Ethics
Ingeniería y Competitividad journal follows three main sources in its ethics and scientific integrity policy:
COPE: The journal has as benchmarks the principles, good practices and flowcharts and case studies of the Committee on Publication Ethics in its policy and as a guide on how to proceed in the event of any episode of suspected misconduct or violation of the principles of ethics, bioethics and scientific integrity: https://publicationethics.org
ICMJE: The recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, despite being focused on biomedical and health publications, are considered as a reference for the journal in terms of the broad, detailed perspective it gives on the publication process of a scientific journal and the good practices that should guide the conduct of editors, authors and reviewers: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/
Singapore Declaration: This document establishes the principles and responsibilities that should be considered as the frame of reference for research integrity and is of importance to the journal, as it is a frequent means of publication of original research in its field: https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2011.557296
In addition to these guidelines, the journal specifically adopts COPE's 16 principles of transparency and best practices, applying them in its day-to-day management and decisions in the face of ethical dilemmas. These principles are detailed below:
Content of the journal
1. Name of the journal: the name of the journal is clear and has not been modified throughout its history.
2. Website: all information related to policies, processes, procedures and editorial structure is published in full on its website, in a clear and truthful manner.
3. Editorial schedule: the periodicity (continuous publication) of the journal and the number of issues per year are detailed.
4. Archiving: digital preservation of all contents and technological stability of the journal is ensured.
5. Copyright: the relationship between the journal and the authors with respect to the publication of articles accepted under an assignment of economic rights is clearly specified.
6. Licensing: the journal uses the Creative Commons 4.0 BY. NC. SA license and establishes it in its policies.
Editorial practices
7. Publication ethics: the journal details its ethical references and provides guidelines on authorship, conflicts of interest, copyright, scientific integrity, corrections and retractions.
8. Peer review: there is a structured review process, based on the “double blind” system, described in a specific section.
9. Access: the journal is of immediate open access, as mentioned in its policies.
Organization
10. Editorial and management: it is clearly specified which institution publishes the journal and its link with Universidad del Valle.
11. Editorial and scientific committee: the data of the researchers that integrate the committees or act as editors are transparent and can be consulted from the journal's page, hyperlinked to their ORCID profiles.
12. Editorial team: the information of the editorial team is complete, accurate and updated in a timely manner.
Business Practices
13. Costs for authors: the journal follows a diamond open access model, so no fees are charged to authors, which is duly specified on the website.
14. Other income: the journal is financed by public resources, the publishing house and the Universidad del Valle.
15. Advertising: the journal does not advertise commercially, given its academic and scientific focus.
16. Direct marketing: the journal occasionally contacts researchers, guest editors and reviewers to collaborate ad honorem in the evaluation of manuscripts or special issues. This contact is not for commercial or monetary purposes.
Confidentiality
The journal handles original and unpublished manuscripts as well as personal and professional information of its collaborators. Therefore, all this information will not be shared with third parties and will be used only for the proper development of the journal's management processes throughout its publication cycle.
Likewise, in the case of peer review, reviewers are asked to handle with absolute integrity and responsibility the data and contents of the manuscripts entrusted to them, since they are original manuscripts, not yet published, whose information, in the evaluation phase, belongs to their authors and funding institutions. Any improper use by a reviewer or if it is identified that information from a manuscript has been disclosed or used improperly, will be considered as unacceptable and unethical behavior, and we will proceed to request explanations and inform their employer.
Likewise, the journal, following a “double-blind” evaluation system, will reserve the identity of the parties involved to prevent such conditions from being violated and to allow manuscripts to be read with complete independence. The identity will not be revealed at any time except at the explicit and justified request of the parties involved.
Conflicts of interest
The journal asks all its collaborators (authors, reviewers, editors and members of the editorial team) to declare with transparency any type of conflict of interest that may affect their judgment or approach regarding a manuscript that is being submitted to the journal. Authors are required to declare their conflicts of interest, and the same applies to reviewers when evaluating a manuscript. Editors and committee members are also encouraged to express or declare any potential conflict that may arise in the evaluation or management of the publication of a manuscript, in order to avoid affecting the proper development of any process or biasing a result.
Use of artificial intelligence
The journal adheres to the recommendations of the Heredia Declaration for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific editing and publishing:
https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.28-S.19967
Likewise, all authors who use AI in their work are asked to take into account two fundamental criteria:
1. Responsibility. AI cannot be considered as a co-author of the manuscripts submitted to the journal; AI is a tool, not a co-author. All the contents of the manuscript, its data, its structure and sections, its coherence, its argumentation, its analysis and its reliability are the sole responsibility of the authors and they will be fully responsible for the quality, veracity and scientific integrity of each manuscript.
2. Transparency. Any use of AI in a manuscript must be declared and explained in detail how it has been used either in the processing or analysis of data or in the elaboration of its contents. Concealing the use of AI tools will be considered unethical and will be grounds for rejection of a manuscript at any stage of the publication process.
