Policy on Fragmentation, Duplicate Publication and Citation Manipulation
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Policy on Fragmentation, Duplicate Publication and Citation Manipulation
Ecos de la Academia follows the guidance and procedures of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) to prevent and manage artificial fragmentation, redundant or duplicate publication, and citation manipulation.
Artificial fragmentation is defined as the unjustified division of the same research project, dataset or unit of study into several manuscripts with substantial overlap and without a differentiated scientific contribution. Redundant or duplicate publication occurs when a work, data or analysis that has already been published or submitted elsewhere is published or submitted in whole or substantial part without appropriate disclosure, justification and citation. Citation manipulation refers to the inclusion or solicitation of irrelevant or unnecessary references for the purpose of artificially increasing citations to authors, reviewers, editors, journals or other publications.
Authors must present their findings coherently, cite only relevant sources, and disclose and cite any manuscript, publication or previous result closely related to the submitted work, explaining its relationship and any potential overlap.
Ecos de la Academia will not make acceptance, review or editorial decisions conditional upon the inclusion of self-citations, citations to the journal itself, or citations to publications by editors, reviewers or members of its committees. Any recommendation to add references must be justified by their academic relevance.
When a concern arises, the editorial team will conduct a documented and impartial assessment, examine the nature and extent of the possible overlap or manipulation, and request the necessary explanations or evidence from the parties involved. Depending on the findings, the journal may request modifications, reject the manuscript and, when justified by the seriousness or nature of the case, communicate the matter to other journals or relevant institutions. If the problem is identified after publication, the journal's post-publication measures will be applied in accordance with COPE guidance.