Editorial Policies

Editorial Process and Peer Review System

RICIT subjects all manuscripts to a double-blind peer review process: neither the author nor the reviewers know the author's identity. This confidentiality is maintained throughout the entire editorial process.

All peer reviewers convened by RICIT are external to the University of Tourism Specialties (UDET) and are not part of the journal's editorial team. Their selection considers their proven research experience in the manuscript's subject area, the absence of conflicts of interest with the authors, and their independence from the internal editorial team. The final editorial decision regarding the publication of each manuscript rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who will make it considering the peer reviewers' opinions and the Editorial Committee's criteria.

Process Phases

The process comprises four phases. The total estimated time, without delays, is approximately three months.

Phase 1 – Receipt and Preliminary Editorial Review Upon receipt of the manuscript in OJS, the corresponding author is notified. The Editor-in-Chief verifies compliance with formatting guidelines and thematic relevance (approximately two weeks). Next, the section editors assess whether the content meets the minimum requirements to proceed to external peer review (approximately two weeks). Manuscripts that do not pass this stage are returned with an explanation of the reasons.

Phase 2 – External Peer Review. The manuscript is sent to two external peer reviewers with a two-week deadline. Once the reviews are received, the author is notified within a maximum of three business days. The author has two weeks to submit the revised version; if the depth of the revisions warrants it, an extension may be requested before the deadline.

If one or both reviewers decline the review, an alternative reviewer is assigned (additional estimated delay: two weeks). When the reviews are contradictory or deemed insufficient, a third reviewer is brought in (estimated additional delay: two weeks). In cases where the reviews diverge, the Editor-in-Chief analyzes both reports and makes the final decision with due justification.

Phase 3 – Academic Validation and Style Editing. The Academic Editor verifies that the corrections have been satisfactorily addressed (approximately one week), and the editorial team reviews the text in terms of linguistics and scientific style (approximately two weeks).

Phase 4 – Production and Publication. The edited proofs are sent to the author for review and approval within five business days. Once approved, the corresponding author signs and submits the Copyright Transfer Agreement. Finally, the article is formatted and published on the OJS platform.

Possible Reviewer Decisions

Reviewers may issue one of the following decisions: accept without changes; Accept with minor revisions; revise and resubmit (major revision, with a new round of evaluation); or reject. Rejection of a manuscript does not allow for resubmission of the same work.

Instructions for Peer Reviewers

By accepting the invitation, the reviewer agrees to issue their report within a maximum of two weeks. If this deadline cannot be met, the reviewer must notify the editorial team in advance. The review report must include: (a) general comments on the manuscript as a whole; (b) specific observations for each section, referencing the corresponding page and paragraph. Suggestions should be constructive and aimed at improving the work; criticisms should be directed at the content, not the author.

Reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest before accepting the review and must abstain from participating if there is a personal, institutional, or financial relationship with any of the authors. The information in the manuscript is strictly confidential and may not be used for personal purposes. If, during the review, evidence of plagiarism, fabricated data, or any other ethical irregularity is detected, the reviewer must immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief.

Open Access Policy

RICIT is an open access journal. All its content is available free of charge and immediately to any reader, without the need for a subscription or prior registration, through the OJS platform.

This journal does not charge authors any fees: there are no submission fees, no article processing fees (APCs), no accelerated review fees, and no other fees related to publication. Access to published content is also completely free for readers. The journal does not foresee establishing any fees in the future.

Authors retain their moral rights to their work and grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish it. They may deposit their articles in institutional or personal repositories (self-archiving), in both preprint and published versions, always citing RICIT as the original source of publication.

License

All articles published in RICIT are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license, which permits sharing and adapting the material under the following terms:

Attribution: Appropriate credit must be given to the original author, indicating the source and a link to the license.

NonCommercial: The material may not be used for commercial purposes without the author's express permission.
ShareAlike: If the material is remixed or transformed, derivative works must be distributed under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

For inquiries regarding special uses or exceptions to the license, please write to: ricit@udet.edu.ec

Editorial Code of Ethics

RICIT's ethical policies are based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the principles of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), where applicable.

For the Editorial Team

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Committee are responsible for the final decision regarding the publication of all received manuscripts. Manuscript evaluation will be based solely on academic merit, regardless of the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, nationality, or political affiliation.

The editorial team will maintain absolute confidentiality regarding received manuscripts and will not disclose any information about them to individuals outside the editorial process. Under no circumstances will the content of unpublished manuscripts be used for the team's own purposes without the author's written consent. The Editor-in-Chief will act promptly upon any complaint of scientific or editorial misconduct, following COPE protocols.

For Authors

Contributions submitted to RICIT must be original and unpublished. Studies submitted to the journal may not be under review by another scientific publication simultaneously; this is a reprehensible practice in the context of disseminating specialized research.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the data, statements, and references contained in the manuscript. Authorship must reflect substantial intellectual contributions; exclusive involvement in fundraising, data collection, or general supervision does not justify authorship. Authors must declare any conflicts of interest and the sources of research funding.

When submitting a contribution, authors are required to explicitly declare that there are no conflicts of interest that could influence the results or their interpretations, and to disclose the sources of funding for their research. When authors discover a significant error in a published work, they are required to notify the Editor-in-Chief and initiate the correction or retraction process.

The following conduct constitutes serious ethical violations and will be addressed in accordance with COPE protocols, potentially resulting in manuscript rejection, retraction, notification to the authors' institutions, or disqualification from future submissions: total or partial plagiarism (including self-plagiarism), fabrication or manipulation of data, fraudulent authorship (gift, ghost, or honorary authorship), simultaneous submission to multiple journals, failure to declare relevant conflicts of interest, and falsification of affiliations or academic credentials.

For Peer Reviewers

By accepting the invitation to review, peer reviewers commit to conducting a rigorous, objective, and constructive review of the manuscript within the established timeframe. Criticisms will be directed at the work, not at the individuals.

Reviewers will treat manuscripts with absolute confidentiality and will not use their content for personal purposes. They will declare any conflicts of interest before accepting the review and will abstain from participating if a personal relationship exists.