ETHICAL STANDARDS

ETHICS RULES FOR AUTHORS 

According to Colombian constitutional jurisprudence, and in accordance with the provisions of Ruling C-1118 of 2005, intellectual creations and those related to their disclosure and dissemination, as intangible assets, have been grouped, for legal purposes, into so-called intellectual property rights, which in turn include copyright, industrial property rights and rights to scientific discoveries, as well as other forms and manifestations of the individual's creative capacity. According to the above, and in response to the provisions of Ruling T-941 A/11, the Colombian Constitutional Court, in order to guarantee due process, established that it is the duty of universities to create clear and effective regulatory actions to detect, investigate and drastically punish those who incur in conduct that violates copyright (plagiarism). In the processes of implementation, promotion and production of knowledge, science, technology and innovation that the Universidad Libre carries out in the development of its substantial functions of teaching, research and social projection, intellectual property acquires transcendental importance due to the role that corresponds to it of determining, recognizing and guaranteeing the rights over the intellectual creations of those who intervene in them. It also has a guide document for the authors, which contains the minimum guidelines for the presentation of academic articles. For the Universidad Libre, intellectual property constitutes the fundamental good of societies and economies based on information and knowledge; this explains the need for this ethical regulation for the authors of the Magazine CRITERIO LIBRE, which is presented below:

Article 1: Authors are fully responsible for the ideas expressed in their articles, as well as for the ethical suitability of their articles. The Magazine Criterio Libre tries to guarantee the academic and investigative suitability, respecting the creation and work carried out by the authors, through its evaluation processes, which seek to protect the plurality and relativity of thought.

Article 2: Responsibility of the authors: The following are responsibilities of the authors of the articles published in the Magazine. The Magazine will only consider unpublished articles that correspond in their content and structure to its editorial policies. If the author or authors apply to the Magazine for a work already published, in whole or in part, their procedure will be considered unethical. It is the responsibility of the author to avoid any conflict of interest in the publication of data and results (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between evaluators and authors).

 

It is considered a good practice for the author to present the corresponding credits to all persons or entities that have collaborated in the research projects on which the work is based. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to respect intellectual property, clearly noting and referencing any fragments they have taken from the work of another author(s) to construct their work. If this is not done, it will be considered as plagiarism and the work will be discarded for publication. The selection and final approval of an article will depend on the academic concept of the peers convened in each case and the willingness of the authors to make the modifications suggested as necessary, within an appropriate period, after consultation with the Editor of the Magazine, about the estimated time necessary to make adjustments. The arbitration process of the Magazine is "double blind", which implies that neither the authors nor their peers will know each other's identities. In this sense, it is the responsibility of the author to avoid any direct allusion or indication of his or her identity within the body of the text. The evaluation process requires a policy of exclusivity. This means that the author(s) may not simultaneously submit their work to another publication while the manuscript is being arbitrated in the Magazine CRITERIO LIBRE. If the authors incur in a double nomination, their procedure will be considered unethical. The editorial committee reserves the right to rule out the publication of any submitted work if it considers that it does not correspond to the academic nature of the Magazines or if the authors incur in any improper behavior, such as those described above. The author accepts in full the norms, criteria and editorial procedures of the Magazine. Authors must sign a document of "assignment of economic rights", in which they authorize the use, reproduction, transformation, publication of the text and distribution to the Editor University. This document is essential for the inclusion of the text in the Magazine. Submitting the text to the Magazine implies that the authors agree to submit their texts to the established processes, and that they will provide their utmost collaboration to achieve its successful completion. In any case, the Magazine reserves the right to make minor style corrections without consulting the authors.

Article 3: The ethical duties of the authors: The authors of the articles nominated, evaluated and published in the Magazine commit themselves to respect the ethical and legal guidelines to which they must submit, taking into account the nature of their research, as well as the universal principles recognized in each of the areas of knowledge to which their work corresponds. Therefore, it is the authors' duty to ensure that the conclusions and findings presented in their works correspond to true data and information and that they have been analyzed and collected in accordance with scientific methods and techniques. Likewise, the authors commit themselves, at the time of submitting their articles for publication, that their works respect the principles and postulates recognized in the Declaration of Helsinki of the WMA, and especially the mandates recognized by the Belmont Report. Therefore, their research must recognize the ethical guidelines of: Respect for individuals. Justice. Consequently, the authors are committed to having the informed consent of the subjects under investigation.

