Publishing policies

Hepatología adheres to the guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Equator Network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Records) to ensure the quality and integrity of the manuscripts. The journal accepts unpublished articles that have not been submitted for publication to another journal. In all cases, the authors must comply with the ethics of publication practices in terms of authorship, duplication of previously published results, plagiarism, manipulation of results, conflict of interests and ethical policies for human research. Manuscripts that present substantial similarity with others already published will be removed from the editorial process. The publication of the manuscripts does not generate any cost for the authors. 

Plagiarism Policy

The journal Hepatología is committed to ensuring the originality of published articles. All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using specialized tools, such as iThenticate. Any manuscript showing substantial similarities with previously published work will undergo thorough analysis. If evidence of plagiarism is confirmed, the manuscript will be rejected, and the authors will be informed of the decision.

Peer review process

All manuscripts that are sent to Hepatología, as part of the editorial process, are subjected to evaluation by external peers, under the double-blind modality. The peer reviewers are the ones who determine whether the articles are accepted, with or without changes, or rejected. Hepatología guarantees that this process is confidential.

Open access policy

Hepatología is an open-access journal. All published manuscripts are freely accessible and available for reading, downloading, and distribution without restrictions through our OJS platform, in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (BY-NC-ND) license. This license allows third parties to copy and distribute the article and include it in collections or compilations, as long as no modifications or adaptations are made to the content, the article is not used for commercial purposes, and proper attribution is given to the author and to the first publication in Hepatología.

The journal Hepatología does not charge fees for access, submission, or publication, as part of our commitment to global open access and the free dissemination of knowledge.

Copyright policy

The journal Hepatología promotes the protection of authors' rights, ensuring recognition and proper attribution of their academic work. The journal adheres to the criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for authorship and scientific publication. Authors must sign a statement confirming that they meet the authorship criteria and take responsibility for the content of the article to be published. No additions or removals of authors will be accepted once the editorial process has begun.

Copyright retention by authors

Authors retain the copyright of their articles. By submitting their manuscript, they grant Hepatología the exclusive right of first publication and a non-exclusive right for the distribution of the article, under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. This policy ensures that the rights of first publication and the terms of the license are consistent with the principles of open access. Authors are free to archive versions of their articles in institutional or personal repositories, either before or after publication, and the content of the articles can be reproduced partially or in full, including tables or illustrations, without the need for formal permission, as long as the original source is properly cited and the use aligns with the terms of the Creative Commons license.

No charge policy for authors

The journal Hepatología does not impose Article Processing Charges (APCs). Authors can submit and publish their manuscripts in our journal without incurring any costs for submission, editing, production, or publication.

Retraction guidelines

Hepatología publishes retractions following the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.4). By retracting articles, readers are informed about the content or erroneous data, voluntary or involuntary, in the manuscripts. The retraction will apply for cases where there is plagiarism, duplicate publications, use of material with copyright infringement or without the appropriate attribution, unethical research, and in any other demonstrable situation that affects the ethics and integrity of scientific publications, in accordance with the guidelines established by COPE.

CrossMark policy

Hepatología uses CrossMark to keep its readers informed about any changes in the published articles. CrossMark is an initiative of CrossRef to provide a way to locate the official and updated version of a document. Hepatología recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of academic records for researchers and libraries, and therefore ensures that their electronic files always have reliable content. Clicking on the CrossMark icon provides the reader with information about the history of that publication. The contents that display the CrossMark icon are those published on the journal online platform.

Ethical aspects of human studies and confidentiality

For research studies in humans and clinical cases, the authors must have informed consent of the patients, in writing, for their participation in the study and publication, reproduction and dissemination of the results. Similarly, they must have the approval by the Ethics Committee of the institution where they carried out the study, in accordance with the provisions of Resolution 8430 of 1993 of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Colombia, and under the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and COPE. They must also have the permission to access the clinical records.

The authors are responsible for guaranteeing the privacy of the patients included in the research studies or case reports, by protecting their identity both in the text and in the images. Authors should not use in the manuscript names, initials, clinical records or any other data that could identify the patient. Hepatología only accepts original articles with clinical trials that have been registered in accordance with the policies of the World Health Organization (WHO) and ICMJE. The identification number must be included at the end of the abstract in the manuscript.

Privacy statement

Personal information collected from the authors will be used exclusively for editorial purposes and will not be available to any other person or institution.

Conflict of interest

Hepatología adopts the ICMJE declaration of potential conflict of interest (http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/), with some modifications. A form will be e-mailed to the correspondence author, once the manuscript has been approved, to be filled out and signed by each of the authors. Articles will only be published when forms from all authors have been received.

Conflict of interest is considered to exist when the author had or has economic, professional or personal relationships, at the time of writing or submitting the manuscript, with people or institutions that may have improperly influenced the objectivity or validity of the study, or the analysis and interpretations included in the text, which must be declared in the manuscript to be published.

Permissions

The authors are responsible for obtaining the permissions to partially reproduce text, tables or figures from other publications or, failing that, for providing the basic information to obtain the permission through the journal.

Digital preservation
This journal ensures the long-term preservation of its published articles through Portico.