Statement publication ethics and good publishing practices

ISSUES POLITICAS, the journal of the Institute of Political Studies and Law "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche" of the Faculty of Juridical and Political Sciences of the University of Zulia, is strongly the scientific community to guarantee the ethics and quality of the articles published. Quality of the articles published. Our journal is guided by the Code of Conduct and Best Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for publishers (COPE) for editors, authors and reviewers of scientific journals in general. In addition, we voluntarily adhere to the Elsevier-Scopus framework of publication ethics policies  of Elsevier-Scopus. At the same time, we ensure that we meet the needs of our readers and authors by and authors' needs, guaranteeing the quality of what is published and respecting both the content and respecting both the content of the articles and their integrity.

Editor's responsibilities and behavior:

- Confidentiality: Reviewers must undertake to maintain the confidentiality of information related to the articles they evaluate.

- Objectivity and impartiality: Reviewers must carry out their opinion in an objective, impartial, responsible and rigorous manner.

- Dissemination: Reviewers may not make any type of dissemination or distribution of the information presented in the article they evaluate until it is published by the journal.

- Maintain impartiality both in the reception of articles and in the evaluation process.

- Always act in accordance with the editorial criteria and the established editorial line.

- The academic review of articles is carried out through the blind peer review system, so we are committed to preserving the anonymity of authors and reviewers.

POLITICAL ISSUES is publicly funded and follows an open access philosophy. Therefore, our content is non-commercial, and this is guaranteed at all times by the editor, the editorial board and the corresponding advisory board.

- Consequently, our editorial team is available to clarify any doubts to authors and reviewers during the evaluation and editing process, in accordance with the parameters of our editorial policy.

- The editor-in-chief undertakes to share the results of the peer review process exclusively with the authors.

- We do not tolerate any form of plagiarism that violates intellectual property rights, either individually or collectively. For this reason, we evaluate articles with specialized software to detect duplicate content. Any detected case will result in the rejection of the article, and the authors or author will be notified along with a detailed report. In addition, they will not be allowed to submit another manuscript to the journal in the future.

- When necessary, the journal will make appropriate and necessary public clarifications and corrections.

Responsibilities of the authors:

- Authors must ensure that articles are the product of their original work as researchers and that the data presented have been obtained in an ethical manner. They must submit a letter of originality and guarantee that they do not infringe copyright.

- Articles may not be submitted in whole or in part to another publication.

- Authors may not submit redundant publications, i.e., papers that share the same data, hypotheses, discussion points or conclusions with other papers.

- Co-authored papers must have a justification that demonstrates the full consensus of all authors involved with respect to the research guidelines.

- Authors must strictly follow the editorial criteria established by POLITICAL ISSUES.

- It is the authors' obligation to respect the authorship of each and every one of the sources used in the preparation of their article. Therefore, they must provide precise information on bibliographic, hemerographic, electronic or other references, as well as the method and techniques of data collection used in their work. Likewise, they undertake not to omit any significant material.

- They must attend in a punctual and clear manner to the editorial and academic observations and opinions. If they do not agree with the criteria and observations made by the referees for various reasons, always with the objective of improving the article, they must justify their position in writing to the editor. The editor is the competent authority to decide what is most convenient in each case for the interests of the journal, since the referees are not always right.

- Any failure to comply with the above points may result in the refusal to publish the article or in the withdrawal of the article if it has already been published.

Responsibilities of reviewers:

- Reviewers should evaluate articles objectively and provide constructive comments to improve the quality of the articles.

- They must maintain the confidentiality of the documents received and not use the information for their own benefit.

- If a reviewer feels that he/she does not have the necessary experience or expertise to evaluate an article, he/she should notify the editor and decline the review process.

- Reviewers must report any conflict of interest that may affect their impartiality in the evaluation of the article.

- They should respect the deadlines established for the review of articles and communicate with the editor if they need more time or have any problems.

- Reviewers should refrain from making offensive or defamatory comments towards authors in their reports.

- If a reviewer suspects any form of misconduct or plagiarism in the article, he/she should inform the editor confidentially.

At POLITICAL ISSUES, we strive to maintain high ethical and quality standards in all our publications. We value transparency, honesty and respect at all stages of the editorial process. By following these guidelines and good editorial practices, we seek to foster academic integrity and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of political studies.