Code of Ethics
Code of Ethics
Seeking to strengthen good practices in the reception, review, and editing of articles submitted to the VinculaTégica EFAN journal decides to use as references the good practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) which includes international standards for publication journals in the different actors involved.
Responsibilities of authors
Authors must ensure that the manuscript is original, unpublished, and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or editorial body. The publication license will show this responsibility.
Authors must declare their contribution to the work and acknowledge funding sources when applicable. This is evidenced through the metadata provided when submitting a manuscript.
Likewise, authors must properly cite the sources consulted and avoid practices such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, unjustified self-citation, forced citation, deliberate omission of relevant literature, use of references that have not been consulted, or inclusion of nonexistent citations, references or DOIs, whether fabricated or generated through artificial intelligence tools. The requirement is evidenced through the preliminary editorial review and the peer review process.
Authors must declare any academic, institutional, personal, financial, or professional conflict of interest that could influence the interpretation, evaluation, or publication of the work. This declaration must be included in the manuscript, in the originality letter, or in the corresponding editorial form.
When the research involves data, surveys, interviews, institutional information, or any other supporting material, authors must preserve the evidence supporting the results presented and make it available to the journal when required for editorial review, methodological clarification, or the resolution of possible controversies.
Responsibilities of reviewers
Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts with objectivity, confidentiality, impartiality, and academic rigor and within the timeframes established by the journal. The platform will record evidence of this responsibility through the records generated during the review process.
Reviewers must declare any conflict of interest before accepting the evaluation of a manuscript. In the event of an academic, institutional, personal, financial, or professional conflict, they must recuse themselves from participating in the review process. Evidence of such conflicts will be recorded in the platform metadata when they receive the review request.
Reviewers may not use, reproduce, share, or disclose information from the evaluated manuscript before its publication. Likewise, the use of artificial intelligence tools to evaluate, summarize, analyze, interpret or issue recommendations on assigned manuscripts is prohibited, as is the partial or total uploading of the text, data, tables, figures or results to external artificial intelligence platforms.
The evaluation must be carried out directly by the designated reviewer, based on their academic judgment, disciplinary expertise, and ethical responsibility. Failure to comply with this provision may result in the cancellation of the review, the replacement of the reviewer, and exclusion from future collaborations with the journal.
Responsibilities of editors
Editors must make editorial decisions based on the academic quality, thematic relevance, originality, methodological rigor, scientific contribution and compliance with the journal’s editorial standards, without discrimination based on gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, academic background, theoretical orientation or personal position of the authors.
Editors must preserve the confidentiality of the double-blind peer review process. The identity of authors and reviewers must remain protected throughout the editorial process.
Application procedures
Verification of originality, similarity and plagiarism. All manuscripts submitted to Vinculatégica EFAN will undergo preliminary editorial review and similarity verification using Turnitin. The journal establishes a maximum similarity tolerance of 20%. For mos information, please review the antiplagiarism policy.
Manipulation of citations and references. The journal does not allow citation manipulation practices, such as unjustified self-citation, forced citation, inclusion of references that have not been consulted, deliberate omission of relevant literature or incorporation of references with no direct relation to the manuscript. The detection of these practices may result in a request for correction or rejection, depending on the severity of the case.
Use of artificial intelligence. Vinculatégica EFAN is governed by the journal’s Artificial Intelligence Use Policy, which forms part of this code.
Corrections and errata. When minor errors are identified that do not compromise the results, conclusions or scientific integrity of the published article, the journal may issue a correction or erratum. The corrected version and erratum notice will be linked to the public record of the article.
Retractions. When serious errors, plagiarism, fabrication or manipulation of data, duplicate publication, misuse of artificial intelligence, ethical violations or any other misconduct that compromises the validity of the article are identified, the journal may issue a retraction in accordance with COPE best practices. The retraction will be published visibly and linked to the original article.
Complaints and appeals. Authors may submit complaints or appeals regarding editorial decisions by sending an email to vinculategica.efan@uanl.mx addressed to the journal’s editorial team, indicating the manuscript ID number. The editor-in-chief will review the appeal and may request an additional review; the resolution will be communicated in writing.
Unforeseen exceptional cases. Any ethical or editorial situation not expressly covered in this code will be analyzed by the editorial team of Vinculatégica EFAN, taking as reference COPE best practices, applicable institutional regulations and the principles of integrity, transparency, impartiality and academic responsibility.
Last updated: June 2026
