Submissions

Author Guidelines

Revised September 2023

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

GENERAL ASPECTS

INNOVARE is a scientific journal published in Honduras by Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana (UNITEC). Its objective is to disseminate the scientific production of Honduran and foreign researchers in the various fields of science, with a focus on aspects of technology and innovation, as well as its application in the local and global context.

INNOVARE is multidisciplinary, international, and bilingual. The journal uses the double-blind peer review system, which includes national and international reviewers. The journal has an editorial committee. It is published every four months and is published on (April 30, August 30 and December 30) of each year.

INNOVARE is open access under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Under the Creative Commons license, you are permitted to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, except for commercial purposes. The authors maintain the intellectual property of the articles published in INNOVARE. One should give appropriate credit to the author, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes have been made. INNOVARE does not charge fees for processing or publishing articles.

INNOVARE bases its standards on international scientific publication requirements such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/), The journal follows the PRISMA (http://www.prisma-statement.org/) standards for systematic reviews and CARE (https://www.care-statement.org/) for case reports and experiences in any of the six thematic lines of INNOVARE. In addition, it promotes ethical publication through the requirements of the Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE), with its electronic address https://publicationethics.org. The electronic addresses are in their most recent versions. Any aspect not contemplated in these rules will be decided by the Editorial Committee.

THEME OF THE ARTICLES

Manuscripts submitted for publication in INNOVARE must be tailored to technology and innovation aspects within any of the following thematic lines:

1. Business management
2. Sustainable development
3. Social, economic, and political development
4. Teaching and learning
5. Life and health sciences
6. Art and culture
7. Engineering sciences

TYPES OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN INNOVARE

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the category to be published, with the following structure:

1. ORIGINAL ARTICLES: Presents unpublished original research data. It consists of the sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and Bibliographic References. When pertinent, Acknowledgments and/or Financing can be added. At the end of the text, a Conflict-of-Interest section should be added.
2. SHORT COMMUNICATIONS: Presents data or contributions that do not meet all the requirements to be published as originals but have a similar structure.
3. REVIEW: Synthesizes and updates on a particular topic, putting knowledge in the respective area into perspective. It consists of the sections: Introduction, Methods, Development, Conclusion, and Bibliographic References.
4. REPORT OF CASES AND EXPERIENCES: These are articles about experiences and teachings. It consists of the sections: Introduction, Presentation of case or experience, Discussion, Conclusion, and Bibliographic References.
5. SPECIAL IMAGE: Presents images of interest, with appropriate resolution and a caption of no more than 100 words.
6. OPINION ARTICLE: It will present analysis and recommendations on specific topics from the author's point of view and in a free essay-type format.
7. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Presents clarifications, contributions, or discussion on a published article or some other topic of special interest.
8. BOOK REVIEW: Summarizes perspectives and comments on a book in any of the seven themes lines of the journal.

OTHER PUBLISHABLE DOCUMENTS

1. SUPPLEMENTS: It will be used to present special topics or summaries of congresses or other scientific activities.
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Institutional announcements of an academic and scientific nature may be published at the discretion of the Editorial Committee. This publication will only be made on the website of the Journal. Commercial advertising or specifically related to an article will not be accepted. Monographs or supplements may be funded by sponsors but will follow an arbitration regime.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

4.1 General requirements

Title: It will have a maximum limit of 15 words that reflect the content of the article clearly and interestingly. It must be translated into English.

Authors and Affiliations: Authors are encouraged to be consistent with the use of their names. That is, write it in the same way in all their publications. New authors are advised to check the journal databases or the ORCID platform, to ensure that their name differs from other authors with a similar name. When there is more than one author and more than one affiliation in the manuscript, superscript numbers should be used to associate their affiliation. It must contain the department and faculty or institution to which it belongs, followed by the city and country. For authors who are still students, they can add that description at the beginning of their affiliation. If there are several, use the corresponding author's section to add a comment on the matter indicating their initials. Affiliations should be included on a separate page from the rest of the manuscript to allow anonymous review of it.

