Standards of reporting

Research should be communicated in a way that supports verification and reproducibility, and as such we encourage authors to provide comprehensive descriptions of their research rationale, protocol, methodology, and analysis. To aid authors in this, a number of study-design specific consensus-based reporting guidelines have been developed, and we recommend you to use these as guidance prior to submitting your manuscript. A comprehensive list of reporting guidelines for medicine and health research can be accessed via the EQUATOR network website, and for biosciences research via the MIBBI Foundry portal.

 

Use of third -party material

You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. These materials may include – but are not limited to – text, illustration, photographs, tables, data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, or musical notation. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.