Ethical rules

The Journal IUS ET VERITAS, edited by students of the homonymous Association, aims to disseminate legal culture, as well as the knowledge of law and research, which has been carried out uninterruptedly since its foundation. In this sense, this activity is carried out within a framework of good practices, based on ethical standards that guide the publication of its contents.

The IUS ET VERITAS Journal is committed to following the international standards of scientific publication and, therefore, adopts the principles of transparency and good practices of scientific publications proposed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Likewise, for the elaboration of the present ethical norms, the Ethical Norms of the Revista Derecho PUCP, the Guide of Good Practices of the Universidad del Rosario and the Code of Ethics of the Boletín Mexicano de Derecho Comparado have been taken as main references.

I.   EDITOR IN-CHIEF AND EDITORIAL STAFF

1.1. Separate publication for commercial reasons

The decision to publish should be based on the importance, originality and relevance of the research to the specific field of study. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team should make decisions based only on academic merit and assume responsibility for their decisions.

This decision should be separate from the commercial activities of the institution of the same name and separate from market considerations.

1.2. Duty of Confidentiality of Author's Material

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team shall protect and guarantee the confidentiality of the authors' research and identity, and shall remind reviewers to do the same. They will not share research, abstracts, peer review reports, opinions or scopes of work to editors of other journals or to third parties. Sharing this information will require the prior, free, informed, written consent of those who may be affected.

The Editor-in-Chief should not refer the status and linkage of the research with the Journal to anyone except the authors.

1.3. Conflict of Interest

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team should disclose any conflict of interest that may affect their ability to decide whether or not to publish research. These conflicts may be of a personal, institutional, political, religious, etc. nature. If a member of the Editorial Team works or has worked in the same institution, has collaborated, or has some kind of relationship with the author, he/she should not make the decision on whether or not to publish the research.

1.4. Duty of information

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team must inform the authors about the "double-blind peer review" system in order to obtain their consent. The aforementioned system is a formal evaluation criterion to which the research is submitted before being published.

1.5. Duty to comply with editorial standards

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team are obliged to strictly comply with the editorial standards of the Journal.

1.6. Duty to report ethical violations

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Team shall not conceal or fail to report alleged ethical violations of which they are aware and which are committed by the author, referee, Editor-in-Chief, member of the Editorial Team or by the sponsoring institution.

1.7. Responsibility in the resolution of incidents

The Editor-in-Chief, as guarantor of the academic quality of the research, undertakes to elucidate and resolve any incident that may arise during the research evaluation procedure.

Likewise, if the research, once published, presents any essential error, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for issuing the corresponding retractions or corrections in a timely manner.

1.8. Communication of the publication

The editorial decision to publish the article must be communicated in a timely manner to the authors. This is done by issuing the corresponding Letter of Acceptance to the author.

If the article is rejected, the Editorial Team will communicate this decision to the author, who may appeal the decision; however, this will not oblige the Editorial Team to change its decision.

1.9. On revocation of the publication decision

The Editor-in-Chief should not revoke the decision to publish an article, unless problems related to the academic quality of the article's research are identified and duly proven.  

II.   OF THE AUTHORS

The IUS ET VERITAS Journal aims to provide the reading public with unpublished and innovative articles, guaranteeing the originality and academic quality of the research. It is for this reason that the Editorial Team supervises the due fulfillment of the ethical norms for the authors, which are obligatory for all those who wish to publish in the Journal.

2.1. Multiple submissions

All research submitted to IUS ET VERITAS must not have been committed to another physical or virtual medium, nor should it be committed during the editorial process of publication.

2.2. Right of first publication to IUS ET VERITAS

The author must acknowledge the right of first publication held by IUS ET VERITAS in case of subsequent publications. This acknowledgement must be explicit and also includes extended or partial versions of the published article. Likewise, it also includes versions of the same in the original language or other languages.

2.3. Misuse of the Journal's name

The author may not publicly include the name of IUS ET VERITAS in those articles that have not yet received editorial approval for publication. In this sense, they may not present their article as "in press" or as actually published.

2.4. Omission of background information on the article

The author is obliged to include relevant background information in the article, such as, for example, whether the article received funding from any entity, whether it is part of a research project, whether the main ideas were part of a conference or presentation, etc.

2.5. Invention or falsification of data

The author must not include false data in the article, such as institutional affiliations, academic degrees, work centers or others.

2.6. Use of offensive words

The author must use strictly academic language throughout the article. In this sense, the use of offensive and other non-academic elements that violate the impartial and respectful treatment expected of them is not compatible.

The use of offensive words is only justified in cases where it is of strict academic use for the article (e.g., citation of a novel or poem).

2.7. Infringements of privacy rights

The author must not infringe professional secrecy within the article. In addition, any infringement of copyright and any infringement of the protection of personal data is prohibited.

In case the research presents personal or sensitive information of persons who have been part of the realization of the same, these persons must be notified regarding the publication of the same. In addition, their consent must be required. 

2.8. Infringements in relation to authorship

- Prohibition of phantom authorship

It is forbidden for the author to subrogate himself/herself in the position of authorship that does not correspond to him/her.

This prohibition applies even when the material author of the article is mentioned in a credit or acknowledgment note.

- Prohibition of multiple authorship

It is forbidden for an author to submit more than one article under his/her authorship or co-authorship for the same issue of the Journal.

Only the first article submitted will be considered for evaluation.

- Omission of co-authors' consent

The article submitted must have the consent of the co-authors in its publication. Likewise, any change or modification made to the article must also have the consent of the co-authors.