Text: The manuscript must be submitted on letter-size paper in one column. Use an exact line spacing of 11.5cm and an indentation in the first line of 0.42cm. All the text used in the manuscript is in Times New Roman font. Use Times New Roman size 12 for paragraphs. The extension limits of each type of article must be maintained. It is suggested that the paragraphs throughout the article have between 5 and 10 lines each. Footnotes should not be used.

4.2 Extension of the content of each section: Originals: 2,500-3,000 words, 3 figures, 2 tables, 20-30 references, structured abstract as indicated below. Reviews: 3,500 words, 3 figures, 2 tables, 40-70 references, structured abstract as indicated below. Cases and experiences: 2,500 words, 3 figures, 2 tables, 10-20 references, structured abstract as indicated above. Special image: 100 words, 1 reference, short summary required. Short communication: 1,500 words, 1 figure, 1 table, 10-15 references, structured abstract as indicated below. Opinion: 1,500 words, 1 figure or 1 table, 3-5 references, short summary. Letters to the Editor-in-Chief: 500 words and 5-10 references, short summary. Book reviews: 1,500 palabras, 1 figure or 1 table, 3-5 references, with short summary. This count does not include bibliography, abstract, tables, or table and figures captions. Both Original Articles and Reviews can contain up to 5 components in total between figures or tables (the suggested number of each of these is flexible but cannot exceed 5).

4.3 Abstract: In the case of original articles, short communications, case reports and reviews, a summary of no more than 225 words will be presented, summarizing the most relevant aspects of the work. This summary must be written in Spanish and English and must be structured according to the components of each type of article, except the Bibliographic References section. For indexing purposes on the CAMJOL platform and to promote the publication, all articles must have a 100-word abstract, structured, but not subtitled, in Spanish and English.

4.4 Keywords: A minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 words will be provided in lowercase and alphabetical order. These keywords are used for indexing and later searching for the article. Some disciplines such as health sciences indicate that keywords should not repeat the words in the title. In the case of health sciences, the authors must choose these words from the official catalogs of that branch, using the DECs search engine in Spanish or MESH in English: Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud (http://decs.bvs.br/E/homepagee.htm) and Medical Subject Headings from the Index Medicus (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search), using their most recent versions.

4.5 Tables: They should be placed where they correspond in the text, as text, not as an inserted figure, with minimal horizontal lines, without vertical lines. The tables will be numbered following the order of their appearance in the manuscript. It should have a short and clear title at the top. In addition, meaning of abbreviations and special notes can be added to the footer. If the table was obtained from another publication, the author must obtain and show the corresponding permission to reproduce. If one has modified an existing one, one must cite the source.

4.6 Graphics: They should be numbered and cited in the order that they are described in the text. They should not have a box and the use of grids should be avoided as much as possible. Authors should make sure to properly label the X and Y axes of the statistical graphs. Color can be used in sober tones.

4.7 Illustrations: Illustrations (graphics, diagrams, photographs, etc.) in color or black and white, should be inserted where appropriate in the manuscript. When necessary, TIFF or JPEG format will be requested. In any case, they must have a resolution of no less than 300 dpi. A short title and the respective numbering should be written below the illustration. Figures should not include data that reveal the identity of individuals. In the case of photographs of children, you must have the respective photo permission of the parents or legal representatives. However, the face will be covered to protect the identity of children and people when required. The authors are responsible for using photographs that are faithful to the original and that have not been electronically manipulated. The editors could request a certificate signed by the authors certifying that the figures are unpublished, and they assume responsibility for their use.

4.8 Abbreviations and symbols: They should be used to a minimum and should be defined the first time they appear in the text.

4.9 Units of measurement: The standard of the International System of Units (http://www.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure) will be used in its most recent version.

4.10 Authors' contribution: At the end of the article, a brief description and abbreviations of each author will be given about their specific contribution to the manuscript.

4.11 Acknowledgments: At the end of the article, acknowledgment can be made to collaborators of the work and any financial sponsorship received.

