Peer review policy

Peer Review Policy

Manuscripts submitted during the open calls are first reviewed by the Editor and/or the Editorial Committee, who assess whether the article is original and unpublished, and whether it complies with the journal’s publication guidelines for authors. If necessary, the Committee recommends adjustments to the authors so that the articles can continue in the process; otherwise, they are returned definitively if they do not meet the journal’s quality standards.

Articles that pass the initial evaluation by the Editorial Committee are subjected to peer review by national and international experts. Each edition will consider the maximum number of internal reviewers from the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, and this number will not exceed 20% of the total reviewers for each issue. The entire process is documented using the formats established by the journal and is archived in the journal’s repository, with partial sharing in the Bibliographic Base Publindex of Colciencias (Colombia).

The academic peer review is conducted using a double-blind review methodology to maintain confidentiality, ensuring that the identities of both the authors and the reviewers remain unknown to each other. The following steps are taken for this purpose:

Authors must remove their names and any related identifying information from the manuscript. This information should be provided in the author metadata forms.
The information uploaded (metadata) to the site is not shared with the reviewers involved in the editorial process to maintain the anonymity of both authors and reviewers.
File and information management is handled solely by the editor and their assistant, who ensure the privacy of the information and its movement through the review process.
Each reviewer has a period of 4 business days to accept or decline the review assignment.
Reviewers have two weeks (15 calendar days) to conduct their review and provide their results using the established evaluation format, including any relevant observations.
If both reviewers and the editor agree to reject an article, it will be returned to the author with comments indicating the objectives not met.
In such cases, the author may appeal to the Editorial Committee for a review of their case. If there is a contradiction between the evaluations of the two reviewers, a third reviewer will be consulted under the same conditions as the other reviewers.
If the article is recommended for publication, it will be returned to the author with the necessary revisions. The revised manuscript must be resubmitted to the Open Journal Systems platform within 8 calendar days. If the manuscript is not returned within the specified timeframe, its publication will be deferred to a future issue, subject to the timely submission of the requested revisions.
If authors do not respond to the reviewers' or Editorial Committee’s recommendations within the timeframe explicitly set by the editor, the manuscript will be archived and considered for a future issue. If no response is received within 60 calendar days of the request for adjustments, the manuscript will be withdrawn from the process and must start the submission process again without further notification from the journal.
The Editorial Committee assumes that all authors accept that the opinions or comments expressed in the articles are their sole responsibility. If a manuscript is accepted for publication, rights will be transferred, including for printing and reproduction by any means. Authors may reproduce their articles, provided they cite the original source of publication. Intellectual rights are maintained in all cases.
To comply with quality policies and avoid internal bias as established by Minciencias Colombia, the total number of articles accepted per year from internal authors of the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira cannot exceed 10% of the annual total. Additionally, each author may publish a maximum of two articles per year, provided the percentage criteria are not exceeded, and publication opportunities are equally distributed on an internal list.