Retraction, Withdrawal, and Correction (R-W-C) Policy

Research Integrity & Scholarly Record

A retraction may be issued when published findings are considered unreliable, invalid, or seriously compromised by error or misconduct.

• Fabrication, falsification, major analytical error, or serious miscalculation;
• Manipulated datasets, fabricated system records, or materially unreliable computational results;
• Redundant or duplicate publication;
• Plagiarism, manipulated authorship, or other serious ethical violations;
• Research conducted without required ethical approval or authorization;
• Serious breaches involving confidential, proprietary, organizational, or personal data; or
• Manipulation of peer review or other publication processes.

Retraction notices identify the affected article, explain the reason factually, remain publicly available, and are linked to the original article.

Withdrawal is generally limited to manuscripts that have not yet become the final Version of Record (VoR).

Before Publication

An accepted but unpublished manuscript may be withdrawn in exceptional circumstances, such as duplicate submission, major errors that invalidate the results, serious problems in datasets or system analysis, or substantial ethical or authorship violations.

After Publication

Removal of a Version of Record is strongly discouraged and considered only in exceptional circumstances involving legal requirements, privacy or security concerns, serious confidentiality breaches, copyright and intellectual-property violations, or other compelling reasons. A withdrawal notice and relevant bibliographic metadata will normally remain available.

An Expression of Concern may be issued when serious questions have been raised about a published article but sufficient evidence for a correction or retraction is not yet available. This may include unresolved concerns involving datasets, information-system records, software outputs, computational models, research integrity, data authorization, or ethical compliance. The notice may later be updated or replaced following the outcome of the investigation.

Corrections are published when an error affects the accuracy, interpretation, or discoverability of an article but does not invalidate its principal findings.

• Minor factual, numerical, data-presentation, or analytical errors;
• Incorrect author, affiliation, title, DOI-related, or other metadata;
• Errors in tables, figures, diagrams, system descriptions, or model specifications that do not alter the main conclusions;
• Missing acknowledgments or funding information; or
• Missing or incomplete ethical, data-availability, or conflict-of-interest declarations.

Articles already assigned to an issue normally receive a separate correction notice linked to the original publication. Minor typographical changes that do not alter meaning generally do not require a formal correction.