Advisory Board

The Advisory board is a body composed of researchers of recognized standing responsible for helping to define the journal’s scientific and editorial policies. Its main functions include:

• Overseeing the quality and academic integrity of the publications.
• Supporting the evaluation and indexing processes and issuing recommendations to strengthen the journal’s national and international standing.
• Supporting the Editor-in-Chief in decision-making.
• Establish and update the journal’s mission and vision, scope of topics, and priority areas for publication.
• Ensures that the journal maintains standards of scientific, ethical, and editorial quality in line with international criteria and scientific indexing and publication. To this end, the board may periodically review editorial metrics, analyze the quality of published articles, evaluate the overall performance of the editorial process, and issue recommendations for continuous improvement.
• May participate in the development, review, and approval of policies on issues such as editorial ethics, conflicts of interest, plagiarism and similarity, and the use of artificial intelligence, among others.
• May propose strategies to strengthen internationalization, increase the geographic diversity of authors and reviewers, and strengthen academic networks.
• May issue recommendations on scientific integrity, editorial practices, and conflict resolution.

Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief chairs the Advisory Board and is responsible for overseeing the entire editorial process, making final decisions on manuscripts, ensuring the scientific and ethical quality of publications, coordinating the Editorial Board, and representing the journal at an institutional level before academic bodies and national and international indexing systems. Specifically, the Editor-in-Chief has following responsibilities and functions:

• Ensures compliance with the journal’s editorial policies, ethical guidelines, and scientific quality standards.
• Coordinates and oversees the journal’s entire editorial process in an integral manner, from manuscript receipt through final publication.
• Is responsible for making the final decision on manuscripts submitted to the journal, based on peer reviews, the recommendations of the Editorial Board, scientific relevance, and the journal’s editorial and ethical policies. Editorial decisions must be based on academic, scientific, and ethical criteria.
• Ensures that published articles meet adequate standards of originality, methodological rigor, scientific quality, academic integrity, clarity of writing, and thematic relevance. Also oversees the quality of the peer review, editing, and publication processes.
• Handles situations related to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data or image manipulation, conflicts of interest, authorship issues, inadequate use of artificial intelligence, redundant publication, and other scientific or editorial misconduct. To this end, the Editor-in-Chief may request support from the Editorial Board or the Advisory Board when the complexity of the case warrants it.
• Organizes and supervises the activities of the Editorial Board and the Section editors. Additionally, may assign specific responsibilities and monitor editorial performance.
• Manages interactions with the Institutional Journals Coordination Office (CORI, by its Spanish acronym), the body responsible for the processes of style editing, translation, layout, and final publication of manuscripts.
• Promotes strategies aimed at increasing scientific quality, strengthening international visibility, expanding the geographic diversity of authors and reviewers, improving editorial metrics, boosting indexing, and consolidating the journal’s academic prestige.
• Ensures that the journal adheres to its publication schedule, maintains reasonable review deadlines, publishes articles in a timely manner, and maintains a consistent editorial workflow. It also implements strategies to improve editorial efficiency.
• May propose the implementation of policies related to editorial ethics, peer review, artificial intelligence, open access, digital preservation, retractions, and corrections, open science, and the use of research data.
• Promotes ongoing evaluation and improvement processes related to editorial quality, peer review performance, editorial professionalization, technological tools, training for reviewers and editors, and the updating of international standards.

Editorial Board

The Editorial Board is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the journal’s editorial process. Its functions include:

