Referees

Referees who accept to assess a journal manuscript must not be involved in the misconducts indicated below.

1.- Inappropriate review

This occurs when a dishonest, inaccurate, biased, discriminatory, or contradictory decision is made evidencing the manuscript has not been reviewed exhaustively. In addition, the referee must not propose changes or reject a manuscript to favor a close person’s opinion or their own opinion. 

The referee’s review form issued by the journal must be fully completed in a stringent, unbiased, and honest manner by reviewers. Observations to manuscripts must be made based on clear, reasoned, constructive, and strictly academic arguments respecting the academic standards. 

To verify if an ethical violation has occurred, reviews conducted by both referees need to be appropriately contrasted taking into consideration the manuscript under review. 

2.- Delegation of duties

This ethical violation occurs when a referee delegates their duties to someone else although partial participation has already taken place. This represents a violation since referees’ duties are strictly personal. 

3.- Omission of conflict of interest

Referees must declare in a timely, honest, and clear manner the real or potential, direct or indirect conflicts of interest that may have influence on their actions or decisions. Should referees become aware of a conflict of interest with the manuscript under review, it must be informed to the journal, and they must refrain from conducting the review. 

4.- Inappropriate citation requirement

A referee commits an ethical violation when it is indicated in their decision that authors must cite determined works for non-academic purposes, which could be inappropriately biased towards them. 

5.- Omission of lack of domain expertise

A referee commits an ethical violation when they do not inform that they are not suitable to conduct reviews, whether it is when they are invited or when they review the manuscript. Referees must inform of their lack of domain expertise. 

6.- Breach of confidentiality

Given the manuscript’s confidential nature, a referee commits an ethical violation when they disclose a manuscript under their review to people, external institutions or to any other third party. The referee will be allowed to make consultations to third parties on a manuscript-related topic provided that the text is not sent. Confidentiality must be kept even by those who refuse to continue to be referees although their duties have already started.

Also, the manuscript content and ideas must not be used in private research conducted by the referee under no circumstance, except when the manuscript is effectively published and appropriately cited. 

7.- Barriers to collaboration

Referees are committed to provide all the necessary information to clarify whether an ethical violation occurred or not. In this regard, obstructing investigation duties or taking reprisal against those who make the complaint will be considered a violation to the standards presented here.