Editorial policies

Open Access Policy
Creative Commons License
Copyright Policy
Digital Preservation Policy
Self-Archiving Policy
Plagiarism Policy
Authorship Policy
Correction, Retraction, and Ethical Conduct Policy
Funding and Conflict of Interest Policy
Research Data Deposit Policy
Human and Animal Research Ethics Policy
Policy on the Use of Large Language Models (LLMs)
Advertising Policy

Open Access Policy

Desafíos is an Open Access journal, meaning that all its content is freely available to users and their institutions. Readers may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, as well as use them for any other lawful purpose, without prior permission from the editor or authors. This editorial policy aligns with the definition of open access established by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).

Creative Commons License

Until volume 11, number 1, year 2020, Desafíos was published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-NC-SA). Starting with volume 11, issue 2, Desafíos is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0), which means:

You are free to:

  • Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
  • Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

  • Attribution: you must give appropriate credit to the author or original source, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the author or the journal endorses your use.

Copyright Policy

Authors retain the copyright of works published in Desafíos and grant the journal only the right of first publication. This means that authors may reuse and distribute their work later, provided that the original publication in this journal is cited and the terms of the CC BY license are respected.

Digital Preservation Policy

Desafíos implements multiple digital preservation mechanisms to ensure the integrity, accessibility, and long-term conservation of scientific articles, from the original version submitted by authors to the final version published on the OJS platform. The following strategies are applied:

  1. Local storage: All manuscripts are kept on the journal’s official computers, as well as on the Editor-in-Chief’s computer, in both editable (Word) and PDF formats.
  2. External backups: Periodic backups are made of files stored on the journal’s computer, using external storage devices (hard drives) and cloud services, specifically Google Drive linked to the official Gmail account.
  3. Institutional OJS system backups: The institutional servers of Universidad de Huánuco perform automatic and periodic backups of the OJS platform, thus ensuring the preservation of the final published version of all articles.

Self-Archiving Policy

Desafíos allows self-archiving of the pre-print manuscript, meaning the version submitted for evaluation before peer review and formal acceptance. Once the article is accepted, authors are encouraged to disseminate the post-print version (peer-reviewed and accepted) via their personal website, institutional or thematic repository, including a clear reference to its acceptance by the journal, indicating the volume and issue in which it will be published.

Once the final version of the article is published, the author must replace the self-archived text with the official PDF available on the journal’s platform. No embargo period is established; authors are free to share the final published version in PDF format by any digital means immediately after publication.

Plagiarism Policy

Desafíos uses the specialized tool Turnitin to detect textual similarities and possible cases of academic plagiarism. All submitted manuscripts will be checked with this tool before being sent for editorial review and peer evaluation.

Articles must be at least 80% original, meaning that most of their content should be a novel contribution to the field, beyond properly referenced citations.

If significant similarities with previously published texts are detected, actions will depend on the severity of the case:

  • If it is an unintentional error or minor citation omission, an alert and correction request will be sent to the author.
  • If deliberate total or partial plagiarism is confirmed, the manuscript will be immediately rejected, and the authors’ affiliated institution(s) will be notified, following COPE’s ethical principles.

Authorship Policy

Number of authors

Desafíos preferably accepts manuscripts with a maximum of four authors. In cases requiring more participants, justification must be provided through documentation proving that the article is the result of collaborative or interdisciplinary research. The journal reserves the right to request formal evidence supporting such collaboration. Only one institutional affiliation per author will be included, stating the city and country.

Authorship criteria

Someone will be recognized as an author or co-author if they have substantially contributed to:

  • The conception or design of the study.
  • The acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
  • Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
  • Final approval of the version to be published.

Those not meeting these criteria — such as individuals providing technical editing, style correction, or statistical analysis — should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section as collaborators.

Individuals who do not meet these criteria — such as those providing technical editing, style correction, or statistical analysis — should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section as collaborators.

Desafíos emphatically rejects the practice of honorary authorship (including individuals without real contribution) and ghost authorship (excluding significant contributors), in accordance with COPE’s ethical guidelines.

Contribution Declaration

The journal adopts the CRediT Taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), which recognizes 14 distinct participation roles (such as conceptualization, formal analysis, writing, etc.). Each author must declare their specific contribution using the manuscript submission template.

Changes in authorship

Once the manuscript has been submitted, no changes in the number or order of authors will be accepted. All authorship aspects must be resolved before initial submission. Any conflict among authors will be the responsibility of their affiliated institutions, as established by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).

Changes in author names

Desafíos recognizes that authors may require name changes for personal or legal reasons. Upon such a request, the editorial team may require official identification or legal documentation. The journal is committed to respecting authors’ privacy and autonomy, managing this procedure with confidentiality and in direct coordination with the author.

Correction, Retraction, and Ethical Conduct Policy

Corrections and author correspondence

If an author needs to make corrections to a published article, they must contact the editorial team via editorial@udh.edu.pe, properly identifying themselves. Requests will be evaluated by the Editorial Committee of Desafíos, which will determine the relevance and validity of the proposed changes. Any accepted correction will be reflected through an erratum or correction note clearly linked to the article.

