Editorial Best Practices
RASAL Lingüística adopts the international editorial ethics standards and codes established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and is guided by the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
RASAL Lingüística adheres to the guidelines of international reference frameworks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)[1], which seek to promote fair treatment and full participation of all individuals, particularly those from historically underrepresented, marginalized groups, or those subject to discrimination based on identity or disability. It is also guided by the notion of “equality” established by the Undersecretariat for Human Rights of the Argentine Nation (Subsecretaría de Derechos Humanos de la Nación Argentina), understood as “the recognition of the human condition beyond ethnicity, religion, color, sex, and other social and cultural characteristics. By this principle, all people are considered equal in terms of freedoms, rights, guarantees, obligations, and opportunities.”[2]
Personal or identity characteristics will never be grounds for discrimination against authors, editors, or reviewers by the journal’s editorial board. The team is committed to promoting equality, fostering diversity, and seeking the greatest possible inclusion at all stages of the editorial process. RASAL Lingüística encourages the submission and publication of work by researchers from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and the origin of the manuscript—including the authors’ nationality, political beliefs, religion, or identity—does not influence editorial decisions.
We recognize the right of all individuals to be treated with respect and dignity. Any form of harassment, abusive behavior, or inappropriate correspondence directed toward the editorial board is considered misconduct. Therefore, such cases will be handled in accordance with the journal’s editorial best practices policies.
[1] United Nations (UN): Vision and principles; Disability Inclusion Strategy; Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity
[2] Subsecretaría de Derechos Humanos de la Nación Argentina, Glossary entry “identity.”
Research ethics
Image and Data Manipulation
The journal safeguards the integrity of the content it publishes. The study must be scientifically valid, and the results must be adequately and clearly presented and explained. In cases of detection or receipt of an allegation of image or data manipulation, procedures will follow COPE guidelines.
The journal’s editorial board may request the raw data related to the data or images included in the authors’ manuscript or publication in the event of an allegation of data or image manipulation. For the purpose of conducting a misconduct investigation, the journal may also be required to share information about a manuscript or publication, including peer reviews, with third parties.
If a publication is found to include fraudulent or unethical research, or to violate the journal’s policies, it may be retracted, corrected, or marked with an expression of concern.
Authors must familiarize themselves with the journal’s Policies on the use of AI, which include guidelines on the use of such tools in data processing.
Informed Consent
Research involving interviews, experimental evidence, discourse, rituals, or images as objects of analysis must declare that consent has been obtained from the individuals or communities involved (in the methodology section or in a footnote). This includes the use of photographs in which individuals are anonymized or their identity is concealed. Materials that do not meet these conditions will not be published in the manuscript.
Plagiarism
A situation of plagiarism is considered to occur when someone presents another person’s intellectual or creative work (words, data, images, figures, tables, audio, video, software code, or ideas) as their own, without proper attribution or acknowledgment.
The journal publishes original and unpublished works, whose authors declare that they have not been previously published in any other scientific and/or academic outlet. The journal does not accept any form of plagiarism. Manuscripts containing plagiarism will be rejected or not published.
Other plagiarism-related practices recognized by COPE that are not accepted by this journal:
Self-plagiarism
Self-plagiarism refers to the unacknowledged and unattributed reuse of one’s own previously disseminated material (for example, text, data, images, or ideas from prior publications, theses, grant applications, or other circulated work) in a new work, thereby misrepresenting the originality and intellectual contribution of the new work.
Text recycling
The reuse of portions of one’s own previously disseminated written material in a new work is not permitted.
Text recycling is only acceptable when reusing previously documented descriptions of procedures or approaches in methods sections, provided that the amount of reused text is not excessive and that authorship is properly declared and attributed.
Inappropriate text recycling includes text reuse without disclosure, attribution, and permission, which is considered a form of self-plagiarism (see above); and excessive reuse across multiple outputs, which may be associated with overlapping publications, salami slicing, or redundant publication (see below).
Overlapping publications
When two or more publications report substantially the same data, materials, or analysis, including only minimal new data or alternative analyses compared with the original publication.
Redundant publication (Duplicate publication)
When a published work, or substantial sections of it, is published again (in the same or another language), or resubmitted to another journal.
Salami slicing (Salami publication)
The segmentation of a study into smaller publishable units (parts), which generally share the same research question, hypothesis, population, and methods, but in which each publication reports only part of the findings.
Plagiarism detection
The journal uses an online system to detect any type of fraud or plagiarism. However, given the limitations of automatic plagiarism detection software in Spanish and Portuguese, and in order to identify broader aspects of fraudulent practices, the journal implements the following procedures:
- During the manuscript submission process, authors are required to declare that the article has not been previously published nor submitted to other journals for evaluation. It should be noted that having posted the article in a preprint repository does not conflict with this requirement.
- Authors are required to declare that they are following the Instructions for Authors, which state that submitted articles must be original.
- Prior to the review stage, internet search tools are used to track other works by the authors and to compare the title, excerpts from the abstract, the methods section, and the results of the submitted manuscript, in order to verify originality and prevent plagiarism practices.
