Editorial Policy Adjustments

We have made some editorial adjustments to address the increased demand, as it is impossible to review and potentially publish every submission. Therefore, a preliminary selection of articles was made by the Editorial Team based on the following criteria. Articles rejected at this initial stage do not necessarily lack quality standards, but rather we believe they are not currently among our editorial priorities. Our rejection rate has risen to almost 75% in the last three months.

These priorities are:

  1. For theoretical reviews, priority will be given to those from quantitative systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses, as well as scoping reviews (PRISMA, AMSTAR-2, MOOSE, REGEMA). Narrative reviews may also be submitted, but will be subject to the above criteria. All other reviews must be submitted to the publisher for approval before submission. Those submitted without prior approval will be automatically rejected.
  2. Articles within the section “Teaching Experiences Developed and Researched with Empirical Work” will only be accepted if their applications have been evaluated. Proposals that have NOT been implemented and DO NOT contain implementation results will be rejected. Research protocols are not accepted.
  3. In the section “Scientific Articles: Basic and/or Applied Research,” we will prioritize randomized empirical studies and those that present multivariate analyses. Purely descriptive articles must be of interest and justified; otherwise, they will be rejected unless previously authorized by the editor. National surveys may be submitted and published.
  4. We are particularly sensitive to plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Articles with significant plagiarism will be rejected. Ideally, plagiarism should not exceed 15%, excluding bibliographic references. This should be taken as a guideline; if the percentage is higher, it will be reviewed by the editor, who will make a final decision after analyzing the article as a whole. Authors may request acceptance with a higher percentage if they provide justification. Reviewers will use various plagiarism detection programs throughout the text evaluation process. Authors who violate this rule will be banned from submitting articles to the journal Retos for five years. Authors who have used artificial intelligence must indicate which applications and in which processes and sections it was used. The journal will use the Turnitin anti-plagiarism program just before final publication.
  5. We also wish to emphasize our strongest condemnation of unethical editorial practices, which the journal Retos has consistently rejected since its inception and continues to uphold. We continue to uphold our editorial policy of transparency and quality in the editing process for all articles. All articles undergo blind peer review, the list of reviewers is public, and no article is published without the approval and acceptance of all reviewers. Only articles that align with the journal's editorial guidelines are accepted. We publish articles only after all established deadlines, timelines, and processes have been met with absolute precision. We are committed to quality and legitimacy. Our ultimate goal remains to promote, preserve, and disseminate knowledge; this is how we began, and this is how we continue.
  6. The article must address topics of interest to the journal and the global scientific community (submissions addressing local issues must be of a high standard to be considered; otherwise, they will be rejected without review).
  7. The article must be a rigorous work that adheres to the fundamental standards of the scientific and academic fields of physical activity, sports, rehabilitation, nutrition, and health sciences.
  8. The article has a concise but informative title in both Spanish and English, consisting of no more than two lines (no more than 20 words, although 12 to 15 words are recommended).
  9. The article includes an abstract, keywords, and the rest of the paper's structure. Both the abstract and keywords must be provided in Spanish and English, translated accurately by a native speaker who will certify the translation and confirm its grammatical correctness.
  10. Research papers have a structure with the following sections: introduction, materials and methods, analysis and results, discussion, conclusions, and references.
  11. Bibliographic references follow APA 7th Edition guidelines.
  12. All references, where possible, should include their corresponding DOI, which can be verified at https://crossref.org/.
  13. References are up-to-date and relevant to the topic addressed. They should not contain superfluous references. References unrelated to the article's topic or the context in which they are cited are prohibited.
  14. Self-citations should not exceed 10% of the total references used. Only in cases of genuine necessity may they exceed this percentage, and permission must be obtained from the journal editor. Citations to the journal Retos should be carefully considered; only those necessary for the complete accuracy of the submitted work should be used. We will closely monitor these aspects and will reject articles that make unjustified use of self-citations of any kind, or will retract them if the discovery is made after publication. Authors must ensure that all citations and references correspond to the article text and do not include references unrelated to the article's topic or the context in which they are cited. Any such references detected after publication will result in the article's retraction. Similarly, it is necessary to verify that the reference links are functional and correspond to the referenced article. If a violation is reported and verified, the article will be retracted from the journal for poor practices.
  15. All submissions must have the authorization of all contributors. The journal is not responsible for authors' poor practices, such as excluding contributors, including authors who did not actively participate in the work, or improperly claiming authorship. Once submitted, the author list cannot be changed. Any such violations will result in a five-year ban on all authors submitting articles to the journal Retos.
  16. Starting in 2025, Retos will strive, to the extent possible, to ensure that each issue contains no more than one article signed as first author and another in which they are listed as co-author. In any case, in a single year, an author may not have published more than 1.5% of the total articles published by the journal. The list of authors will be published alphabetically in each issue, indicating the number of articles each author has contributed, to comply with this requirement and ensure transparency.
  17. Starting in 2025, the maximum number of authors per article is limited to eight. If a research project requires more authors, a letter should be sent to the journal editor explaining the need for additional authors. This request will be reviewed by the Editorial Team based on its scope, and a decision will be communicated to the authors.
  18. From November 1, 2024, articles must be submitted using the article submission template found at https://revistaretos.org/index.php/retos/Plantilla

Updated July 20, 2026