Editorial Policy and Management Manual

Code of Ethics, Scientific Integrity, and Best Practices

1.1. Institutional Commitment to International Standards

The RMF/MJP assumes responsibility for safeguarding the integrity of phytopathology. The journal formally adopts the principles and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

In order to avoid legal conflicts that could result in financial costs or damage the moral standing of the Mexican Society of Phytopathology, A.C., the journal implements a comprehensive policy of prevention and proactive education. This approach mitigates poor editorial practices before they occur, protecting both the institution and the national and international scientific community.

1.2. Communication and Induction Models for Young Researchers

Recognizing the institutional pressure to publish actively that graduate students and early-career researchers face, the RMF/MJP has launched an ongoing induction program on best practices:

  • Integrity Workshops: As part of the national conferences organized by the MSP, the Editorial Committee conducts informational sessions on responsible authorship, the ethical handling of experimental data, the structuring of methodologies, and the prevention of inadvertent plagiarism.
  • Pre-Submission Consultation Channel: The RMF/MJP provides an open channel for communication and guidance where young researchers can consult the Editor-in-Chief and Technical Associate Editor regarding specific ethical questions before formally submitting a manuscript, thereby promoting a culture of transparency based on mentorship rather than punitive sanctions.

1.3. Formal Matrix of Ethical Responsibilities by Role

In accordance with COPE guidelines, the obligations and duties of participants in the RMF/MJP editorial workflow are governed by the following matrix:

1.3.1. Obligations and Duties of the Journal and the Technical Team

  • Legal and Moral Protection: The technical and administrative support team must safeguard editorial processes to prevent intellectual property claims or authorship disputes that could lead to legal action against the MSP.
  • Guarantee of Confidentiality: Maintain absolute confidentiality of manuscripts under review, preventing the authors' content or ideas from being leaked, plagiarized, or used for personal gain by any journal staff member prior to their formal publication.
  • Record Traceability: Ensure a digital audit trail of every formal communication exchanged during the article review process.

1.3.2. Obligations and Duties of the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors

  • Neutrality of Origin: Evaluate the scientific quality of contributions without prejudice or distinction based on the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, geographic origin, nationality, institutional affiliation, or scientific views.
  • Independence in Review Decisions: The Editor-in-Chief and their team must base their editorial decisions strictly on the phytopathological relevance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript, resisting pressure from external scientific, institutional, political, or commercial influences.
  • Management of Conflicts of Interest: The assigned Associate Editor must immediately recuse themselves from coordinating the review of a manuscript if they have personal, commercial, recent co-authorship, or academic competitive relationships with the authors of the manuscript.

1.3.3. Obligations and Duties of Panel Reviewers (3 Blind Reviewers)

  • Constructive and Rigorous Review: Provide objective, clear, specific, and non-hostile feedback. Criticisms must be expressed using academic and scientific language that contributes to improving the work, especially when evaluating early-career researchers.
  • Alerting to Misconduct: Immediately inform the Associate Editor if any signs of plagiarism, digital manipulation of images (such as electrophoresis gel photographs or altered leaf severity ratings), duplication of data, similarity to publications in the RMF/MJP or other journals, or undeclared use of artificial intelligence for scientific writing are detected.
  • Meeting Deadlines: Adhere to the 15-day review period. If a reviewer realizes that they are unable to meet the assigned deadline or discovers a hidden conflict of interest, they must immediately notify the assigned Associate Editor to avoid delaying the editorial process.

1.3.4. Authors' Obligations and Responsibilities

  • Originality and Experimental Rigor: Unanimously guarantee that the submitted manuscript is completely original and unpublished. Field or laboratory experimental data (e.g., colony-forming unit counts, analysis of variance for fungicides, DNA sequencing of pathogens) must be accurate, verifiable, and reproducible.
  • Responsibility in Co-authorship: The corresponding author must ensure that all individuals listed as co-authors have made a significant intellectual contribution to the planning, experimentation, or writing of the article. Furthermore, the corresponding author must certify that all co-authors have read and approved the final bilingual version and consent to its submission to the RMF/MJP. It is not possible to designate more than one corresponding author; however, it is possible to request that the Editor-in-Chief (Form FO2) recognize that the first and second authors made an equivalent scientific contribution.
  • Declaration of Funding Sources: Specify in the acknowledgments any financial support received from scientific councils (such as SECIHTI), universities, or private companies for the execution of the project, to prevent bias in the interpretation of the results.