Introduction

This Ethics Code for Tecnología y ciencias del agua is intended for editors, reviewers, and authors. It is based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) and those involved in Tecnología y ciencias del agua (Editorial Board, reviewers and authors) agree to follow this Code of Ethics and any applicable Professional Code of Ethics.

The Code of Ethics complements and supports the Editorial Policy, which sets forth all the guidelines governing the journal’s processes.

Impartiality

No distinction is made among participants on the basis of sex, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual preference or any other reason.

Articles are accepted for possible publication as long as they are within the subject matter of the journal.

In case of incurring and proving that there is any act of discrimination, the reviewer or editor may be dismissed or the case may be passed to an institution authorized to attend to the case.

Honesty

The guidelines and policies of the journal will be made available to the public in order to provide transparency to the processes and decisions made.

When there is a conflict of interest or personal interest on the part of the Editorial Board or reviewers, the Editorial Office will be informed of the corresponding declination.

In case of plagiarism, unethical practices or duplicity of work, authors will be informed; their article will be removed from the review process, rejected or even eliminated from the publication. In addition, if it is considered a matter of importance, the author's institution will be informed so that the corresponding measures can be taken.

Authors will have the arbitrations and observations derived from the review process always regardless of the outcome of the process.

The confidentiality of authors and reviewers will be protected in order to maintain the maximum objectivity of the review process.

Fairness

The same rules will apply to all authors regardless of their academic position, renown in the discipline or proximity to the editors or directors of the publishing house.

Authors may request appeals if they feel that the process was not carried out in accordance with the rules established by the journal.

Penalties will be applied to authors who engage in professional misconduct.

Respect

Intellectual property must be respected. The use of images, graphics, software or extensive texts from third parties must have the corresponding explicit permissions, simple citation is not always legally sufficient.

The previous work of the entire scientific community must be acknowledged. Do not cite only friends or intentionally ignore relevant works that contradict the hypothesis of the proposed article.

Professional language must be used that does not reinforce stereotypes or cultural, gender, or geographical discrimination within academic discourse.

Responsability

The Editorial Board, editors, reviewers and authors will always perform their duties with professionalism.

Personal data will not be shared with third parties and will only be used for professional communication related to the journal.

No information of any kind will be given to third parties or collaborators of the journal about the reviewers, authors, articles that entered the journal or editors when it is suspected that the information will be misused.

The comments of reviewers and authors are outside the non-position of both the Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua (IMTA) and the journal Tecnología y ciencias del agua.

General responsibilities of the editor-in-chief

• Agree with IMTA's director on matters related to the journal that require institutional support or intervention.
• Contribute to the promotion of the journal at the national and international levels.
• To formally invite renowned personalities from the world of science and technology in the journal's field of action to publish.
• Approve the publication of special issues.
• Sign collaboration agreements and projects between the journal and national and international bodies.
• Define and update the areas of interest of the journal and the type of material to be published.
• Specify the journal's target audience.
• Evaluate the contents of the journal and propose modifications to the editorial line.
• Appoint and remove the members of the journal's Editorial Coordination.
• Write editorials when required.
• Reject, from the outset, articles that do not comply with the journal's Editorial Policy.
• Determine which editor by subject will coordinate each paper submitted for possible publication.
• Adopt the role of editor by subject in special cases.
• If required, act as referee.
• Convene and direct the meetings of the Editorial Board.
• Act as a permanent link between the members of the Editorial Board.

Responsibilities of the subject editor/section editor

Identify, select and designate referees to review the articles it coordinates. In this regard, it assumes the commitment to use criteria that take into account the professional experience and knowledge of the reviewers, as well as to adhere to a responsible, professional and ethical attitude, to ensure that this activity is carried out without discrimination based on sex, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual preferences, conflicts of interest or any other reason.

Follow up in due time and form, as well as in an objective manner, the opinion of the contributions in their thematic field.

