Editorial Process

Editorial Process

The editorial process of the journal comprises two independent phases: evaluation and publication, each described below.

Evaluation Phase

The article evaluation phase consists of the following three procedures:

Initial Evaluation.

All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial evaluation by the Editorial Committee. At this stage, it is verified that the article meets the journal’s basic requirements, including thematic scope, length, proper citation, and compliance with the author guidelines. Additionally, Turnitin software is used to detect potential cases of plagiarism. The results of the Turnitin similarity report will be communicated to the authors as part of this procedure and will be stored in the journal’s OJS portal.

The journal accepts only original, previously unpublished articles. Manuscripts that have been previously published in other journals or media, or that are currently under review in other editorial processes, will not be considered. Likewise, the use of previously published data requires an original analysis that contributes new perspectives or results. Articles that pass this initial evaluation are submitted to at least two external reviewers, who independently and anonymously assess their quality. If the manuscript does not meet the journal’s standards, the authors will be informed of the reasons for rejection.

Peer Review.

Manuscript review is conducted through a double-blind process managed via the OJS platform. External expert reviewers evaluate each article in depth, providing a verdict and detailed recommendations to enable the editors and the editorial committee to reach a final decision.

Final Decision.

The journal’s editors are responsible for making the final publication decision, taking into account the assessments provided by the expert reviewers. In the event of discrepancies between reviewers’ opinions, additional independent reviewers will be consulted. Should the disagreement persist, the final decision will be made jointly by the editors and the editorial committee.

The peer review process may result in one of the following five possible outcomes. In all cases, authors will receive a detailed report with reviewer comments to guide their future work:

The article meets all requirements and may be published without modifications.
Accepted with minor revisions. Minor adjustments are required to meet the journal’s standards. Authors have 7 calendar days to implement the indicated modifications.
Resubmit for review. Substantial modifications are required. Authors have up to 15 calendar days to make the necessary changes and resubmit the article for a new evaluation.
Redirect to another publication. The article does not meet the journal’s requirements but may be suitable for another publication.
The article does not meet the journal’s quality standards and will not be considered for publication.

Publication Phase

The article publication phase consists of the following three procedures:

The text undergoes a stylistic review to ensure coherence and uniformity of language. Authors have 3 calendar days to review and approve the corrected version.
Layout and design. The final version of the article is prepared, including layout and graphic design. Authors have 2 calendar days to review and approve the preliminary galley proofs.
Declaration of originality and copyright assignment. All authors must sign a form declaring the originality of the work and assigning publication rights to the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. The journal reserves the right to review any published article, even after publication, to ensure the maintenance of quality standards.

Policy on the Use of Generative AI

Avances: Investigación en Ingeniería adheres to the COPE Position Statement on the use and presentation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in manuscripts. In this regard, the journal establishes the following:

Regarding the declaration of AI as a co-author: Manuscripts in which an AI tool is listed as a co-author will not be accepted, as generative AI tools are not capable of assuming responsibility for works submitted to scientific peer review, nor can they declare or deny conflicts of interest, or accept or assign copyright agreements over submitted works.

Regarding the undisclosed use of AI in manuscripts: Authors who use AI tools in the preparation of submitted manuscripts—including text generation, tables, images, code, graphs, data analysis and collection, data processing, etc.—must indicate in the Materials and Methods section which generative AI tool was used and how it was used. Notwithstanding, the author(s) shall assume full legal responsibility for the content of the manuscript, including content generated by the AI tool.

In the event that the use of generative AI tools was not disclosed at the time of manuscript submission, and/or if the AI-generated text probability scores produced by the detection tool used in the editorial process exceed 25%, the journal reserves the right to reject the manuscript.

Editorial Process Timelines

The journal has established the following estimated timelines for the editorial process: