Ethical Guidelines

Introduction

The role of the journal Actualidades Biológicas is based on maintaining standards of quality and reliability of scientific communication, which allows scientific communities to grow on firm foundations. The journal Actualidades Biológicas seeks to promote in its scientific publications the adoption of ethical practices based on values such as honesty, transparency, originality, and respect.

In this sense, the following guidelines are proposed for each of the actors (editors, authors, reviewers, journal committees and internal administrative units) involved in the scientific publishing process, as well as in financial and regulatory management.

1. Editors' Responsibility

The editors and directors are the actors who assume the representation of the journal before the scientific community they serve. Their role is to ensure that the contents of the journal correspond to its thematic scope and meet standards of scientific quality and ethical suitability. For this reason, their work must be governed by values such as respect, honesty, transparency, confidentiality, integrity, and responsibility.

For this reason, the journal Actualidades Biológicas assumes the following guidelines as the basis for the actions of the editors and publishers of its scientific journals:

• Editorial freedom. Editors have the maximum freedom to perform their work, but they must document the processes they carry out so that they can be traceable in case they are required. In this sense, Actualidades Biológicas implements these processes through an editorial management platform, such as Open Journal Systems (OJS).
• The journal Actualidades Biológicas takes the necessary measures to keep the personal information of authors, reviewers and other persons involved in the editing process confidential. As for the content of the manuscripts, such confidentiality is maintained until publication.
• Impartiality in the peer review process. The journal Actualidades Biológicas has a procedure for academic peer review that is published on its website. The editors are committed to ensure that peer reviewers are experts in the subject matter and method of the manuscripts to be evaluated and that, whenever possible, we select reviewers from outside The University of Antioquia and the institution to which the authors belong, in order to minimize the risks of inbreeding and conflicts of interest. For the sake of impartiality, we try to ensure that the evaluation process is free of ideological, gender, racial, religious, political and/or geographical bias.
• The journal provides information to authors and reviewers on the website about the type of review it performs (blind) and the expected review times, as well as the formats used for the review.
• It is the editors' responsibility to read, research and be aware of the new dynamics of peer review processes, to rethink and reevaluate the processes followed by the journal considering these new findings. We, the editors, are in favor of improving manuscripts if there is interest in their publication after the evaluation process. Likewise, we return to the authors the observations made by the peer reviewers in case of unfavorable opinions and to allow their replication in these cases.
• The journal Actualidades Biológicas has stated on its website information about its management and operation processes:
• Periodicity and/or frequency of publication.
• The editorial process.
• Contact details of the editor in charge or the director of the publication; this is the channel through which matters relating to the integrity of the publication can be dealt with.
• Guidelines for manuscript submission.
• The journal Actualidades Biológicas is responsible for informing authors about the status of their manuscripts in a timely, assertive and respectful manner.
• Timely publication. The journal Actualidades Biológicas meets the stated publication deadlines, so that the articles reach their academic communities in a timely manner, avoiding obsolescence and allowing them to enter into dialogue with other studies or scientific advances.
• Copyright and open access. The journal Actualidades Biológicas explicitly includes in its editorial policies the pertinent announcements on copyright and open access, so that the authors know the modality under which the articles are published, and the readers know their rights and duties regarding the use and handling of the published contents.
• Each journal shall ensure that the contents published meet high ethical and professional standards.
• The journal Actualidades Biológicas has its historical archive available on the website in order to provide access to the contents and give the corresponding credit to the authors of the articles published in previous issues.
• The editors keep the policies and guidelines for authors up to date; we also periodically check that the links placed on the journal's website are working properly.
• Publication costs. Actualidades Biológicas does not charge its authors for article processing charges (APC), which is stated on the web site.
• Conflicts of interest. The journal Actualidades Biológicas encourages clear ethical conduct regarding the declaration of possible conflicts of interest among the different actors in the editorial process (editors, editorial and scientific committee, authors, peer reviewers, funders and/or publishing house).
• Unethical conduct. The journal Actualidades Biológicas publishes original articles. Therefore, the editors and their work teams review the manuscripts to detect possible plagiarism, self-plagiarism or fraud in the manuscripts using the anti-plagiarism software crosscheck, which uses the iThenticate software to detect coincidences and similarities between the texts submitted for evaluation and those previously published in other sources, thus protecting the originality of the contents.
• The editors will inform the editorial board or committee of the journal about cases of proven misconduct that affect the reliability and thoroughness of published works. If necessary, the editorial committees may resort to the journal committee of the Universidad de Antioquia for advice on the matter.
• Actualidades Biológicas will issue retractions, corrections or expressions of concern when unethical conduct on the part of the authors (plagiarism, falsification and fabrication of data, human error, among others) is proven.
• The journal Actualidades Biológicas has within its guidelines for authors defined criteria for the authorship of articles.
• The editors ensure respect for the intellectual independence of the authors' ideas.
• The editors require all authors to declare that they meet the journal's criteria for authorship and that their contributions to the preparation of the article are mentioned.

