Ethics, Good Practices, and Responsibilities

The Revista Metropolitana de Ciencias Aplicadas (REMCA) is committed to the scientific community to ensure ethics, quality, and transparency in all published articles, following international standards and recommendations from organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). To this end, the journal establishes clear policies of conduct and editorial best practices, covering authors, reviewers, and editors, and including specific aspects regarding research involving human subjects, handling retractions, and preventing misconduct.

1. Author Responsibilities

  • Originality and plagiarism: authors must ensure that their work is original and does not contain content from other authors, in whole or in part.

  • Multiple publications: results from the same study should not be published simultaneously in more than one journal.

  • Citation and references: authors must correctly cite all sources and contributions used.

  • Authorship: all individuals who contributed to the work must be included, and authors should be ranked according to their level of responsibility.

  • Data access and retention: authors must make data and sources available to editors upon request, ensuring proper preservation and responsible access.

  • Conflicts of interest and funding: all conflicts of interest and sources of funding must be disclosed.

  • Errors and corrections: authors must promptly notify editors of any errors or inaccuracies and provide the necessary information to correct them.

  • Ethical compliance in human research: studies must include informed consent, participant confidentiality, ethics committee approval when applicable, and enhanced protection measures for vulnerable populations.

2. Reviewer Responsibilities

  • Contribution to editorial decisions: reviewers provide critical and constructive analysis of scientific quality within their field of expertise.

  • Timeliness: reviewers must notify editors if they feel unqualified to evaluate a manuscript or cannot meet the established deadlines.

  • Confidentiality: manuscripts are confidential and must not be shared without editors’ authorization.

  • Objectivity: reviews must be comprehensive, critical, and supported by appropriate references; reviewers must flag potential duplications or prior publications of the content.

  • Identification of relevant sources: reviewers should indicate important works not cited by the authors.

  • Conflicts of interest: reviewers should only evaluate manuscripts when no conflicts of interest exist and must not use information for personal purposes.

3. Editor Responsibilities

  • Publication decisions: editors select qualified reviewers, strive to minimize bias, and apply Open Peer Review, promoting open science.

  • Honesty and impartiality: manuscripts are evaluated based on scientific merit, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or political views.

  • Confidentiality: editors and the editorial board maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts, authors, and reviewers.

  • Conflicts of interest: editors must not use article content for personal purposes without the authors’ consent.

  • Timeliness: editors are responsible for meeting review and publication deadlines, avoiding unjustified delays.

4. Retractions, Corrections, and Handling Misconduct
REMCA maintains strict policies to ensure academic integrity:

  • Retractions and corrections: applied in cases of honest errors, plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, improper duplication, or serious ethical violations; these are transparently communicated and marked in the original article.

  • Expressions of concern: may be issued when there are indications of irregularities under investigation.

  • Editorial misconduct: REMCA has zero tolerance for plagiarism, self-plagiarism, manipulation of results or citations, improper authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and manipulation of the peer review process. All cases are investigated following international guidelines.

5. Responsibility of the Actors

  • Authors: ensure originality, ethical compliance, and accuracy of data.

  • Reviewers: act objectively, impartially, and confidentially.

  • Editors: ensure transparency, consistency, and enforcement of all ethical and editorial policies.