Guarantee the academic and scientific integrity of the content of submitted articles, including the review of citations and references.

Participate in the review process, either on their own initiative or when requested to do so by the editor-in-chief or another member of the Editorial Board, always in an objective and courteous manner.

Decide, based on the opinions requested and on his/her own experience, the final opinion of each article he/she coordinates; this, based on principles of quality and objectivity.

Provide advice to the Editorial Coordination of the journal, if required.

Suggest to the editor-in-chief experts in their thematic area, for the conformation of the Editorial Committee, taking into account the trajectory and ethical attitude of the candidates.

Not to disclose information about manuscripts received for publication to persons outside the journal.

Reviewer's responsibilities

Make objective, concrete and written observations in courteous terms.

Give a clear and concise opinion.

Avoid value judgments, conflicts of interest or personal interests, and focus on the quality and contributions of the article.

Make precise and substantive observations, so as to enrich the document when modifications are requested.

Respond in a timely manner to meet deadlines.

Maintain the confidentiality of assigned manuscripts, and therefore should not discuss their content with others without the express consent of the editors.

Inform the editors of any similarity of the manuscript with other published articles.

Author's responsibilities

Guarantee the originality and ownership of their article, for which, before starting the review process, they will issue a "Letter of originality", specifying that the article they submit is theirs and is original.

Accept to be part of the group of referees of the journal Tecnología y ciencias del agua, with the responsibility that this implies.

Cite correctly and completely all references used in the manuscript.

Respect the authorship originally registered in the article submitted to the journal. Authors may only eliminate or add an author of the article or note in process by means of an official letter addressed to the journal Tecnología y ciencias del agua. This letter must be signed (on paper) by the main author, the co-authors and the author to be removed/added and who gives his/her express consent.

Limit the percentage of self-citations in the articles submitted to the journal to no more than 20%.

Editorial Office responsibilities

Uphold the principles of the Code of Ethics.

Maintain confidentiality. All documentation associated with the review process is classified as confidential; this includes personal data of the arbitrators, in order to comply with applicable laws and maintain the impartiality of the process.

Conduct all journal activities without discrimination based on sex, religion, ethnic or national origin, sexual preference or any other reason.

Incidents and solutions

Plagiarism

A plagiarism detection system is used (Ithenticate 2.0) to verify that the article does not contain plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or duplicate content. This system generates a report on the matches found in databases and online documents. This analysis consists of a percentage of matches and a detailed report.

if instances of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or duplicate submissions are found, the article will be rejected. The authors will be notified of the reasons for the rejection and will receive the match report generated by Ithenticate; they will have the option to make the necessary corrections and resubmit their article.

Appeals

Authors may appeal the final decision by presenting evidence and arguments that allow the section editor to reconsider their decision.

Authors have one week from the date the final decision notification is sent to submit an appeal. Appeals will not be accepted after that time. Only one appeal may be submitted per article.

Articles under appeal will remain in the “Rejected” status and will be moved back to the “Review” status only with the section editor’s approval.

Exclusivity

Submit their article exclusively to the arbitration and review of the journal for publication. In case the article or note is submitted to another media for its eventual publication, the authors must inform the Editorial Office, which will suspend the arbitration process and inform the Editorial Board of the decision taken by the authors; this same suspension will take effect if the journal Tecnología y ciencias del agua identifies and corroborates a similar situation.

Issues to authorship

Types of issues related to authorship

The journal has a definition of what constitutes authorship. It can be found in our Editorial Policy under the section 11. Authors.

In the event of disputes over authorship, the process is as follows.

Ghost author: someone who is omitted or removed from the list of authors despite meeting the criteria to be considered an author; they are sometimes mentioned in the acknowledgments or omitted entirely from the document.

Guest author: a person who is added, with or without their knowledge, to make the list of authors look more impressive, even though they did not participate in the research.

Gift author: a person who has not made a significant contribution to the research or publication (but who might otherwise have been acknowledged for their role) or someone who has not participated in the research, and who is listed as a favor, out of gratitude, or as a courtesy.

