In the pursuit of quality in each manuscript, this journal establishes a series of policies to ensure transparent and ethical management for authors, readers, and peers.

Among our policies are:

Manuscript Submission Policies

Declaration of Originality and Unpublished Work:

This journal requires the exclusive submission of original writings by the document's signatories, demonstrating completeness and absence of conflicts of interest.

Additionally, the manuscript must be unpublished, meaning it has never been previously published in any medium, such as journals, repositories, websites, blogs, printed media, or others.

Non-compliance with this directive will result in the outright rejection of the manuscript.

Format, Style, and Citation System:

Authors must follow the guidelines provided in the submission section for presenting their manuscripts.

Plagiarism and Misconduct Control:

All manuscripts undergo a review with the Turnitin plagiarism detection tool during the first phase of the editorial process.

This tool performs a textual comparison of the document against its database (including international databases) and generates a similarity report. This report is analyzed by the editorial board, with particular emphasis on reports indicating more than 15% similarity.

Authors will be notified of the report's findings and the actions to be taken regarding their manuscript. If the editor determines that the alerts are due to omissions or unintentional misconduct in writing, authors will be given the opportunity to correct the text.

Manuscripts with intentional plagiarism or without proper source attribution will be immediately rejected.

Additionally, all manuscripts undergo peer review, where reviewers are asked to indicate the degree of originality and quality of the submitted documents.

Artificial Intelligence Tools:

The use and application of AI tools for manuscript writing, graphic creation, or data analysis must be disclosed in the materials and methods section, specifying the tool used. Authors are responsible for the content generated by the tool and any conflicts arising from copyright infringements caused by it, as established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Registration of Biomedical Trials

In compliance with current ethical and legal standards, all biomedical trials submitted for consideration must adhere to the provisions established in the Biomedical Research Regulatory Law, Law No. 9234 of Costa Rican legislation. According to this law, it is mandatory for any biomedical research conducted in Costa Rica to comply with the procedures and regulations set forth by the National Health Research Council (CONIS).

To ensure compliance with these regulations, authors are required to consult the applicable legislation and submit trial registration documentation to CONIS. Please refer to the information at the following link: Procedures (ministeriodesalud.go.cr)

The journal reserves the right to request proof of registration and compliance with the law before proceeding with manuscript review and publication.

Failure to comply with these ethical and legal regulations may result in the non-consideration or rejection of the manuscript for publication in our journal.

Publication Policies

Journal Periodicity:

This journal publishes quarterly in March, June, September, and December, totaling four editions annually. Manuscript submissions are open year-round.

Peer Review and Editorial Decisions:

As outlined in our critical path, the journal evaluates content using a double-blind methodology. The final decision power rests with the Editor-in-Chief.

Consult the full evaluation process flowchart.

Code of Ethics:

This journal promotes best practices for academic publication. Therefore, we adhere to and subscribe to the policies outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). By aligning with these internationally recognized standards, we ensure integrity, transparency, and quality in our publication process. Authors must comply with these ethical guidelines, covering issues such as authorship, conflicts of interest, data integrity, and peer review standards.

Information Management Policies

Digital Preservation of Content:

For information preservation, the journal implements the following digital preservation measures:

• Final publication files (PDF, XML, HTML) and editable files (Adobe InDesign) are stored and safeguarded on the server of the Educational Technology Department of the University of Medical Sciences (UCIMED).
• The server team automatically performs a daily backup of the entire server using the ACRONIS client application, which securely, remotely, and incrementally backs up the information. This service is provided and supervised by the IT Department of the University of Medical Sciences (UCIMED).
• A copy is sent for storage on the Calameo eBooks platform via the journal's account.
• According to the National Library System, legal deposit for memory preservation is performed as indicated by this entity.

Interoperability Service:

The journal maintains an open OAI-PMH service for information system consultation and interoperability with content management systems.

The public link to this service is: Revista Ciencia y Salud - OAI