4.12 Conflict of interest: At the end of the article, it should be described or denied if there is any conflict of interest. A conflict of interest occurs when a researcher or organization has competing interests that may interfere with or influence the research conducted. Conflicts of interest can be of a real, potential, or perceptual nature.

4.13 Bibliographic References: The format of the American Psychologists Association (APA) will be used in its most recent version. References will be placed indicating name and year after the respective text (see https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition/). Authors are encouraged to use reference preparation applications to ensure compliance with the standards. Manuscripts with automatic references within Word such as EndNote or similar will not be accepted. References must be cited within the text of the manuscript with surname and year of publication in the style indicated by the APA Standards.

Some examples of references in APA:

Scientific journal article

Otu, A., Charles, C. H., & Yaya, S. (2020). Mental health and psychosocial well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: the invisible elephant in the room. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 14(38). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13033-020-00371-w

Book

Merritt, R. W., & Cummins, K. W. (2008). An introduction to the Aquatic insects of North America (4th ed.). Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co.

Web page

Observatorio Demográfico UNAH. (2021, enero 12). Observatorio Demográfico Universitario: Colonia Nueva Esperanza. https://odu.unah.edu.hn/

Thesis/monograph

Valencia, C. (2011). Química del hierro y del manganeso en el agua, método de remoción [Monografía]. Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador. http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/jspui/bitstream/123456789/754/1/ti881.pdf

4.14 Text correction and language quality: Authors are responsible for checking the spelling and grammar of their manuscripts. Failure in these aspects can generate rejection of manuscripts. Authors are recommended to request editorial assistance from experts to ensure the quality of the language in their manuscripts in both Spanish and English. For accepted manuscripts, INNOVARE reserves the right to make style edits that it deems appropriate and that will be communicated to the authors for approval before publication. Artificial and unnecessary duplications to refer to the feminine or masculine should be avoided. Consult the current recommendations of the Royal Spanish Academy.

Authors can download the PDF of the author guidelines here.

ETHICS, AUTHORSHIP, AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All manuscripts submitted for consideration by the Editorial Committee of INNOVARE must be in tune with the rules of ethics and intellectual property. In this sense, the manuscript must be the author/authors' own and truthful. Submitted manuscripts must be unpublished and not be under simultaneous review in other journals or conferences. Plagiarism is an unacceptable practice and will lead to immediate rejection of a manuscript. Plagiarism will be considered when the words, ideas or concepts of another author are intentionally presented in an article as if they were his own without giving the corresponding credit to said author either in a quote or paraphrasing it.

Likewise, it will be considered that an article contains false information when the author or authors present fabricated data and results, or they are presented as a faithful result of some own investigation procedure, or when data and information are presented that have been taken from other sources but misrepresented or manipulated to present a desired result. When the Editorial Committee or a peer reviewer(s) of INNOVARE find plagiarism, authorship problems or presentation of false information in a manuscript, they will issue their decision in this regard, which will be informed to the Editorial Committee, which will in turn inform the authors.

Publication ethics

These rules must be read by the authors before submitting a manuscript. Likewise, the reviewers and editors will ensure compliance with them. The INNOVARE Journal bases its standards on international ethical principles regarding the publication and edition of scientific journals. These standard norms are found on pages such as a) Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org) and b) International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/). Its most recent versions should always be followed. Although it complies with these standards, INNOVARE maintains independence in its editorial decisions.  

AUTHORSHIP AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Each author of an article must meet these requirements: Have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) Conception and design of the study, or data collection, or data analysis; (2) Drafting or important critical revision to the content of the article, (3) Final approval of the version of the manuscript to be sent to the journal and (4) Agreement of responsibility for all aspects of the work to guarantee its precision, integrity and any need of follow up. Other collaborators who do not meet these requirements could be mentioned in the recognition section.

The authors' contributions section must be filled out without exceptions, clarifying the contribution of each author according to the above parameters. Courtesy authorship and others that do not meet the criteria described in the previous paragraph are in no way acceptable.