Retractions

An article may be retracted for various reasons, including:

  • Unintentional errors (such as methodological or instrumental failures).
  • Fabrication or manipulation of data.
  • Duplicate or overlapping publication.
  • Plagiarism.
  • Unauthorized or fraudulent use of data.
  • Non-compliance with ethical research standards.

Retractions may be requested by authors or initiated by the editor in response to a formal investigation. Desafíos will publish a retraction notice specifying the reason, the requesting party, and the link to the affected article. The article will remain visible on the website but clearly marked as "retracted," including in its PDF file. Content will only be removed if there are legal restrictions or court rulings. In such cases, bibliographic information will be retained along with an explanation of the removal.

In exceptional circumstances (such as the publication of false data posing serious risk to public health or integrity), the original version of the article may be removed and replaced by a corrected version, duly indicated.

Misconduct and ethical complaints

In cases of suspected scientific or editorial misconduct, the journal will follow the guidelines and workflows established by COPE: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts?classification=277.

The process begins with communication to the implicated author to request clarifications. If necessary, the affiliated institution, ethics committee, or other academic authorities will also be contacted.

If you wish to report a case of alleged misconduct in an article published in Desafíos, you may write to us at editorial@udh.edu.pe. A member of the editorial team will contact you within a maximum of 7 days to confirm receipt of your report and request additional information if applicable. We will do our best to keep you informed of the process results, although certain details may remain confidential for ethical or legal reasons.

Appeals and complaints

Desafíos follows COPE’s guidelines on appeals and complaints: https://publicationethics.org/appeals. If you wish to appeal an editorial decision or submit a formal complaint, please contact the editorial team at editorial@udh.edu.pe.

Funding and Conflict of Interest Policy

Authors must transparently declare any source of funding, material assistance, or economic support received during the research, writing, or publication process. They must also report any institutional, commercial, or economic link that may constitute a potential conflict of interest related to the manuscript content.

If there is no external funding, an explicit declaration must be included stating:
“The authors received no sponsorship to carry out this study.”

Likewise, if there are no conflicts of interest, authors must declare:
“The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study.”

If a conflict of interest exists, authors must include it in the corresponding manuscript section and attach the official conflict of interest disclosure following the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) format, available at: https://www.icmje.org/downloads/coi_disclosure.docx

The information provided in the form must match what is declared in the manuscript. The Editorial Committee may request clarifications if inconsistencies or possible omissions are detected.

Research Data Deposit Policy

Desafíos recommends depositing data generated or used in research in reputable repositories, whether discipline-specific or general. This practice aims to promote scientific transparency, facilitate results verification, and encourage the use, reuse, and replication of data in future studies.

Repository requirements

The selected repository must comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and offer open access to data. It is recommended to consult the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data): https://www.re3data.org, where suitable repositories and their deposit policies can be found.

Note on data availability in the article

At the end of the manuscript, before the reference list, a section titled Data Availability should be included, indicating:

  • Name and URL of the repository used.
  • Unique and permanent identifier (DOI or other).
  • Usage and distribution license.

Example: The data supporting this study’s results have been deposited in the Zenodo repository and are openly available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. The set includes anonymized survey responses and the final database used for analysis. The data can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1234567

Human and Animal Research Ethics Policy

All manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants must comply with the ethical principles established by the World Medical Association, particularly the Declaration of Helsinki guidelines.

For research involving animal experimentation or clinical trials (whether with patients, human biological samples, or confidential medical data), it is mandatory to present approval from an ethics committee recognized at the institutional, regional, or national level, with competence in evaluating studies involving humans and/or animals.

If the study does not have formal ethical approval, authors must provide a detailed justification in the manuscript, explaining the reasons and describing how the research complied with the Declaration of Helsinki’s ethical principles.

In all cases, it must be explicitly stated that the research was conducted with the prior informed consent of participants. Both the ethics committee approval and information on informed consents must be clearly mentioned in the Methods section of the article.

Policy on the Use of Large Language Models (LLMs)

Desafíos does not prohibit the use of large language models (LLMs) — such as ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, among others — during the writing, analysis, or technical support process in manuscript preparation. This policy aligns with the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) recommendations on the use of chatbots in scientific publications: WAME Recommendations on ChatGPT and Chatbots.

However, LLMs do not meet the scientific authorship criteria defined by the ICMJE and therefore should not be included as authors in any article.

If authors use these tools, they must explicitly declare it in the Methods section, specifying the tool name, version, and purpose of use (e.g., writing assistance, idea generation, style correction, etc.).

It is important to note that the use of LLMs does not exempt authors from their ethical and academic responsibility, particularly regarding the truthfulness, accuracy, originality, and intellectual property of the content presented. Any error, bias, or misuse resulting from the use of these tools will be the sole responsibility of the authors.

Advertising Policy

Desafíos is exclusively funded by Universidad de Huánuco, through its editorial fund and corresponding academic bodies. As it does not receive financial support from public or private companies, both the website and digital versions of the journal remain free of external commercial advertising. The journal guarantees that no editorial or digital space will be used to disseminate advertising content unrelated to academic, scientific, or institutional activities.