Ethical aspects
Statement of ethics, gender and conflict of interest principles
The publication of Agua y Territorio / Water and Landscape (AYT / WAL) is the collective result of the work and effort of authors, editors and evaluators who are interested in the development of science for social and cultural development. For this reason, and within the framework of the open access policy promoted by the Universidad de Jaén, the journal will not charge authors any fee for publication, and articles will be made available immediately in open access.
The editors will ensure the use of inclusive language, as they adhere to the United Nations goal of "expressing oneself orally and in writing without discriminating against a particular sex, social gender or gender identity and without perpetuating gender stereotypes" (https://www.un.org/es/gender-inclusive-language/index.shtml). This objective must be considered in parallel with "other discursive or pragmatic postulates, such as equivalence, appropriateness, convenience, aesthetics and, in particular, the principle of economy" (RAE Position of 16 January 2020, § 8.1), and the appropriate use of the linguistic norm. It is therefore advisable to take into consideration both the recommendations of the United Nations and those offered by the Royal Spanish Academy (https://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Informe_lenguaje_inclusivo.pdf).
Articles of an offensive nature or that offend against human dignity, racial or religious diversity will not be published.
The journal subscribes to the code of ethics drawn up by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):
When the type of research requires it, the text provides information on whether the source data of the research takes gender into account, so that possible differences can be identified.
The editors are committed to avoiding any conflict of interest between the actors involved in the production. All texts submitted will be evaluated for their intellectual content, avoiding that the ethnic or national belonging of the authors, their gender, their sexual orientation, their religious beliefs, or their political philosophy interfere in the process. Likewise, external evaluations that interfere with the quality of the work will be rejected.
Authors and evaluators are asked to declare in advance any relevant conflicts of interest they might have, so that they can be taken into account when assigning evaluations. Should any conflict arise after the publication of the contribution, a retraction or statement of fact will be made if necessary.
A "conflict of interest" is a situation in which there is a divergence between an individual's personal interests and his or her responsibilities in respect of the scientific activities he or she carries out, whether as an author, a reviewer or a member of the editorial board, which may influence his or her critical judgement and the integrity of his or her actions. Conflicts of interest can be:
- Economic: when the participant (author/reviewer/editor) has received or expects to receive money for activities related to the research and its dissemination.
- Academic: when reviewers or editors adhere to a certain methodological or ideological trend in such a way that they may be biased in evaluating the work of others. For this reason they are asked to express themselves in advance.
- Personal or work relationships: when the participants (authors/reviewers/editors) have some kind of friendship, enmity or work relationship. To avoid this, publishers should take into account the sources of funding and the affiliation of the authors, in order to choose evaluators who do not belong to those specific circles.
