Article Retraction Policy
1. General Provisions
Retraction (withdrawal) of an article is a widely recognized mechanism for correcting the scientific record and informing the scientific community about publications whose results or conclusions are unreliable. The purpose of retraction is to ensure the integrity and reliability of the scientific record, not to punish authors.
The retraction policy s based on the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and applies to all materials published in scientific periodicals, regardless of their distribution format (online or print).
2. Grounds for Article Retraction
The editorial board may decide to retract an article when confidence in the reliability of its results and conclusions is lost. Such a situation may arise due to significant methodological, statistical, or experimental errors, falsification or fabrication of data, as well as manipulation of images or other research materials.
Grounds for retraction also include violations of publication ethics, in particular plagiarism, unacceptable textual borrowing, duplicate or redundant publication, as well as the use of materials or data without proper authorization.
Retraction may be applied in cases of compromise of the peer review or publication process, including fake peer review, authorship manipulation, or systematic violations of editorial procedures. Separate grounds include non-compliance with research ethical standards, in particular violations of the rights of research participants, as well as a significant undisclosed conflict of interest that may have influenced the interpretation of results.
Legal grounds, including copyright infringement, defamation, or breach of confidentiality, may also necessitate the retraction of an article.
3. Cases Where Retraction Does Not Apply
Retraction is not appropriate if identified errors can be corrected by publishing a Correction without affecting the main results and conclusions of the article.
In cases where the editorial board does not have sufficient evidence for a final decision, an Expression of Concern notice may be published.
4. Initiation and Adoption of a Retraction Decision
The retraction procedure may be initiated by authors, readers, research institutions, or the journal’s editorial board. The final decision is made by the editor-in-chief in accordance with the principle of editorial independence. Where there are justified grounds, retraction may be carried out regardless of the authors’ consent.
5. Communication with Authors
Before publishing a retraction notice, the editorial board informs all authors of the reasons and grounds for the relevant decision and provides them with the opportunity to submit explanations or additional materials. The editorial board emphasizes that the purpose of retraction is to protect the scientific record, not to establish the guilt of the authors.
6. Form and Content of the Retraction Notice
The retraction notice must be clear, objective, and free from accusatory tone. It must include the title of the article, names of the authors, DOI, a clear statement of the reason for retraction, and information about the party that initiated the procedure. The notice is freely accessible to all readers.
The retracted article is retained in the journal archive indefinitely, clearly marked as “RETRACTED” in all formats (PDF, HTML, metadata), and linked by hyperlink to the corresponding retraction notice.
7. Types of Retraction
Depending on the circumstances, the journal may apply full retraction, retract and replace, retraction with content removal in exceptional legal or ethical cases, as well as batch retraction in cases of systematic violations.
8. Indexing and Information Dissemination
The editorial board ensures the transmission of retraction information to bibliographic and scientometric databases, as well as the correct display of the article’s status in all versions of the journal.
9. Familiarization with the Policy
By submitting a manuscript to the scientific periodical publication, authors automatically confirm that they have read this Policy and undertake to comply with its provisions.
Similarly, all participants in the editorial process – peer reviewers, members of the editorial board – confirm their familiarization with the Policy and their commitment to comply with its provisions.