- Omission of collaborative assistance

The author is obliged to acknowledge all persons who have collaboratively assisted in the preparation of the article (colleagues, translators, workers, students, assistants, etc.).

- Excessive self-citation

The author is prohibited from excessive self-citation in the article. In this sense, it will only be acceptable to cite oneself in a due, necessary and proportional manner up to a maximum of 10% of the total of the article. Exceptions to this rule must be duly justified.

2.9. Recycled and/or redundant publication

The author is forbidden to postulate an article on a subject that he/she has developed in a previous work or work that has not been cited; and, to conceal this lack of originality, he/she introduces superficial variations.

Redundant publications are understood as those whose content, arguments or ideas are already published in other academic texts by the same author and have not been duly cited.

Both are rejected by the Editorial Team.

2.10. Plagiarism

The IUS ET VERITAS Journal avoids plagiarism in all its forms. Plagiarism is understood as any attempt to use and/or appropriate the content, arguments or ideas of publications by other authors.

The author incurs in plagiarism when he/she presents as his/her own all or part of the elements contained in any work produced by another person, group of persons, institution or organization, whatever the support, platform, identification or space that contains it.

To avoid this fault, it is of utmost importance that the author diligently cites all kinds of works in the body of the text, in addition to including them in the bibliographical references.

2.11. Conflict of interest

The Editor-in-Chief should require authors to declare any relevant conflicts of interest, at least in situations where the perception of readers may be influenced.

2.12. Obstruction of collaboration

In the event of any ethical misconduct, the author undertakes to cooperate with the investigations and to provide all the information necessary for their elucidation. Obstructing investigations or retaliating against whistleblowers will be considered a violation.

III.   OF THE ARBITRATORS

3.1. Improper review

Arbitrators are obliged to issue an honest, rigorous and impartial opinion. In this sense, any arbitrariness, discrimination, or lack of accuracy in their evaluation is forbidden, as well as the proposal of changes aimed at favoring personal or related positions. Observations must be strictly academic arguments and must be related to the article, always respecting the academic environment.

3.2. Delegation of refereeing functions

The arbitration function is strictly personal. Therefore, arbitrators are forbidden to delegate their arbitration functions to another person.

3.3. Confidentiality of Author's Material

Peer reviewers must respect the confidentiality and copyrights of those who prepared the research. In the event that the referee has requested assistance for the review, he/she must inform the Editorial Team.

3.4. Review time

Referees must guarantee the referee's evaluation within the time limit established by the Editorial Team, avoiding unnecessary delays. In this regard, see point 2 of the Stage of referee evaluation of articles in the Evaluation Guidelines.

3.5. Conflict of Interest

Peer reviewers should report any conflict of interest (religious, political, moral, etc.) with the subject of the article, before the invitation to review, with due anticipation, as well as when submitting the review of the article.

3.6. Duty of non-manipulation of research

Neither the referee nor the Editorial Team should make use of the data, arguments or interpretations contained in the research, while the article is in the evaluation stage, unless authorization is obtained from the authors. 

IV.   RESEARCH

4.1. Integrity of the research

The research or the process of its elaboration is assumed to have been carried out in good faith by the authors, unless the contrary is verified. Within this, it is understood the fulfillment of all the sections of point II.

4.2. Corrections

Readers or authors may notify the IUS ET VERITAS Journal if they consider that there are typographical errors in any publication, particularly those that may alter the interpretation of the conclusions or other parts.

Corrections will only be published when there are important errors that could invalidate the research, prior communication with the author. If this happens, the Editorial Team will add a footnote mentioning the correction.

4.3. Retractions

Retractions are published when the information presented in the work is proven to be fraudulent after its publication.

4.4. Withdrawal of research

This will be given when an investigation has involved legal violations, defamation or other legal considerations, as well as when it has presented false and inaccurate data that could only be detected after its publication. 

V.   MEASUREMENTS

When the Editor-in-Chief of the IUS ET VERITAS Journal becomes aware of or receives a report of ethical misconduct, he/she will make the corresponding inquiries in order to verify it or rule it out.

The Editor-in-Chief will contact the alleged offender to inform him/her about the reported misconduct. The latter shall have at least twenty days to clarify the observations. These shall be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, who shall be responsible for evaluating them, in order to determine, finally, whether or not such faults have been committed.

If a misconduct is found to have occurred, one of the following measures shall be applied.

5.1. Measures for ethical misconduct by authors

In the event that the Editor-in-Chief identifies that the author of the article has incurred in any ethical misconduct, one of the following actions will be taken: (i) the article will not be published in the current edition; (ii) the institutions to which the author belongs will be notified; or, (iii) the submission of a new article by the same author will be temporarily prohibited for a period of one to five subsequent editions.

Depending on the seriousness of the case, all of the above measures may be applied concurrently.

5.2. Measures for ethical misconduct by the Editorial Team

In the case of ethical misconduct committed by any member of the Editorial Team, this should be communicated to the institution promoting the IUS ET VERITAS Journal, in order to follow the corresponding procedure.

5.3. Measures to be taken in the event of ethical misconduct by referees

In the case of ethical misconduct committed by referees, without prejudice to the negative qualification in the referee database and exclusion from the referee evaluation process, the institution to which the referee belongs shall be notified, depending on the seriousness of the case.

VI.   INTERPRETATION OF ETHICAL STANDARS

The meaning and scope of these guidelines shall be determined, in case of doubt, by the Editor in Chief, in coordination with the Editorial Committee, in accordance with international standards of publication ethics.