Editorial Ethics

The Colombia Forestal Journal assures that all of the parts (authors, reviewers and editors) strictly follow the ethical international rules in the publication process.

ABC follows the ethic rules in the COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors  and the International Standars for Editors and Authors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Manuscripts are checked with plagiarism detection software TURNITIN.

General duties and responsibilities of the editorial board

As most responsible for the journal, Colombia Forestal 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

Colombia Forestal Journal 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

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

Peer review process

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

Claims

Colombia Forestal 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

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

Protection of individual data

Colombia Forestal 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

Colombia Forestal 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. Colombia Forestal 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

Colombia Forestal 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.