Code of Ethics

1. Framework, Scope, and Guiding Principles

Perfiles de las Ciencias Sociales Journal, is committed to promoting the dissemination of scientific knowledge in the social sciences and related disciplines, ensuring academic integrity, editorial transparency, and respect for the ethical principles of scientific research and publication as adopted from the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at https://publicationethics.org/, and its essential practices.

This Code applies to all individuals involved in the editorial process—authors, reviewers, the editorial team, the Editorial Committee, the Editorial Board, and guest editors of special issues—and applies to all sections of the journal. It is supplemented by the Anti-Plagiarism Policy, the Artificial Intelligence Usage Policies, the Privacy Statement, the Submissions section, and the University Editorial Regulations of Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. (Enlace)

The journal’s guiding principles are the integrity of research, originality and academic honesty, the confidentiality of the editorial process, impartiality and the absence of discrimination, the transparency of decision-making criteria, editorial independence, and accountability to the academic community.

2. Authors’ Responsibilities

· Submit original, unpublished works that have not been published or submitted in print or electronic format, and that are not currently under review by another journal.

· Ensure that all sources consulted are properly cited and referenced in accordance with the journal’s editorial guidelines, which follow the American Psychological Association (APA) style, 7th edition in English or 4th edition in Spanish.

· List as authors only those who have made significant contributions to the research and preparation of the manuscript, ensuring that they meet the criteria for authorship. The journal allows a maximum of five authors per submission and requires the ORCID ID and institutional affiliation of each author, as well as the identification of the corresponding author.

· Specify each author’s contribution at the time of submission by providing a statement of authorship contributions in accordance with the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework, which must be included at the end of the manuscript. (Enlace)

· Refrain from engaging in honorary authorship, ghost authorship, or any other attribution that does not correspond to a real, substantial contribution to the work.

· Disclose any academic, professional, financial, or personal conflicts of interest that could influence the results or interpretations presented.

· Report the sources of funding that supported the research, or expressly state that no such funding existed.

· Ensure that the data, documents, interviews, statistics, or materials used in the research are authentic and verifiable, and refrain from fabricating, falsifying, or manipulating data, images, or results.

· Respect applicable ethical principles when the research involves individuals, communities, institutions, or sensitive information, and include the corresponding statement of ethical considerations.

· Obtain the necessary permits, authorizations, or consents when the nature of the study so requires, including the opinion of the bioethics or research ethics committee, informed consent, and permissions to reproduce any third-party visual material.

· Declare the use of generative artificial intelligence in the preparation of the manuscript, in accordance with the terms set forth in the Artificial Intelligence Use Policies and assume full responsibility for the resulting content. Artificial intelligence systems may not be listed as authors under any circumstances.

· Address the reviewers’ comments within the 15-calendar-day deadline specified in the “Submissions” section, submitting the revised version with “Track Changes” enabled.

· Promptly notify the journal of any significant errors identified after publication so that they may be corrected, clarified, or retracted.

· Refrain from changing the order of authorship or adding new authors once the review process has begun, except in exceptional circumstances that are fully justified and approved by the Editorial Board.

· Refrain from submitting the manuscript to another journal until the editorial process at Perfiles de las Ciencias Sociales has been completed or the withdrawal of the submission has been notified.

· Take full responsibility for the opinions, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in their work.

3. Duties of Reviewers

· Maintain absolute confidentiality regarding the information received during the evaluation of manuscripts.

· Refrain from using the information contained in the manuscripts for their own benefit or that of third parties.

· Declare any conflict of interest that may affect their impartiality, and decline to review a manuscript if there is a recent co-authorship relationship, shared institutional affiliation, an academic relationship as a thesis advisor, a personal relationship, or any other circumstance that compromises their independence.

· Provide objective, well-reasoned, and respectful reviews aimed at strengthening the manuscript academically, avoiding disparaging comments or remarks unrelated to the scientific merit of the work.

· Report to the Editorial Board any potential ethical irregularities detected during the review, including indications of plagiarism, duplicate publication, or undeclared use of artificial intelligence.

· Meet the deadlines established for the submission of reviews, which the journal sets at one month from the date the assignment is accepted, and promptly notify the journal of any impediment to meeting this deadline.

· Refrain from uploading, in whole or in part, the manuscript under review to generative artificial intelligence platforms or other online services that do not guarantee confidentiality, as this constitutes unauthorized disclosure of unpublished work. The review must be the reviewer’s own work.

· Destroy or delete copies of the manuscript once the review is complete, and refrain from contacting the authors by any means regarding the reviewed work.

4. Duties of the Editorial Team

· The Editorial Team and Editorial Board must ensure the confidentiality and ethical handling of information received during the editorial process.

· Keep the content of manuscripts, reviews, and editorial decisions confidential.

· Use the personal data provided by authors solely for editorial purposes, in accordance with the journal’s Privacy Statement and the privacy notice of Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco.

