Editorial Policies

Anti-plagiarism Policies

At the beginning of the editorial process, before being sent for peer review, all articles submitted to the Trama journal will be reviewed with TEC-Digital's plagiarism detection tool, which uses Turnitin software for its operation.

The revision makes a textual comparison of the document and its database (which includes international databases) and then generates a similarity report. If AI is used, it must be cited in accordance with the APA7 citation style. Each article will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and the Scientific Editorial Committee reserves the right to approve or reject the manuscript. Authors will be notified of the status of the report to see if corrections can be made (in the absence of citations) or rejection of the article if intentional plagiarism is detected. 

Additionally, all articles are subjected to peer review, where evaluators indicate the degree of originality and quality of the documents evaluated.

 

 

Digital Preservation Policies

 

Trama magazine keeps all its final (PDF) and editable (InDesign) files on the server of the Department of Administration of Information and Communication Technologies (DATIC) of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, which provides backups to the entire network of virtual servers it hosts.

There is also the digital support provided by the institutional repository of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica.

 

 

Code of Ethics and Good Practices of TRAMA

Trama, the Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (Costa Rica Institute of Technology), presents the Code of Ethics and Good Practices for the publication of scientific-social and humanistic articles, which contemplates the main guidelines that regulate and guide the participation of the different individuals involved in the publication process.

Trama has set itself the pressing challenge of raising quality, rigor, and monitoring the equity of the procedures in which different individuals participate in the evaluation and publication process of this academic journal.

The publication process includes different stages, such as: submission; evaluation and peer review; dialogue between the Director-Editor, external Evaluators under double-blind conditions, and Authors; incorporation of observations and recommendations by Authors; editing; layout; and publication of articles.

Trama's publications are diverse, plural, and include: research, outreach, social action, and teaching articles; bibliographic reviews; essays; and other works that communicate unpublished and original knowledge. Authors and the plurality of actors involved in the process aspire to and require the evaluation of the quality and impact[1] of publications. Therefore, it is imperative that academic publication be evaluated with rigor, ethical sense, and good practices.

This Code of Ethics and Good Practices of Trama Journal is based on principles outlined in the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment; the Codes of Ethics and Good Practices for the Publication of Scientific Articles in Electronic Journals such as MH Salud and Tecnología en Marcha; the Best Practice Guidelines on Publishing Ethics: Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, among others.

Therefore, this document regulates and guides the publication process, and thus must be known and respected by all individuals participating in the different stages of the process.

Objective

The objective of this ethics and good practices policy is to establish mechanisms that guarantee both the quality of publications and the quality of Trama's publication process and, if necessary, serve as an instrument for conflict resolution among the parties involved.

1. General Principles of Good Practices of TRAMA:

  • The criteria used to evaluate the publication of articles are fundamentally based on the quality of the content.

  • The evaluation of articles considers the use of rubrics or "Evaluation and Review Criteria" of a qualitative nature, which will be available to authors through Trama's virtual platform (Open Journal System, OJS).

  • Trama will use as a promotional tool the presentation of metrics and statistics (such as h-index) and other tools that reveal the structure and significance of scientific-social and humanistic production, publication time, and others that provide a comprehensive and broad vision of the journal's performance.

  • Trama will make available a variety of article-level metrics to guide its practice toward evaluation based on the scientific-social and humanistic content of a publication.

  • Trama will promote responsible authorship practices and provide information on the specific contributions of each author.

  • Trama is an open-access and free journal, which eliminates all limitations on the reuse of reference lists in articles and makes them available under the Creative Commons public domain dedication.

  • Trama's Scientific-Editorial Board commits to establishing gender parity both when assembling its work team and in the article evaluation process.

2. Definitions

Article: Document submitted for eventual publication; it may be a scientific article, research article, academic essay, or other, in accordance with the journal's established guidelines.

Authors: Individuals who produce an article as a result of a research process.

Scientific-Editorial Board: A group of professionals, formally established, that provides academic and technical support to the editorial process.

Evaluators: Specialists in specific areas who evaluate and review the article submitted for publication, regarding structure and content, in accordance with their knowledge, experience, and the quality requirements established by Trama journal.

Director/Editor: Person responsible for coordinating and managing the different stages of the publication process and ensuring compliance with the scientific-social, humanistic, and ethical quality parameters established for each of them.

3. Responsibilities

3.1. Authors

They must comply with the following indications:

  • Guarantee that the content of their article is original and unpublished.

  • Not submit their article simultaneously to another journal.

  • Know the editorial policies and provisions of Trama journal for the different stages of its publication process.

  • Incorporate the existing ethical and legal considerations of the country in which the research, outreach, social action, or teaching from which the article derives is conducted.

  • Establish the order of co-authors' names, in alphabetical order or in decreasing order of contribution.

  • Commit to collaborating with the editing, layout, and publication of the journal at the stages in which they must be involved.

  • Respect the intellectual property conditions that may affect the results of their research and the structure of their article.

  • Guarantee that the information contained in the article is true.

  • Give credit to the contributions of other authors by indicating the sources of the information incorporated in the article.

  • Avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism through proper citation.

  • Avoid personal or commercial conflicts of interest with the results of their research, outreach, social action, or teaching process from which the article derives.

  • Correct errors detected after publication and make clarifications when necessary.

  • Allow data to be available to the editor if doubts arise about its accuracy during the review and evaluation process.

  • Obtain authorization for the use of unpublished instruments, procedures, or data that other researchers may consider their own.

  • Adequately protect the confidentiality of the individuals participating in the research, organizations, or persons who were sources of information for the preparation of the article.

