Authorship and Contribution Policy

Authors are individuals who have made a significant contribution to the research and communication of results, as recognized by the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT). Authors are requested to indicate each author's role in the manuscript via their Article Application Letter at editor@revistaalfa.org.
https://revistaalfa.org/public/journals/1/postulacion-articulo.docx

Authors are presented in their self-established order and must include the following information:

• Pen name (as typically used in all their scientific work, e.g., ORCID name).
• Email address.
• Institutional affiliation, including city and country.
• ORCID code.

The author who submits the manuscript or uploads it to the journal's platform assumes the role of corresponding author and is responsible for managing all correspondence throughout the editorial process.

Articles submitted to Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias must be original and unpublished. They must not have been submitted or be currently under review for publication in other scientific journals. Manuscripts must be submitted with the consent of all authors, who must all commit to maintaining these conditions until a final decision of acceptance or rejection is made.

Authors must commit to the journal to provide error corrections at any process stage. If detected, requests must be made via email to the editor at editor@revistaalfa.org.

Reviewer feedback will be sent to authors via the journal's OJS management platform for necessary corrections as a condition of article acceptance.

Before article publication, authors must permanently transfer intellectual property rights to Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias through a form provided by the editorial team. The purpose of this transfer is to ensure published communications are perpetually available to readers. Each author must complete and sign this form. This is balanced with author rights (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es).

Editors reserve the right to suggest modifications to the title and body of accepted articles, proposing changes deemed appropriate to maximize article clarity.

Plagiarism Policy

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias declares plagiarism unacceptable. All articles submitted for review must meet the following criteria before acceptance:

• Articles submitted to Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias must be original and unpublished. This must be declared by all authors. Authors must use the cover letter format (https://revistaalfaorg/index.php/revistavive/information/authors). The journal does not publish articles previously published in another language.
• Articles must be generated by human authors. The journal does not publish works massively generated by artificial intelligence or computational tools.
• Fragmenting large articles can confuse readers or be detected as plagiarism, thus failing originality criteria. Therefore, authors are requested to include respective citations if their work relates to previous publications. Furthermore, authors must be available to address requests from the editorial team and peer reviewers regarding previously published works on the topic.
• All received articles will undergo a strict peer review process and be submitted to plagiarism detection software. Articles not meeting specified originality criteria will be declared inadmissible for publication. If an article has already been published in the journal, it will be retracted from its respective volume.

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias is committed to its community and will implement necessary retractions and corrections to ensure transparency and due process in case of detected or reported errata.

Authors are responsible for material included in their works, such as tables, graphics, photographs, figures, and any other content necessary for publication development, and declare these do not infringe copyright.

Authors declare the manuscript is an original work.

If an article does not meet originality criteria, it will not be published in the journal or will be retracted if such a defect is found after article publication.

Research Misconduct

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias only accepts articles resulting from scientific research, for which the author must present information about the research from which the work derives. Likewise, during the peer review process, experts consider aspects such as: methodologies, results presentation, argumentation, and derived conclusions to ensure consistency and accuracy of the information presented, as well as its relevance and contribution to the field of study.

Authors are encouraged to publish available evidence of information used as open science objects, as the editor and/or reviewers may request information (DMP, data, protocols, software, etc.). Any manipulation, falsification, or fabrication of citations and data will result in article rejection.

Non-Acceptance of Research Fragmentation (Salami Slicing)

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias adheres to the highest standards of scientific integrity and does not permit research fragmentation (salami slicing). Authors must present their findings coherently and completely, grouping all data and results forming a significant, publishable unit of study into a single manuscript. Artificially subdividing a study into multiple small publications, when it could be presented as a single, comprehensive article, is unacceptable. We reserve the right to reject manuscripts that evidence this practice.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Resources (Chatbots)

The journal adopts the Criteria for the Transparent, Ethical, and Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Publications (CRITERIA).

1. AI cannot be credited as an author.
2. Responsibility rests entirely with human authors.
3. All AI use requires critical human oversight.
4. The manuscript must maintain the author's voice and stylistic unity.
5. Substantial uses must be declared with transparency and traceability.
6. Editors use appropriate tools to help detect AI-generated or altered content.