· Preserve the anonymity of authors and reviewers through the double-blind peer review system implemented by the journal, verifying that files are anonymized and their metadata is cleared before they are sent for review.

· Record each stage of the editorial process on the OJS platform, ensuring documented traceability of the decisions made.

· Communicate to authors, clearly and in a timely manner, the status of their submission and the outcome of each stage.

5. Duties of the Editorial Board

· Ensure that editorial processes are transparent, impartial, and based exclusively on academic criteria.

· Maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and information generated during the editorial process.

· Ensure compliance with the journal’s ethical and scientific integrity policies.

· Appoint reviewers with the necessary experience and academic expertise to evaluate each manuscript.

· Make objective and well-founded decisions regarding acceptance, rejection, or requests for revisions.

· Promptly address complaints, claims, or appeals submitted in writing by authors, reviewers, readers, or members of the Editorial Board.

· The editor, based on the principle of good faith, accepts as valid the statements made by authors regarding intellectual property, ethical declarations, funding sources, and conflict-of-interest disclosures.

· Ensure a streamlined evaluation, review, and editorial decision-making process, consistent with available resources, to facilitate the dissemination of the works.

· Ensure that editorial decisions are not influenced by gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, political ideology, religion, or any other personal characteristic.

· Ensure that published articles comply with all relevant ethical and quality standards.

· To ensure that internal and external authors of Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco are treated equally in the evaluation of their manuscripts during the editorial process, which considers only quality, originality, relevance, and advancement of knowledge.

· To promote the correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction of articles when there are justified reasons to do so.

· Refrain from using information obtained during the editorial process for personal or institutional purposes other than those of the journal itself.

· Preserve editorial independence and academic freedom in all decisions related to scientific publication.

· The Editorial Board will be vigilant for grounds for the retraction of articles, consisting of ethical violations that include fraud, deception, and copyright infringement.

· Supervise the work of guest editors for thematic issues, who are subject to this Code under the same terms as the Editorial Board.

7. Originality Check and Use of Artificial Intelligence

All manuscripts received by Perfiles de las Ciencias Sociales journal, will undergo a similarity check using iThenticate software prior to the start of the peer review process. Additionally, the journal may use tools to identify the use of artificial intelligence in the drafting of manuscripts and to verify compliance with ethical principles of research.

The similarity threshold and its interpretation are at the discretion of the editorial team, which evaluates the nature and location of the matches rather than solely the overall percentage. Matches attributable to correctly cited references, regulatory frameworks, international instruments, or commonly used methodological formulas do not in themselves constitute plagiarism.

The use of generative artificial intelligence must be disclosed in accordance with the Policies on the Use of Artificial Intelligence. Undeclared use is considered a breach of academic integrity and will be addressed in accordance with the following section.

8. Unethical Practices and Applicable Procedures

Breaches of academic integrity include, among others, plagiarism and self-plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, improper fragmentation of results, fabrication or falsification of data, improper authorship, failure to disclose conflicts of interest or funding sources, undeclared use of generative artificial intelligence, manipulation of the peer review process, and violation of editorial confidentiality.

If there are indications of any of these behaviors, the Editorial Committee will apply the COPE flowcharts in accordance with the following procedure: documentation of the indication; suspension of the editorial process; written notification to the corresponding author, including the evidence supporting the allegation; granting of a period of 15 calendar days to submit a written clarification; evaluation of the response by the Editorial Committee; and a well-founded and reasoned decision, which will be communicated to the person concerned.

Depending on the severity of the offense, the decision may consist of a request for correction, rejection of the manuscript, retraction of the article if it has already been published, notification of the case to the author’s affiliated institution, and, where appropriate, a refusal to accept new submissions from the same author for a period of 2 years. The detection of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, disguised duplicate publications, or fraudulent material will result in the rejection of the work, even if it has already been published.

9. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

When an error or irregularity is identified in a previously published article, the journal will publish the appropriate notice depending on its nature: a corrigendum, when the error is attributable to the editorial process; a correction, when the error is attributable to the authors and does not alter the conclusions of the work; an expression of concern, when there are well-founded indications of an irregularity that has not yet been clarified; and a retraction, when a fault is substantiated that invalidates the results or conclusions.

All retraction notices are published in open access, with their own DOI, and are cross-linked to the original article, which remains accessible and properly flagged, in order to preserve the integrity of the academic record. The journal will notify the indexing systems in which it is registered of the publication of the notice.

10. Confidentiality and Protection of Personal Data

The information contained in manuscripts, reviews, and editorial deliberations is confidential and may not be disclosed or used for purposes other than those inherent to the editorial process. The names and email addresses submitted to the journal will be used exclusively for the purposes set forth herein and will not be provided to third parties, in accordance with the Privacy Statement.

11. Validity and Revision

This Code was approved by the Editorial Board of Perfiles de las Ciencias Sociales on September 24, 2026, and will be revised at least every 3 years, or sooner if required by changes in university regulations or international standards of editorial integrity. The current version and the date of its last update are permanently published on the journal’s website.