Correction and Retraction Policy

The Journal recognises the importance of the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record to researchers, authors and the wider academic community. Unintentional errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a notification or correction when they are detected. We adhere to the highest standards to maintain the trust in and correctness of our electronic archive. Our publications operate according to the below treatment guidelines for making corrections to scholarly published material:

 

1. Article Correction

A Correction Notice will be issued when it is necessary to correct an error or omission which can impact the interpretation of the article, but where the scholarly integrity of the article remains intact. Examples include mislabeling of a figure, missing key information on funding or competing interests of the authors. The Journal will consider issuing a correction if a small part of an otherwise reliable publication reports flawed data or proves to be misleading, especially if this is the result of unintentional error.

Corrections to peer-reviewed content fall into one of three categories:

  • Publisher correction (erratum)
    Notify readers of an important error made by publishing/journal staff (usually a production error) that has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.

  • Author correction (corrigendum)
    Notify readers of an important error made by the Authors which has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.

  • Addendum
    An addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main work when significant additional information crucial to the reader’s understanding of the article has come to light following the publication of the article.


The decision whether a correction should be issued is made by our editorial board sometimes. Handling editors will contact the corresponding author of the article concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and if so which type rests with the editors. Corrections to published articles are bi-directionally linked to and from the article being corrected and are represented by a formal notice both on the PDF- and HTML- version of the article concerned.

 

2. Article Retraction

A Retraction Notice will be issued when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing to errors in the academic conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction. Authors and institutions may request a retraction of their articles if their reasons meet the criteria for retraction. The Journal will consider retracting a publication if:

  • It contains infringements of Academic Misconduct Policy and professional ethical codes, such as academic misconduct, research misconduct, multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc.
  • It contains major errors (e.g. miscalculations or experimental errors) or the main conclusion is no longer valid or seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light of which author(s) were not aware at the time of publication.

The Journal shall determine based on investigation whether a retraction is required and, in such cases, shall act in accordance with COPE’s Retraction Guidelines and best practice for article retraction developed by other scholarly bodies. 

  • In the electronic version, a link is added to the original article.
  • The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note; it is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
  • The original article is retained unchanged except for a watermark which is included on each page of the article PDF indicating that it has been “retracted”.
  • The HTML version of the document is removed.

Note that the author’s institution may be informed. A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

 

3. Article Withdrawal

Withdrawal of articles is only used in exceptional circumstances for early versions of articles which have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published yet (“articles in press”). Early versions may contain errors, may have accidentally been submitted twice or may be in violation of the journal’s publishing ethics guidelines (e.g. multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc.).

In such situations, especially in case of legal/ethical violations or false/inaccurate data which could pose a detrimental risk if used, it may be decided to withdraw the early version of the article from our electronic platform.

The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance, and these policies on retractions and withdrawals still apply in such cases.

 

4. Article Removal

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove a published article from our online platform. This will only happen if an article is clearly defamatory, or infringes others’ legal rights, or where the article is, or we have good reason to expect that it will be, the subject of a court order, or where the article, if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk. In such circumstances, while the metadata (i.e. title and author information) of the article will be retained, the text will be replaced with a screen indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.