Ethics and good practices

Paradigma: Journal of Educational Research conducts its editorial activities in accordance with the principles of integrity, transparency, impartiality, and scientific responsibility. The journal follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/) and promotes good practices throughout all stages of the editorial process, from manuscript submission to publication and preservation.

The following policies form part of the journal's commitment to ethical publishing.

I. Authorship and Contributions

Authorship is limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the manuscript. All authors must approve the final version before submission and assume public responsibility for the published content.

The journal adopts the CRediT Taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to transparently describe each author's individual contribution. During the submission process, authors must declare the roles they performed according to this taxonomy. The contribution statement will be published with the accepted article.

The main roles recognized by the CRediT Taxonomy are:

  • Conceptualization.

  • Data curation.

  • Formal analysis.

  • Funding acquisition.

  • Investigation.

  • Methodology.

  • Project administration.

  • Resources.

  • Software.

  • Supervision.

  • Validation.

  • Visualization.

  • Writing – original draft.

  • Writing – review and editing.

II. Complaints and Appeals

Any complaint related to the peer review process, editorial decisions, or the content of a published article may be submitted in writing to the journal's official email address (paradigma@upnfm.edu.hn).

The Editorial Team will review each case objectively, confidentially, and impartially, based on scientific and ethical criteria, and will communicate the decision in a timely manner.

III. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any personal, academic, institutional, financial, or other conflict of interest that could influence, or reasonably be perceived as influencing, the editorial process or the publication of a manuscript.

When a conflict of interest may compromise the impartiality of the process, the Editorial Team will take the necessary measures to ensure an objective and independent evaluation.

IV. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

The journal promotes transparency, reproducibility, and verifiability in research through the responsible sharing of data, materials, instruments, and code used in the study, provided that such sharing complies with applicable legislation, confidentiality commitments, and personal data protection requirements.

When deemed necessary, the Editorial Team or reviewers may request access to the data supporting the reported results. If the data cannot be shared, authors must provide justification.

V. Ethical Oversight

All manuscripts must comply with internationally accepted ethical principles for research and scientific publication.

The journal will ensure ongoing compliance with these principles throughout all stages of the editorial process and will use the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as a framework for addressing ethical issues.

VI. Intellectual Property

Authors retain the moral rights to their works and transfer to the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán (UPNFM) the economic rights necessary for their publication, dissemination, preservation, and indexing.

Full terms regarding the transfer of rights, licensing, and reuse of content are available in the Open Access and Copyright section.

VII. Corrections and Post-Publication Discussions

The journal will promote the correction of the scholarly record whenever necessary.

Authors may request corrections or amendments after publication. The Editorial Team may also issue errata, expressions of concern, or retractions when justified by scientific or ethical considerations, following COPE recommendations.

The journal may also publish letters to the editor or other scholarly communications intended to promote scientific discussion of previously published articles.

Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

a) Permitted Use and Disclosure

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation, review, and editing of articles is permitted. Their use must be clearly disclosed, indicating the model used, version, date of access, and prompts employed.

b) Human Authorship

Authorship is reserved exclusively for the human authors of the submitted manuscript.

c) Responsibility

Authors, reviewers, and editors who use AI must assume full responsibility for its use. All generated content must be appropriately validated and cited.

d) Ethics and Rights

The use of AI must respect citation principles, intellectual property, and authorship rights. The use of tools that generate content based on protected works without legal or academic justification is prohibited.

e) Misconduct

Improper or undisclosed use of AI, or any use that compromises academic integrity, will be evaluated by the Editorial Team, which will take the appropriate measures.

f) Recommendations for Disclosing AI Use

If the use of AI was limited (for example, grammar correction or writing suggestions), a statement at the end of the manuscript is sufficient.

If AI was used more extensively (content generation, conceptual reformulation, or automated analysis), its use must be disclosed within the relevant sections of the manuscript.

In all cases, the following information must be provided:

  • Name of the model (for example, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot).

  • Version used.

  • Date of use.

  • Main prompts used.

When multiple tools or queries have been used, they must be documented separately in an additional file.

All AI-generated content must be validated, and its coherence and accuracy must be guaranteed by the person submitting it.

Identification and Management of Research Misconduct

The journal is committed to maintaining scientific integrity and preventing the publication of work that violates established ethical standards in research.

a) Prevention

The journal's editors will take measures to detect and prevent the publication of articles in which there are indications of research misconduct. This includes, but is not limited to, detecting plagiarism (through Google, Turnitin, or other similarity-checking tools), citation manipulation, excessive or undisclosed use of artificial intelligence tools, and data falsification or fabrication.

b) Commitment to Integrity

Manipulation of results, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data falsification or fabrication, simultaneous submission, and duplicate publication will not be tolerated.

When such practices are identified before publication, the manuscript will be rejected. If they are identified after publication, the journal will initiate the appropriate procedure, which may result in the retraction of the article and formal notification of the authors and, when appropriate, the institutions involved.

c) Evaluation of Allegations

All allegations will be reviewed by the Editorial Team based on the available evidence, ensuring a confidential, impartial, and evidence-based process. When necessary, clarification will be requested from the parties involved before a final editorial decision is made.