Corrections and Retractions Policy

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias assumes responsibility for maintaining the integrity and accuracy of published articles. In educational research, data veracity and transparency in pedagogical processes are fundamental. Therefore, the journal considers corrections and retractions based on the nature of the detected error or ethical lapse:

1. Erratum: Published when the journal has made a technical or production error during editing or layout (e.g., minor errors in an author's name, or omission of data in a table) that does not alter study results or conclusions.
2. Corrigendum (Correction): Issued when authors detect an unintentional error in their own already published article. For example, an error in a formula, a miscited reference, or erroneous field data analysis, an unattributed citation, which warrants rectification to ensure scientific accuracy but does not invalidate the research's main findings.
3. Retractio (Retraction): This is the most severe measure, applied when an article presents critical flaws that invalidate its conclusions, either due to scientific errors of great magnitude or serious ethical lapses (plagiarism, duplication, data manipulation, or lack of informed consent in school contexts). The original article will remain in the digital archive but will be clearly marked "Retracted," and a retraction notice explaining the reasons will be published to alert the educational community.
4. Procedure: Any correction or retraction request will be evaluated by the Editorial Committee. In all cases, the correction notice will be electronically linked to the original article to ensure transparency for readers and researchers.

Complaints and Appeals Handling

The complaint or appeal procedure begins with communication to the journal editor (editor@revistaalfa.org). The editor will confirm receipt of communication via email to the complainant and evaluate the complaint or appeal's substance, informing the Editorial Committee. The Committee will have 2 weeks to decide. The Editor will determine the applicable COPE procedure and follow it both in determining if misconduct exists and, if confirmed, in determining consequences for the article and communications to affected parties.

The Committee may respond by filing the complaint or appeal or by initiating an investigation, which will be communicated to the parties via a report.

Should an investigation be initiated, the Editorial Committee will assign a lead editor, and parties will be requested additional background information or statements of charges. Authors will always be given the opportunity to present their defenses. A decision will be made based on all collected background information. This decision may include rejecting the complaint, requesting further background, or approving the complaint. In all cases, the decision will be communicated via committee meeting minutes.

When information confirms the complaint or accusation, the communication will be shared with both the parties and the accused's affiliated institution.

If the complaint or appeal situation warrants, a corresponding modification or correction of the publication will be made in a retraction statement in the subsequent issue.

Policy on Editor-in-Chief's Rulings and Decisions

In Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias, the Editor-in-Chief's authority is supreme, and their rulings, decisions, and verdicts on content and editorial direction are considered unappealable. Once the Editor-in-Chief has issued their final verdict on a manuscript, that resolution cannot be further appealed. This means decisions made cannot be challenged or reviewed by other instances, nor are they legally actionable, as they fall within the editorial autonomy and freedom inherent in the scientific publication process and internationally accepted custom.

Conflict of Interest Policy

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias establishes strict criteria to prevent conflicts of interest during article writing and review processes.

A conflict of interest for authors is a situation where external interests (financial, personal, academic) could unduly influence research design, execution, results, or interpretation, or publication decisions, compromising study objectivity.

Authors must submit an anonymous version of the manuscript that does not allow identification of authors, institutions, individuals, or funding sources.

It is also established that evaluators must be individuals with research experience and scientific publications.

The peer review process of Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias is double-blind, ensuring objectivity throughout, as neither authors nor reviewers will know each other's identities.

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias ensures anonymous communication between authors and reviewers meets appropriate academic criteria regarding manuscript comments and evaluation. Criteria for establishing manuscript evaluation results will be specified in the peer review process section.

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias is committed to declaring cases of conflicts of interest in the peer review process and establishes the following criteria:
a) Selected peer evaluators with article-topic expertise must have prior scientific publications in the same knowledge sector.
b) To initiate the review process, its double-blind nature must be verified to ensure authors and reviewers are unaware of each other's identities, ensuring objectivity in handling the work.
c) Based on reviewer opinions, an agreement will be articulated with the editor to jointly determine if the article is accepted without changes, accepted with changes (minor or substantial) from the authors, or rejected. The editor will communicate the decision to the authors.

Authors must also have necessary permissions to disclose any information naming or mentioning other entities or individuals and must clearly indicate any appropriation of previous results used for research, including informed consents and mentions or acknowledgments of funding sources and individuals who aided the research.