Author who did not give consent: an author listed in the authorship section who was not aware that the paper was submitted and did not personally provide their signature on the responsibility letter.

How are potential disputes over ghost authorship handled

Any author of an article or anyone who believes they have been used as a ghost author may submit a complaint via email to the journal’s Editorial Office.

Once the journal’s Editorial Office receives the complaint, it will take the following steps:

1. It will share the received email with all the authors of the article, including the complainant, requesting clarification or an explanation of the situation with evidence of each author’s contribution (emails, project proposal, final report, acknowledgments in the research, etc.). The information is considered confidential and is intended only for those involved; third parties who are not witnesses or who cannot provide evidence shall not be involved until the dispute is resolved. If those involved disclose the information to third parties with no direct connection to the article before the final decision is taken, the article will be permanently removed.
2. If the article is currently undergoing any of the reception, review or editing processes it will be put on hold until the dispute is resolved.
3. If the article has already been published online, no action will be taken until the dispute is resolved.
4. Once the various evidence provided by the parties involved has been received, the editor-in-chief, the section editor, and the Editorial Office will review the evidence and make one of the following decisions, which will be unappealable:
   • If the decision is in favor of the complainant, their name will be added to the list of authors; the corrected article will include a note with a link to the correction notice. The new document will replace the original in the compiled volume and will be assigned a new DOI.
   • If the complainant’s authorship is verified and the complainant does not authorize the publication of the manuscript, the article will be removed from its current process; if it has already been published, a retraction citing fraudulent authorship will be published and the article will be removed from the corresponding issue.
   • If the complainant's identity cannot be verified, the case will be dismissed and the article will proceed with the process.

How are potential disputes regarding guest authorship and/or gift authorship handled

Anyone may submit a complaint via email to the journal’s Editorial Office regarding a guest author and/or a gift author.

Once the journal’s Editorial Office receives the complaint, it will take the following steps:

1. The received email will be shared with all authors of the article, including the complainant. The complainant must provide evidence that the guest author and/or contributor did not participate. The other authors must submit evidence of each author’s participation (emails, project proposal, final report, acknowledgments in the research, etc.). The information is considered confidential and is intended only for those involved; third parties who are not witnesses or who cannot provide evidence shall not be involved until the dispute is resolved. If those involved disclose the information to third parties with no direct connection to the article before the final decision is taken, the article will be permanently removed.
2. If the article is currently undergoing any of the reception, review or editing processes it will be put on hold until the dispute is resolved.
3. If the article has already been published online, no action will be taken until the dispute is resolved.
4. Once the various evidence provided by the parties involved has been received, the editor-in-chief, the section editor, and the Editorial Office will review the evidence and make one of the following decisions, which will be unappealable:
   • If the decision is in favor of the complainant and the article is in the process of being received, reviewed or edited the article will be removed.
   • If the decision is in favor of the complainant and the article has been published, a retraction citing fraudulent authorship will be published, and the article will be removed from the respective issue.
   • If the complaint is not substantiated, the case will be dismissed, the article will continue in the process, and the complainant will never be allowed to publish in the journal; furthermore, their institution of affiliation will be notified of their malice aforethought.

How are potential disputes handled regarding an author who did not give their consent

Any author who has not provided consent may submit a complaint or request for clarification regarding authorizations by email to the journal’s Editorial Office, or the journal’s Editorial Office may identify discrepancies in the authorization.

