The integrity of the academic content and the process of publishing papers in the Argentinian Horticulture Journal, as well as its commitment to ethics, are paramount for the Argentine Horticultural Association, which is the reason these guidelines are provided for authors and peer reviewers, in order to achieve high standards in editorial ethics, taking as a reference the indications of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) of the Cambridge University Press. For this reason, the editorial process is based upon ethical and scientific principles under which only unpublished work is admitted that complies with the specified criteria of relevance, clarity, aims and quality.

Research integrity

We maintain high standards, which is why we suggest that the research results submitted for consideration for publication in the Argentinian Horticulture Journal comply with the following principles:

• Honesty in all aspects of research submitted for publication;

• Scrupulous attention, thoroughness and excellence in research practices;

• Transparency, clarity and open communication;

• Consideration towards all participants and research subjects, including them as co-authors or, in the acknowledgement section, as collaborators, as appropriate.

• Responsibility for the intrinsic integrity of the research and for all aspects that might arise from meeting the aforementioned standards.

Besides these general principles, the Editorial Team provides specific editorial guidelines and policies to the authors on the integrity and ethics of research appropriate for the disciplines Floriculture, Horticulture, Fruticulture and Aromatic Medicine.

Those who believe that any article published by the Argentinian Horticulture Journal does not comply with these Academic Research Publication Ethics Guidelines, and/or with the aforementioned principles, should raise their concerns with the Editor by e-mail to publiasaho2016@outlook.es. The concerns will be addressed following COPE guidelines, where possible, and/or by forwarding the issue for its treatment by the Editorial Ethics Committee, if necessary.

Editorial Ethics Committee

The Editorial Ethics Committee is a body that reports to the Editorial Committee and is responsible for monitoring, developing and advising on best practices in publishing in editorial ethics. It is not decision-making, although it can respond to queries and provide recommendations to the appropriate levels of decision-making (for example, where an issue deserves to be addressed/resolved by the Editorial Committee and/or the Publications Secretariat and/or the Press Committee). The president of the Editorial Ethics Committee is also the person who presides over the Argentine Horticultural Association (currently Agr. Mag. Edurne Ayastuy). The Editorial Ethics Committee is made up of representatives of the Editorial Committee as well as members of the ASAHO Board of Directors.

Editorial Process

The Argentinian Horticulture Journal is committed to editorial independence and aims to avoid competing interests; the editorial process reflects this commitment to independence. We do not discriminate against authors, editors, or peer reviewers for personal reasons, characteristics or identity. We are committed to integrating diversity, removing barriers to inclusion and promoting equity at every stage of our publishing process. We seek and encourage submissions from researchers of diverse backgrounds, including race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, religion and disability.

Our Journal is supervised by external organizations such as the Argentine Centre for Scientific and Technological Information (CAICYT), in addition to the ASAHO Board of Directors, who advise and/or independently approve the publications of the Journal (CAICYT) and the work of the Press and Publications Secretariat of ASAHO (Directive Committee).

• Submitted manuscripts are initially reviewed by internal editors who may request their adjustment to the Journal's norms; to assist in this, a submission checklist is made available to authors as a complement to the publication guidelines available on the website. Once the manuscript complies with the general norms, a tracking code is assigned and the manuscript is sent to the assigned independent peer reviewers, who are specialists in its subject area (a minimum of four as indicated elsewhere). Their evaluations provide the basis for deciding whether to publish the work in the Journal and in the appropriate section, once the authors have made all the modifications requested by the reviewers. The Editorial Team is free to request additional revisions to the manuscript if considered necessary. In addition, the team decides whether the article is to be included in the Research section of the Journal, or alternatively in the section denominated Advances - Review, which is intended for manuscripts that do not meet all the requirements of research articles, but that nonetheless represent a contribution to the sector or comprise literature reviews. As alluded to previously, this decision is made based upon the reports received from the reviewers.