For additional information on the review process, please consult our author instructions.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility Policy

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias promotes transparency, reproducibility, and independent verification of research results. Therefore, it requests that all research-generated data supporting the article be made accessible as soon as possible, provided it is legal, ethical, and compatible with data protection and participant privacy. The minimum detail level must ensure research replicability. Open science objects must be published on open access platforms that guarantee compliance with FAIR principles.

All research works must include a data availability statement indicating:

• if data has been deposited in a public, permanent repository,
• the access link and persistent identifier (e.g., DOI),
• or that data can be requested under reasonable conditions, describing the procedure for obtaining it.

The use of internationally recognized repositories and platforms is recommended to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and open access to study materials. In accordance with this editorial recommendation, data and supplementary documents are deposited in Mendeley Data, while methodological materials and additional files are managed through the Open Science Framework (OSF). The review protocol was pre-registered in PROSPERO, ensuring traceability and avoiding research duplication. Likewise, scripts, codes, and manuscript versions were stored in a GitHub repository, allowing for version control and study replicability.

Ethical Vigilance Policy

The editorial board of Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias will request information from authors regarding research ethical standards, which must follow the principles of the Singapore Declaration on Integrity in Research.

Where applicable, authors must indicate the ethical procedures developed in their research and, upon request from editors or reviewers, must provide relevant information about ethical safeguards implemented, especially concerning consent or assent, or authorization for database use.

The use of photographs depicting individuals must have due authorization and must not cause any harm or injury to the people appearing in the images.

Intellectual Property Policy

All manuscripts published in the journal are the sole responsibility of their authors and do not reflect the opinion of the editorial board of Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias.

It is the authors' responsibility to ensure the work is unpublished and original.

Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Thus, author rights are safeguarded, as they grant the journal perpetual property rights for publication.

Privacy Policy

Names and email addresses provided to Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias will be used exclusively for the purposes established by the journal and will not be available to any other person or organization or for any other use. The journal does not permit advertising or marketing on the journal's website.

In accordance with applicable data protection legislation, data subjects are informed that by voluntarily providing or registering their information through the channels enabled by this website, they grant their express consent for its inclusion in a database under the responsibility of the editorial team, whose data will be processed strictly for the journal's aims and objectives.

Data Anonymization and Ethical Compliance: It is the authors' responsibility to ensure all presented data has been rigorously anonymized in accordance with current personal data protection regulations. The use of real names or initials is prohibited; generic identifiers must be used instead. If the study includes individual clinical cases or patient images, authors must confirm in the manuscript that they have obtained prior informed consent and have taken all necessary technical measures to prevent subject re-identification, thereby ensuring absolute confidentiality of sensitive information.

Ethical Compliance Statement: Authors must indicate that the study was approved by an IRB/Ethics Committee and provide the committee's name, approval number, and approval date (with a link to the protocol registered in PROSPERO or OSF).

Policy on Editor-in-Chief's Rulings and Decisions

In Alfa Revista de Investigación en Ciencias Agronómicas y Veterinarias, the Editor-in-Chief's authority is supreme, and their rulings, decisions, and verdicts on content and editorial direction are considered unappealable. Once the Editor-in-Chief has issued their final verdict on a manuscript, that resolution cannot be further appealed. This means decisions made cannot be challenged or reviewed by other instances, nor are they legally actionable, as they fall within the editorial autonomy and freedom inherent in the scientific publication process and internationally accepted custom.

Complaints and Appeals Handling

The complaint or appeal procedure begins with communication to the journal editor (editor@revistaalfa.org). The editor will confirm receipt of communication via email to the complainant and evaluate the complaint or appeal's substance, informing the Editorial Committee. The Committee will have 2 weeks to decide. The Editor will determine the applicable COPE procedure and follow it both in determining if misconduct exists and, if confirmed, in determining consequences for the article and communications to affected parties.

The Committee may respond by filing the complaint or appeal or by initiating an investigation, which will be communicated to the parties via a report.

Should an investigation be initiated, the Editorial Committee will assign a lead editor, and parties will be requested additional background information or statements of charges. Authors will always be given the opportunity to present their defenses. A decision will be made based on all collected background information. This decision may include rejecting the complaint, requesting further background, or approving the complaint. In all cases, the decision will be communicated via committee meeting minutes.

When information confirms the complaint or accusation, the communication will be shared with both the parties and the accused's affiliated institution.

If the complaint or appeal situation warrants, a corresponding modification or correction of the publication will be made in a retraction statement in the subsequent issue.