Code of ethics

Textual & Visual Media watches over the integrity and academic ethics in scientific production as a basic principle in all phases of the research process: from the initial conception, to the publication and final dissemination. This document aims to compile the essential ethical practices for a quality scientific publication, useful for the different parties involved inside and outside the editorial process (authors, reviewers, editors, associations, sponsors and funding sources).

Textual & Visual Media accepts and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices), a non-profit organisation whose aim is to support researchers in achieving ethical, upright and responsible publishing.

Honesty and Ethical Integrity

Textual & Visual Media principles of ethical integrity are governed by honesty in all stages, areas and scientific dimensions: from scrupulous and meticulous care in research practice, to transparency and open communication of data, respect between participants and subjects involved in research, and responsibility for the behaviours introduced in this Code of Ethics.

Observations, doubts, complaints or claims will be handled in accordance with this Code and, if applicable, with COPE's guidelines, if necessary, the issues raised to the journal's Editorial Board, which will advise on best practices in editorial ethics and mediate appropriate decisions to the subjects involved.

Editorial Process

Textual & Visual Media assumes its editorial, scientific and professional independence as a basic principle, and therefore adheres to independent scientific criteria, not endogamous, and without any political, business or financial commitments, nor by pressure groups or specific scientific circles.

Our editorial processes do not discriminate against authors, editors or reviewers on the basis of their personal characteristics or identity. We are committed to integrating diversity in all its multiple dimensions, promoting inclusion and equity at every stage of our editorial process.

The Editorial Board does not accept inappropriate or abusive behaviour or correspondence towards our team of editors, authors and reviewers, as well as others involved in the publication process. If anyone engages in such behaviour, the Editorial Board has the duty and the right to take action to protect the individuals involved. This may take the form, for example, of withdrawing a manuscript, or challenging clearly incorrect or abusive blind peer review comments.

Declaration on misconduct

Our editorial process, after compliance with the required formalities, ensures that all authors review and verifiably accept responsibility for the content and record each author's contribution at the end of the manuscript, including any conflicts of interest, which must be made explicit in the publication.

Where authorship is in question, first contact will be made with the corresponding author and, if necessary, with all authors. In case of problems in contacting them, the authors' affiliation or funding institutions involved in the development of the research will be contacted.

In order to promote the originality of the texts, the journal adopts programmes to check for duplication with previously published texts. The journal informs authors of the programme in use in the article submission process.

Where there is doubt about the inclusion of citations and their references, the cited document should be checked or requested to be sent. Where there is doubt or question, the editor-in-chief should contact the corresponding author and, if necessary, all authors.

When in the evaluation process, editors or reviewers identify excess self-citation of authors and/or the journal, the corresponding author and, if necessary, all authors will be contacted for clarification to support the decision making.

Editors and peer reviewers should privilege impartiality, integrity and confidentiality in their evaluation, prioritising constructive criticism and the timeframe agreed with the journal. When there is doubt or questioning, the editor-in-chief should contact the corresponding editor and/or reviewers.

Fabrication or falsification of data and images are considered serious misconduct. The evaluation process is a criterion in the identification of such conduct. In case of doubt, authors will be asked to provide evidence of the methodology and results. In the event that misconduct is found, the authors' affiliation or funding institutions involved in the conduct of the research will be informed.

Textual & Visual Media runs all articles received through the Turnitin anti-plagiarism programme and sends the authors reports of similarity of more than 20%. If the journal, at any point in the editorial process, finds falsification, omission of data, duplication of articles or plagiarism, the original will be returned to the author with due notification to the sponsoring institution, research centre or university. Likewise, the author(s) of the original article will be notified of this situation. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the journal will mark all pages of the article with the word ‘Retracted’.

In cases of doubt or questioning considered above, the journal will follow the COPE flow charts for identification and guidance on misconduct. Eventually, when there is a challenge to the journal's decision, a committee of members of the editorial staff and external members of the journal will be constituted.