Authorship
In compliance with the ICMJE recommendations, the journal adopts its definition of authorship, urging the avoidance of inappropriate practices such as “gift authorship” or unjustified inclusion/exclusion of authors. The four requirements that define authorship, it is reiterated, are the following:
1. Making significant contributions in the conception, design, acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data.
2. Participate in the drafting or critical revision of the work with relevant intellectual content.
3. Approve the final version of the manuscript for publication.
4. Be responsible for all aspects of the work and be available to answer questions about its completeness and accuracy.
Authors must meet these criteria before submitting a manuscript to avoid inappropriate inclusion or deletion of authors.
Changes in the author group
Any changes in the author group must be fully justified. Preferably, changes should be avoided, but if necessary, authors should send a letter to the editor with the explanation, signed by all co-authors and the affected author. The journal will check with each co-author to ensure consensus.
Non-consensual changes in authorship can lead to serious ethical problems, and even legal implications. If not properly resolved, the journal reserves the right to cancel the publication process.
Corresponding author
In manuscripts with multiple authors, a corresponding author should be designated, who will be responsible for interacting with the journal at all stages of the editorial process. This author should provide a unique name, ORCID, institutional affiliation, e-mail and institutional physical address.
Final declarations
In the interest of ensuring that the journal's ethics policy is reflected in the final published versions, all manuscripts will include final declarations, most of which are mandatory in nature. These statements are described below:
Author contributions (mandatory for co-authored articles)
The contributions of each author must be clearly recorded according to the CRediT taxonomy, which includes 14 criteria to identify the roles played. Example:
Juan Suarez: conceptualization, formal analysis, research, resources, supervision, writing (original draft), writing (revision/proofreading).
You can consult the CRediT taxonomy at: https://credit.niso.org.
Funding (mandatory)
Any funding received by the authors must be declared, or, failing that, the absence of funding must be indicated.
Conflicts of interest (mandatory)
Authors must declare any conflict of interest that may have influenced the research or the contents of the manuscript, complying with the ICMJE format provided by the journal.
Ethical implications (mandatory)
If the research involves personal information, animal or human experimentation, or any other relevant ethical issues, these should be declared, and, if necessary, evidence of ethical approval or informed consents should be provided. Also, these ethical implications should be mentioned in the methodology of the manuscript, explaining how they were taken into account in the development of the research.
Acknowledgments (optional)
The authors may include acknowledgements to persons or institutions that have contributed significantly to the research or to the publication of the manuscript. However, since this is an acknowledgment rather than a dedication (as is sometimes included in graduate work or books), acknowledgements of a private, personal or general nature will not be accepted; acknowledgements should acknowledge the contribution of third parties who have actually contributed to or facilitated the research or the preparation of the manuscript.
Plagiarism and other wrong practices
Wrong practices such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, redundant publication, text recycling and salami-slicing, fabrication or falsification of data, simultaneous submission, use of artificial intelligence without being declared, among other wrong practices, will be monitored by the journal and if identified, it will be a reason to reject outright any manuscript, at any stage of the process.
All cases of probable wrong practices will be handled according to COPE recommendations; that is, explanations will be requested from the authors or, failing that, the case will be escalated to the employer or institution to which the authors are affiliated, and once the evidence is collected and contrasted based on the authors' explanations, a decision will be made.
The journal will, of course, use support software to detect certain wrong practices such as plagiarism, in such case through the Turnitin tool.
Warning or suspicion of wrong practices
The journal encourages its contributors to communicate directly any concerns or doubts that arise in the face of evidence or suspicion of a wrong practice, either in a manuscript that is just under evaluation (if as a reviewer or editor you suspect something improper) or that has already been published (if as a reader you identify an ethical problem).
Any communication, complaint, suspicion or request related to ethical dilemmas or problems should be addressed to the editor-in-chief of the journal, using the official e-mail address: inycompe@correounivalle.edu.co
Attention to suspicions of wrong practice
When the journal's Editorial Coordination receives information related to a possible ethical dilemma or suspected malpractice, the case will be analyzed following the COPE recommendations and the corresponding flowcharts to investigate possible malpractice and determine the actions to be taken in case of violation of the journal's ethical framework.
Link to flowcharts: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts/complete-set-english
Corrections and retractions
The journal Ingeniería y Competitividad may issue corrections or retractions to manuscripts published in its regular or special issues. Corrections will be made when minor but significant errors are identified that may cause confusion about article content, author information, or potential undeclared ethical risks. Such corrections will be applied, especially when errors are unintentional and may mislead readers. In such cases, the journal will publish a correction or erratum along with the original article.
Retractions will be carried out when serious errors are detected in a manuscript or ethical problems (such as data fabrication, manipulation or plagiarism) that compromise the credibility of the work, its results or contributions. Depending on the seriousness of the problem and its possible legal implications, the journal will decide whether to withdraw access to the article or retract it.