Ethics statement

Contents

Transformación adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the ethical principles of the 7th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) manual. The journal is committed to maintaining integrity, transparency, and quality in all editorial, evaluation, and publication processes.

Below are the ethical responsibilities and commitments of the actors involved in the publication process.

1. Authors' responsibilities

Originality and plagiarism

  • Authors must guarantee that the manuscript is original, has not been published in whole or in part in any language, and is not simultaneously submitted to another journal.
  • Prior deposit of the manuscript on preprint servers (arXiv, SocArXiv, etc.) is not considered prior publication and is compatible with submission.
  • Plagiarism in all its forms (total, partial, self-plagiarism, unattributed translation) is prohibited. The editorial team verifies originality using Turnitin (iThenticate) and applies similarity parameters with progressive editorial actions (from correction to automatic rejection).

Authorship and contribution

  • Authorship must be based on the ICMJE criteria: substantial contribution to conception/design or acquisition/analysis/interpretation of data; drafting or critical revision; approval of the final version; and agreement to be responsible for all aspects of the work.
  • At the end of the manuscript, the individual author responsibility statement according to the CRediT taxonomy must be included.
  • The inclusion of authors who have not contributed significantly or the exclusion of those who have is not accepted.

Conflicts of interest

  • Authors must explicitly declare any conflicts of interest (personal, professional, economic, or otherwise) that could influence the objectivity of the work.
  • This declaration will appear below the bibliographic references and must coincide with the Letter of originality and publication license.
  • If there is no conflict, the declaration "The author(s) declare(s) no conflicts of interest" shall be stated.

Use of artificial intelligence

  • Authors must declare the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the writing of the manuscript, specifying their use and verifying the accuracy of the contents.
  • AI should not be listed as an author; authors are fully responsible for the content.

Ethical considerations in research involving humans and animals

  • When research involves human subjects, authors must declare that the study was approved by a recognized research ethics committee, indicating the name of the committee, the approval number, and proof of informed consent obtained from participants or their legal guardians (in the case of minors or persons with disabilities).
  • When research involves animals, authors must declare that the ethical principles for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed, and that the study was approved by the corresponding institutional committee.

2. Reviewers' responsibilities

Confidentiality

  • Reviewers commit to maintaining the confidentiality of assigned manuscripts and not using the knowledge contained therein before publication.

Objectivity

  • Evaluations must be conducted objectively, without personal bias, and based on academic and scientific arguments.
  • Reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest that could compromise their objectivity and, if they exist, decline the invitation.

Deadlines

  • Reviewers must comply with established deadlines (30 business days for the report) or notify the editor of any delay.

3. Editors' responsibilities

Editorial decision

  • Editorial decisions are based exclusively on the academic and scientific merit of the manuscripts, without discrimination based on origin, nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
  • In case of disagreement between reviewers, a third evaluation may be requested.
  • Against a rejection decision, authors have ten business days to submit a reasoned reply to the Editorial Board.

Confidentiality

  • Editors guarantee the confidentiality of manuscripts throughout the review and publication process.

Transparency

  • Editors declare any conflicts of interest with the manuscripts they manage. If one exists, the manuscript will be assigned to another editor.

4. Corrections and retractions policy

Transformación is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scientific record.

  • If significant errors are detected in an already published article (that do not constitute scientific misconduct), an erratum will be published, which will be linked to the original article.
  • In cases of serious scientific misconduct (plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship), retraction of the article will be managed, following COPE guidelines. The retraction notice will be published transparently, linked to the original article, notified to the databases where the journal is indexed, and reported to the authors' affiliated institutions.

5. Authorship changes policy

Requests for changes in the author list after submission (addition, removal, or reordering) must be justified in writing and approved by all signing authors, following COPE guidelines. The editor will evaluate the request and may approve or reject it according to their criteria and the justification presented.