Policies of Ethical and Scientific Integrity

Code of Ethics

As required by professional ethics and best practices for research, collaborators are expected fully to adhere to the following guidelines for submitting any article or book review.

The work must be unpublished; works that have been sent to other journals or are being reviewed elsewhere will not be accepted.
The work must explicitly include bibliographical references related to the actual sources from which the information has been collected, including all relevant bibliographical data and add, when possible, the DOI number. In case of using unpublished material, the contributor must possess the explicit permission of the author(s) of the work in question for its partial or total use or reproduction.
If fragments of the work have been previously published as seminar memories, previous versions in other papers, as introductions or book chapters, etc., the sources of such material must to be provided, while this situation must also be explicitly stated in the work.
In the case of co-authored works, all authors must agree with all the statements here made, and they must chose among them one author that will serve as contact with the journal.
The work should incorporate all the relevant acknowledgments, including institutions and organizations that financed the research or provided any kind of grant, as well as departments and work groups that might have participated either directly or indirectly in the shaping of the work, etc.
The author or authors of the work may not have any commercial, financial or particular link of any sort with persons or institutions that could hold any interest related to the work at hand; in other words, conflicting interests must be avoided.
The work must be original; works that are totally or partially composed of reproductions/translations of other works or any other instances that could be considered as plagiarism will not be accepted. All articles will be scanned with an anti-plagiarism software.
The author or authors of the manuscript must be aware of, and agree to, the fact that the publication of the manuscript implies the transfer or rights (copyright) to Universidad Panamericana, which reserves the right to distribute online the published version of the article or review according to current laws.
Moreover, Tópicos. Revista de Filosofía adheres to the norms established by the Committee on Publication Ethics COPE.
Tópicos. Revista de Filosofía assumes the responsibility of maintaining the integrity and accuracy of published articles. In the field of philosophical research, the veracity of data and transparency are fundamental. Therefore, the journal considers corrections and retractions according to the nature of the error or ethical breach detected:
1. Errata: These are published when the authors or the journal have made a technical or production error during the editing or layout process (for example, minor errors in an author's name, or the omission of data in a table) that does not alter the results or conclusions of the study.
2. Correction: This is issued when the authors or readers detect an unintentional error in a previously published article. For example, an error in a formula, a misciphered reference, or incorrect data in the field analysis, or an unattributed citation, which warrants correction to ensure scientific accuracy, but does not invalidate the main findings of the research.
3. Retraction: This is the most severe measure and is applied when an article contains critical flaws that invalidate its conclusions, whether due to significant scientific errors or serious ethical violations. The original article will remain published, but will be clearly marked as "Retracted," and a retraction notice explaining the reasons will be published to alert the academic community.
Procedure: Any request for correction or retraction will be evaluated by the Editorial Committee (topicos@up.edu.mx). In all cases, the correction notice will be electronically linked to the original article to ensure transparency for readers and researchers.
Handling of complaints and appeals: The complaint or appeal procedure begins through communication with the journal's Editor in Chief to topicos@up.edu.mx. The Editor will confirm the receipt of the communication and evaluate the merits of the complaint or appeal, informing the Editorial Committee, which has a period of two weeks to decide on the matter.

The Committee may respond by closing the complaint or appeal or by initiating an investigation, which should be communicated to the parties by means of a report.

In the case of initiating an investigation, the parties will be asked to provide further background information or statements of objections based on which a decision will be made. This decision may include the rejection of the complaint, a request for further background information or the approval of the complaint. In all cases, the decision will be communicated by means of the Committee meeting minutes.

When the information involves the confirmation of the complaint or denunciation, the communication will be shared with the parties as well as with the plaintiff’s affiliated institution.

If the complaint or appeal situation warrants it, an amendment or correction of the corresponding publication will be made in a retraction document in the following issue.
AI use
1. The Journal adopt the WAME Recommendations on ChatGPT and Chatbots in Relation to Scholarly Publications
2. Authors must assume public responsibility for their work. Authors are responsible for the work performed by a chatbot in their article, including the accuracy of the information presented and the absence of plagiarism, and for the proper attribution of all sources (including material produced by the chatbot).
3. Only humans can be authors. Chatbots and AI tools cannot be authors.
4. The Journal does not accept articles mass-generated using one or more AI tools.
5. Editors use appropriate tools to help them detect content generated or altered by AI.