• Assisting in the definition and strengthening of the journal’s editorial policies.
• Participating in the review and academic evaluation of manuscripts in accordance with their area of expertise. Conducting a preliminary evaluation of manuscripts to verify thematic relevance, initial scientific quality, originality, compliance with editorial standards, methodological consistency, and suitability for the journal’s scope.
• Proposing specialized reviewers and contributing to ensuring the scientific and ethical quality of publications. This includes the preliminary review, selection, and assignment of reviewers, ensuring thematic expertise, institutional and geographic diversity, the absence of conflicts of interest, and the academic quality of the peer review process; monitoring the peer review process; communicating with authors; and verifying compliance with editorial policies.
• Ensure that the peer review process is confidential, impartial, and technically sound, and that it is conducted in accordance with the journal’s editorial and ethical policies. The editor may also request additional reviews when there are conflicting or insufficient reviews.
• Recommend or issue decisions regarding the manuscript based on the peer review reports. Decisions must be based on academic, scientific, and ethical criteria.
• Address cases of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, manipulation of images or data, authorship disputes, conflicts of interest, misuse of artificial intelligence, redundant publication, and other scientific or editorial misconduct. In complex cases, the editor may request the intervention or advice of the Editorial Board.
• Supports updates related to author guidelines, review formats, editorial policies, technological tools, editorial management, scientific integrity, and the use of artificial intelligence.
• May analyze metrics such as review time, publication time, acceptance rate, authors’ country of origin, reviewer performance, review quality, and publication frequency. Based on this, improvement measures can be implemented.
• Promote the journal’s visibility within academic and scientific networks.
• Make recommendations aimed at strengthening the publication’s prestige and impact.
• Collaborate in identifying emerging topics and proposals for special issues.

Section Editors

Section Editors are responsible for coordinating the evaluation and scientific review of manuscripts assigned to their areas of expertise. Their specific duties include:

• Oversee the editorial process for manuscripts assigned to their areas of expertise. This includes a preliminary review of the manuscript, an assessment of its thematic relevance, an initial evaluation of its scientific quality, and a recommendation regarding whether to send it for peer review.
• Identify and propose expert reviewers, ensuring scientific expertise in the subject area, institutional and geographic diversity, the absence of conflicts of interest, and the academic quality of the peer review. They may also follow up on the acceptance of invitations and adherence to review deadlines.
• Verify that the peer review process is technically sound, that confidentiality is maintained, that it is conducted according to the double-blind model, and that ethical and scientific standards are met. They may also request clarifications or additional reviews when the reviews are insufficient, contradictory, or poorly substantiated.
• Assess the consistency among the reviews, the technical quality of the evaluations, the relevance of the comments, and the scientific feasibility of the requested modifications. Based on this, they may issue an editorial recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief.
• They may review revised versions of manuscripts to verify that authors have adequately addressed the reviewers’ comments. When necessary, they may return the manuscript for further review.
• Based on a comprehensive analysis of the manuscript and the peer reviews, the Editors and Associate Editors may recommend acceptance, acceptance with minor revisions, reconsideration after major revisions, or rejection. The final decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief.
• Attend meetings convened by the Editorial Board.
• Other activities related to the Journal.

Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring the originality, authenticity, scientific integrity, and ethical validity of the manuscript submitted to the journal. They must ensure the correct citation of sources, disclose any potential conflicts of interest and the use of artificial intelligence tools, respond promptly to editorial comments, and comply with the ethical and editorial policies established by the journal, in accordance with the provisions of the Submission Guidelines.

They specifically have the responsibilities described below.

• Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is an original and unpublished work, made in accordance with ethically acceptable scientific and academic practices. Likewise, they must guarantee that the manuscript has not been previously published, is not simultaneously submitted to another journal, and does not constitute a partial or total duplication of previously published works.
• They are responsible for the accuracy, authenticity, and reliability of the data, results, analyses, figures, tables, images, and conclusions presented in the manuscript.
• They must ensure that the research was conducted in accordance with applicable ethical principles, including, where applicable, bioethics, animal welfare, informed consent, responsible management of biological resources, environmental regulations, and relevant institutional authorizations. When necessary, they must provide documentary evidence of ethical approvals or official permits.
• Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, commercial, professional, or personal relationships, that could influence the interpretation or evaluation of the manuscript. The disclosure of conflicts of interest must be presented transparently throughout the editorial process.
• Authors must properly cite all sources used in the making of the manuscript in accordance with the instructions in the Author Guidelines. Furthermore, they must avoid plagiarism, excessive self-plagiarism, the misuse of protected materials, and the unauthorized reproduction of content. All information taken from other works must be clearly referenced in accordance with the journal’s editorial style.
• Authors must explicitly state when generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools were used during the preparation of the manuscript, indicating the type of tool and the role it played. They will be fully responsible for content generated or assisted by artificial intelligence, including scientific accuracy, academic integrity, writing quality, references used, and the absence of false or fabricated information. Artificial intelligence may not be listed as an author of the manuscript.
• Only those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the research and the preparation of the manuscript should be listed as authors. Indicating their role in the work, an author is recognized as someone who has made substantial contributions to the work such as the conception or design of the research, the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, the drafting of the manuscript, or critical review with relevant intellectual contributions.
• All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript, agree to its submission to the journal, and take public responsibility for its content.
• Honorary authorship, fictitious authorship, guest authorship, and the unjustified exclusion of relevant contributors are not permitted.
• Furthermore, authors are responsible for the integrity and accuracy of the content submitted.
• Authors must respond to comments from reviewers and editors in a clear, professional, and well-reasoned manner. They must also submit the requested revisions within the deadlines set by the journal.
• Authors must maintain respectful and transparent communication with the editorial team and provide additional information when requested for the evaluation, verification, or editing of the manuscript.
• If, after publication, the authors identify significant errors in the article, they must immediately notify the journal and cooperate in issuing corrections, clarifications, errata, or retractions as appropriate.
• The corresponding author will be responsible for coordinating communication with the journal, verifying that all authors approve the submission, ensuring consent for co-authorship, submitting the required documentation, and promptly communicating editorial decisions to the rest of the author group.

