Ceres. Journal of Engineering, Technology, Agricultural Sciences and Sustainable Development is an organ of scientific dissemination and interdisciplinary thought, ascribed to Ediciones Clío. Ceres is a peer-reviewed journal of international scope, published every six months. Its purpose is to promote research and critical reflections from an interdisciplinary and critical perspective, linking engineering, technology and agricultural sciences, with a focus on sustainable development.
Ceres is open to dialogue between disciplines such as Agricultural Engineering, Food Technology, Environmental Sciences, Agronomy, Animal Husbandry and related areas, with the purpose of expanding knowledge from innovation to sustainability, in the construction, optimization and scientific growth of the future, with epistemological and methodological perspectives. It also pays special attention to studies that address technological innovation, sustainability in agricultural systems, natural resource management and the environmental impact of productive activities.
Ceres is a scientific journal, specialized, in the process of indexing and refereed under the double-blind system. Its publications, open access, are under Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA) Attribution 4.0 International, so it is committed to the scientific community to meet high standards of ethical behavior and good practices at all stages of the editorial process and to ensure the quality of intellectual productions that are published, our electronic journal, supported under the Open Journal System (OJS), pays special attention to the security aspects that help protect data and metadata of all publications. This is part of the compendium of principles referenced in the Code of Conduct and Best Practices defined by academic organizations, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Department of Oxford University Publications, Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). These organizations identify principles of transparency and best practices for editors, authors and referees of scientific journals in general, to apply in their academic and scientific publications, in order to achieve high standards in editorial ethics.
Our Code of Ethics and Good Editorial Practices is the compilation of what has been published by the above mentioned organizations, and we therefore state our conviction that it is important that research in the above mentioned areas be made available and widely used under the principle that governs open access to science. We ensure the quality of what is published, protecting and respecting its content and integrity.
General Principles of Publication
These principles encompass honesty, transparency, communication, integrity, accountability, responsibility, respect, in all aspects of research; in addition to the above, Ceres provides specific policies for authors, reviewers, editors, publishers and Editorial Committee.
Editorial independence: we are committed to editorial independence. In all cases we avoid competing interests or influences of any kind.
Open access: Ceres defends an editorial policy of open access to its content, based on the principle of offering the public free access to research, to help a greater global exchange of knowledge and enrich the scientific and cultural heritage of humanity as a whole; thus, publications in pdf format can be downloaded free of charge.
Academic freedom: we do not discriminate against authors, editors or reviewers based on their personal characteristics or identity. We are committed to incorporating diversity, eliminating barriers to inclusion, promoting equity of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, religion and disability throughout the publication process. We reject any abusive behavior towards the people who participate in the editorial process; in case of complaint, this should be made through the contact specified in the journal's web portal.
The articles published in this journal represent solely the intellectual position of their authors. The opinions, arguments, analyses, or assessments expressed therein do not necessarily reflect the institutional stance of the journal, its editorial board, or its publisher.
Editorial process: from the moment authors submit their manuscripts to the journal, CERES ensures a rigorous, impartial peer review process based on criteria of academic quality, relevance, and methodological soundness. It also upholds the protection of authors from any external reprisals, particularly in relation to sensitive issues such as armed conflicts, human rights, or international justice.
All accepted manuscripts have been evaluated in accordance with international ethical standards, including the review of potential conflicts of interest and institutional bias. We guarantee:
- rigorous and fair pre-review before sending to reviewers, according to areas of expertise. This process is carried out as they are received. The manuscript is subjected to originality verification to detect duplicate or plagiarized content, using the DupliChecker online anti-plagiarism tool in its commercial version, which allows, in addition to comparing the text entered with databases to identify similarities, the grammatical and spelling review.
- double-blind peer review, according to the rules established in the web portal.
- supervision of the peer review process to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants.
- processing the manuscript for publication, in the order considered by the Editorial Committee.
- the assignment of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
- Publication in one of the two issues per year, according to the periodicity. The journal does not publish special issues. Likewise, it is stated that there are no limits to the publication of articles by country or geographical position, since they can be proposed from any part of the world and published, once approved by the Editorial Committee.
Responsibility of authors
Authors who request the publication of their papers in Ceres, will guarantee:
- Strict adherence and acceptance to the editorial criteria established by this journal.