- When sending manuscripts to peer reviewers, they are asked to pay attention to possible indicators of plagiarism, considering sources and the relevant literature on the topic.
Authorship
The journal adheres to and promotes the use of the CRediT taxonomy to identify authorship roles within a publication.
This taxonomy aims to specify and acknowledge all roles involved in a research project throughout its entire process. In this way, it recognizes the contributions of all participants in a research project and highlights not only the results, but also the process.
More information: https://credit.niso.org/
In addition, according to COPE, AI tools cannot be listed as authors of an academic publication, as they do not meet authorship requirements: lacking legal personhood, they cannot assume responsibility for the content, declare conflicts of interest, or manage copyright.
Accordingly, RASAL Lingüística assumes that the authorship of publications may only be attributed to human individuals, who bear full responsibility for all submitted content—including portions that have been generated and/or modified with the assistance of AI tools—and are therefore subject to any sanctions arising from non-compliance with these ethical guidelines (see Policies on the use of AI).
RASAL Lingüística requires all authors listed in a contribution to sign an authorship and originality statement as a condition prior to publication. It must be submitted together with the manuscript during the submission process. Authors are responsible for the content and conclusions expressed in their work. RASAL Lingüística does not retain intellectual property rights at any stage.
Peer review
The journal implements different mechanisms to ensure a transparent, fair, unbiased and timely evaluation process.
RASAL’s editorial policies include a detailed description of the Peer Review Process, along with ethical guidelines for reviewers. In addition, mechanisms are in place to prevent conflicts of interest (see below) and a double-blind review system with anonymization guidelines for authors (see Manuscript Submission), ensuring a fair evaluation process and preventing potential bias. Furthermore, reviewers are instructed to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the journal’s Policies on the Use of Artificial Intelligence during the review process.
Conflicts of interest
According to COPE, a conflict of interest can be defined as anything that interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, decision making, or publication of research papers submitted to a journal. Conflicts of interest can be financial or non-financial, professional, or personal, and can arise in relationship to an organisation or another person.
The editorial board is committed to respecting any situation involving a conflict of interest and acting accordingly. Reviewers must declare any conflict of interest (if any) before accepting the review request sent by the journal, and will be exempt from carrying out the review. Authors must provide information about the source of research funding or any other institutional support that facilitated the research, and indicate the contribution of each author (full names) in the authorship statement during the manuscript submission process.
Misconducts
RASAL Lingüística adheres to the “Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Accordingly, in cases of suspicion, detection, or receipt of an allegation of misconduct, the journal’s editorial team has the responsibility to act accordingly, whether the manuscript is unpublished or already published. The editorial team will follow COPE guidelines as a reference.
In the first instance, the editorial team will request a response from those suspected of misconduct. If the response is not satisfactory, a relevant institution or appropriate body will be contacted to carry out an investigation. The journal will make all reasonable efforts to ensure that a proper investigation into the alleged misconduct is conducted.
Errata, Amendments, and Retractions
Manuscripts published in the journal remain accurate, current, and unchanged, except in exceptional circumstances that require correction through an erratum, an amendment, or a retraction. The editorial team’s criteria for addressing such circumstances are guided by COPE guidelines.
Errata
If an erratum is identified in a publication that affects the interpretation of the article or may have consequences for the publication record, corrections may be made, provided that the academic integrity of the published manuscript is not affected. The erratum is corrected in all publication formats (PDF, HTML, XML), adding a header note indicating the corrected version, date of correction, and type of correction made. The correction notice and date are also made visible in the OJS, along with the original publication date. Additionally, repositories and databases that have indexed the published issue are notified so they can update their records.
Amendments
Amendments for errors or omissions made by the authors may also be applied to published manuscripts. Authors must submit a request via the journal’s email explaining the error or omission in question, the type of amendment requested, and a proper justification. The editorial board will carefully and judiciously determine the appropriate course of action in accordance with COPE guidelines. If the amendment is approved, it is implemented in all publication formats (PDF, HTML, XML), adding a header note indicating the amended version, date of amendment, and type of amendment made. The amendment notice and date are also made visible in the OJS, along with the original publication date. Repositories and databases that have indexed the published issue are also notified for updating purposes.
Retractions
Published manuscripts may be removed from the issue in which they appear. The journal considers cases eligible for retraction in line with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
Retractions are applied to articles that present such serious flaws that their findings or conclusions cannot be considered reliable, contain substantial plagiarism, or report unethical research. Failure to comply with the journal’s Policies on the use of AI may also lead to the retraction of a published manuscript.
Privacy and Confidentiality Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes stated by this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are the property of the author and are therefore confidential documents. The journal’s editorial team and reviewers may neither cite nor distribute copies of unpublished and/or under-review manuscripts. Likewise, they may not disclose or discuss any other information related to the manuscripts outside the journal’s editorial team. Reviewers must adhere to the journal’s Policies on the use of AI in order to preserve confidentiality.
