Corrections, Retractions, Withdrawal

Corrections

Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Matters of the debate are best handled as letters to the editor, as print or electronic correspondence, or as posts in a journal-sponsored online forum. Updates of previous publications (e.g., an updated systematic review or clinical guideline) are considered a new publication rather than a version of a previously published article.

If a correction is needed, journals should follow these minimum standards:

  • The journal should publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication; the correction should be on an electronic or numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a print Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing.
  • The journal also should post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made.
  • The journal should archive all prior versions of the article. This archive can be either directly accessible to readers or can be made available to the reader on request.
  • Previous electronic versions should prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article.
  • The citation should be to the most recent version.

Pervasive errors can result from a coding problem or a miscalculation and may result in extensive inaccuracies throughout an article. If such errors do not change the direction or significance of the results, interpretations, and conclusions of the article, a correction should be published that follows the minimum standards noted above.

Errors serious enough to invalidate a paper's results and conclusions may require retraction. However, retraction with republication (also referred to as “replacement”) can be considered in cases where the honest error (e.g., a misclassification or miscalculation) leads to a major change in the direction or significance of the results, interpretations, and conclusions. If the error is judged to be unintentional, the underlying science appears valid, and the changed version of the paper survives further review and editorial scrutiny, then retraction with the republication of the changed paper, with an explanation, allows full correction of the scientific literature. In such cases, it is helpful to show the extent of the changes in supplementary material or in an appendix, for complete transparency.

                                                                                                                                                

Retractions

The retraction is a public statement made about an earlier statement that will be removed from the journal. The retraction may be initiated by the journal's editors or by the author(s) of the paper. However, since the editors are responsible for the journal's content, they always decide to retract the material. The journal editors may retract publications even if all or some authors refuse to retract the publication.

When should a publication be retracted?

Only published items can be retracted. Publications should be retracted as soon as possible when the journal editors are convinced that the publication is seriously flawed and misleading (or is redundant or plagiarized).

What Are the Compelling Reasons?

  • Plagiarism
  • Bogus claims of authorship
  • Multiple submission
  • Fraudulent use of data
  • Infringements of professional, ethical codes
  • Redundant publication
  • Failure to disclose a significant competing interest

Should retraction be applied in cases of disputed authorship?

Authors sometimes request that articles be retracted when authorship is disputed after publication. If there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings or the reliability of the data, it is not appropriate to retract a publication solely for an authorship dispute. In such cases, the journal editor should inform those who are involved in the conflict that s/he cannot adjudicate in such cases, but they may be willing to publish a correction to the author/contributor list if the authors/contributors (or their institutions) provide appropriate proof that such a change is justified.

Article Retraction Process in Briefland Journals

  • A retraction note entitled "Retraction: [article title]" signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
  • In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
  • The original article is retained unchanged, saving for a watermark on the .pdf file version on each page to indicate that it is "retracted."
  • The HTML version of the document is removed. Only the abstract will have remained.

Retraction Fee

The retraction has no separate fee. A retracted article is a published article, and consequently "article acceptance fee" will be applied to retracted articles. 

                                                                                                                                                

Withdrawal

Thanks to the important role of editor chiefs in accepting or rejecting an article, there are rare cases of published articles that need a sort of a retraction at a later date or a disclaimer made concerning its content. Such a decision is only made after careful consideration of the individual case and is the result of sound and conscientious evaluation on the part of the Editor in Chief.

Article withdrawal is applied to submitted papers either within the peer review process or accepted for publication that is for the moment only available in a pre-publication form (“Early Release or Ahead of Print”). These sometimes contain errors or are articles that may have already been published and then mistakenly resubmitted for publication elsewhere. In rarer cases, these papers may not observe established ethical requirements, there may be some inconsistency in the declaration of authors’ contributions, or data may have been presented the integrity of which may be in doubt, etc. Articles may also be retracted to allow authors’ to correct any errors that had not been identified before submission.

Withdrawal is an action that takes the manuscript out of the review process and places it back into the author's dashboard. In General, we do not suggest the article withdrawal, since it wastes valuable manuscript processing time, cost, and work spent by the publisher.

Withdrawal Steps

  • Pre-Review is the period at which the author(s) submit(s) her/his article until it is sent for review. The author(s) can withdraw their papers at this step without paying any charges and/or posing compelling reasons.
  • Peer-Review: is a period at which the manuscript is submitted completely to the website and is included in the review process. The authors must have compelling reasons and pay 400.000 IDR as the withdrawal penalty.
  • Review-Final Decision: this is a period from the acceptance of an article until it is sent for publication if the article meets the journal standards. The authors must have their compelling reasons and pay 400.000 IDR as the withdrawal penalty.
  • Post-Publication: when a paper is published (online and/or hard copy). Withdrawing at this step is not possible at all.