Once the journal’s editorial office receives an email from an author who has not provided authorization, or if it detects any irregularities in the authorization, it will take the following steps:

1. It will review and verify the authenticity of the signatures received from each author on the letter of authorization.
2. If the signatures are authentic, the complainant will be asked to explain their actions and whether or not they wish to retain authorship of the article. If they do not wish to maintain their authorship, they must send a letter to the Editorial Office stating their decision to be removed from the article and acknowledging that they will lose their authorship rights if the article is published in the journal; this letter must be signed by all authors and the individual requesting removal. The signatures on these letters must be handwritten and/or digitally certified
3. If there are suspicions about the authenticity of the signatures or if they are not legitimate, the Editorial Office will send an email to each and every author asking them to confirm that they authorized the submission of the manuscript and personally signed the letter of authorization; this will be done while explaining the suspicion of illegitimate signatures or possible forgery of authorization. The information is considered confidential and is intended only for those involved; third parties who are not witnesses or who cannot provide evidence shall not be involved until the dispute is resolved. If those involved disclose the information to third parties with no direct connection to the article before the final decision is taken, the article will be permanently removed
4. If the article is currently undergoing any of the reception, review or editing processes it will be put on hold until the dispute is resolved.
5. If forged signatures or authorizations are detected, the article will be removed for fraudulent authorship; at the same time, the highest authority at the institution of the author who submitted the article and sent the forged signatures/authorizations to the journal will be notified of the professional misconduct

Changes to the list of authors

The initial list of authors at the moment of receipt of the article and at the start of the review process may be modified only during the review process; once the article is accepted for publication authors may not be added or removed.

To add a new author, a letter must be sent to the Editorial Office explaining the reasons for the new addition to the article; this letter must be signed by the original authors and the new contributor. This can only be done during the review process and before the article is accepted for publication.

To remove an author, they must send a letter to the Editorial Office explaining the author's decision to be removed from the article; the letter must be signed by all authors, including both the original authors and the author requesting removal.

The signatures on these letters must be handwritten and/or digitally certified.

If the authors make changes to the list of authors and refuse to submit the requested documentation, their article will be rejected, even if it had been accepted for publication. In addition, the journal will notify the highest authority at the authors’ institution of this situation.

The authors’ affiliation cannot be modified. It is understood that the institution listed at the submission of the article is the one that provided the funding for the research and/or the article; for this reason, it cannot be modified at any time, even if the author is no longer affiliated with that institution.

If the author changes affiliation while the article is in the review process and the article is accepted later, both institutions must be added to the author’s affiliation, and the author must notify the Editorial Office when uploading the corrected version.

Discussions, erratum, corrections, retractions and deletions of published papers

The Editorial Office of Tecnología y ciencias del agua will consider discussions, errata, corrections, retractions and deletions of articles on its publications considering the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

These actions will depend largely on the type and severity of the error in the data presented. All changes will be visible to users with their corresponding history (both in the DOI and on the web page).

Discussions

These are criticisms or comments from readers on a published article. These discussions must meet the following criteria to be considered for publication:

• Make reference to the article published in the compilation volume or in the Upcoming Issues section.
• The content of the critique or commentary should not be libelous or defamatory toward the authors or their institutions.
• It should include data or evidence that serve to give validity to your comments.

The editor-in-chief will receive the discussions and will check that these criteria are met. If so, it will be forwarded to the authors for review, and they will be given the option of whether or not they wish to respond.

When the authors decide to respond to the discussion, a communication will take place between the authors of the discussion and the authors of the published paper. When the responses from both parties are satisfactory to all involved, the discussion will be published along with the response.

In case the authors decide not to respond, only the discussion and a note mentioning the lack of response will be published.

Erratum

They are made when an error or omission made by the Editorial Office after the publication of the paper must be corrected, which may affect the publication data or the reputation of the authors or the journal, but where the academic integrity of the paper remains unchanged.

Changes made will be announced to the public indicating the errors corrected in the paper.

1. The correction of the paper.
2. At the end of the corrected paper, a note will be included with a link to the errata announcement.
3. The new document will be replaced in the compilation volume and a new DOI will be assigned.

Author's corrections

They will be made when it is necessary to correct an error or omission made by the authors that affects the publication data or the reputation of the authorship or the journal, but where the academic integrity of the article remains unchanged.