Commitments of the authors

Authors must declare that they have read and understood the requirements for submission set out in this section, that they agree with the procedures for article selection adopted by the journal, and that the texts submitted conform to Textual & Visual Media´s publication guidelines.

Authors should refrain from simultaneous/multiple submission of their articles to different publications or publishers, as there is a possibility that the same text may be published more than once.

Texts submitted to the journal must be original and unpublished, i.e. they must not have been previously published in full or in part in Spanish or in another language. Authors must avoid duplicate publication, which occurs when two or more articles by the same author or authors, without cross-referencing each other, essentially share the same hypotheses, data, discussion points and/or conclusions, either literally or through paraphrasing.

Fragmentation. Authors should avoid fragmentation of a study, which is the splitting or segmenting of research into two or more publications, such that these segments of the study share the same hypotheses, population and methods.

Sources. Authors must acknowledge the original sources of the materials used in the preparation of their articles in order to avoid plagiarism. This practice of intentionally omitting authorship of fragments or the whole of a work can take different forms:
1. Verbatim copying, when reproducing a work word for word, in whole or in part, without permission and acknowledgement of the original source.
2. Substantial copying, relating to research materials, processes, tables or equipment.
3. Paraphrased by reproducing someone else's ideas, but not copying them word for word, without permission or indication of the original source.
4. Recycling of text, by reproducing parts of one's own work and resubmitting it for publication as a completely new article.

Intellectual property rights. Authors must respect the intellectual property rights of third parties if the materials used in the development of the article are not their property, therefore, they must have the necessary authorisations for the reproduction of photographs, illustrations, graphs, charts, maps, diagrams, among others. Authors must avoid fraudulent conducts in the research and publication process, which occur when data or conclusions are published which were not generated by experiments or observations, but by invention/fabrication or falsification/manipulation, including the modiﬁcation or omission of crucial data or results.

Authorship. There are two main criteria for being recognised as an author:

Have made a substantial contribution to the conception and design of the research, the acquisition of data, or the analysis and interpretation of the study.
Have written the draft or revised the intellectual content of the article. Authors are ranked according to their level of responsibility and involvement in the submitted manuscript.

Individuals who participate in research but do not fit at least one of these criteria should be listed as collaborators or under a subheading of acknowledgements ( this is the case for a research space, for academic supervision, institutional or financial support).

There are three unacceptable types of authorship:

Falsification: this involves including names of people who have had little or no involvement in the research, omitting names of people who did participate, and includes submitting a manuscript without the permission of one of the authors.
Ghostwriting: refers to the unacknowledged role of professional writers and includes contributions not attributed to data analysts.
Honorary authorship: based on a tenuous association with the study or solely on the expectation that the inclusion of such a name will improve the chances of publication of a text.

Errors in published articles. When an author identifies an important error or inaccuracy in his/her article, he/she should immediately inform the journal's editorial team and provide all the necessary information to make the appropriate corrections, which will be made as soon as possible in the electronic version of the journal and through an erratum in the printed version.
Responsibility. All authors accept responsibility for what has been written. The authors also undertake that a review of the most current and relevant scientific literature on the subject analysed has been carried out, taking into account the different currents of knowledge in a pluralistic manner.

Honesty

The editorial team is responsible for ensuring that every article published in Textual & Visual Media represents a significant and novel contribution to the field of research and evaluative education, avoiding repetition and duplication.

Each editor will provide a courteous and honest argument for the editorial decision to reject a manuscript, which should include the reviewers' comments and, where appropriate, proposals for improvement.

It is the task of the editorial team to ensure that the deadlines for the evaluation of manuscripts are met. And also that the comments of the reviews are sent, allowing the authorship to make the necessary modifications.

The editorial team will conduct a thorough review to prevent plagiarism of all manuscripts received in Textual & Visual Media, as well as to ensure their originality and prevent dishonest editorial practices. This task will be carried out using the Turnitin anti-plagiarism software. In case of a similarity report of more than 20%, the editorial team will contact the author(s). In the event of finding falsification, omission of data, duplicity of articles or plagiarism, the appropriate measures will be taken, in accordance with the Spanish and European legal framework, to resolve the situation, proceeding to the withdrawal of the article from the editorial process of the journal or the retraction of the article if it has already been published.