Article 4: The veracity of data and methods of information analysis: The Magazine follows the guidelines of the COPE Ethics Committee for Publications, and therefore will consider it inappropriate for the author to use false or unrealistic data in his or her research, and in accordance with this, offer the conclusions set forth in the article. In the event that such a situation is verified, the article will be rejected in limine.

Article 5: Confidentiality: The Magazine undertakes to keep confidential all the documents of which its editorial team becomes aware by virtue of the process of reviewing, evaluating and publishing the nominated articles.

Article 6: Moral rights: The moral rights of any intellectual production must always be recognized by making the respective reference in the production. The ownership of a creation of human ingenuity constituting a moral right belongs to the person who has produced it. Thus, research and creations of human ingenuity in general, financed by organizations and institutions and carried out by virtue of a labor contract or any other contractual modality, by teachers, researchers, students and other persons linked to research groups and centers, have as their owner or owners the person or persons who have carried out such research and creations or participated in an important and determining way in them. If there are several authors of the creation, the authorship will correspond to all of them.

Article 7: Economic rights: It is presumed, unless otherwise agreed, that the economic rights of the authors for the articles published in CRITERIO LIBRE are transferred to the Universidad Libre as a publishing institution, observing in all cases the provisions of the law.

Article 8: Transfer of economic rights: The transfer of the economic rights of the authors must be in writing in the format established by the Magazine as a condition of validity.

Article 9: Originality clause and transfer of rights: All authors and co-authors, at the time of submission of the article must send a signed declaration of originality in electronic form. No article may be submitted to the peer reviewers without the submission of such a declaration and verification of its receipt. Once the articles have been selected for publication, the respective assignment of economic rights will be sent to the author or authors, who must return it signed, as soon as possible, by electronic means to continue with the process. In the event that the rights have been previously assigned to an institution that finances the project, the authors must inform the entity and establish the respective authorization to assign the rights to the determined text, guaranteeing that there is no conflict of interest between the Publishing Institution and the one that financed the research, if different. In this sense, the assignment of rights sent to the Magazine will be understood to prevail over any general or particular assignment, and it is the author's obligation to declare whether it exists and to resolve any incompatibilities that may arise.

Article 10: Copyright Note: The publication of an article in the Magazine implies the authorization of the editor of this Magazine for its partial or total reproduction, for academic, non-commercial or lucrative purposes, on websites, networks, bibliographic databases, indexes, directories or any other electronic means of reproduction, always making reference to the author and the Magazine in question.

Article 11: Declaration of privacy: The names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mails or any other personal data given to this Magazine will be used exclusively for the purposes declared by it, and will be treated in accordance with Law 1581 of 2012 and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other person.

 

Article 12: Repeated quotations by a single author: It is permitted to quote an author by transcribing the necessary passages, provided that these are not multiple and continuous. This is in order to avoid a simulated reproduction that would be detrimental to the author of the work from which they are taken. The name of the author of the work cited and the title of the work must be mentioned in each quotation.

Article 13: Citations in works other than books and indexed magazines: Photographs, illustrations and comments relating to events in reality, published by the press or broadcast by radio or television, may be cited in the corresponding scientific article, if this has not been expressly prohibited.

Article 14: Works created by employees or public officials: The copyright on works created by employees or public officials in compliance with the constitutional or legal obligations of their position shall be owned by the corresponding public entity.

Article 15: Authorization for the use of the scientific article: The author shall grant authorization for the use of his/her scientific article, so that it can be used for consultation or reference purposes and to include his/her article in databases and in physical or electronic bibliographic catalogues determined by the Editor of the Magazine.