If you have concerns or wish to appeal or file a complaint, please contact publiasaho2016@outlook.es. We do not tolerate abusive behaviour or personal correspondence for topics related to the publications of the Argentinian Horticulture Journal or to others involved in the publication process. If someone involved in this process engages in such behaviour, we reserve the right to take actions to protect the Journal from such abuses. This may include, for example, withdrawing a manuscript from consideration or challenging clearly abusive peer review comments.

The Editorial Team is in charge of guaranteeing the objectivity and due rationale of the evaluations of the reviewers, at the moment of carrying out the corresponding evaluation, promoting objective judgments that contribute to the improvement of the publications and the strengthening of the Journal. The Editorial Team is also responsible for carrying out an initial review of the articles received, requesting that the requirements specified in the checklist be met, for promoting and representing the Journal in sector events and in the Newsletter of ASAHO "NotiASAHO", for writing editorials, suggestions and comments to the authors and for promoting the correct compliance with the rules, by all members of the National and International Editorial Committee.

The Journal is committed to the assignment of external evaluators in cases of articles submitted by members of the editorial staff, guaranteeing that the double-blind process is fulfilled.

Where submitted manuscripts include photographs, we require that they are generated by the authors and that they are necessary for the purpose of explaining results. In cases where reference is made to figures, tables, etc. that have been included in other articles by the same authors, the source of origin must be cited.

It is important for the Journal that all references used in the writing of an article, particularly in the introduction and discussion sections, are appropriately cited in the text and included in the reference section. It is suggested that at least fifty percent of the references should be published in the last seven years and, where possible, in high-impact Journals. It is also required that the citations follow the international APA standards.

Editorial Team

The Editorial Team, which belongs to the ASAHO Press and Publications Secretariat, is made up of: a Director-Editor and an Editorial Assistant, who fulfil their functions with the collaboration of National and International Editorial Committees and a body of national and international referees. The Editorial Committees are composed of prestigious professionals external to ASAHO.

The members of the Editorial Team, in their different roles, are collectively responsible for the content published in the Journal and for ensuring its scientific quality, promoting the use of Good Practices in the publication of research results and processing the edition of the submitted manuscripts in due time and form.

It is the responsibility of the Editorial Team to accept or reject papers for publication, depending on whether they conform to the disciplines linked to ASAHO (Floriculture, Horticulture, Fruticulture and Aromatic Medicine) and to the aims and profile of the Journal, in accord with the Journal’s different article categories (Research, Advances or Review), and to accept manuscripts for the evaluation process only once they comply with the Journal’s norms.

Principles of the Editorial Team

It is the responsibility of the Editorial Team to comply with the following principles:

1) Ensure that published research papers have been evaluated by a minimum of four or five specialists in the discipline, and that the evaluation process has been impartial, through the double-blind procedure (mutual anonymity of the authors and reviewers).

2) Confidentiality of the texts received and their content, until accepted for publication.

3) Impartiality in the processing of submitted manuscripts.

4) No member of the Editorial Board, nor persons involved in the evaluation process, may use, for their own research, data, arguments or interpretations of content in the unpublished manuscripts received.

5) Control the originality of the articles, avoiding plagiarism and manipulated data, and act in those cases in which, once completed the evaluation process, doubts persist about their quality, content and/or originality.

Requirements for manuscript acceptance

Papers that are the result of original and unpublished research based upon specific data obtained in the corresponding study require an objective discussion of the results for their evaluation and possible subsequent publication. The information included in the paper should be sufficient for other researchers to repeat the work and confirm or refute the conclusions provided by its authors.

The originality of published work represents one of the main priorities for the Argentinian Horticulture Journal, for which it is required that manuscripts received have not been previously or simultaneously submitted to any other Journal. To this end, and to avoid total or partial plagiarism, the ASAHO Publications Secretariat requires that a copyright letter be signed in which the authors declare their authorship, that they have not incurred in plagiarism and that the work has not been and will not be published in an alternative Journal while the manuscript is under consideration for publication in Horticultura Argentina.