Individual contributions can be made following the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) criteria, which can be viewed at: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/policies-and-ethics/credit-author-statement.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the listed authors meet the criteria to be listed and, when submitting the document, acts on their behalf. Therefore, one must maintain documentation that all authors were informed and that they authorized the final version.

ORIGINALITY AND PLAGIARISM

The works sent to INNOVARE must be the product of the original work of the authors, done with ethical standards. The work must not be previously published or considered to be published in another journal simultaneously. Exceptions to this are short mentions in memoirs or other printed or digital documents, which must be cited or reported by the authors when submitting their manuscript. The journal will use the appropriate software to review each manuscript that meets the criteria for peer review for plagiarism.

Failures to publish ethics such as plagiarism, fabrication, fraud, duplication, and undeserved authorship are not acceptable and will result in the rejection of the manuscript and other actions at the discretion of the Editorial Committee.

Authors must be subject to the Editorial Committee requesting the study data to review, verify or validate findings of the manuscript in the process of publication or already published. Likewise, the Editorial Committee will ensure that the manuscripts include a clear and well-defined method section for the reproducibility of the study. Faults to scientific and publication honesty will be handled according to algorithms already published by COPE and others (https://publicationethics.org/).

Together with their manuscript, the authors must send the Originality Form (fillable PDF), which must be downloaded here.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

In addition to ensuring that the aforementioned authorship criteria are met, authors must know and respect what concerns copyright, intellectual property, citation and reference protocols. INNOVARE manages the economic rights under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). This license allows to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as to remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, except commercially. The authors maintain the intellectual property of the articles published in INNOVARE. One should give appropriate credit to the author, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes have been made.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Authors must establish any conflict of financing or interest that could be considered influencing the content of the manuscript. It is necessary to disclose the financing related to the preparation of the work. Other potential conflicts of interest include legal, commercial, or professional aspects that may affect the development of the research. All articles must include this section regardless of whether they must declare a conflict. For more details on the prevention, types, and treatment of conflicts of interest, it is suggested to consult the criteria of the World Association of Medical Editors (http://www.wame.org/conflict-of-interest-in-peer-reviewed-medical-journals) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/). These criteria are applicable beyond the area of ​​health sciences.

COMPLAINTS OR CORRECTIONS BY PUBLICATION

If the authors discover errors or situations that warrant corrections, they must immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief of INNOVARE at innovare@unitec.edu for the respective errata, correction, or in the last case, retraction. In some cases, sending an article-type Letter to the Editor could apply. The Editor-in-Chief may summon the Editorial Board to discuss specific cases. Any complaint or appeal by the authors will be handled confidentially and resolved promptly. The Editorial Committee will resolve conflicts between authors promoting respect and integrity during their resolution. Faults to scientific and publication honesty will be handled according to the algorithms already published by COPE.

CITATIONS

Citations are important to measure the impact of authors and their publications, but manipulation of citations is unacceptable. Anomalies such as excessive self-citation within the author's manuscripts or excessive citation of articles in the journal where it is published should be avoided. To learn more about good practices in this regard, it is suggested to review the pages suggested at the beginning of this document.

OPEN ACCESS AND PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE

INNOVARE has signed the DORA declaration (https://sfdora.org/signers/). It is an open access journal on the Internet under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Under the Creative Commons license, you are permitted to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, as well as to remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose, except commercially. The authors maintain the intellectual property of the articles published in INNOVARE. One should give appropriate credit to the author, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes have been made. INNOVARE does not charge fees for processing or publishing articles.

Information backup

The content of the magazine is hosted on Ubiquity Press (https://www.ubiquitypress.com/) through the CAMJOL platform (https://camjol.info/index.php/index/about), as well as on the website of the magazine (https://unitec.edu/innovare/).

