Divergencia has a series of ethical guidelines, which indicate the responsibilities and behaviours of editors, authors and peer reviewers.

Editorial Team

• When an article is sent, it acknowledges its receipt, guarantees an efficient review process, and informs the authors in a timely manner the process in which the article is undergoing.
• The Editorial Team makes the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript, taking into account the recommendations derived from the blind peer review evaluation process and the editorial review of the article, with reference to the criteria of quality, importance, relevance, originality and contribution to the discipline.
• Identify any conflict of interest between the authors and evaluators which may arise in the process of evaluating the article
• Undertakes the search for evaluators, taking into account their academic career, knowledge and publications on the theme to be evaluated, and it guarantees their anonymity during the process of evaluation.
• The evaluation of the articles is carried out under the double blind mechanism (blind peer review), so the authors are not discriminated by their academic or professional category, or by their geographical origin or gender.
• Considers the use of peers proposed by an author, ensuring that the opinion in question is objective. In addition, it does not use reviewers whom an author has asked it not to consult, unless it may guarantee the establishment of an impartial arbitration.
• When the editor is the author of a manuscript and wishes it to be submitted to evaluation, he or she must hand it over to another member of the Editorial Team so that that member may undertake the choice of arbiters.
• Respect the intellectual position and ideas presented by the author in his manuscript
• Editors may not use information on the articles received in any of the calls for articles, for the benefit of their own research.
• It must respond diligently to the request for retraction, correction, complaint and clarifications, ensuring the conduct of an appropriate investigation aimed at the fastest resolution of a problem.
• It is responsible for placing corrections and/or clarifications on the website of Divergencia when it recognizes a lack of accuracy or a mistake in a published content.
• Defines and continually reviews its editorial policies, so that Divergencia complies with standards which enable it to position itself as an academic publication with a national and international standing.
• It is responsible for the dissemination and distribution of the published contents among the authors, evaluators and entities with which it has exchange agreements, as well as national and international repositories and indexing systems, within the agreed on time limits.
• When Divergencia is interested in reproducing a previously published article, it commits itself to requesting the authorization of the author and publication where it first appeared

Authors

• The articles submitted to Divergencia should be original and unpublished and must not simultaneously be in a process of evaluation by or have editorial commitments with another publication.
• The authors are the ones who are responsible for the ideas expressed in their article. In the author’s authorization of property rights, they must explicitly state that the text is of their authorship and in the same authorization that they respect the intellectual property rights of third parties.
• The authors of texts and multimedia files (photography, audio and videos) that are accepted must authorize Divergencia to use the author’s economic rights (reproduction, public communication, transformation and distribution), by signing the “Document of Authorization of Use of Intellectual Property Rights,” to include the contents in  Divergencia (electronic version). In the same document, the authors must confirm the fact that the materials are of their own authorship and that the intellectual property rights of third parties are respected in it.
• They must request the due authorizations for the use, reproduction and printing of the material which is not of their property/authorship (charts, graphics, maps, diagrams, photographs, and etcetera.)
• When they use ideas which are not their own, they must acknowledge and give credit to their author and make a correct citation and reference, in accordance with the norms on Rights of the author. Otherwise, the author will be considered to have committed plagiarism.
• Divergencia may call the drafting of an article a fraud if it does not provide documentation which supports the ideas which are set forth and suppresses or alters the data which are presented.
• It is considered a scientific fraud: biased manipulation, misleading information, selective communication, invention, falsification, or concealment or misrepresentation of data. If such a practice is detected, the article will be immediately removed from the editorial process and the journal reserves the right to notify the authorities of the institution in which the author works
• The author may commit an ethical fault when he or she submits a manuscript which has already been published by the author without citing the previous publication or showing new advances on the previously published material.
• When someone wishes to reproduce, translate or publish an article published in Divergencia, they must ask for an authorization by the Editorial Team.
• The author should not suggest evaluators with whom the author or authors has/have previously done collaborative studies.
• The authors should state their sources of funding and that there are no conflicts of interest.
• The authors should give credit to all those who participated in the study and those who have made significant contributions to the investigation should be regarded as co-authors. Likewise, authors who have not directly contributed to the drafting of the manuscript should not be included.
• The authors should ensure that the article does not contain personal criticisms of other academics. If criticisms of other studies are made, they must be clearly justified.
• In cases when the investigation involved the use of animals or humans, it is necessary to annex a declaration which indicates the experimental method, the informed consent for the experimentation with humans and the name of the institutions which approved the experiments

Reviewers

• The Editorial Team will remit the article to the peer reviewer and a format which includes questions with carefully defined criteria which must be taken into account for the writing of the evaluation.
• They must evaluate the article in an objective, neutral and impartial manner, indicating the aspects which need to be strengthened and without making personal criticisms in the review.
• In the case of personal or professional conflicts of interest, they should inform the editor, who will decide whether the evaluator should continue arbitrating the manuscript.
• The peer reviewers should support and clearly explain their doubts about the investigation they are assessing, so that the author will have a sufficient notion of the article’s faults and will be able to strengthen the article.
• They should inform the Editorial Team about any similarity between the article they are arbitrating and another which has already been published.
• The evaluator should not use the article submitted for his evaluation to benefit his or her own investigations or the work of third parties.
• In the evaluated article and the assessment sent to Divergencia, the peer reviewers should indicate parts where the manuscript has plagiarism or falsified data which compromise the work of other investigators.
• Evaluators should consider manuscripts as privileged information and should treat it as confidential. They are not allowed to share it with any colleague or another person.

The evaluators are responsible for suggesting that the article be accepted, rejected or approved with the modifications they suggest and should send their decision to Divergencia within the agreed on time limits. 

Plagiarism Policy.

Divergencia does not accept plagiarism or scientific fraud as part of its transparency process and good editing practice.

It is understood as plagiarism: to present the work (whether ideas, words or a complete text) of other authors as their own, not to use quotation marks or other badge when making literal quotes, giving wrong information about a quote (incorrect year, incorrect page, non-existent text, etc.), paraphrase without mentioning the source. In addition, scientific fraud is understood as, duplicate a publication (submit an article already published, self-plagiarism), manufacture, falsify, and omit data, and conflicts of authorship over a text.

In case of detecting plagiarism, Divergencia will adopt the following actions:

• The author will be informed about plagiarism and explanations will be requested to justify his actions.
• If the explanations are not satisfactory, the manuscript will be left out of the editorial process and other articles of the author will not be evaluated in the future. In addition, if applicable, those considered relevant (other media, institutions, etc.) will be informed about the situation.