Author responsible for articles during the editorial process

During the editorial process, the first author is the point of contact, accountable to the Journal for the article, and guarantor of the observance of the ethical principles of the Journal. This author is also in charge of forwarding corrections and updates about its progress in the evaluation procedure to their work group in cases of multiple authorships, and is required to guarantee the recognition of those who have participated significantly in the stages of preparation of the publication, from its inception, planning, experimental work, data analysis, discussion of the results and final redaction. It is suggested to the authors that in the acknowledgments section, due acknowledgement is made to partial contributors, without whose participation the work could not have been successfully carried out.

In cases of doubt or conflict, the Journal may request clarification and/or pertinent evidence from the author or authors, and will make a final decision based upon them; reserving the right to withdraw the publication once the authors have been notified.

Procedure in case of detection of errors in a published article

In those cases that the authors detect an important error in their work, they must notify the Journal as soon as possible, to seek a joint solution, such as withdrawing it or publishing a correction or errata.

Review ethics

The reviewers play a fundamental role in promoting the high quality of the Journal’s publications, which is the reason they are specialists in the Journal’s subject matter chosen from reviewers within the country and abroad. They are requested to alert the Editorial Team about inconsistencies and/or similarities between the work under evaluation and other article(s) published in other Journals, as well as inaccurate data detected. They are requested to complete their work within pre-established deadlines; if these are not met, the Journal will remind the reviewers of their responsibilities regarding the deadlines.

Research published by the Argentinian Horticulture Journal is required to comply with the principles of the Argentine Horticultural Association - ASAHO, in order to maintain high standards: honesty in all aspects of research; scrupulous attention, thoroughness and excellence in research practice; transparency and open communication; and care and respect for all research participants and subjects.

If any person believes that an article or articles published by the Journal does not comply with the current Ethics Guidelines for Academic Research Publication, or the previously mentioned principles, they should raise their concern with the Editorial Team by e-mail to publicaciones@asaho.org. Concerns will be addressed following COPE guidelines, where possible, and/or raising the issue with the Editorial Ethics Committee if necessary, made up of the Editorial Team, the Evaluation Committee and the President of ASAHO.

The Editorial Ethics Committee is responsible for monitoring, developing and advising on the best practices in editorial ethics; it is not decision-making, although can handle queries and provide recommendations.

Cases of plagiarism

As a "Plagiarism Detection" policy, the Journal uses Plagium software, as a complement to exhaustive Internet searches, and as a tool to objectively confirm the situation within a commission designated by the Editorial Committee. If this is insufficient to resolve the problem, the opinion of external evaluators will be sought.

In the event of any complaints from Journal readers, those interested should send a duly identified and signed letter (since anonymous documents are not accepted) to the Editorial Team via e-mail to publiasaho2016@outlook.com, with the following information:

 Duly justified subject.

 Full name(s) of the interested party or parties.

 Basic information of the party’s or parties’ location: e-mail and phone number.

 Place and date.

Once the letter has been reviewed and it has been ascertained that it possesses all the elements that justify a complaint or appeal, the Editorial Team will respond and administer its appropriate resolution.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

A publication is considered duplicate or redundant, or of "self-plagiarism", when the submitted work, or parts of it, has been published more than once by its author(s), without the appropriate cross-references or justification for the overlap, be they in the same or different languages.

Substantial overlap between publications will only be allowed when it is evident that editorially the submitted results would be thus strengthened and when a complete citation of the original source is included. In the case of suspicion of duplication or redundant publication, readers and reviewers are advised to contact the Editorial Team of Horticultura Argentina by e-mail to publiasaho2016@outlook.es

When submitting manuscripts to our Journal, the authors are requested not to have submitted them for consideration, or accepted for publication or in press, in any other Journal.

Any manuscript based on a thesis must be a reworking of the thesis material and written to conform with Journal norms. Additionally, when citing the thesis or reusing figures, authors should avoid self-plagiarism by appropriately citing and referencing any copied or adapted excerpts from the thesis.

Research with humans or animals

Research involving humans or animals must be approved by the corresponding ethics committees and must comply with international ethical and legal research norms.