Editorial Policies

Scope, Focus, and Types of Contributions

The Revista Alimentación y Ciencia de los Alimentos (RAYCA) publishes original scientific contributions and scholarly reviews related to food, food science, nutrition, food quality and safety, technological processes, gastronomy, food anthropology, new product development, food security, food marketing, quality management, agro-food systems ecology, and related fields.

The journal is intended for researchers, academics, professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, and members of national and international academic communities engaged in the study of food and nutrition.

RAYCA considers the following types of manuscripts for publication:

a) Original research articles.
b) Review articles.
c) Technical-scientific articles derived from research, technological development, innovation, or academic systematization in the field of food and food science.

The journal does not consider for publication manuscripts that have been previously published, are under simultaneous consideration by another journal, lack verifiable academic support, constitute opinion pieces without scientific evidence, contain advertising material, present reports without an explicit methodology, or fall outside the journal’s editorial scope and focus.

Originality and Academic Integrity

All manuscripts submitted to RAYCA must be original, unpublished, and not under simultaneous review by another journal, book publisher, editorial repository, or formal publication outlet. Authors must declare that the work is the result of their own scholarly contribution and that they have obtained the necessary permissions to use data, figures, tables, images, instruments, materials, or information belonging to third parties.

The journal may reject manuscripts, suspend the editorial process, request clarifications, publish corrections, or retract articles when evidence of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship, redundant publication, undisclosed conflicts of interest, improper use of artificial intelligence, or any other practice contrary to scientific integrity is identified.

Editorial Process

Submitted manuscripts will undergo an initial review by the Editorial Team to verify their alignment with the journal’s scope, compliance with the author guidelines, thematic relevance, academic structure, overall originality, and adherence to ethical policies.

Manuscripts that fail to meet the minimum editorial requirements may be returned to the authors for preliminary revisions or rejected without peer review. Acceptance for evaluation does not imply a commitment to publication.

Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial screening will be sent for academic peer review. The Editorial Team will formally communicate editorial decisions to authors, providing appropriate justification.

Possible editorial decisions include:

a) Accepted.
b) Accepted with minor revisions.
c) Reconsideration after major revisions.
d) Rejected.

When revisions are requested, authors must submit a revised version of the manuscript together with a response letter detailing the modifications made or providing justification for any recommendations that were not incorporated.

Peer Review

RAYCA employs a double-blind peer-review process. Under this system, the identities of both authors and reviewers remain confidential throughout the evaluation process.

Each manuscript will be evaluated by at least two reviewers with academic or professional expertise in the relevant subject area. Reviewers are expected to assess, among other aspects, originality, relevance, clarity, theoretical soundness, methodological consistency, quality of results, discussion, currency of references, contribution to the field, and compliance with ethical standards.

In cases of conflicting reviews, the Editorial Team may request a third evaluation or make a reasoned decision based on the academic assessment of the manuscript and the reviews received.

Reviewers must disclose any conflict of interest that could compromise the impartiality of their evaluation. In such cases, they must decline participation in the review process.

The estimated time for the initial editorial review is 20 business days. The estimated time for peer review is 8 weeks, depending on reviewer availability and manuscript complexity.

Editorial Ethics Code

RAYCA adheres to principles of editorial ethics, scientific integrity, transparency, impartiality, confidentiality, and academic responsibility. Its editorial practices are guided by international recommendations on scholarly publishing, including those of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the applicable institutional regulations of the University of Guadalajara.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, reliability, traceability, and legality of the information presented in their manuscripts. They must also disclose funding sources, conflicts of interest, ethics committee approvals when applicable, informed consent when required, and specific authorship contributions.

Editors must act with impartiality, confidentiality, transparency, and academic rigor. Editorial decisions are based on manuscript quality, relevance, originality, ethical compliance, and contribution to knowledge, without discrimination based on nationality, gender, age, institutional affiliation, political orientation, religion, social status, disability, cultural identity, or any other personal characteristic.

Reviewers must provide objective, respectful, confidential, and evidence-based evaluations. They may not use information obtained through the review process for personal, academic, or institutional benefit prior to publication.