Institutional Journals Coordination Office (CORI)

The Institutional Journals Coordination Office (CORI) is the unit attached to the General Directorate of Research, Graduate Studies, and Services (DGIPS) at the Chapingo Autonomous University responsible for coordinating, supporting, and supervising the editorial, technical, and scientific production processes of the Revista Chapingo Serie Agricultura Tropical (RChSAT), as well as other institutional journals. Its functions include:

• Coordinates the technical and editorial activities necessary to transform an accepted manuscript into a publishable scientific article. This role includes organizing and overseeing the processes following editorial acceptance, ensuring that articles meet scientific, linguistic, editorial, and technical standards prior to publication.
• Responsible for providing and maintaining the technological infrastructure used for the editorial management of the institutional journals. Assists in the administration of electronic manuscript submission systems; provides technical support to authors, reviewers, and editors; maintains the operation of editorial platforms; and safeguards the integrity of editorial information.
• Participates in the implementation of mechanisms that ensure the scientific and editorial quality of publications. These include similarity checks using specialized software; verification of compliance with editorial standards; monitoring of peer-review procedures; and application of international standards for scientific publication.
• The journal’s specialized staff performs stylistic editing of manuscripts accepted for publication. This process aims to improve the clarity of the language, correct grammatical and spelling errors, standardize scientific writing, and ensure editorial consistency across articles.
• The journal is responsible for providing the necessary translations so that articles can be published in Spanish and English. All contributions are published in both languages, and the translations are carried out by specialized staff at no cost to the authors. This process involves specialized scientific translation, terminology review, alignment of bilingual versions, and linguistic quality control.
• The publisher handles typesetting—carried out by specialized staff—the creation of galley proofs, the final typesetting review, the integration of metadata, and the preparation of files for electronic publication. These activities are a natural part of the editorial production process following the acceptance of the manuscript.
• Participates in the assignment and management of permanent digital identifiers (DOIs) for published articles. This function helps ensure that articles remain permanently accessible, facilitates the retrieval of citations, improves interoperability among scientific platforms, and enhances the international visibility of publications.
• CORI is responsible for publishing and making the journal’s approved articles available to the scientific community. This includes open-access electronic publication, maintaining the journal’s website (Chapingo Journal of Tropical Agriculture Series), updating content, disseminating issues and articles, and digitally preserving published materials.
• Coordinates the journal under an open-access model with a Creative Commons license. As such, its responsibilities include ensuring free access to content, monitoring compliance with publishing licenses, and promoting the free flow of scientific knowledge.
• Participates in activities related to publishing standards, compliance with database criteria, metadata enhancement, digital interoperability, and the improvement of publishing metrics.
• Actively addresses disputes and inappropriate conduct at every stage of the editorial process. This includes issues related to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, conflicts of interest, false authorship, fabrication or manipulation of data, manipulation of images, and other breaches of scientific integrity.