Code of Ethics

Contents

General Principles

Latin American Journal of Astronautics (LAJA) is firmly committed to scientific integrity, editorial responsibility, transparency in scholarly evaluation, and respect for internationally recognized standards of good publication practice. The journal expects all participants in the editorial process, editors, authors, reviewers, and collaborators, to act with honesty, professionalism, fairness, and respect.

Editorial decisions are made on academic, methodological, and ethical grounds. No manuscript shall be favored or disadvantaged for reasons unrelated to its scientific quality, thematic relevance, or compliance with the journal’s editorial standards. LAJA adheres to the code of ethics for the conduct and performance of the actors involved in the publication process of this journal established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), available at publicationethics.org

Responsibilities of the Editorial Team

The LAJA editorial team is responsible for safeguarding the journal’s academic quality and conducting the editorial process with consistency, impartiality, and confidentiality. In particular, it is expected to:

  • maintain clear, coherent, and verifiable editorial procedures;
  • protect the scientific, technical, and ethical quality of published content;
  • ensure that manuscripts are assessed according to the journal’s focus and scope;
  • preserve the confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and submitted materials;
  • act with editorial independence from institutional, personal, commercial, or other external pressures;
  • promote good practices in publication, citation, preservation, and scholarly transparency.

Responsibilities of the Editor and Editorial Leadership

The responsible editor and editorial leadership shall:

  • make fair, reasoned, and timely editorial decisions;
  • appoint qualified reviewers while avoiding conflicts of interest and evident bias;
  • ensure that peer-review reports are considered seriously and responsibly;
  • monitor editorial timelines and the quality of communication with authors and reviewers;
  • intervene when reasonable concerns arise regarding academic integrity, plagiarism, duplicate submission, data manipulation, improper authorship, or questionable ethical conduct;
  • promote corrections, clarifications, retractions, or expressions of concern whenever necessary to protect the scholarly record.

The editor shall not use unpublished information obtained through the editorial process for personal, institutional, or third-party benefit.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors submitting to LAJA declare that their work is original, does not infringe the rights of third parties, and has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal for evaluation, unless this circumstance has been transparently disclosed and expressly authorized by the relevant editorial authorities.

Authors are expected to:

  • present research findings honestly, clearly, and accurately;
  • avoid fabrication, falsification, inappropriate manipulation, or misleading presentation of data;
  • properly cite the sources used and acknowledge prior contributions accurately;
  • ensure that authorship reflects genuine and substantial contributions to the work;
  • obtain any permissions, approvals, or ethical clearances required by the nature of the study;
  • disclose funding sources, institutional support, and possible conflicts of interest;
  • cooperate with the journal in correcting significant errors identified before or after publication.

The inclusion of honorary, guest, or non-contributing authors is contrary to editorial ethics. Likewise, the unjustified exclusion of substantial contributors shall be considered a serious breach of good practice.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers contribute to the editorial process by providing objective, reasoned, respectful, and technically informed evaluations. Their role is essential to ensuring the academic quality of the journal.

Those who agree to review a manuscript must:

  • treat all submitted material as strictly confidential;
  • promptly inform the journal if they lack the necessary expertise or identify a conflict of interest;
  • provide clear, relevant, and academically grounded reports;
  • refrain from using, sharing, or benefiting from unpublished information obtained through the review process;
  • identify, when possible, relevant bibliographic omissions, methodological weaknesses, or inappropriate similarities with other works.

Reviews must focus on the quality of the manuscript and not on the identity, nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, trajectory, or any other personal or professional characteristic of the authors.

Academic Integrity and Misconduct

LAJA does not tolerate practices contrary to academic integrity, including plagiarism, undisclosed self-plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, misleading manipulation of images or results, undisclosed simultaneous submission, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, fraudulent authorship, or improper interference in the editorial process.

When reasonable concerns arise, the journal may request explanations, supporting documentation, previous manuscript versions, underlying data, or any additional evidence deemed necessary. Where appropriate, the journal may reject the manuscript, suspend the editorial process, withdraw a published article, or notify the relevant institutions.

Conflicts of Interest

All participants in the editorial process must disclose any relationship, circumstance, or interest that could influence, or be reasonably perceived to influence, the evaluation, decision, interpretation, or publication of a manuscript. This includes personal, professional, institutional, commercial, financial, or academic ties.

When a relevant conflict of interest is identified, the journal will take appropriate measures to preserve the impartiality of the process, including editorial reassignment, reviewer replacement, or the publication of transparency statements where necessary.

Complaints, Appeals, and Corrections

LAJA may receive reasoned communications concerning editorial decisions, ethical conduct, substantial errors, or disputes related to submitted or published manuscripts. Appeals must be presented formally, respectfully, and with appropriate justification.

The journal will assess each case with fairness, proportionality, and due editorial process. When necessary, it may issue corrections, errata, editorial clarifications, retractions, or expressions of concern in order to preserve the reliability of the scholarly record.