Publication Ethics, Bioethics and Integrity Policy

Ánfora Code of Ethics

 

Ánfora journal has an Ethics, Bioethics and Scientific Integrity Committee that was created in September 2023. This committee follows the guidelines of the National Policy on Ethics, Bioethics and Scientific Integrity of Minciencias and  the rule on good practices for publications established by the Committee of Ethics for Publications (COPE) that can be consulted at the following link: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices. Likewise, some guidelines are taken into account, presented by the FEMEBA Foundation, on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the authorship, review and editorial management processes.

 

Committee Functions:

The main function of the Ethics, Bioethics and Scientific Integrity Committee is to ensure good editorial management practices. Likewise, to guarantee that the manuscripts published in Ánfora comply with the required guidelines to account for the connection of the considerations of Ethics, Bioethics and Scientific Integrity in the management of data from research projects and their scientific dissemination products.  In addition, the committee must ensure that the responsibility and ethics, bioethics and scientific integrity obligations are assumed by the authors, editors and human reviewers. No ethical responsibility will be granted to non-human entities used in editorial production and management.

In accordance with these regulations, the commitments made by our authors, and internal, associate and guest editors and reviewers are stipulated:

Ethical, Bioethical and Scientific Integrity Commitments of the Authors

Originality and Fidelity of the Manuscripts:

  • The authors undertake to send original and unpublished writings, product of their research. For this purpose, the letter of commitment to originality is presented in which each author attests that their work does not contain fragments of the texts (published or not) by other authors. If they contain them, the authors of origin are duly cited and referenced. In the same way, each of the authors confirms that the data presented is the product of research and that it has not been altered or accommodated to the interests of the researcher(s).
  • Authors must guarantee that their texts are not the product of plagiarism. In Ánfora, all texts will be reviewed in the first editorial phase with the Software Compilatio, and to continue the editorial process, the approved percentage at the level of coincidence will be 9%, as long as the sources are correctly cited. If it exceeds this percentage it will be rejected.
  • In the case of manuscripts that are the product of research projects for master's and doctoral degree works, the accepted percentage is 15%, duly cited and referenced. In this case, it will be returned to the authors so that they can make the respective adjustments to the percentage. Manuscripts resulting from master's and doctoral degree works that exceed 15% will be returned to the authors to make the appropriate adjustments and not exceed the percentage previously described. Once it has been adjusted, the editorial process can continue. The other manuscripts that exceed the level of coincidence described, and which coincidence is different from that of master's and doctoral degree works, will be rejected in this phase.

Multiple Publications and Second Publications:

  • The authors of Ánfora should not publish articles in which the data and results are repeated in other scientific journals or in other types of non-academic dissemination. If a coincidence greater than 9% is found with other sources, the Ethics, Bioethics and Scientific Integrity Committee of Ánfora will review in detail the type, level and degree of coincidence and the authors will be informed.
  • While a manuscript is in the review process, it cannot be sent to other journals. The simultaneous proposal of the same manuscript to multiple scientific journals is considered an ethically incorrect practice and Ánfora disapproves of it. Ánfora will have the autonomy to reject manuscripts that show poor ethical, bioethical or scientific integrity practices. This failure will be sanctioned by the Committee with a suspension of the authors from sending a manuscript to the journal for two years.

Autorship:

