Article Retraction & Withdrawal

Article Withdrawal

Authors may request to withdraw a manuscript before it has been accepted for publication by sending a written request signed by all authors to the editor, stating the reason for withdrawal. Withdrawal after acceptance is permitted only for serious reasons, such as a fundamental error discovered by the authors. There is no fee for withdrawal.

Article Retraction

Published articles are retracted, following COPE retraction guidelines, when there is clear evidence that:

• the findings are unreliable due to major error, data fabrication, or falsification;
• the article constitutes plagiarism or redundant (duplicate) publication;
• the article reports unethical research or violates copyright;
• authorship or peer review was manipulated.

Retracted articles remain available online but are clearly marked as "Retracted", and a retraction notice explaining the reason is published and linked to the original article.

Corrections

Minor errors that do not affect the conclusions of an article are corrected by publishing an erratum or corrigendum linked to the original article.