Ethics and good practices

Good practices
Research involving human subjects
Citation policy
Editorial independence
Editors and editorial staff as authors
Conflicts of interest

Good practices

RCVP follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and assumes the responsibility of applying a rigorous peer-review process, together with strict ethical policies and standards, to ensure the dissemination of high-quality scientific work.

Authors who wish to publish their articles in RCVP must comply with the following:

  • Any fact that could be perceived as a potential conflict of interest must be disclosed in the article before submission.
  • Authors must present their research findings accurately and include an objective discussion of the relevance of these results.
  • The data and methods used in the research must be presented in sufficient detail in the article so that other researchers can replicate the work.
  • Preferably, primary data should be publicly deposited prior to manuscript submission. At a minimum, authors must have the primary data available to provide to reviewers and editors of the journal upon request. Authors must also ensure that appropriate measures are taken to retain complete data for a reasonable period after publication.
  • Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not permitted.
  • The manuscript must not contain information that has already been published. If previously published figures or images are included, the necessary permission must be obtained from the copyright holder to publish them under the CC BY-NC-SA license.
  • Plagiarism, data fabrication, and image manipulation are not tolerated.
  • Plagiarism is unacceptable in submissions to RCVP. Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, including the author’s own publications, without giving proper credit to the original source.

Research involving human subjects

All research involving human participants, personal data, human tissues, or human materials must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Approval from an Ethics Committee is mandatory before the study begins. The publication must include the following information:

  • Project approval code
  • Approval date
  • Name of the corresponding Ethics Committee (EC)

Example:

“The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX University (project code: ABC123, approved on 01/10/2024).”

For non-interventional studies (surveys, social media studies, etc.), anonymity must be guaranteed, and the purpose of the research and potential risks must be communicated to participants.

If ethical approval is not required, the exemption must be stated with legal or institutional justification, including the name of the committee granting the exemption.

Informed consent

Manuscripts involving individuals or identifiable data must declare that informed consent was obtained for participation and/or publication.

In justified cases (for example, ethnographic studies), verbal consent may be accepted, provided that the reasons are clearly explained.

Signed consent forms should not be submitted with the manuscript; however, they must be available if requested by the Editorial Committee.

Personal data (images, names, age, ethnicity, occupation) must be anonymized if they are not essential to the research findings.

Examples of statements:

  • “Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.”
  • “Verbal informed consent was obtained for the following reasons: [state reason].”
  • “Consent was not required according to Law No. XXXX of [country or jurisdiction].”

Citation policy

All sources used must be properly cited, including the author’s previous work when applicable. If necessary, appropriate permissions must be obtained.

  • Excessive self-citation or preferential citation of works by colleagues, friends, or affiliated institutions should be avoided.
  • Only works that have actually been consulted should be cited; copying references without reading them is not permitted.
  • Citations from advertisements or promotional material are not allowed.
  • Text taken from other authors (including the author’s own work) must be placed in quotation marks and properly cited.

Authors are encouraged to follow the good practices established by COPE.

Editorial independence

The Revista Cátedra Villarreal Posgrado guarantees full independence in editorial decision-making. All contributions are evaluated exclusively on their academic and scientific merit through a rigorous peer-review process.

Editorial decisions are based on:

  • The suitability and objectivity of reviewers
  • The quality of reviewers’ comments and the author’s responses
  • The scientific rigor and originality of the manuscript

Editors and editorial staff as authors

Editors and members of the editorial team do not participate in the evaluation of their own work. If they submit articles, these are reviewed by independent external reviewers and managed by editors without conflicts of interest. Editorial staff are also excluded from handling their own manuscripts.

This policy reaffirms our commitment to ethics, transparency, and open access to scientific production.

Conflicts of interest

All authors must disclose any relationships or interests that could influence or create bias in the development and presentation of their work. Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial in nature. Examples include, but are not limited to:

Financial conflicts:

  • Memberships
  • Employment
  • Consultancies
  • Stock ownership
  • Honoraria
  • Grants
  • Funding of any kind
  • Paid expert testimony
  • Licensing agreements and patents

Non-financial conflicts:

  • Personal or professional relationships
  • Institutional affiliations
  • Personal beliefs that could influence the interpretation of results

Authors may declare potential conflicts of interest (Publication annexes) through the journal platform during the submission process.

The corresponding author must include a summarized statement in the manuscript in a separate section titled “Conflicts of Interest”, located immediately before the reference list. This statement must reflect all potential conflict-of-interest disclosures collected in the submission form.