Statement of Ethical Guidelines

1. Code of ethics

This journal's Statement on Ethics and Malpractice in Scientific Publication is based on ethical principles in accordance with the lines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and supported by the combined efforts of authors, editors and reviewers to produce a responsible research publication.

1.1. Responsibility of the authors

The texts submitted must be the result of original and unpublished research. They must include the data obtained and used, as well as an objective discussion of the results. The information provided must be sufficient to confirm or refute the interpretations defended in the following work if the research is repeated.

In relation to the authorship, the following must be complied with:

• Be aware of and refrain from engaging in scientific and ethical misconduct of the
• Present results clearly, honestly, without manipulation or
• The work submitted must be completely
• It must not be plagiarized, it must not have been published elsewhere, and if the authors have used the work or words of others, they must cite or quote them
• You should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time is unethical and unacceptable publication
• When an author discovers a serious error in his or her work, he or she is obliged to inform the journal as soon as possible, in order to modify the article, withdraw it, retract it or publish a correction or erratum. Likewise, if the possible error is detected by any of the members of the Editorial Committee, the author is obliged to demonstrate that his or her work is correct.
• Articles will undergo a mandatory peer-review

2. Responsibility of the editorial team

The editorial team will be impartial in the management of the proposed works, respecting the intellectual independence of the authors, recognizing their right  of reply in case of negative evaluation. The members of the team are obliged to keep the texts and their   content confidential until they are accepted for publication. Likewise, the editorial board may not use any data, arguments or conclusions from unpublished works for its own research.

2.1. Publication decision

Initially, all publications will be evaluated by the Editorial Team, which is solely responsible for selecting, processing, and deciding which articles submitted meet the editorial objectives and are therefore publishable. Each paper is sent to two independent reviewers who are experts in their field and are enough capable to assess the specific qualities of the paper.

The Editorial Team is responsible for the final decision on the acceptance or rejection of the document. Responsibility for the final decision regarding publications will be attributed to an editor who has no conflict of interest.

2.2. Responsibility of reviewers. Review of the work.

Reviewers should be aware of and consider the journal's editorial policy and statement of ethics and malpractice. They should also withdraw if they know that they are not qualified to review a manuscript, if they feel that their assessment of the material will not be objective, or if they consider themselves to have a conflict of interest.

The editorial team will value, and thank by issuing certificates, the contribution of those who have collaborated in the evaluation of the papers submitted to the journal.

3. Journal policy on authorship and contribution

This journal considers that authorship of a published work belongs to the person who has made a significant intellectual contribution to it. To be listed as an author, the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed, and the requirements below must be met:

1. Have been involved in the conception and design, or in the acquisition of the data, or in the analysis and interpretation of the data of the work that has resulted in the article.
2. Have participated in the drafting or critical revision of the text.
3. Have approved the version that will finally be published.

If these requirements are not met, they can only be acknowledged in the acknowledgements. To avoid the risk of fictitious or usurped authorship, it is recommended that in the submission there is agreement on their contributions and on the order in which they appear in the list of co-authorship.

The opinions and facts stated in each article are the sole responsibility of the persons who have participated in its preparation, as well as the ethical suitability. It must be made explicit that the text is their own and that the intellectual property rights of third parties are respected. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that they have permission to use, reproduce and print material that is not their own. By submitting the article they accept that it is original and has not been sent for consideration, nor has it been published in another journal.

The ORCID ID is required with the sole purpose of eliminating name confusion and ensure correct attribution of publications and citations. Although this identifier is not a guarantee of a secure identity, the adoption of ORCID is a further check on author identity fraud.

3.1. Changes in authorship

Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of names in the authorship should be made before the manuscript has been accepted, and only with the approval of the journal's editorial team.

3.2. Conflict of interest in authorship

The most easily identifiable conflicts of interest are economic relationships such as direct employment, consultancy fees, company shareholdings, honoraria, patent authorship or lecture fees. However, there may also be conflicts of interest arising from friendships, intellectual rivalries, academic competitions or beliefs. When submitting an article for publication, all authors are responsible for declaring any financial or personal relationship with any public or private entity that could (intentionally) influence the results of their work. Likewise, authors must declare any non-financial relationship that could cause a conflict of interest in their manuscript (personal, academic, ideological, intellectual, political or religious).

Conflicts of interest, both financial and non-financial, should be disclosed at the time of submission. The idea is not to prevent those with potential conflicts of interest from publishing; it is to ensure that such conflicts can be clearly identified, so that readers can judge whether the authorship might be affected by a bias that could influence the work.