ETHICS POLICY

Ethics Policy
Statement on Editorial Ethics and Prevention of Inappropriate Publishing Practices

Sapiens Sciences International Journal (SASCSIJ) reaffirms its commitment to the highest ethical standards in the editing and dissemination of scientific knowledge. This annual publication adheres to the Code of Conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), in order to ensure integrity, transparency, and accountability at every stage of the editorial process. The guidelines described herein are based on these regulatory frameworks. For greater accuracy, readers are encouraged to consult the official COPE and ICMJE documents directly.

Roles and Duties of the Editorial Committee
Objective Evaluation and Editorial Independence

Manuscripts submitted to SASCSIJ must be assessed solely based on their academic contribution, originality, conceptual clarity, and alignment with the journal’s thematic focus. Under no circumstances shall personal aspects of the authors—such as nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or institutional affiliations—be considered. Editorial decisions will be made independently, without external interference, and will be the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief.

Confidentiality of the Editorial Process

All information related to manuscripts will be handled with strict confidentiality. Only the corresponding author, assigned reviewers, and the editorial team involved will have access to the contents during the evaluation process.

Conflict of Interest Management

The use of unpublished information from manuscripts for personal, academic, or commercial purposes without the authors’ written consent is strictly prohibited. In cases where an editor has a conflict of interest—related to authors, institutions, or funding entities—he or she must refrain from participating in the evaluation and delegate the process to another member of the editorial committee.

Ethical Principles in Scientific Research

Submissions to SASCSIJ must comply with the ethical regulations in force in the country or region where the study was conducted. It is the responsibility of the authors to obtain all necessary permissions and approvals before starting the research.

When manuscripts include data or images of participants, their identity must be protected. In this regard, the journal adopts the Recommendations of the ICMJE for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals, available on the committee's official website.

Studies Involving Human or Animal Subjects

Research involving experimentation on humans or animals must comply with the guidelines set forth in the Declaration of Helsinki, available in official versions in both English and Spanish.

Authors are required to obtain informed consent from each participant and must explicitly state this within the text. Randomized clinical trials must be approved by an authorized Ethics Committee, include the funding source, and be registered in public databases such as ClinicalTrials.gov.

Conflict of Interest Statement

All authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence the development, analysis, or publication of the article. If no conflicts exist, the following note should be included:

"Conflictos de intereses: ninguno."

Otherwise, authors must provide detailed information in the corresponding section and attach the Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form in accordance with the model proposed by the ICMJE, available on its official website. The disclosed information must be consistent with what is stated in the manuscript.

For further details on this regulation, please refer to Section II-B-2 of the ICMJE Recommendations.

Funding and Sponsorship

Authors are required to identify the institutions or entities that partially or fully funded the research, specifying their role in the study’s design, data collection, analysis, writing, and decision to publish.

In cases where no financial support was received, this must be clearly indicated in the corresponding section of the manuscript.