INFORMED CONSENT

INNOVARE adheres to those international conventions that protect the involvement of humans and animals in scientific studies. The involvement of humans in scientific studies should be governed by the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/). When applicable, the Editorial Committee may request verification of the acceptance of the study by an active institutional ethics committee.

Along with their manuscript, authors must submit the conflict of interest form, which must be downloaded below: http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/.

The conflict of interest form follows the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The form must be downloaded to your computer, filled out, and submitted along with your manuscript to INNOVARE's Open Journal Systems (OJS). If you have questions or comments you can write to: innovare@unitec.edu.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE AND REVIEWER ETHICS

INNOVARE Editors and Reviewers will comply with and enforce the ethical standards of INNOVARE and its peer-review standards. Authors must be in contact with the journal editors and comply with the instructions during the manuscript evaluation process. Decisions on acceptance or rejection of manuscripts will depend purely on scientific merit, for this, a confidential double-blind review of manuscripts will be carried out (neither authors nor reviewers will know the identity of the other) and exclusively using the Open Journal Systems platform of the Journal. Reviewers should not evaluate manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest. Reviewers can view general guides at https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers.

For reviewers

The Editors and Reviewers will comply with and enforce the ethical standards of INNOVARE and will remain active in the manuscript process and constant improvement of the quality, ethical integrity, and impact of the Journal. They are also committed to complying with standard peer review processes and journal regulations. Decisions on acceptance or rejection of manuscripts will depend purely on scientific merit, for this, a confidential double-blind review of manuscripts will be carried out (neither authors nor reviewers will know the identity of the other).

Reviewers should not evaluate manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest. The general guidelines to be followed by reviewers and editors can be read on the Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE) site: https://publicationethics.org/guidance?classification=2779.

To access the Reviewer Standards, you should consult the respective site within INNOVARE's Open Journal Systems (https://www.camjol.info/index.php/INNOVARE), or you can contact the Editor-in-Chief at email innovare@unitec.edu.

Reviewers should download a supporting document (fillable PDF) for review of manuscripts here.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION AND PROCESS

1. Submission. The article will be sent by the corresponding author only through the Open Journal Systems of the journal https://www.camjol.info/index.php/INNOVARE/login. It is suggested that the authors use the Word template provided by the journal, to facilitate the writing or organization of their manuscript. The title page and affiliations must be sent in a separate document from the rest of the manuscript. This will be done to allow anonymous review of it. In addition, the corresponding author must submit the Originality Form and the Conflict of Interest Form along with the manuscript. If the author has doubts, they can contact the Editor-in-Chief of the journal at: innovare@unitec.edu.
2. Initial review. The Editor will acknowledge receipt of the manuscript. He will then review journal compliance before submitting the manuscript for designated peer review. The initial review will not exceed two weeks.
3. Anonymous peer review. The peer review process is double blind to ensure impartiality through an anonymous method. The articles will be sent to at least two national and/or international reviewers to give their opinion on the acceptance with major or minor corrections or the rejection of the manuscript. The Editorial Committee will decide within a period not exceeding four weeks from receipt of the manuscript, whether it is a candidate for publication or not. The author's delays in returning requested corrections are not the responsibility of the Editorial Committee.
4. Acceptance and edition of style. After receiving the final version of the manuscript accepted and corrected by authors and reviewers. INNOVARE reserves the right to make editorial or style edits as necessary and according to the approval of the authors.
5. Preprint (proof of printing). The corresponding author will receive a proof of the final publication for review and must acknowledge receipt and indicate approval or minor corrections in no more than one to two days.
6. Publication report. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal will notify the authors about the publication and will follow up on the corresponding indexing.

The article must be sent using the Word template for submitting manuscripts to the journal's Open Journal Systems, which must be downloaded in PDF here.

We encourage authors to download a review list (fillable PDF) prior to submitting manuscripts to the journal here.

For additional correspondence, you can contact the Journal at its physical address and following telephone numbers:

Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana,

Boulevard Kennedy, V-782, frente a Residencial Honduras,

Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Tel. (504) 2268-1000,

Email: innovare@unitec.edu