Ethical guidelines

Ethical Guidelines and Statement of Good Practices

SYbIL is an academic journal that publishes scholarly articles and is firmly committed to complying with ethical standards and best practices. The Editor of SYbIL and its Editorial Board are responsible for establishing and upholding the following standards in the process of selecting and accepting submitted contributions, as well as for assuming the responsibilities arising from the publication process. They are likewise committed to safeguarding the ethical integrity and scientific and academic quality of the journal, and to ensuring that all parties involved accept and adhere to the principles set out below.

 

Authors’ Responsibilities

Authors of submitted manuscripts must comply with the following obligations, as well as with the guidelines for authors available on the SYbIL website and included in each issue.

Authors undertake to submit manuscripts that are not under consideration elsewhere and have not been previously submitted to other publications, and to agree to an anonymous peer-review process. The research must have been conducted in accordance with ethical standards and reported in sufficient detail to allow for academic replication.

All authors must disclose the sources of funding that have supported their research and enabled them to obtain relevant results, as well as any potential influence of such funding on those results. Submitted articles must be entirely original works. Where authors have used the work and/or excerpts of others, these must be properly cited in accordance with the aforementioned guidelines.

Any form of plagiarism constitutes a breach of these good practices and will not be accepted under any circumstances. Plagiarism includes literal or near-literal copying, as well as paraphrasing of the text or research results of other authors without proper acknowledgment. It is not appropriate for an author to submit more than one manuscript reporting the same research, unless it involves the resubmission of a rejected article to a different journal. If authors become aware of a fundamental error or material inaccuracy in their published work, they must promptly notify the journal.

 

Editors’ Ethical Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for ensuring compliance with the aforementioned obligations, for safeguarding the scientific and academic quality of SYbIL, and for overseeing matters relating to intellectual property, copyright, infringements, and plagiarism.

Editors must respect the intellectual independence of authors and consider all manuscripts submitted for publication, evaluating each contribution objectively. They are also responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are subject to an anonymous peer-review process. Final decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript rest with the Editorial Board.

Editors are responsible for selecting reviewers based on their expertise, reputation, and sound judgment, who will assess the scientific quality of submissions. However, manuscripts may be rejected without external review if, in the editors’ opinion, they are not suitable for publication in the journal. Such decisions must be based on the manuscript’s lack of alignment with the journal’s scope and focus, insufficient relevance or timeliness, formal deficiencies, or any other reason related to SYbIL’s remit. Manuscripts will therefore be evaluated solely on the basis of their content, irrespective of commercial interests and without discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, race, ideology, religion, gender, or any other factor relating to the author.

Editors must communicate the results of the evaluation reports to authors without disclosing the identity of the reviewers, while informing them of the criteria applied in the assessment of the manuscript for publication.

Members of the Editorial Board and any other editors must not disclose any information regarding a submitted manuscript to anyone other than those from whom academic or scientific advice is sought. Confidentiality must be maintained at all stages of the review process (from reviewers to authors, and viceversa). Editors must refrain from participating in the evaluation or any editorial process involving manuscripts where a conflict of interest exists due to competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors.

Unpublished information, arguments, or interpretations contained in submitted manuscripts must not be used by editors in their own research.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Reviewers have the duty to assess objectively the quality and originality of submitted manuscripts, with particular emphasis on maintaining high scientific standards. They assist editors in decision-making and may also help authors improve their manuscripts.

Reviewers must inform the editor of any substantial similarity between the manuscript under review and any other article or manuscript submitted to or published by another journal or publisher.

Reviewers are expected to conduct their evaluations appropriately and to submit their reports within the agreed timeframe, even if approximate. If a reviewer considers that they are not suitably qualified to assess the submitted research or is unable to meet the review deadline, they must promptly inform the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with third parties, except in exceptional circumstances where consultation with individuals who can provide scientific or academic advice is necessary. In such cases, the identities of those consulted must be disclosed to the editor.

 

Corrections and Retractions

If any data or information published in SYbIL is found to be false, erroneous, misleading, or fraudulent, the editors must inform the authors of these circumstances and await their response before making an editorial decision. If the response is unsatisfactory or no response is received, the editors may decide to retract the published material with the approval of the Editorial Board.

SYbIL will address any claims or complaints regarding published content through the following address: editor@sybil.es. The editors undertake to investigate such matters and, where appropriate, to proceed with review and retraction if necessary.

When a correction or retraction of published material is required, the editors will be guided by the principles set out in the Guidelines for Retracting Articles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Guidelines for Retracting Articles of the Committee on Publication Ethic : https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/retraction-guidelines