Editorial Ethics Policy
I. Editorial Ethics Policy
Revista Biomédica is committed to the highest standards of scientific integrity, transparency, and good editorial practices, guaranteeing the academic integrity of the works it publishes and ensuring transparent, confidential, impartial, and respectful evaluation processes. This policy applies to authors, reviewers, and members of the journal's editorial team.
Revista Biomédica adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and upholds the Autonomous University of Yucatán's institutional commitment to scientific integrity.
The following constitute poor editorial practices: plagiarism, duplication or redundant publication, manipulation or fabrication of data, inappropriate authorship, intentional omission of sources, and any action that compromises the integrity of the scientific process.
Revista Biomédica reserves the right to reject any manuscript in which these practices are detected immediately and, if discovered after publication, to initiate a retraction and notify the institutions involved.
- Authors' Responsibilities
Authors must adhere to the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which require substantial involvement in the conception, design, execution, analysis, writing, or critical revision of the work, as well as in the final approval of the submitted version.
All manuscripts that include experiments, surveys, interviews, observational studies, or clinical trials involving human subjects must explicitly state that written informed consent was obtained from all participants; that the study protocol has been reviewed and approved by a Research Ethics Committee (specifying the committee's name, the institution it belongs to, and the corresponding ethics approval number); and that the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (latest revision) and international and national regulations on research involving human subjects have been followed. Revista Biomédica will request this information when the manuscript requires it.
Clinical images of patients may be published only if they do not contain personal identifiers or if specific consent for publication has been obtained. Images that compromise the patient's dignity, privacy, or anonymity will not be accepted under any circumstances.
In animal research, authors must indicate compliance with national and international ethical standards for the use of animals and provide approval from a specialized animal welfare committee.
All authors must detail their actual contributions to the work. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have approved the final version of the manuscript, disclosed any conflicts of interest that may influence the work, and agreed to its submission. In the absence of conflicts of interest, the following should be stated: “No conflicts of interest.” Revista Biomédica will request a PDF letter signed by all authors.
All manuscripts must clearly identify the funding sources that supported the study (organization, institution, funding agency, project or contract number). If there is no external funding, state: “No funding sources.”
Authors must promptly inform the Editorial Team of any errors identified in the submitted or published text and actively participate in the corrections.
Failure to comply with any of these requirements will result in the manuscript's immediate rejection.
- Responsibility of the Editorial Team
The Editorial Team will conduct the reception, review, opinion, and publication processes in accordance with Revista Biomédica's standards. Manuscripts will be evaluated for academic relevance, quality, originality, and adherence to editorial criteria, without discrimination based on origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, institutional affiliation, political position, or other personal conditions.
Information regarding the manuscripts received will be treated as confidential and shared only with those involved in the editorial process.
Those who participate in editorial management must refrain from disclosing or using for their own purposes any information obtained during the review process.
Those who participate in editorial management must refrain from intervening in cases involving any conflict of interest with the authors, whether competitive, collaborative, financial, or personal.
In such cases, manuscript management will be delegated to another member of the editorial team.
- Reviewer Responsibilities
Reviewers must conduct critical, objective, respectful, confidential, and well-founded evaluations. Their feedback should improve the manuscript and inform editorial decisions. Personal judgments about the authors are inappropriate; opinions must be clearly expressed and supported by relevant arguments and references.
Reviewers who lack sufficient availability, adequate subject-matter expertise, or who identify any conflict of interest must promptly inform the editorial team so that the necessary measures can be taken. The peer review process is double-blind: neither the authors nor the reviewers know the authors' identities.
Reviewers must inform the editorial board if they detect any evidence of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, misuse of sources, or any other potential breach of academic integrity.
- Conflicts of Interest
All individuals involved in the editorial process must disclose any personal, academic, institutional, professional, financial, or other ties that may affect or appear to affect the impartiality of the evaluation or editorial decision.
When a conflict of interest is identified, Revista Biomédica may replace the reviewers, reassign the manuscript, request the Editorial Team's intervention, or take other necessary measures to preserve the impartiality of the process.
- Unacceptable Conduct
The following are considered unacceptable conduct in the editorial process:
- Fabrication, falsification, or manipulation of data, results, or images.
- Plagiarism in any form, including undeclared self-plagiarism and duplicate publication.
- Simultaneously submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal.
- Artificially fragmenting a work across multiple publications without justification.
- Honorary authorship or unjustified exclusion of co-authors.
- Interference with the peer review process.
- Misuse of information obtained as a reviewer or editor.
- Intentional omission of sources or unauthorized use of third-party materials.
Revista Biomédica may use specialized tools to detect textual similarities. If a violation is identified during the editorial process, the manuscript may be rejected or suspended until the issue is clarified.
- Complaints, Appeals, and Reports
Revista Biomédica will address complaints, grievances, appeals against editorial decisions, or reports of possible violations of academic integrity, provided they are submitted in writing, respectfully, and with proper justification to the journal's official email address (revistabiomedica.mx@gmail.com). Requests must include the reason for the grievance, the manuscript or publication involved, and, where applicable, supporting evidence.
The editorial team will review each case confidentially and impartially and may request clarification from the parties involved. Filing an appeal does not automatically modify an editorial decision. The decision will be communicated in writing and will be final within the journal's process.
- Corrections and Retractions
Revista Biomédica may publish corrections, clarifications, editorial notes, or retractions when relevant errors, omissions, ethical issues, or information that affects the academic integrity of a published text are identified.
Corrections will be made when errors do not invalidate the central arguments of the work. Retractions may be issued when serious offenses are verified, such as plagiarism, fabrication or manipulation of data, duplicate publication, improper authorship, lack of necessary permissions, or any other conduct that compromises the validity or legitimacy of the publication.
All corrections and retractions will be evaluated by the editorial team. The decision will be communicated to the authors and prominently published on the journal's platform, with a link to the original text. Detailed procedures are outlined in the Journal's Retractions and Corrections Policy section. This policy is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE: https://publicationethics.org), and it complements other Revista Biomédica policies: Anti-Plagiarism Policy, Retractions and Corrections Policy, Self-Archiving Policy, Open Science Policy, and AI Use Policy.