Articles submitted to Textual & Visual Media, once they have passed the editorial team's assessment of their adequacy to the journal's editorial policy, will be submitted to a double-blind peer review evaluation system. The evaluation of articles will follow the following ethical guidelines that aim to ensure a review process that has the maximum rigor and objectivity in accordance with international standards.

Responsibility of reviewers

The person invited to evaluate an article must inform of the impossibility of reviewing it if he/she does not have the competence in the subject proposed to be evaluated or if he/she is unable to provide a response within the required deadline. In such a case, he/she must immediately notify the corresponding Editorial Committee of the lack of competence or availability. After this, the review invitation will be forwarded to another reviewer. If the unavailability is temporary, the person invited to evaluate an article may inform the Editorial Committee to agree on an alternative date, provided that the editorial work schedule allows it.

The evaluation function will be exercised with professionalism, assuming a behavior based on honesty, objectivity and scientific competence; transmitting with courtesy, precision and clarity those corrections or suggestions that are considered to contribute to the publication of the article, its improvement or its rejection. As an element of help or guide in this process, a review form is available, which guarantees the homogeneous application of a series of criteria in the evaluation of articles.

In accordance with this Code of Ethics, the evaluators will review the work with criteria of independence, objectivity, responsibility and absence of conflict of interest, scrupulously and exclusively following academic values according to their fair judgment, observing that the texts comply with the formal and ethical requirements demanded by Textual & Visual Media.

To guarantee equality between evaluations, when reviewing the articles, the evaluators will use a common template where the technical and scientific criteria for refereeing will be included, as well as comments and suggestions for improvement, which should be followed by the authors in order to improve the quality of the article.

The evaluators will have three options for the overall evaluation of the article (in all cases the decision taken must be justified in the comments section and in the specific template):

Publishable.
Not Publishable.
Publishable with Modifications.

In order to avoid plagiarism conflicts, Textual & Visual Media journal takes the following anti-plagiarism measures:

Require a statement of authorship that authors must include with the submission of the article. In it the authors of manuscripts assure that the work is original, that it does not contain parts of other authors or other fragments of works already published by the authors without being properly identified and/or cited.
Pass articles through the Turnitin anti-plagiarism program and send reports of similarity above 20% to the authors.

If the journal, at any time during the editorial process, finds falsification, omission of data, duplication of articles or plagiarism, the original will be returned to the author with due notification to the sponsoring institution, research center or university. Likewise, the author(s) of the original article will be notified of this situation. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the journal will mark all pages of the article with the word “Retracted”.

Textual & Visual Media journal adheres to the COPE Code of Ethics.

Responsibilities of the Authors

Authorship: Confirm that the authorship of the text really belongs to the persons who sign it. The status of author implies participation in carrying out the work that is the source of the article submitted, in writing the text and in revising it.
Conflict of interest: Authors are required to declare explicitly that there are no conflicts of interest that may have influenced the results. They will disclose any funding from agencies and/or projects in the research conducted.
Originality: The article must be original, without including parts of other texts or articles already published. Any plagiarism will be subject to rejection of the article in question and of future works by the author(s).
Multiple and/or repetitive publications: Submitting the same article simultaneously to two or more scientific journals is an ethically reprehensible practice.
Sources: All sources and contributions used in the article should be indicated in an appropriate manner.
Responsibility: Authors accept responsibility for their texts and assume the legal consequences that may arise from their authorship.
Truthfulness: Provide truthful data and show that it has been collected in a technically correct manner.
Plagiarism or self-plagiarism: Do not plagiarise in whole or in part from other published works.
Sources: Indicate the sources of information used and differentiate between those used directly and those used indirectly. Authors are responsible for obtaining the appropriate permissions to partially reproduce material (text, tables or figures) from other publications and for citing the source correctly.
If the article is accepted, the authors must undertake to make the modifications within the stipulated period.
Where appropriate, provide documentation to ensure that minimum ethical standards have been followed in the research, such as informed consent.
Access and retention: If deemed appropriate by the editors, authors of articles should also make available the sources or data on which the research is based, which can be retained for a reasonable period of time after publication and possibly made accessible.
Errors in published articles: When an author identifies a major error or inaccuracy in his/her article, he/she should immediately inform the journal editors and provide them with all the information necessary to list the relevant corrections at the bottom of the article.
Responsibility: All authors accept responsibility for what has been written. The authors also undertake to have carried out a review of the most current and relevant scientific literature on the subject analysed, taking into account the different currents of knowledge in a pluralistic manner.
As this is a publication governed by Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), the authors retain the copyright and third parties are permitted to copy, distribute and make use of the works provided they comply with the terms and conditions set out in the licence:

Cite authorship and original source of publication (journal, publisher and URL of the work).
Do not use for commercial purposes.
If you remix, transform or create from the material, you must disseminate your contributions under the same licence as the original.
Gender equality: Authors should use inclusive language and should abide by any recommendations that may arise during the editorial process of the manuscript to ensure that the text presents non-sexist language.

Editors' responsibilities

Honesty: Textual & Visual Media´s informative activity has no commercial or economic interest, so the acceptance or rejection of the manuscripts received will be in accordance with the principles of quality and rigour of their content. The editors will evaluate the articles exclusively on the basis of the scientific merit of the texts submitted.
Evaluators: The list of external evaluators will be reviewed and updated periodically. In the event that the evaluations of a text are divergent, the editors undertake to send the manuscript to a third reviewer, whose opinion will be definitive for the acceptance or rejection of the work.
Confidentiality: The editors ensure the confidentiality of the texts received, the authors and the reviewers involved in the external review process, so that anonymity preserves the intellectual integrity of the whole process.
Respect for deadlines: Decisions on the publication of texts will be taken within a timeframe that does not affect their timeliness: approximately one month for acceptance or rejection of the manuscript, and a further three months for final acceptance or rejection.
Publication decision: The editors will ensure the selection of the most scientifically qualified and specialist reviewers to give a critical and expert appraisal of the work, with as little bias as possible.
Conflict of interest and disclosure: Editors undertake not to use content from articles submitted for publication in their research without the written consent of the author.

Code of Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

Ethics in scientific writing is a crucial issue for the scientific community and for society at large. Scientific writing is an activity that involves the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and must therefore be carried out with integrity and transparency. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a tool that is increasingly being used in scientific research and therefore its use must also be guided by ethical principles.

When it comes to the use of AI in science writing, it is important for researchers to be transparent about how the technology is being used and how the results are being interpreted. AI algorithms can be useful for processing large amounts of data and for identifying patterns and trends, but they can also lead to errors if not used properly. Researchers must be clear about how the algorithms are being used and how the results are being interpreted, and must ensure that any automation does not undermine the integrity of the research.

Data protection

The editorial team of this magazine complies and enforces the stipulations of the Spanish Organic Law 3/2018 of 5 December on the Protection of Personal Data and guarantee of digital rights, and of the Regulation (European Union) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the European Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the Textual & Visual Media processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.

Names and e-mail addresses entered in this magazine will be used exclusively for the purposes set out in this magazine and will not be provided to third parties or for use for other purposes, the magazine is committed to protecting and respecting their privacy.

Every author has access to the personal data he or she has provided, as well as the right to request the modification or deletion of such data whenever they need to be rectified for any reason or are no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected.

Transparency

Textual & Visual Media is committed to following COPE's Principles of Transparency and Good Practice in Academic Publishing, encouraging all those involved in the editorial process to uphold and safeguard the same reasoning.

For this reason, authors are requested to keep accurate records of their research evidence necessary to verify and reproduce the findings, so that it can be provided and made accessible upon reasonable request. In this regard, we invite authors to:

Deposit the evidence in an appropriate repository or storage place that allows them to share it with third parties.
Describe where data evidence can be located for cross-checking.