Instructions for withdrawing or correcting articles, publishing corrections, apologies, rebuttals
Instructions for withdrawing or correcting articles
Journal editors should consider withrdowing a publication if:
- they have clear evidence of the unreliability of the published information, which arose either as a result of conscious actions (for example, falsification of data);
- the article was previously published in another publication, and there are no proper citations, permissions and justifications for the need for republishing (i.e. cases of duplicate publication);
- in case of plagiarism;
- describes unethical research.
Revocation notices must:
- be clearly identified as revocation (that is, distinct from other types of amendments and comments);
- be withdrawn as soon as possible in order to minimize the negative consequences of false publications;
- indicate who is retracting the article;
- indicate the reasons for the withdrawal (distinguish conscious misconduct from conscientious errors)
The main purpose of reviews is to correct information and ensure its integrity, not to punish authors who have committed violations.
Articles may be retracted by their author(s) or the editor of the journal. The editor-in-chief/ responsible editor makes the final decision to withdraw the article. Publications must be retracted immediately after the editor of the journal is convinced that the publication has serious violations and contains deliberately false information (or is duplicate or plagiarism).
Journal editors should consider filing revisions if:
- a small fraction of an otherwise good publication turns out to be unreliable (especially due to conscientious errors);
- the list of authors contains errors (i.e., it does not contain one who is worthy of being an author, or it included a person who did not meet the criteria for authorship), but there is no reason to doubt the validity of the article’s content.
Publication of corrections, apologies, denials
- The editors of the journal are responsible for all published materials and undertake to ensure their high quality and reliability.
- The editors of the journal are always ready to publish corrections, explanations, apologies and rebuttals regarding the material published in the journal issues, if necessary.
- The journal does not leave unanswered claims regarding reviewed manuscripts.
- If a conflict situation is identified, the editors will take all measures to restore the violated rights.
- Journal editors should consider retracting the publication.