  • Provide, when required, reliable evidence of informed consent from the individuals with whom the research, teaching, social action, or outreach process from which the article derives was conducted.

3.2. Scientific-Editorial Board

It must support the editorial process, at least, in the following aspects:

  • Create the journal's editorial policies and monitor their implementation.

  • Promote the journal in academic spheres.

  • Attract article submissions.

  • Recommend evaluators for specific articles, according to their specialty.

  • Conduct a preliminary evaluation of the relevance of the publication, in accordance with the framework of action and scope of Trama journal.

  • Ensure compliance with the details that guarantee the quality of the process.

  • Process with celerity the articles that comply with all the requirements established in the instructions for publishing in Trama journal.

  • Not allow external situations or particular interests to alter the integrity of the publication process.

3.3. Director/Editor

  • Execute the coordination of the publication process in accordance with the editorial policies established by Trama journal, with the purpose of keeping the parties involved informed and requesting their collaboration when necessary.

  • Provide authors with the necessary information to submit their article to the publication process.

  • Execute the preliminary review tasks of submitted articles within the shortest possible time.

  • Confirm the authorization of co-authorships, as well as the order in which they should appear in the publication.

  • Verify the originality of the article through software created to detect [plagiarism].

  • Request from authors the use of data unification tools (name) of the individuals involved in the research.

  • Ensure that the individuals who conduct the arbitrations or peer reviews have the necessary knowledge to do so technically and [adequately].

  • Protect the identity of authors and reviewers and maintain their data confidential as part of the evaluation process under the condition of external evaluator and "double-blind."

  • Provide authors, in writing, with the observations, recommendations, and corrections suggested by the [reviewers].

  • Verify the incorporation of modifications suggested by the reviewers or present the justification for not [incorporating them].

  • Ensure that authors comply with the ethical specifications of their country in relation to the disclosure of their [results].

  • Guarantee academic freedom and freedom of expression in the article publication processes.

  • Ensure that all technical and administrative requirements are met to guarantee the quality of the [publication] process.

  • Seek the visibility of the journal through the incorporation of content in indexes and [databases].

  • Keep the information on the [journal's] website updated.

  • Manage the digital preservation policies of the publication's history.

  • Guarantee the quality of the articles published in Trama journal and the good practices among the individuals participating in the publication process.

3.4. Good Practices of TRAMA Editors

  • Obtain the opinion of the different individuals participating regarding mechanisms to improve the quality and the publication process of the journal.

  • Evaluate and update the journal's peer review processes.

  • Count on the opinion of experts in graphic design, law, and other professionals that contribute to the improvement of practices and with technical resources for the publication.

  • Evaluate Trama's ethics policies and manage actions that promote good practices by all individuals participating in the publication process.

  • Eradicate inappropriate behaviors and manage disciplinary actions that guarantee good practices in the publication process.

3.5. Evaluators

  • Rigorously evaluate the content submitted for their review.

  • Reject articles submitted for their evaluation if they do not feel qualified to do so.

  • Respect the times established by the editor-director for the review of the manuscript, to maintain the fluidity of the process.

  • Keep in absolute confidentiality the content of the article assigned for evaluation, during the process and afterward.

  • Avoid hostile and disrespectful language when making observations, recommendations, and corrections about the content or the author.

  • Refrain from using the received material for purposes other than the evaluation process.

  • Incorporate in their evaluation any observation related to the possibility of conflict of interest detected during the process.

  • Reject the article for review if they detect that the author may be their relative, collaborator, known colleague, or has some relationship that could affect the rigor and objectivity of the result of their evaluation.

  • Inform only the editor if they find any irregularity in the content they are reviewing.

4. Inappropriate Conduct

The following are defined as inconvenient actions within the editorial process:

  • False authorship: Recognition as author of a person who did not participate in the preparation of the article, or whose contribution was not significant.

  • Plagiarism: Refers to the use of information already published by another author without mentioning the original author; it may be literal copying or paraphrasing.

  • Self-plagiarism: Refers to information previously published by the author themselves without mentioning their authorship.

  • Scientific fraud: Refers to the manipulation of data, creation of false data, or manipulation of images.

  • Segmented publication: The publication of results of a research in several parts, with the purpose of constituting multiple published articles.

  • Duplicate publication: The submission of the same article to more than one journal simultaneously, or of articles that share similar content.

  • Conflict of interest: Refers to financial or institutional relationships with entities involved in a research, where there may have been an economic or personal interest in obtaining specific results.

With the objective of preventing some of the bad practices described above, manuscripts submitted to the journal will be evaluated with an anti-plagiarism or similarity control tool before being sent for expert review.

5. Disciplinary Actions

Inappropriate conduct will be communicated to the members of the Scientific-Editorial Board, and it will grant itself the right to take the actions it considers necessary in relation to the article and its author:

  • If the article is published in Trama, it will be removed from the website and other dissemination media, indicating the reasons for the removal.

  • If the article is not published in Trama, it will be rejected and may not continue in the process.

The application of the disciplinary action must be communicated in writing to the author. In the case that it represents an institution, the corresponding authorities must also be notified.

[1] According to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, the impact factor calculated by Thomson Reuters was originally created as a tool to help librarians identify journals to purchase, not as a measure of the scientific quality of research in an article. Said impact factor, according to this declaration, has a series of well-documented deficiencies as a tool for research evaluation. These limitations include: a) citation distributions within journals are highly skewed; b) the properties of the impact factor are field-specific: it is a composite of multiple highly diverse types of articles, including primary research papers and reviews; c) impact factors can be manipulated (or gamed) by editorial policy; and d) the data used to calculate the impact factor are not transparent nor openly available to the public. For all these reasons, metrics such as the h-index should be considered.