The editors of the journal Actualidades Biológicas will take the necessary measures to prevent the publication of works where inappropriate editorial practices, such as those described below, have occurred:

• To publish papers that have not been previously submitted to the refereeing process defined for the journal.
• Use and publication of ambiguous metrics that seek to confuse authors and readers about the real impact of the journal.
• Citation manipulation. Persuading authors to cite articles published in the journal or agreeing to exchange citations with other editors in the field.
• Biases in the publication of content, whereby only articles with favorable results are disseminated.

2. Authors' Liability

The authors of an article are considered to be only those persons who actively participate from its gestation, making substantial contributions in aspects such as the structuring of the study, data collection, interpretation and analysis of results, writing, revision and correction.

• Authors should comply with the criteria on authorship defined in the indications for authors of the journal Actualidades Biológicas. By identifying themselves as authors, they will be responsible for all the contents published in their manuscript and must respond to any controversy or questioning made to it.
• All authors must read and agree with the guidelines and policies of the journal Actualidades Biológicas.
• Authors should decide the order of authors and abide by the journal's recommendations on how to write each name in the article to avoid incorrect citations.
• Persons who made only minor contributions to the article should not be listed as authors but may be mentioned in the acknowledgements.
• Manuscripts submitted to the journal Actualidades Biológicas should be original, in the sense of contributing to knowledge and/or discussion in the biological sciences.
• Double submission. Manuscripts should not be under consideration for publication in other journals.
• Authors of manuscripts submitted and subsequently published in the journal Actualidades Biológicas should ensure that the authorship rights of third parties or even their own are respected.
• Plagiarism occurs when an article contains ideas from another work without proper acknowledgement of the authors to the original source.
• Self-plagiarism occurs when authors publish parts of other works of their authorship.
• The authors of the articles published in the journal Actualidades Biológicas should be rigorous in the treatment of the data, so that these will be authentic, without copying, fabrication or manipulation of any kind. Likewise, they should follow the guidelines adopted by the journal for the presentation of the articles, as they appear in the indications for authors.
• Conflict of interest. The authors of the articles published in the journal Actualidades Biológicas must expressly declare if there are any biases in the published contents, whether due to academic or contractual circumstances, or personal beliefs.
• Timely communication. The authors of articles in the journal Actualidades Biológicas should give a timely, respectful, and assertive response to the corrections requested by the editors and peer reviewers, complying with the deadlines set by the journal.
• Authors must fill out in a timely manner the information that the journal considers important for publication, such as ORCID, figures in the indicated resolution, graphic summary, among others.
• The author responsible for the correspondence should keep the other authors informed about the status of the manuscript and coordinate the completion of the adjustments requested by the journal.

3. Responsibility of the Evaluators

Reviewers must be academics with expertise in the subject area of the manuscript they review. Their function is to assess the relevance, scope and scientific quality of the manuscripts submitted for evaluation, and to propose improvements to the manuscript. Their work should be guided by confidentiality, respect, and impartiality. In addition, their communication must be assertive and clear.

• The reviewers will give an opinion on the refereed manuscript and will advise the editor of its approval or rejection, which is not binding for the journal. The concept issued by the reviewer must be fair, impartial, objective, unbiased and transparent.

Peer reviewers should provide clear, assertive, and relevant comments on the review form that help the author to improve the manuscript and the editor to make a decision.

• Conflicts of interest. Evaluators should communicate with the editor and explicitly declare if they have any conflict of interest with the manuscript to be evaluated, whether due to academic, economic, personal, or other circumstances that may generate bias in the evaluation.
• Evaluators should send their concepts within the time established by the journal, avoiding delays in editorial decisions.
• Reviewers must have total discretion with the information contained in the manuscripts. It will be used exclusively for the purposes of the review.
• Evaluators must report to the editors those articles that present ethical violations such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, manipulation and falsification of data and bias, among others.

The evaluator should avoid the following practices:

• Agree to review a manuscript on a topic on which you have no expertise or have not recently conducted research.
• Accept to evaluate a manuscript on which there is a conflict of interest, either with the authors or with the subject matter of the manuscript.
• Disclose information about the manuscripts reviewed, or even disclose the fact that you are reviewing a particular paper.

4. Institutional Responsibility

4.1. Journal Committee

The Journal Committee will have representatives from each of the University's areas of knowledge (health sciences; social sciences, arts, and humanities; exact and natural sciences, engineering and economic sciences). The members of this council will be recognized experts in their field and will ensure that the journals are guided in their good editorial and ethical practices. Among its functions are:

• Follow up on situations of bad practices and/or errors by editors or editorial committees.
• Accompany scientific journals when they identify unethical practices in their articles.

Journal Committee members should disclose potential conflicts of interest-political, social, intellectual, religious, or otherwise-when a journal requests consideration of a case.

Academic-administrative units

The administrative units that act as funders and regulators, including the legal department and the academic units to which the journals are attached, are also considered institutional actors. Their function is to respect the free development of research communication and the journals, without imposing decisions that affect the proper development of the editorial processes or violate the values that guide these guidelines.

• The directors or councils of the academic-administrative units shall not have any interference in the evaluation, selection or editing of articles in the journals of the Universidad de Antioquia, unless any of its members is also an editor of one of the journals of the Institution.
• The University will provide open access to the contents of its scientific journals, following the recommendations and using the licenses designed to protect the rights of the authors. Any modification in this type of access will be indicated in the editorial policies, indicating the modality in which the journal and its content will be available to readers.