Plagiarism and ethics policy
Contents
Transformación adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the ethical principles of the 7th edition of the APA manual.
Originality
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 to the journal.
Conflict of interest
Its existence or non-existence must be explicitly declared. This declaration will appear below the bibliographic references and must coincide with what was submitted in the Letter of originality and publication license. If there is no conflict of interest, it can be stated "The author(s) declare(s) no conflicts of interest"; otherwise, they must be described.
- Reviewers: Before accepting an invitation, they must declare any conflict of interest that could compromise their objectivity. In case of conflict, they must decline the invitation.
- Editors: They must declare any conflict of interest with the manuscripts they manage. If there is one, the manuscript will be assigned to another editor.
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.
Plagiarism detection
The editorial team will verify the originality of all manuscripts using the Turnitin tool, in its iThenticate module, during the initial editorial review, before sending them for peer review. The purpose is to detect textual overlaps with previously published sources, including those of the author themselves (self-plagiarism).
Quantitative similarity parameters
| Similarity percentage | Similarity level | Editorial action |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ 10 % | Low | Not considered intentional plagiarism. The manuscript will proceed to subsequent review phases, provided that no block of continuous text from a single source exceeds 25 words without proper quotation marks and corresponding citation. |
| 11 – 20 % | Moderate | The editor will generate the originality report and notify the author, granting a period of 15 business days to correct or properly reference the information. The author must reduce the similarity percentage below 11% or, failing that, submit a formal and detailed justification of the detected coincidences. |
| 21 – 35 % | High | The editor will generate the report and bring it to the attention of the Director of the journal and the authors. An exceptional period of 20 business days will be granted for a thorough correction of the text. If, after this period, the similarity percentage does not drop below 20%, the manuscript will be definitively rejected. |
| > 35 % | Possible plagiarism | The text will be subject to detailed scrutiny. Unless conclusive proof of an error in the tool is provided (for example, coincidence with standardized metadata of the journal itself), the manuscript will be automatically rejected, without the right to correction or resubmission. |
Additional qualitative rules
- Contextual qualitative evaluation: In all cases, the editorial team will thoroughly examine the origin and nature of the coincidences. Special attention will be paid to extensive continuous text blocks (≥ 25 words) from the same source, even when the overall similarity percentage is low.
- Self-plagiarism: The reuse of substantial fragments of previous publications by the same author, without explicit citation and without proper quotation marks, is considered a serious ethical violation. Self-plagiarism will be equated with third-party plagiarism and may lead to immediate rejection of the manuscript.
- Justified exceptions: In the Recapitulative study type or in those requiring extensive textual quotations due to their nature (for example, regulatory or legal definitions), authors may request a special evaluation from the Editorial Committee.
- Uniformity and traceability: An anonymized record of all incidents related to textual similarity and the decisions adopted in each case will be kept.