Authorship and Contributions

Authorship shall be granted to any individual who has made a substantial contribution to the design, development, analysis, interpretation, writing, or critical revision of the manuscript and who approves the final version submitted to the journal.

RAYCA recommends reporting author contributions using the CRediT taxonomy or an equivalent framework, specifying each author's participation in activities such as conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, original draft preparation, review and editing, visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

Honorary, guest, fictitious, or otherwise unjustified authorship will be considered an unethical editorial practice.

Originality Verification and Plagiarism Prevention

RAYCA evaluates manuscript originality through editorial procedures and similarity-detection tools. Similarity-checking software may be used to identify textual overlaps, complemented by manual assessment by the Editorial Team to evaluate the context, relevance, and nature of detected similarities.

When significant overlaps are identified, the Editorial Team will assess their nature, extent, and severity. If such overlaps compromise the originality of the manuscript, it may be returned for clarification, rejected, or, if already published, subject to correction, expression of concern, or retraction.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence tools may not be recognized as authors because they cannot assume ethical, legal, or academic responsibility for published content.

Authors must explicitly disclose the use of artificial intelligence tools whenever they have been employed in writing, translation, analysis, image generation, data processing, language editing, or any other stage of manuscript preparation. The disclosure must specify the tool used, its purpose, and the extent of its contribution.

The use of artificial intelligence does not exempt authors from responsibility for the originality, accuracy, integrity, confidentiality, legality, and scientific validity of the submitted content.

Reviewers and editors must not upload manuscripts, data, images, tables, or confidential information to external artificial intelligence tools without explicit authorization from the journal, due to the risk of compromising the confidentiality of the editorial process.

Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Authors must disclose any financial, academic, institutional, personal, or professional conflicts of interest that could influence the interpretation of results or the presentation of the manuscript.

Authors must also report all funding sources that supported the research, including scholarships, institutional support, public or private grants, contracts, donations, or any other form of sponsorship.

The absence of conflicts of interest or funding must also be explicitly declared.

Corrections, Retractions, Complaints, and Appeals

RAYCA may publish corrections, editorial notes, expressions of concern, or retractions when substantial errors, significant omissions, integrity issues, undisclosed conflicts of interest, plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, or other circumstances affecting the reliability of published content are identified.

Authors may submit reasoned appeals regarding editorial decisions. Appeals must be sent in writing to the journal’s official email address within eight business days following notification of the decision. The Editorial Team will review the request and may seek an additional evaluation when deemed necessary.

Complaints related to the editorial process, the conduct of editors, reviewers, or authors, or the integrity of a published article will be addressed according to principles of confidentiality, impartiality, documentation, and reasoned response.

Open Science, Research Data, and Materials

RAYCA promotes open science practices, transparency, and reproducibility. Whenever appropriate, authors should indicate the availability of datasets, code, instruments, supplementary materials, or protocols used in the research.

The journal recommends depositing research data and materials in reliable institutional or disciplinary repositories, provided that doing so does not violate ethical principles, confidentiality requirements, personal data protection regulations, intellectual property rights, or institutional agreements.

Multilingualism

RAYCA publishes in Spanish and English and promotes the international visibility of its content through the inclusion of titles, abstracts, and keywords in at least two languages. The journal accepts contributions in Spanish and English in accordance with its current editorial guidelines. Manuscripts may be submitted in either language and must include the title, abstract, and keywords in both Spanish and English.

Digital Preservation and Metadata

RAYCA maintains digital preservation policies aimed at ensuring permanent access to its content. Published articles will be preserved on the journal’s official website, within the editorial platform archive, and, whenever possible, in institutional repositories, digital preservation systems, or interoperable academic platforms.

The journal will generate essential metadata for each article, including title, authorship, institutional affiliation, abstract, keywords, publication date, volume, issue, page numbers, DOI, language, license, and references. RAYCA will strive to ensure metadata interoperability through protocols and formats compatible with scientific information systems.

Publication Frequency

RAYCA is an annual journal. Each issue corresponds to the January–December period of the respective year. The journal will publish its content according to its declared periodicity and will maintain its complete archival collection on its official website.