- the originality of the articles as products of their work as researchers and that the data presented have been obtained in an ethical manner, for which they must send a letter of originality, stating that they do not infringe copyright.
- The exact spelling of their surnames and names, according to their identification documents, as well as their e-mail addresses, institutional affiliations and Orcid. In case of any error in the writing, request the modification via e-mail to the editor.
- that co-authored papers will have a justification, which expresses the full consensus of adherence to the research guidelines of all authors involved.
- that the work has not been submitted for review or published in another journal, or in any other media.
- that they are not postulating a redundant publication, understood as when two or more papers share the same data, hypotheses, discussion points or conclusions.
- respect the authorship of all sources used in the preparation of the article, including images, graphs, figures, tables and any other type of material; therefore, they must provide the exact data of the bibliographic, hemerographic, electronic or other types of references, as well as the method and techniques of data collection that made their work possible. Likewise, they undertake not to omit any significant material.
- that the content of the article has sufficient details and references to allow its reproduction, without issuing fraudulent or inaccurate statements, this aspect is unethical and unacceptable.
- attention to editorial and scholarly comments and opinions in a timely and clear manner. When, for various reasons, one does not agree with the criteria and observations made by the referees, always with the aim of improving the article, one should justify one's position in writing to the editor, who is the competent authority to decide what is most convenient.
- The author must be aware that any failure to comply with the above points constitutes unethical and unacceptable conduct; consequently, the proposed article will be eliminated and will not be considered for publication. Likewise, the author will not be considered for any activity related to the journal.
- the aspects raised in the articles such as information, ideas, final considerations and/or conclusions are the sole responsibility of the author(s).
Responsibility of reviewers
The reviewers (evaluators) of Ceres:
- undertake to maintain the confidentiality of information related to the articles they evaluate.
- accept only manuscripts related to their areas of knowledge.
- issue significant considerations with supporting arguments on aspects to be improved in the manuscript, without expressing inappropriate personal criticisms to the author. The aim is to achieve a quality final work.
- undertake to carry out their opinion in an objective, impartial, responsible and rigorous manner.
- demonstrate willingness to clarify doubts and all matters related to compliance in each of the stages that comprise the arbitration or evaluation process.
- comply with the estimated times for the arbitration process, fill out and send to the editor the instrument for arbitration of articles, available on the journal's website.
In the event of any failure to comply with the above points, the journal reserves the right to revoke its membership in the reviewers portfolio.
Responsibility of the editors
In accordance with the COPE Code, the editors of Ceres journal:
- guarantee the integrity of the scholarly literature.
- comply with the laws of confidentiality of individual information throughout the editorial process. Therefore, they do not accept manuscripts submitted in a generative Artificial Intelligence tool, as this violates the confidentiality and property rights of the authors.
- cannot make any kind of dissemination or distribution of the information presented in the article they evaluate until it is published by the journal.
- make available to the general public the metrics of use and report generation of the editorial process.
- clarify doubts to authors and reviewers in the evaluation and editing process in the heat of the development of their specific activities, in accordance with the parameters of our editorial policy.
- promote accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of the publication process.
- base editorial decisions solely on academic merit, free of bias and exclusionary environments.
- guarantee compliance with the review, editing, evaluation and publication deadlines. In case of any delay, authors should be informed of the reason and are given the opportunity to withdraw the manuscript if they choose to do so.
- publish the dates of receipt and acceptance of articles.
- ensure impartiality both in the reception of articles and in the evaluation decision.
- act at all times in accordance with the editorial criteria and editorial line.
- guarantee compliance with the double-blind academic review system, so the journal is committed to protect the anonymity of authors and reviewers.
- inform in writing the result of the review process (arbitration) exclusively to the authors.
- guarantee the digital preservation and long-term accessibility of the contents in different online bibliographic databases, both proprietary and open access, with weekly backups, ordered in supports that guarantee their integrity. The preservation actions implemented are: data rejuvenation, consistency verification and technological updating.
Responsibilities of the Editorial and Scientific Committees
- To supervise the editorial content and update the topics of the journal according to the scientific advances that are generated, as well as the regulations and instructions.
- Promote the journal in order to obtain potential authors.
- evaluate the results of the application of scientific strategies and propose updates, if necessary.
- advise researchers on editorial ethics standards.
- guide the rest of the staff involved in the editorial process, in terms of compliance with current regulations and the contributions generated by the team work.
The Editorial Team