Article 16: Plagiarism: Plagiarism exists when a natural person attributes to himself the work of another or when a natural person attributes to himself the work of another, not reproducing it identically but imitating it in its essential aspects. Thus, among others, the following modalities of plagiarism are distinguished:

 

a.- Non-cited data or information: It consists of the absence of reference to the sources from which the data used in the documents are obtained.

b.- Non-cited idea, either specific or general concept: Use of concepts or ideas in the text without indicating who the author is, which makes them go through their own elaboration. It is also plagiarism to make a correct quotation by copying textually and between quotes what the source expresses, but after the quotation to present more ideas from the same or another source, changing the order of the ideas.

c.- Direct plagiarism: When the structure of the sentences is changed and content is added or removed without recognizing the original author.

d.- Plagiarism using a quotation: When, although the true author is recognized, the original text is reproduced with only minor changes without using quotation marks or footnotes.

e.- Simple plagiarism with a footnote: When quotation marks are not used even though academic standards for citation require their use and some words are changed slightly to make the passage appear different from the original.

f.- Paraphrasing as a form of plagiarism: When paraphrasing extensively and continuously without reference to the original paragraph, even when the source is cited.

g.- Self-plagiarism: When the author steals from himself by duplicating or recycling previous publications of his or her authorship, in order to promote himself or herself and increase his or her prestige.

Article 17: Plagiarism report: The peer or peers assigned for the evaluation and review of the scientific article who detect plagiarism in any of its modalities shall inform the Editor of such circumstance, explaining in a precise and detailed manner the fact or facts constituting plagiarism, with an indication of the work or production in respect of which the plagiarist attributes to himself or herself in whole or in part what is not his or hers.

Article 18: General consequences of plagiarism: The author who incurs in any modality of plagiarism of those referenced in this document or in any other established by law, will incur in a very serious fault and will generate as a consequence the rejection of the corresponding scientific article and the sanctions that the Colombian legal system foresees in this respect.

Article 19: Consequences for acts other than plagiarism: Authors who transgress the responsibilities indicated in the present document may be subject to warnings or the rejection of their articles, in accordance with the seriousness of the behavior presented. For this particular case the sanction will be imposed by the Editor, after approval of the Editorial Committee of the Magazine.

Article 20: Sanctioning process for plagiarism: Once received the report on plagiarism, the Editor will proceed, if he or she finds merit for it, to open the respective investigation by means of decision in which it will be arranged to run transfer of this report to the authors denounced like authors of the plagiarism so that by means of writing they render the discharges to which it takes place. The term to render the discharges will be 10 days from the notification to the author or authors of the work in whose respect the plagiarism was reported. The notification of the opening decision will be made by means of a written communication sent to the e-mail indicated by the author. If by submitting the disclaimers, the author or authors accept their responsibility for the plagiarism investigated, the action will be terminated with a decision in which the rejection of the scientific article will be the only sanction imposed.

If the charges are not accepted, the investigation will be continued by means of a decision that only admits an appeal for reversal in which, moreover, a term of 3 days will be given from the notification so that the interested parties can present or request evidence in defence of their interests. The time limit for taking appropriate, relevant and relevant evidence shall be 10 days, which may be extended by 5 days if necessary.

 

Once the testing phase has concluded, the decision of the investigation will be issued, in which, if it is found that plagiarism was committed, the offender or offenders will be imposed as a sanction the rejection of the scientific article and the impossibility of re-submitting scientific articles to the Magazine within a period of two (2) years.

The decision is appealable before the Committee of Academic Unit of the Faculty of Economic, Administrative and Accounting Sciences, and its procedure will be assimilated to the appeal determined in the CPACA.

Article 21: Of crimes against copyrights: Incurring violations of moral or patrimonial rights of intellectual property constituting a crime, in accordance with the legislation in force at the time of the violation, they make the offender or offenders who defeated in court before the competent authorities.

Article 22: Conflicts of interest and causes of impediment: When the Author considers the origin of a conflict of interest with the Editor, it is essential that he / she disclose said situation as soon as possible.

Every author must be declared disabled in the following cases, and as a consequence of this the Editor and / or the Editorial Committee of the Magazine will proceed to correct the situation in particular, in the following cases:

• Be the spouse, permanent partner or relative of the Editor of the Magazine.
• There is serious enmity between the author and the editor.
• To have been Editor of the Magazine the year prior to the submission of the corresponding article.

Likewise, when the author has any opinion or financial interest that may affect the results of the investigation, the results of which are reflected in an article submitted for publication in the Magazine, the author must make it known at the time of application. For this purpose, he or she must state the reasons why consider that there is a conflict of interest and if said circumstance affected the conclusions of the investigation.

Paragraph: The referenced grounds are enunciative and non-taxative.

Article 23: Regarding what is not regulated in this document, the national and international regulations that may be applicable will be used.