Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy

Revista Científica El Capacho, published by the Universidad Tecnológica del Cibao Oriental (UTECO), holds that the quality of science depends on who takes part in it and on which questions are deemed worth investigating. A journal that excludes, even unintentionally, impoverishes its own content. This policy sets out the specific commitments the journal makes on gender equality, diversity and inclusion, both in how it operates editorially and in what it requires of the work it publishes.

Non-Discrimination in the Editorial Process

Editorial decisions rest exclusively on the academic merit of the manuscript: its originality, methodological rigour, the validity of its results and its relevance. Neither the editorial team nor reviewers may base their judgements on the sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnic or national origin, first language, religion, political convictions, migration status, social class, institutional affiliation or country of origin of those who sign.

The double-blind peer review the journal practises is itself a measure of equity: by concealing authorship from reviewers it reduces the weight of reputation, institution and origin in the assessment of the work. For that reason the journal requires manuscripts to arrive anonymised and admits no exceptions.

The journal pays particular attention to the geographical and institutional origin of what it publishes. Being a Dominican journal published from a regional university obliges it not to reproduce the hierarchies it suffers itself: work coming from small institutions, from countries with less presence in international indexes, or written by people whose first language is not English will not be penalised on that account. Shortcomings in writing are flagged for what they are, a correctable matter, and not as grounds for rejection.

Composition of the Editorial Body and of Review

The journal undertakes to actively pursue gender balance and institutional, geographical and disciplinary diversity in the composition of its Editorial Committee, Scientific Council and Editorial Board, as well as in the selection of reviewers. That commitment translates into three practices: deliberately broadening the pool of available reviewers in each field, reviewing the composition of the editorial bodies whenever a renewal takes place, and publishing the full membership of those bodies with each person's name, affiliation, country and ORCID identifier, so that anyone may verify the outcome.

The journal recognises that its present composition shows imbalances and undertakes to correct them progressively at successive renewals, without sacrificing the academic competence each function requires.

Sex and Gender in Research Content

Where research involves people, animals or biological samples of human or animal origin, manuscripts must report the sex and, where relevant, the gender of the population studied, and present disaggregated results wherever the sample size allows. If the study was deliberately confined to a single sex or gender, that decision must be justified. If the variable was not collected, this must be declared as a limitation of the study.

The journal adopts the SAGER guidelines (Sex and Gender Equity in Research) as its reference for reporting this information. Authors are expected to distinguish properly between sex, as a set of biological attributes, and gender, as a social construct, and not to use the two terms interchangeably.

Language

The journal requires language that neither renders people invisible nor stereotypes them. In practice this means avoiding the generic masculine where natural alternatives exist, not attributing characteristics to people on the basis of their sex or gender where this is irrelevant to the argument, and designating human groups by the terms they themselves use.

This criterion is applied with a sense of proportion: the journal does not impose forms that impede reading nor substitute its judgement for the writer's, and what it requires is clarity and respect, not adherence to any particular formula.

Author Name Change

Authors who change their name, for any reason —including gender transition, marriage or divorce, or reasons of personal safety— may request that their name be corrected in articles already published in the journal. The request will be handled with the following guarantees: the text of the article, its metadata on the platform and those deposited with Crossref and the indexes will be updated; no corrigendum, correction notice or any other note making the change visible will be published; and the request will be treated confidentially, without requiring documentary proof of the reason or the consent of the other signatories.

Requests should be sent to elcapacho@uteco.edu.do. The journal is aware that the previous version may persist in third-party copies beyond its control and will say so to anyone who asks, but will correct everything within its reach.

Accessibility

The journal publishes in HTML and PDF and works to make its content usable by people who rely on screen readers. To that end it requires figures to carry descriptive alternative text, tables to be marked up as tables and not as images, graphical elements to have sufficient contrast, and information not to be conveyed by colour alone. These requirements are set out in the Article Submission guide.

Complaints

Anyone who considers they have suffered discriminatory treatment at any stage of the editorial process —including receiving a review report with biased or disrespectful comments— may address their complaint to elcapacho@uteco.edu.do, for the attention of the journal's Director. Receipt of the complaint will be acknowledged within five working days and it will be resolved with reasons given. Where the complaint concerns the Director, it will be referred to the relevant academic authority of UTECO.

The journal reserves the right to remove from its pool of reviewers anyone who issues discriminatory reports, and to halt the editorial process of a manuscript whose content is discriminatory.

Entry into Force and Review

This policy applies to manuscripts received on or after its date of publication and to the editorial operation of the journal from that same date. The commitments made here will be reviewed periodically, and the journal will publish any changes it introduces.

See also the Ethical Standards, the Peer Review Process and the composition of the Editorial Team.

Approved and published in September 2026.