Ethics and good practices statement
Ambigua: Revista de Investigaciones sobre Género y Estudios culturales advocates the transfer and dissemination of gender knowledge, promoting scientific quality and rigour in its publications with a high degree of ethical commitment. In this regard, Ambigua recognises the Code of Conduct and Best Practices developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), intended for editors of scientific journals, which is available at the following link. Consequently, the journal will not accept racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic or any other manifestations that violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of human beings.
- Editorial Team duties and responsibilities
The Ambigua Editorial Team pledges to:
- advocate for freedom of expression in the journal’s publications;
- strive to meet the needs of the reader, as well as its authors;
- retain in full the academic history of the publication and peer review process;
- be willing to make corrections and publish clarifications, retractions, or apologies whenever necessary;
- prevent business and commercial interests from compromising the intellectual and ethical standards of the journal;
- strive for continuous improvement in the journal
- Relationship with authors and editors
Ambigua, an electronic journal published by Universidad Pablo de Olavide, in Seville, is committed to ensuring the quality of all published contributions, making clear the objectives of the journal, the requirements and rules of publication, its editorial policy, and the notice regarding copyright, among others.
From this point of view, the decisions of the editor responsible for each issue regarding the acceptance or rejection of an article will be based on the relevance, scientific originality, and clarity of the work, as well as its correlation with the scientific field pursued by the journal and its formal guidelines.
The editors of Ambigua shall not retract their decision to accept or reject a paper unless serious problems or errors arise concerning the editorial process or the content of said paper. In the event of a conflict of interest between editors and authors, after the double-blind review process, the directorial team will make the final decision as to whether the contribution is accepted or rejected.
Ambigua, through the “Submissions” section of its website, will describe in detail the process of peer evaluation that each original paper must pass. The journal guarantees its authors that any original papers submitted will be treated with the utmost confidentiality throughout the peer review process. If any irregularity is detected, the Editorial Team will be on hand to explain and justify any relevant deviations in the evaluation process. In the above-mentioned “Submissions” section, the journal has a guide for authors specifying aspects relating to the ethics and originality of contributions. It also sets out a number of rules for submissions and recommendations, including encouraging authors to use inclusive and non-sexist language.
These guidelines and recommendations will be reviewed regularly and will consist of a hyperlink to this Statement of Ethics and Good Practices. Furthermore, authors shall have the right to appeal against editorial decisions. In order to promote transparency in the evaluation process, for contributions that are accepted, the dates of submission and acceptance of the articles shall be published.
- Relationship with reviewers
Ambigua guarantees the anonymity of its reviewers’ identity. Editors shall ensure that the review process is impartial, fair, and timely, and shall make sure that a uniform review report is sent to reviewers, which shall preserve confidentiality at all times. In the review form, reviewers will be encouraged to write comments and to remain attentive to possible repeat publications or plagiarism. All articles published in the journal must have at least two positive reviews from two subject matter specialists. Similarly, subsequent review certificates requested by the reviewers shall not mention the title of the reviewed article or the name of the author.
In order to guarantee an optimal review process, the Editorial Team shall ensure the quality of the reviews and shall reject any that are not deemed to be constructive, or which are of dubious quality or disrespectful to the person or work submitted by the author.
All reviewers must be familiar with and should read this Statement of Ethics and Good Practices before submitting their review. To this end, a link to this Statement will be included in the appropriate review form.
- Conflict of interest
Authors must notify the Ambigua directorial team of any conflicts of interest or serious incidents with the editors or any other member of the journal. Ambigua shall establish the relevant measures and mechanisms to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest that may arise between reviewers, authors, and the editors of each issue or monograph.
- Supervision of misconduct
Ambigua assumes responsibility for intervening in the event of suspected misconduct or reports of inappropriate behaviour and undertakes to take action in relation to published and unpublished articles. The editors of each issue, as well as the reviewers, will not only reject contributions in which they suspect possible malpractice, but will also have an ethical obligation to report such conduct. In the event of such a situation, the Editorial Team shall seek a response from the authors or reviewers suspected of misconduct and, in the absence of a satisfactory explanation, shall notify the Directorial Team to undertake a more thorough investigation and take appropriate action.
- Complaints, claims, and suggestions
The Editorial team in charge of each issue, or the Administration team in the case of matters outside the scope of the issue in question, shall promptly respond to suggestions or complaints received by means of the Ambigua e-mail, forwarding them to the Directorial Team. All claims or suggestions made by readers or authors must be submitted to the journal’s e-mail: ambiguarevista@upo.es
- Integrity of scientific contributions
If the Ambigua journal becomes aware that a published article contains errors, significant inaccuracies, or erroneous information, the Directorial Team will take action to ensure it is corrected immediately, notifying the author beforehand and correcting in the absence of a response from the author.
Plagiarism, in any of its forms, the repeat publication of an article, and the falsification or invention of research data shall be regarded as scientific fraud. If it is observed that the content of any paper submitted is fraudulent, has clear signs of plagiarism, has been sent simultaneously to several journals, or has been previously published in other journals with minimal modifications, said paper will be rejected for review and publication. If an article has already been published in Ambigua, it will be removed from the journal’s website as soon as possible.
In the case of shared authorship, the co-signing authors must have participated significantly in the research and must declare in writing their level of involvement in a footnote at the beginning of the article.
- Commitment to equality
As established by Ambigua in its “Guidelines for Authors”, this journal advocates an inclusive, non-sexist use of language. Therefore, it recommends that authors avoid any form of expression that does not name women, or which is discriminatory towards other groups. A guide is available for the non-sexist use of language. In this regard, Ambigua also advocates equal gender representation in its Directorial Team, its Administrative Team, and its Scientific and Editorial Committee.
