Policies

Prospherus Scientific Journal adheres to the highest international standards of integrity, rigor, and transparency in academic publishing. The set of policies detailed below governs the conduct and ethical responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and editors, safeguarding the quality, originality, and global impact of the scientific output disseminated.

I. Scientific Integrity and Plagiarism Policies

The institutional stance against scientific fraud is strict and uncompromising, aimed at certifying the absolute originality of each scientific contribution prior to publication.

1. Definition and Scope of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is considered the deliberate or unintentional presentation of ideas, discursive structures, words, data, or methodologies belonging to third parties as one's own, without proper formal attribution. This serious offense includes literal copying of text segments, inadequate paraphrasing that conceals the primary source, and self-plagiarism (duplicate or redundant publication of one's own prior work without due academic justification and explicit declaration).

2. Detection and Consequences

Screening Process: All submitted manuscripts undergo a textual similarity analysis using the Turnitin software to validate their originality before the review process begins.
Disciplinary Measures: The discovery of plagiarism, redundancy, or fraudulent data manipulation at any stage of the editorial workflow, or after the article has been published, will immediately trigger the COPE sanction protocols and will result in severe measures:
- Definitive and unappealable rejection of the submitted manuscript, or public retraction of an already published article.
- Official notification sent to the researchers' institutional affiliation authorities.
- Permanent ban on the author team from making future submissions to the journal.
Author's Guarantee: It is the sole responsibility of the research team to ensure that the submitted work is truthful, ethical, and free of intellectual property infringements.

II. Authorship Contribution and Transparency Policies

The assignment of authorship credit strictly follows international indexing guidelines, recognizing as researchers only those who made a substantial contribution to the scientific development of the study.

1. Authorship Criteria

To legitimize co-authorship status, concurrent fulfillment of, or a significant contribution to, the following areas of the work is required:

Theoretical conception, analytical structuring, or methodological design of the study.
Processing, collection, systematic analysis, or critical interpretation of primary data.
Drafting of the original manuscript or in-depth intellectual revision of the submitted manuscript.

2. Transparency and Conflicts of Interest

Formal Consent: All members listed in the manuscript must sign the submission document, confirming their agreement with the final version of the text and accepting public responsibility for its content.
Order of Authorship: The order in which signatories appear will reflect their level of participation in the research proportionally. The lead author will head the manuscript as the party responsible for the overall development of the project.
Conflict of Interest (COI) Disclosure: Any economic, professional, institutional, or personal relationship that could compromise the neutrality of the results must be explicitly disclosed. This transparency requirement applies equally to the reviewer panel and the editorial team.

III. Publication and Peer Review Policies

The peer review process is managed under methodological schemes that ensure fairness, technical quality, and confidentiality of editorial decisions.

1. Peer Review Workflow

Preliminary Stage: The editorial board inspects submissions to verify strict adherence to formatting guidelines, thematic relevance to the journal's scientific scope, and structural rigor.
Double-Blind Review: Manuscripts that pass the preliminary stage are sent for review by specialized external peers under a double-blind modality. The identities of authors and reviewers are kept strictly confidential from one another to prevent evaluation bias.
Acceptance Standards: Evaluation reports weigh thematic originality, methodological rigor, currency of information sources, and the scientific contribution's value to the field of knowledge.

2. Editorial Decision

Final Decision: The authority to approve submitted works formally rests with the Editor-in-Chief. This decision is based on the technical recommendations of external reviewers and the overall consistency of the document.
Proof Validation: Once a work is accepted, researchers are required to thoroughly review and correct the typeset proofs within the given deadline, ensuring textual accuracy before final layout.
Digital Dissemination: Approved articles are added to the journal's digital repository immediately, optimizing the circulation and transfer cycles of scientific knowledge.

IV. Open Access and Usage Rights Policies

Free Availability (Diamond Open Access): The journal follows the Diamond Open Science model. Scientific content is published immediately, permanently, and in perpetuity, free of economic barriers or embargo periods. Access, reading, downloading, and full distribution of articles are free of charge for both readers and authors (APC-Free), under the institutional funding of Edúcate Ecuador.
Fee Waiver Policy: Not applicable. The journal does not charge Article Processing Charges (APC) to any author, at any stage of the editorial process (submission, review, editing, or publication), regardless of institutional affiliation, nationality, or availability of funding.
Copyright and Transitional Licensing Regime: Authors retain intellectual property rights (Copyright) over their work without restriction and grant the journal the right of first publication. Reuse and public distribution of texts is governed by two schemes depending on the publication cycle:
- Historical Editorial Collection (Through 2026 volumes): Distributed under the international Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
- Upcoming Editorial Collection (From 2027 volumes onward): Will be published and indexed under the international Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, promoting greater adaptability and non-commercial scientific reuse.

V. Privacy and Data Protection Policy

Personal data recorded in the journal's system is managed with strict confidentiality and digital security measures. These records are used exclusively for purposes inherent to editorial management, peer review, and the dissemination of published articles.

To review in detail the safeguarding guidelines and rights regarding the processing of personal information, please consult the official institutional Privacy Statement.