Editorial Policies

The Scientific Journal of Engineering Sciences is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal by the Faculty of Engineering of the Autonomous University of Campeche.The Editorial Team is committed to the scientific community to ensure the ethics and quality of the published articles.

  1. Publication in Engineering Sciences

For Engineering Sciences, the review and production process of the issue in which the article is included is cost-free.

Engineering Sciences generates open thematic calls and may eventually invite authors to publish in special thematic lines within the field of engineering, which are disseminated through its website. Engineering Sciences operates with an open submission system, meaning articles can be submitted at any time, although two calls are held annually (in January and July, respectively).

Engineering Sciences accepts articles that are original results of scientific research, written in Spanish and English, through a digital platform (OJS). These must adhere to the format outlined in this section (Editorial Policies) and the Instructions for Authors. Failure to comply with these editorial guidelines will result in the immediate rejection of the article during the preliminary editorial review, or, if published, the retraction of the article.

Manuscripts will not be accepted from authors who have published a maximum of two works as first authors within one year (2 consecutive issues) from the publication date of their last article in the journal (authors and co-authors).

Authors or co-authors will not be accepted in the same issue on more than one article.

Resubmission of rejected articles will not be accepted.

To be eligible for publication in Engineering Sciences:

  • Articles must be original results of scientific research, written in a scientific format, and must be based on the author's own research.
  • Articles must be unpublished and not submitted for simultaneous publication elsewhere, with a declaration from all authors confirming this (Authorship Declaration).
  • Articles must be original and rigorous. Engineering Sciences uses tools (iThenticate) to ensure academic plagiarism is avoided. Engineering Sciences rejects any article with fraudulent data, compromised originality, or duplicate submissions.
  • Articles must not reference the author's identity within the text. The digital platform is where authors' names, affiliations, and ORCID numbers must be included, ensuring the objectivity of the review process.
  • To ensure the objectivity of the reviewers' evaluation, articles should omit any mention of the research funding sources in the text before peer review, with the digital platform being where funding institutions should be listed, both for research projects and Master's/Doctoral theses. After the peer review process is complete, authors will be asked to include acknowledgments and funding sources.
  • Articles must include citations of the authors upon which the work is based, both in the manuscript and in visual materials, following the IEEE reference style, as detailed in the final section of the article “Bibliographic References.”
  • Articles must include a minimum of 20 bibliographic references, with at least 40% of them being no older than five years, and at least 70% should be from scientific articles in indexed databases.
  • Articles will be limited to a maximum of 3 self-citations by the authors.
  • Finally, when initiating the submission process, authors must verify compliance with the submission conditions using the Check-list.
  1. Editorial Review Process and Peer Reviewers

Once an article is received, the review process is divided into three stages: editorial review (preliminary), peer review, and final editorial decision (definitive).

First, the received articles will undergo a preliminary editorial evaluation by the Editorial Committee, which checks the article’s compliance with the Editorial Guidelines, author instructions, the relevance of the thematic call (if applicable), and the minimum standards of quality and scientific rigor. Additionally, plagiarism risk will be checked using iThenticate software. The review may result in two options:

  • Rejection of the article based on preliminary editorial review or
  • Advancement of the article to a second phase, which is the peer review process (double-blind arbitration).

The panel of experts consists of national and international researchers, at least 80% external to the publisher, specialists in various areas related to the disciplinary lines of Engineering Sciences. To ensure objective evaluations, the respective reviewers must have no conflicts of interest regarding the research, its funding, and/or the authors. Reviewed articles will be handled confidentially. Experts conduct the review according to Engineering Sciences' evaluation guidelines and make their final recommendation to the editor based on the following options:

  • ACCEPTED WITHOUT COMMENTS (suggested changes by the reviewer are optional and those by the editor are mandatory).
  • PUBLISHABLE WITH MODIFICATIONS (changes suggested by both the reviewer and editor are mandatory).
  • NOT PUBLISHABLE (rejected after peer review).

In case of discrepancies between reviewers, the article is sent to a third reviewer. If this peer review process qualifies the article as PUBLISHABLE WITH MODIFICATIONS, the Editorial Team will arrange for a second round of evaluation based on the reviewers’ requirements. If only minor revisions are requested, a second round of evaluation is unnecessary, and the Editorial Team will ensure the suggested changes are incorporated. For major revisions, the article is sent to a second round of evaluation. In both cases, the Editorial Team sets a deadline (15 days) for receiving the revised article. If, after the second round, reviewers request further major revisions, the article will be rejected.

