The evaluation of the articles is carried out by an arbitration process with a double-blind peer review system or DBPR (double-blind-peer-review) in which expert reviewers in the area participate. In the following link you can review the criteria with which scientific articles are analyzed: Article evaluation criteria for reviewers

For this process, it is important to preserve the anonymity of both authors and reviewers (see file anonymity). Prior to the evaluation of referees, the articles are subjected to plagiarism analysis using the Crossref Similarity Check, Turnitin and/or Urkund tools, with 10% being the maximum allowed similarity with other sources and coincidences from a single source must not exceed 3 %.

In each submission, the corresponding author can suggest possible evaluators external to his or her work institution, who must meet the requirements for reviewers.

Potential evaluators may belong to a university or industry, public or private; Of these, the full name, their highest academic training, their institutional affiliation and their email must be provided. These four potential evaluators will be analyzed by the Editorial Committee in order to expand the database of referees of the Universidad de Guayaquil Magazine.

Requirements for selection of Reviewers

• Have 4th level studies related to the thematic areas of the Magazine
• Have investigative experience
• Have experience in writing and publishing scientific articles
• Accept the ethical standards of the journal to carry out the review process anonymously and comply with review times.
• The Scientific Committee reviews the resume and research career and submits it for approval as a member of the review committee.
• If you do not comply with what is established in the Ethics Committee session Good practices related to reviewers or incur in some of the Bad Practices in Publication, you will be separated from the Committee, with no possibility of return.
• Once a year the Scientific Committee evaluates the work carried out by the Committee of Reviewers and updates its members.
• The Journal acknowledges by letter the work carried out by the member of the reviewing Committee in each article reviewed.

Arbitration procedure

1. Initial evaluation
2. External peer review
3. Style and grammar correction
4. Translation of the summary
5. Print proof

At the beginning of the editorial process, the articles received are evaluated by the Journal's Editorial Committee.

1. Initial evaluation

Once the manuscript is sent, the editorial team verifies whether all the established instructions were carried out, if not, they will be returned to the author without starting the evaluation process.

Some articles will not be accepted immediately if they do not conform to the editorial line and do not meet the requirements stipulated in the instructions for authors; all other articles undergo peer review.

2. External peer review

Peer review guarantees the quality, originality, feasibility and scientific rigor of a research article. In this sense, it is a mandatory process for all types of manuscripts received by the Journal, with the exception of editorials.

The articles are evaluated by reviewers with experience and knowledge of the topic to which the article to be evaluated refers, with the intention that its concept achieves good judgment and high quality for publication.

For peer review, at least two reviewers are summoned per original article, who, anonymously and within a period of 30 days, will rate the works at the request of the Editorial Committee through a report based on the evaluation form provided by the Journal.

The type of review is double blind, the reviewers issue their rating and send suggestions and recommendations to improve the article. Once the rating, suggestions and recommendations of the reviewers have been received, the Editorial Committee will decide the following: approve its publication, not approve it or send the observations that it considers pertinent to be acquitted by the authors.

These observations are sent to the author who is given a period of 20 days to send the modified article. Depending on the case, the Editorial Committee may resubmit the corrected article to a reviewer before considering its publication. Reviewers have a period of 20 days for the second review (after the authors' arrangements) and 10 business days for the rest of the reviews.

No work will be definitively accepted until all observations have been clarified or modified. If the corrections were not sent within a period of two months, the article will be deleted and will go to the archive, notifying the author of this decision.

During the editing process, the Journal reserves the right to make changes or introduce modifications to the article in order to improve its understanding, without this leading to changes in its content. The average time of the editorial process, from receipt of the article to the decision of the Editorial Committee, varies between two and four months. The author may request information about the progress of the review of the article, as well as the stage of the editorial process in which it is located.

Final decision

Once the reviewers' report has been received, the general editor, together with members of the editorial team, meet and, based on the reviewers' reports, make the decision to: accept the manuscript in its entirety, accept it after minor changes, condition your acceptance if major changes are made or reject the contribution.

If there is controversy regarding the decision, the general editor or scientific editor will make the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript, which will be endorsed by the Editorial Committee. Any of the decisions made by the Editorial Committee will be informed to the author by email and the OJS.

3. Style and grammar correction.

Each manuscript will be sent to a professional expert in style and grammar who will review the readability and clarity of the text (with correction of both general and technical language), tables and figures.

4. Translation of the summary.

All article summaries must be translated into English by an expert professional translator.

5. Print proof

The manuscript will be laid out according to the journal's usual format. It will be assigned a bibliographic citation and a DOI (a unique digital identifier that also functions as a link and allows readers to access the article).
The editor will review the PDF and send it to the authors, via institutional email, for a final check prior to publication. It is important that authors also verify in detail their names and affiliations.
Again, authors must upload the PDF to the platform with their corrections, if any, to the same initial submission site, in a time no longer than 24 hours. Only slight changes will be accepted at this stage. The layout designers will incorporate the indicated changes.