CENTRO Journal Ethics and Malpractice Statement

CENTRO Journal, and the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York, is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to supporting ethical research practices. The journal takes publication ethics very seriously and expects its editors, reviewers, authors and publisher to follow these best practice guidelines.

Duties of Editors

  • All works submitted will be evaluated solely on the basis of their academic merit and relevance to CENTRO Journal’s mission.
  •  All decisions taken at the journal are independent of governmental policies and/or agencies outside the journal itself.
  • The journal’s Editor has full authority over the editorial content of the journal and of its publication.
  • With the exception of the corresponding author, reviewers or potential reviewers, the editorial staff will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript.
  •  Neither the editor nor the members of the editorial board will use for their own research without written consent from the corresponding author information disclosed in a submitted manuscript.
  •  All privileged information or ideas gained by the editor resulting from a submitted manuscript will be kept confidential.
  • The editor will recuse him/herself from handling any manuscript in when he/she has a conflict of interest. If such a circumstance arises, another member of the editorial group will take charge of matters related to the manuscript.
  • It is the responsibility of the Editor to insure that all manuscripts received go through the double-blind peer-review by at least two reviewers who are experts in the field; and for deciding which submitted manuscripts will be published.
  • The decision to publish a particular manuscript shall be based on the comments by the peer-reviewers, the work’s importance to the field and other legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. For this decision the Editor may consult with other members of the editorial board and/or reviewers.
  • All reported acts of unethical behavior will be investigated, even when discovered years after publication.
  • With the assistance of the editorial board, the Editor will look into any raised ethical issue regarding a submitted manuscript or a published essay.
  • If it is discovered that a breach in ethics has occurred, the journal will publish a correction, retraction or any other note that may be relevant.

Duties of Reviewers

  • The peer review system is the cornerstone of academic publishing, with the reviewers assisting editors in making decisions about submitted manuscripts and, through their review reports, helping authors improve their work.
  • When invited to review an essay, the reviewer who feels unqualified on the manuscript’s subject, who cannot meet the deadlines set by the editors and/or who has a conflict of interest with the manuscript’s material should promptly decline so that alternative reviewers can be found.
  • Manuscripts received for review are confidential. Reviewers shall not circulate or show them to others, and shall not be discussed with others.
  • The reviewer in his or her personal research cannot use any information found in a manuscript unless written consent is obtained from the author(s).
  • Reviews should be objective, clearly formulated with supporting arguments and thorough so that authors may use the reviews for improving their work.
  • Personal comments and critiques by the reviewers are deemed inappropriate.
  • As part of their duties, reviewers should recommend any relevant published work not cited in the manuscript. Statements that are observations or arguments that have been published previously should be tied to a relevant citation.
  • Reviewers should notify the Editor if the work under consideration has been published elsewhere or is similar to another manuscript, published or unpublished, that they have knowledge of.

Duties of Authors

  • Authors shall present a clear and accurate account of their work, followed by an objective discussion of the importance of the work.
  • The manuscript must have sufficient details and references so that others, if they desire, may replicate it.
  • Review articles should be comprehensive and objective.
  • The inclusion of fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.
  • If applicable, when asked to provide raw data of their work, authors should be prepared to do so. Authors should also ensure for 10 years after publication access to such data to other competent professionals who ask for this information.
  • The authors guarantee the Editor that their submitted work is entirely original, and that if the work and or words of others have been used, they are appropriately cited.
  • Plagiarism constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
  • Plagiarism can take many forms, from directly copying or paraphrasing without attribution significant parts of another paper, to claiming the paper of another as one’s own, to appropriating without attribution the results or research of another person’s work. 
  • It constitutes unethical behavior for authors to submit for consideration for publication a manuscript that has been published previously or that is currently being considered for publication in another journal, anthology or venue.
  • All authors take responsibility for the content of the manuscript. Thus, only those who directly worked in the writing of the manuscript shall be named as authors.
  • Any sort of financial support used for the research or writing of the manuscript must be disclosed in an “Acknowledgement” section.
  • Authors are responsible to properly acknowledge the work of others cited or used in the manuscript.
  • If human subjects are used, authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary approval from their home institution and for including a statement in the manuscript saying so.
  • Authors are required to participate in the peer review process by responding promptly to editorial requests, maintaining deadlines and, in the case the manuscript is accepted “pending revisions,” responding to the comments by the reviewers in a systematic, point-by-point manner.
  • It is the duty of the authors to promptly contact the editor if major errors or inaccuracies are discovered in their published work. The authors will work with the editors to make the necessary corrections in the form of an erratum or to retract the paper.
  • If the editors learn from a third party about a major error or inaccuracies in a published work, it is the authors’ obligation to promptly correct or retract the paper or provide evidence about the correctness of the paper.

Duties of the Publisher

  • In situations of alleged or proven misconduct, fraud or plagiarism, the editor, with the collaboration of the editors, will investigate and take the necessary measures to clarify the situation, and if necessary, to correct the article in question.
  • The publisher, in collaboration with the editors, will take the necessary measures to identify and prevent the publication of works where research misconduct has occurred, and will not encourage such behavior to take place.