Changes made will be announced to the public, indicating the errors corrected in the document.

The actions taken by the Editorial Coordination will be:

1. The correction of the paper
2. At the end of the corrected paper a note will be included with the link to the announcement of the correction.
3. The new document will be replaced in the compilation volume and a new DOI will be assigned

Retractions

They will be undertaken to correct the publication and alert readers to papers whose content or data are so seriously flawed or erroneous that their results and conclusions cannot be relied upon, and to papers that fail to comply with professional, ethical and/or legal codes. The main purpose of retraction is to correct the publication and ensure its integrity, rather than to punish the authors.

Retraction may be considered if it is found with:

• Clear evidence that the results are unreliable; as a result of misconduct (data fabrication or image manipulation); or for erroneous research praxis.
• Evidence of redundant or duplicate publication.
• Evidence of plagiarism.
• Fraudulent authorship.
• Manipulation of peer review.
• Unethical research or research that breaks ethical codes of the profession.
• Copyright infringement, defamation, privacy, illegality.
• Evidence of competing interests influencing research results.
• Request of the author(s).

Actions when retracting a paper will be:

1. Include in the paper document the word "Retracted".
2. Publish a statement of the reasons for the retraction, signed by the editor-in-chief, and with the names of those involved.
3. A DOI will be assigned to the retraction announcement.

Papers elimination

This will only occur:

• When the article is clearly defamatory or infringes other legal rights.
• When a article is subject to a court order.

When a article is removed, the metadata (authorship and title) will be retained and the text will be replaced by a document stating that the article has been removed, along with the reasons.

Inappropriate use of AI

The journal outlines its guidelines on the use of AI for all contributors in the Editorial Policy under section 12. Declaration on the Use of AI.

If these guidelines are not observed, the following steps will be taken.

For authors

If authors do not include the AI statement in the section specified in the Authors guidelines, they will be asked to add it; their submission may be rejected if further non-compliance with the requirements for article submission is found.

If the use of AI tools is detected during the initial review process by the editor-in-chief and/or section editors and is not disclosed in the AI disclosure statement, the article will be rejected.

If, during the review process, the reviewers detect the use of undeclared AI, they must indicate this on the review form and decide whether they consider it appropriate to simply require the corresponding disclosure or to reject the article. This decision is not final, as the final decision rests with the respective section editor.

If the use of AI is detected during the review process of the final files requested from authors after their article has been accepted for publication, the authors will be asked to make the appropriate disclosure.

For reviewers

If reviewers use any AI tools without notifying the authors via the review form, and this use is detected by the section editor or the Editorial Office, the reviewer will be notified that they must make the appropriate disclosure via the review form. In the event of a repeat offense, the reviewer will be removed from the journal’s list of reviewers.

For section editors

If section editors use any AI tools without notifying the authors via email, and this use is detected by the authors or the Editorial Office, the section editor will be notified that they must inform the authors of the use of AI in the review of the article. In the event of a repeat offense, the case must be brought before the editor-in-chief, who will decide whether the section editor in question will remain in their position or be replaced.

Cases of false citations and references

False citations and references are defined as those that cannot be retrieved or verified through online searches; those lacking a DOI, URI, or URL; and/or those for which the authors cannot demonstrate that the referenced item exists in an institutional repository or library.

If the editors find that 30% or more of the citations and/or references are false, they will reject the article.

If 30% or more of the citations and/or references are found to be false during the review of the final files requested by the Editorial Office, the following action will be taken:

• The Editorial Office will request that citations and/or references identified as false be updated or clarified
• Once the document containing the authors’ revisions has been received, this new document and the version accepted for publication will be forwarded to the relevant section editor to verify that the changes maintain the article’s academic and scientific integrity
• The section editor will decide whether the article, with the corrections, will proceed through the publication process or whether another round of peer review will be necessary
• The section editor's decision will be communicated to the authors

Articles found to contain false citations and/or references will have their publication process put on hold pending the editor's decision