  • The authors must guarantee that the scientific and intellectual contribution is their own, and give the corresponding credits to the people and institutions that have contributed to the research and conceptualization assumed in the manuscript. Likewise, they will explain the order of authorship and the responsibilities assumed with the submitted document. To do this, they must explain the roles assumed in the format intended for this purpose.
  • Transparency and Scientific Integrity: the authors are responsible for the traceability, transparency and scientific integrity of their research products. In this way, the author must guarantee that the information presented corresponds to the results obtained faithfully to the research project from which the product is derived. Also, the author must present the code or name of the research project and, if required, attach the project approval certificate.
  • Responsibility: responsibility for the content of the articles published in Ánfora is the sole and exclusive of the authors. It is the authors who assume a commitment to the knowledge presented in their manuscripts and the positions they assume regarding them.
  • Conflict of Interest and Disclosure: all authors declare and sign that there are no conflicts of interest that have or may have influenced the results obtained or the proposed interpretations. Additionally, they assume responsibility for the data presented in the manuscripts. In the event of a conflict of interest, the authors must inform the members of the Technical and Editorial Committee of Ánfora.
  • On the Care of Data and Research Processes on Living Beings and the Environment (bioethics): all authors of manuscripts resulting from research projects in which living beings have participated must present the endorsement of an ethics committee that authorized the development of the project, and present a copy of the informed consent that was used to approve the collection of information by the people or institutions.
  • Access to Data: the members of the Editorial Board have the right to request the authors access to the data and sources presented in the manuscripts for the sake of confirming that they correspond to what is presented in the results of the investigations. The research from which the manuscripts are derived must accredit the use of ethical and bioethical standards in research, such as the approval of the Bioethics Committee and the use of informed consent. This document must be attached if required in your project.
  • Data Servers: All authors must certify the quality and preservation of the data used for their research. Present to the editor the repositories in which the data used in the manuscripts reside. These will be stored in the data repository that is located in the Ánfora Likewise, they must declare whether all the data used is in the manuscript.
  • Citations and References: the authors ensure that the information provided in the manuscript makes adequate use of the citation standards (in this case, the APA standards, 7th ed.) in order to respect copyright. Furthermore, the authors must give the respective recognition to the sources through citations, the references used and the contribution to their community of knowledge when submitting an unpublished manuscript to the editor and his team for consideration. The authors undertake to prepare their manuscripts under the regulations of the journal and following the format of the templates designed for this purpose.
  • Funding: authors must indicate in a footnote, in their manuscripts, any funding for the research project from which the article submitted to Ánfora comes from. [/Yo]. It should always be referenced when the funding source is a public entity. If researchers had no financing, it must also be indicated.
  • Compliance with Responsibilities in the Editorial Process: the authors undertake to respond to the requests and requirements generated during the editorial management process in order to achieve a quality publication enriched by the community of specialists in the area (and after publication, if necessary). Therefore, they will actively participate in all corrections that are required during the publication process or if a retraction is necessary after this, and will comply with the times stipulated by the editorial team for this purpose.
  • Errors in Published Articles: the articles will be reviewed by the authors at each phase of the process, including the layout phase. The authors will have eight (8) days to respond and express errors and inaccuracies that are evident in the manuscript before proceeding to the publication phase. If an error occurs in a published manuscript and it substantially alters the document or its data, the Technical Editorial Committee of the journal will review the case and make the pertinent corrections, as long as the sequence of the publicationis is not altered. In the case of minimal errors, the author or authors will assume responsibility, given that they are provited with the necessary time for the final review.
  • Sanctions for Non-compliance with the Times of Each Phase of the Process
    • The authors undertake to make the adjustments requested by the editorial team within the times stipulated for each phase. If these are not met, the manuscript will be withdrawn from the process and the editor will communicate the decision in writing to the authors and the Technical and Tditorial Committee of the Journal.
    • When authors decide to withdraw from the process a manuscript that has been approved for publication, they must request it in writing. In this case, the journal will sanction the authors for new editorial processes for a period of two years.
  • Publication Frequency for the Same Author: Once they publish a manuscript in Ánfora, the authors must wait a period of two years for a new publication process in the journal.

 

  • Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Scientific Publishing

 

The Ethics, Bioethics and Scientific Integrity Committee of Ánfora journal, relying on some elements of the FEMEBA Foundation proposal for the use of artificial intelligence in scientific publications, stipulates that:

  • Under NO circumstances will the use of Artificial Intelligence be accepted as co-authorship. Only human authors will be recognized, and human authors will be responsible for the authorship and the originality of the ideas.
  • Under NO circumstances will be accepted that AI is used as an idea generator.
  • NO quotes from assisted AI will be accepted either as a reference or as the main source of information search.
  • At Ánfora, the use of AI in the manuscript preparation processes is accepted as long as the use that has been given to this tool within the process is made explicit. The authors must declare in writing in the corresponding format the use that has been made of the AI.
  • NOT AI will be accepted as a review tool. The review and veracity of the information in Ánfora is an activity of human responsibility.
  • The content of the manuscripts sent by the authors will NOT be entrusted to the AI. For this reason, to guarantee the confidentiality of the information contained in this process, reviewers will accept the confidentiality clauses set out in the manuscript evaluation form, provided in the OJS.

 

