The editorial board of the Latin American Potato Journal is committed to high standards of ethics and good practices in the dissemination and transfer of knowledge to ensure rigor and scientific quality. It uses as reference the Code of Conduct for editors of scientific journals, established by the Publications Ethics Committee (COPE, https://publicationethics.org/core-practices) in which it is located:
1. General duties and responsibilities of the Principal Editor, Associate Editors and editorial committee
The editors are responsible for everything published in the magazine, therefore:
- Strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;
- Improve constantly the journal;
- Ensure the quality of the material they publish;
- Promote freedom of expression;
- Maintain the integrity of the academic record;
- Prevent commercial needs from compromising intellectual standards;
- Publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary.
2. Relations with readers
Readers should be informed about who has funded the research and about the role of the funders in the research.
3. Relations with authors
The Latin American Potato Journal is committed to guaranteeing the quality of published material, informing about the objectives and standards of the journal. The editors' decisions to accept or reject an article for publication are based solely on the quality of the work, the originality and the relevance of the study with respect to the editorial line of the journal.
The journal includes a description of the processes used in the peer evaluation of each work received. It has a guide of authors in which the information is presented. This guide is updated periodically and contains a link to the code of ethics. Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions.
The publishers will not change their decision to accept shipments, unless irregularities or extraordinary situations are detected. Any change in the members of the editorial team does not affect the decisions already made, except in special cases where serious circumstances converge.
4. Relations with reviewers
The Latin American Potato Journal offers guidance to reviewers on what is expected of them. The identity of the reviewers is protected at all times, ensuring their anonymity.
5. The peer review process
The Latin American Potato Journal ensures that the material sent for publication will be considered privileged and confidential material while evaluating (double blind).
The submitted manuscripts should be fully compliant with the Latin American Potato Journal’s editorial criteria. In addition, they should follow the minimum essential conditions of a well-supported academic work and coherent writing. The first stage for the newly submitted manuscripts is that the editor, together with the editorial editor will ensure that the manuscripts meet the minimum requirements mentioned. The manuscript with the formatting advices suggested by the editor will be returned to the contact author and they will have a period of 5 days to correct and adapt their manuscript to the journal's regulations. Once the corrected manuscript is resubmitted by the authors, the editor will send it for peer-review (or arbitration) to two reviewers (or arbitrators) with the double blind system: the reviewer will not have knowledge of the identity of the author and vice versa.
The reviewers will be researchers or academics of recognized prestige whose lines of work coincide with the topic addressed in the article.
The evaluation criteria suggested to the reviewer will be the following:
a. Attention to its content. Consider the originality, rigor, interest and topicality of the approaches, as well as their relevance to the research field.
b. Attention to the general structure of the work. That the exposition is made with a coherent logic and that it achieves its analytical cohesion.
c. Attention to the writing. Exhibition quality.
The final answer may be:
I. Conditioned for publication (Publishable with mayor corrections). In this case, the author will be indicated what profound modifications must be made to the work in order to publish it. The author will have 15 days to present the corrected version of his text, which will be reviewed by two readers of the Editorial Commission to verify to what extent the recommendations of the reviewer were followed.
II. Approved, with minor changes (Publishable with revision). In this case, the author will be informed if the work needs minor modifications, which will be indicated exactly, and it will be up to the author whether they incorporate them or not. The author will have 5 days, counted from the date of return, to present the corrected version of his text. Once these changes have been made, the text will be subject to publication.
III. Approved (publishable without objection). The text will automatically go to the editing stage, provided that the second opinion is also publishable without objection.
IV. Not approved (Not publishable). Here the reviewer will clearly explain the reasons why she/he considers that the text cannot be published.
The decision of the reviewer is final.
In the event that the review process cannot be started due to not having the necessary number of reviewers under the conditions established by the regulation, the author or authors will be notified of the rejection of the manuscript for this reason.
6. Handling complaints
The Latin American Potato Journal is committed to responding quickly to complaints received and ensuring that dissatisfied applicants can handle all complaints. In any case, if the interested parties do not comply with their claims, they are considered to have the right to raise their protests to other instances.
7. Safeguard academic integrity
Publishers should ensure that the research material they publish complies with internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
8. Protection of individual data
The Latin American Potato Journal guarantees the confidentiality of individual information, that is, articles containing interviews of, for example, teachers and/or students as collaborators or participants of the study presented, this should not be disclosed to third parties.
9. Monitoring misconduct
The Latin American Potato Journal assumes its obligation to act accordingly in case of suspicion of bad practice or misconduct. This obligation extends to both published and unpublished documents. The editors not only will reject manuscripts that raise doubts about possible misconduct, but they are ethically obligated to report suspected cases of misconduct. Every reasonable effort is made from the journal to ensure that the work under evaluation is rigorous and ethically appropriate. Among them, the revision of the text created to detect and prevent plagiarism regardless of the language used (through URKUND).
10. Safeguard integrity of the academic record
Publishers have a duty to act if there is suspicion of misconduct by the authors. This duty extends to both published and unpublished articles.
Publishers should not simply reject documents that raise concerns about possible misconduct (fabrication, forgery or plagiarism when proposing, conducting or reviewing investigations, or reporting research results), but are ethically obligated to pursue alleged cases. To do this, editors should first seek an answer or clarification from the authors. If they are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the relevant employers or some appropriate agency (perhaps a regulatory body) to investigate the fact.
11. Relations between the authors and the editors of the Journal
The relationship between the editors, the editorial committee and authors will be subject to the principle of editorial independence. The Latin American Potato Journal always ensures that articles are published based on their quality and suitability for readers, and not with an economic or political benefit. In this sense, the information transmitted by the magazine is not governed by economic interests but by the ideal of defending free access to knowledge, universal and free.
12. Conflict of interests.
Conflicts of interest may arise due to financial and non-financial interests, in other words, there may be conflicts over the use of time, belonging to certain associations, prejudices, family or friendship relationships, among others that could incorrectly influence the duties and responsibilities of the authors, reviewers and/or the editorial team itself.
The Latin American Potato Journal will establish the mechanisms of regulation, prevention, detection, investigation and sanction necessary to prevent or resolve possible conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers and/or the editorial team itself.
13. Complaints/allegations
Any author, reader, reviewer or editor may submit their complaints to the general committee of the Latin American Potato Association at the following email address alapadm777@gmail.com.