The peer review result is transparent and sent to authors, along with the evaluation guidelines (in anonymous format).

  1. Open Access Policies

Engineering Sciences publishes the Post-Print version of the article in open access in its institutional repository.

Engineering Sciences follows a free access policy (Open Access), meaning its contents are available at no cost to the user. Users are authorized to read, download, copy, distribute, print, and create links to the articles without requiring permission from the editor or author. These terms align with the DOAJ guidelines on Open Access.

  1. Data Archiving

This journal uses the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among collaborating libraries, allowing them to create permanent archives of the journal for conservation and restoration purposes (https://www.lockss.org/).

The journal includes cited bibliographies in each article as an exportable field in Dublin Core format according to the OAI-PMH protocol.

  1. Copyright and Licenses

The content of the articles published in each issue of Engineering Sciences is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Universidad Autónoma de Campeche.

Authors retain their copyright and guarantee to the journal the right to first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license, allowing others to share, copy, transform, or create new material from this work for non-commercial purposes, as long as authorship and first publication in this journal are acknowledged, and new creations are licensed under the same terms.

Ethical Editorial Policies

  1. Responsibilities and Rights of Authors

When submitting the manuscript, authors must provide a document (Authorship Declaration) in which they responsibly declare:

  • That all authors have contributed significantly to the research and/or writing of the article.
  • That the research data are original results of scientific research, authentic and own.
  • That they grant Engineering Sciences the right to publicly communicate their manuscript for dissemination and exploitation through Open Journal System (OJS) —or any other portal chosen by the editor— for online consultation of its content and abstract, for printing in paper, and/or for downloading and archiving, all in the terms specified on the platforms where the work is hosted.

After the peer review rounds, authors must incorporate the suggested revisions or provide reasons for rejecting them, attaching a response letter to the reviewers explaining the manuscript changes within the deadline set by the editor.

Throughout the editorial process, authors must incorporate both formal and substantial corrections requested by the Editorial Team.

Throughout the editorial process, authors have the right to withdraw their article from the editorial process, justifying their decision to the Editorial Team.

After the style review process, authors have the right to review the final version of the text before publication. Approval of this version constitutes the closure of the text for layout and publication, with no changes allowed afterward.

  1. Editorial Responsibilities

The Editorial Team must consider all submitted manuscripts for publication, basing their decision on the scientific contributions of the article and compliance with the editorial guidelines.

The Editorial Team must seek expert evaluators in the specific field of the manuscript, ensuring the anonymity of both authors and reviewers, and maintaining the academic and scientific integrity of the publication.

The Editorial Team must maintain constant communication with authors and external reviewers, addressing any doubts arising during the editorial process.

The Editor has complete authority to accept or reject a manuscript. Reasons for this decision may include:

  • If the article does not align with the thematic focus of the call and/or the overall scope of Engineering Sciences.
  • If the article does not comply with these editorial guidelines and/or author instructions.
  • If the article is not an original result of scientific research, or fails to meet the minimum scientific quality and rigor standards.
  • If the article receives a "Not Publishable" recommendation in the peer review rounds.
  • If the article does not incorporate the reviewers' suggestions and Editorial Team requests within the set deadlines.
  • If the article receives major modification requests in the second round of peer review.

The Editorial Team must publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when necessary.

The Editorial Team must have no conflict of interest regarding the submitted articles and must ensure that the reviewers do not have conflicts of interest with the research they evaluate.

The Editorial Team must ensure that the articles published in Engineering Sciences meet the ethical standards for scientific publications set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), preventing academic fraud, inclusion of fraudulent data, and plagiarism or self-plagiarism of articles that contain significant parts of prior work. Detection of these practices will result in immediate rejection or retraction of the article.

The Editorial Team should strive to continually improve and update the journal.

  1. Responsibilities of External Reviewers

Reviewers should reject review requests from the Editorial Team if they lack sufficient competence, experience, and knowledge of the specific subject of the manuscript.

Reviewers must inform the editorial team if there are potential conflicts of interest.

Reviewers must conduct an objective analysis of the manuscripts they review, substantiating their observations and within the timeframe requested by the Editorial Team.

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of the manuscript during the editorial process and may not disseminate or use its content.

Reviewers must maintain confidentiality regarding their involvement with the manuscript.