Editorial ethics

The editorial board of Tecnura journal is committed to ethics high standards and good practice for knowledge dissemination and transfer, in order to ensure rigour and scientific quality. That is why it has taken as reference the Code of Conduct, which has been established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for scientific journal editors; outlining the following:

General duties and responsibilities of the editorial board

As most responsible for the journal, Tecnura committee and the editorial board are committed to:

  • Joining efforts to meet the readers and authors’ needs.
  • Tending to the continuous improvement of the Journal.
  • Ensuring quality of published material.
  • Ensuring freedom of expression.
  • Maintaining the academic integrity of their content.
  • Prevent commercial interests compromise intellectual standards.
  • Post corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary.

Relations with readers

Readers will be informed about who has funded research and their role in the research.

Relations with authors

Tecnura is committed to ensuring the quality of published material, informing the goals and standards of the journal. The decisions of publishers to accept or reject a paper for publication are based solely on the relevance of the work, originality and pertinence of the study with journal editorial line.

The journal includes a description of the process for peer evaluation of each received work, and has an authors guide with this information. The guide is regularly updated and contains a link to this code of ethics. The journal recognizes the right of authors to appeal editorial decisions

Publishers will not change their decision in accepting or rejecting articles, unless extraordinary circumstances or irregularities are detected. Any change in the editorial board members will not affect decisions already made, except for unusual cases where serious circumstances converge.

Relations with evaluators

Tecnura makes available to reviewers a guide to what is expected from them. Reviewers’ identity is protected at all times, ensuring anonymity.

Peer review process

Tecnura ensures that material submitted for publication will be considered private and confidential issue while being reviewed (double blind).

Claims

Tecnura is committed to respond quickly to complaints and ensure that dissatisfied claimant can process all complaints. In any case, if applicants fail to satisfy their claims, the journal considers that they have the right to raise their protests to other instances.

Promoting Academic Integrity

Tecnura ensures that the published material conforms to internationally accepted ethical standards.

Protection of individual data

Tecnura guarantees the confidentiality of individual information (e.g. participant teachers and/or students as collaborators or subjects of study in the presented research).

Tracking malpractice

Tecnura accepts the obligation to act accordingly in case of suspected malpractice or misconduct. This obligation extends both to publish and unpublished documents. The editors not only reject manuscripts with doubts about possible misconduct, but they are considered ethically obligated to report suspected cases of misconduct. From the journal every reasonable effort is made to ensure that works submitted for evaluation are rigorous and ethically appropriate.

Integrity and academic rigour

Whenever evidence that a published work contains significant misstatements, misleading or distorted statements, it must be corrected immediately.

In case of any work with fraudulent content is detected, it will be removed as soon as it is known, and immediately informing both readers and indexing systems.

Practices that are considered unacceptable and as such will be reported: simultaneous sending of the same work to various journals, duplicate publication with irrelevant changes or paraphrase of the same work, or the artificial fragmentation of a work in several articles.

Relations with owners and journal editors

The relation between editors, publishers and owners will be subject to the principle of editorial independence. Tecnura will ensure that articles are published based on their quality and suitability for readers, and not for an economic or political gain. In this sense, the fact that the journal is not governed by economic interests, and defends the ideal of universal and free access to knowledge, provides that independence.

Conflict of interest

Tecnura will establish the necessary mechanisms to avoid or resolve potential conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers and/or the editorial board itself.

Complaints / allegations

Any author, reader, reviewer or editor may refer their complaints to the competent authorities.

Reviewer responsibilities:

  • To contribute objectively to the review process of manuscripts submitted for consideration by Tecnura, and to collaborate in a timely manner in improving the scientific quality of these original research products.

  • To maintain the confidentiality of the data provided by the editor, the editorial committee, or the authors, and to make proper use of such information through the means provided. However, it is up to the reviewer to retain or copy the manuscript during the review process.

  • To inform the editor and the editorial committee in a timely manner when the content of an academic contribution shows elements of plagiarism or is substantially similar to other research products already published or under review for publication.

  • To report any possible conflict of interest regarding an academic contribution arising from financial, institutional, collaborative, or other relationships between the reviewer and the authors. In such cases, and if necessary, the reviewer’s services in the manuscript evaluation process will be withdrawn.

Author responsibilities

  • To keep accurate records and supporting documentation of the data and data analyses related to the manuscript submitted for consideration by the journal. When the editor or editorial committee requests this information for reasonable purposes, the authors must provide it or facilitate access to it. When requested, the original data will enter a chain of custody that ensures confidentiality and protection of the information by the journal.

  • To confirm, through an originality statement (in the journal’s pre-established format), that the academic contribution under review is not being considered, nor has it been submitted or accepted, by another publication. When part of the content of this contribution has been published or presented in another medium, the authors must acknowledge and cite the respective sources and academic credits. In addition, they must provide the editor and editorial committee with a copy of any publication that may contain overlapping or closely related content to the contribution under consideration. Furthermore, the author must acknowledge the corresponding credits for material reproduced from other sources. Elements such as tables, figures, or patents that require special permission to be reproduced must be accompanied by a letter of authorization from the copyright holders of the material used.

  • In research involving animals, appropriate practices established by the regulations governing such activities must be maintained and ensured.

  • To declare any possible conflict of interest that could exert undue influence at any stage of the publication process.

  • To carefully review the final proofs of the contribution prior to publication in the journal, and to report any errors that may arise and need to be corrected. In the event that significant errors are found after the academic contribution has been published, the authors must promptly notify the editor and editorial committee, and subsequently cooperate with the journal in publishing an erratum, appendix, notice, correction, or, when necessary, in withdrawing the manuscript from the published issue.

  • To ensure transparency in the article submission process and not to exert any type of pressure, academic or financial, on the editorial team for the publication of their results.

Responsibility of Universidad Distrital:

  • Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, on whose behalf Tecnura is published, and in accordance with the provisions of Agreement 023 of June 19, 2012 of the Academic Council, which regulates the University’s Editorial Policy, will ensure that ethical standards and good practices are fully complied with.