Ethical, Bioethical and Scientific Integrity Commitments of the Authors

  • Relevance of the manuscripts: the editor must review the relevance of the manuscripts—in accordance with the scope and interest of Ánfora—that have previously been established in the themes. The manuscripts will be reviewed in their first phase by the Technical Committee. If there are doubts about the relevance of these, before starting any double-blind peer process, it will be reviewed with a member of the Scientific and Editorial Committee who must be an expert on the subject so that thay can rule on whether to continue the double double-blind peer review process.
  • Review by Anti-Plagiarism System: the editor must review the manuscript through a match search engine provided by the University. Currently, it is used the Software Compilatio, from the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales for this process. It is also up to the editor to review in detail the level of coincidence that is presented and, if it is greater than 9%, to immediately communicate it to the authors.
  • Transparency in the Process: the editor, who acts as mediator of the editorial management process, must guarantee the transparency of said process, not vitiating decisions based on social, political or particular prejudices of any kind and declare when There are conflicts of interest, either in the management or arbitration process.
  • Conflict of Interest for Disclosure: the editors of Ánfora undertake not to use the contents of the articles sent for publication without counting with the written consent of the author.
  • Confidentiality: the editors undertake to keep confidential the research data that supports the published manuscripts, as well as the data of the authors and also the reviewers to guarantee a double-blind procedure. The handling of the data will be in accordance with article 15 of the Political Constitution of Colombia, enforcing the right to protection of personal data.
  • Selection of Reviewers: to comply with the double-blind evaluation, the editorial team undertakes to search for reviewers who meet the requirements for this purpose: 1) be an expert in the topic to be evaluated; 2) have an H-index equal to or greater than 5 (the search will be performed with Publish or Perish); and 3) have a level of training equal to or higher than that of the authors.
  • Respect for the Times and Order of Approval: the editors undertake to be impartial and objective in the editorial management processes. To do this, out of respect for the authors, they must publish the manuscripts sent to Ánfora in order of acceptance (in this case, from the general flow). Likewise, the members of the editorial team undertake to permanently monitor the submitted manuscripts so that the review process is carried out in 180 days (the approximate average that is being presented in the editorial management processes, from initiation until approval by reviewers).
  • Decision for Publication: editors must guarantee the selection of the most qualified manuscripts and that they are approved by the reviewers. If contradictory evaluations are presented in the double-blind review process, the editor may select a third reviewer in order to guarantee objectivity in decision-making on the manuscript.
  • Endogamy: the editors (internal and guest) agree not to publish their manuscripts in the journal, except in the editorial section, when there are no guest editors. Also, they undertake not to publish more than one manuscript per year that is written by a researcher from the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales and that has been approved with due process. Furthermore, the editors assume the commitment to seek evaluators external to the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales for all manuscripts that are sent to Ánfora. All of the above will guarantee that the Ánfora journal does not incur in editorial endogamy.
  • Roles and Requirements for Guest Editors:

In addition to the previous requirements, for internal and associate editors, in the case of being a guest editor, guest editors must have recent publications in Scopus in the field of expertise in which the dossier is called. If the guest editor is a foreigner, their H index must be greater than 5. If the guest editor is a national, in addition to these requirements thay must be an Associate or Senior researcher in the Minciencias rank.

Guest editors undertake to comply with the requirements previously established for editorial management in the dossier to which they were invited. This will be accompanied in the process by the editor-in-chief of Ánfora. additionally, guest editors assume a commitment to the dissemination processes of the dossier to which they were invited in the post-publication phase. 

  • Compliance with Open Access Conditions: the editorial team is committed to complying with the open access policy for published manuscripts. Therefore, authors will not be charged money to publish their manuscripts, nor for their translation. Since the journal is a bilingual publication, Ánfora will assume all translation costs for the English version, as well as the abstracts in English and Portuguese. Correspondingly, readers won’t be charged for reading and downloading the manuscripts.

 

Reviewer Commitments

  • Double-Blind Review: the reviewers undertake to complete the evaluation format objectively, under the criteria established in the rubric intended for this purpose. To ensure double-blind review, the editor will anonymize the manuscript, eliminating any data that may indicate who the author or authors are. Also, the reviewers will send their data through the form provided for this purpose in the OJS. This is in order to guarantee their anonymity in the evaluation. 
  • Conflict of Interest: if a conflict of interest arises on the part of the reviewer, they must immediately communicate it to the editor in order to guarantee objectivity and impartiality in the process.
  • Commitment to Review Times: reviewers, by accepting the invitation, assume the commitment to comply with the times stipulated for this purpose (30 business days). If they cannot comply with this, they must report the situation to the editorial team in order not to hinder the editorial process of the manuscript.
  • Contribution to Quality with Their Editorial Decision: the reviewers assume the commitment to provide recommendations and evaluations to the authors' manuscripts. These evaluations must be in accordance with the themes examined and with the interests of Ánfora, given that one of its responsibilities is to contribute to the quality of the manuscripts that are published. If they do not have competence in the subject of the manuscript, the correct thing to do is not to assume such responsibility and immediately communicate this to the Editor so that the process of searching for a new reviewer can continue.
  • Confidentiality: the evaluators undertake to review, under the assumption of confidentiality, the assigned manuscript. Therefore, the text they have evaluated should not be discussed with people outside the Technical Editorial Committee of Ánfora, nor should they appropriate any content of the manuscripts that are under their responsibility. Moreover, the ethical and scientific integrity responsibility for the evaluation process falls on the human reviewers, as stipulated in advance, the use of AI in the manuscript evaluation process will not be accepted.
  • Impartiality and Objectivity: the review by evaluators must be carried out in an impartial and objective manner. Therefore, reviewers must justify each evaluated aspect of the manuscript that has been assigned to them in the evaluation form. Reviewers must deliver a report that critically explains whether the manuscript meets the requirements to be published, whether adjustments should be made and where to make them for publication, or whether the manuscript should be rejected due to its low quality. It is also their responsibility to inform the editors if the manuscript contains sections from other works.

 

In the event of retractions and failures in the ethical process in the management of a publication, this must be documented, proven and put to the consideration of the Editorial Team, the ethics, bioethics and scientific integrity committee and the Legal team of the University, who will take the respective measures as the case may be and stated by the guidelines of the national policy and the COPE rule: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices[/u ].