Retraction of a paper is a formal procedure that is used in cases of violations of academic integrity, publication ethics or significant errors that affect the reliability of research results. Retraction is carried out in accordance with international standards (COPE Retraction Guidelines) and journal policy. The decision to retract the paper is made by the editorial board after a review.
The purpose of retraction is to correct the published information and ensure the integrity of scientific publications. Retraction can be initiated by authors, journal editorial staff, academic or educational institutions, readers or authorized persons.
Reasons for the paper retraction:
- established fact of plagiarism or unlawful appropriation of material;
- duplicate publication of the same material without proper citation;
- detection of unauthorized use of artificial intelligence technologies (without citation or justification) during the writing of the paper or in the generation of graphs, tables, or other visual materials;
- failure to disclose a conflict of interest that affects the interpretation of results;
- established fact of incorrect determination of authorship (inclusion of “fictitious” authors or exclusion of real co-authors);
- published results contain significant scientific or technical errors that distort the conclusions;
- concealment of the use of artificial intelligence contrary to the journal’s policy;
- other reasons specified by the authors (in cases where retraction is initiated by the authors themselves).
The person initiating the retraction submits an application in written form to the editorial office with justification for the retraction reasons. The application is accompanied by evidence confirming the need for the retraction.
The editor-in-chief, together with the editorial board, conducts an initial review of the application. If necessary, the editor-in-chief establishes a commission of three independent experts. The commission conducts a comprehensive analysis of the material and evidence. The commission carries out a comprehensive analysis of the material and evidence. The authors of the paper are given the opportunity to provide their explanations. The review period shall not exceed 30 calendar days.
Following the analysis, the editorial board adopts one of the following decisions: to reject the retraction request as unfounded; to propose that the authors publish a correction; to recommend the complete retraction of the paper. The decision is made by majority vote of the commission members.
In the event of a retraction decision, the paper is marked as “retracted” in all versions of the journal; a retraction notice indicating the reasons and the effective date of the decision is published; the notice contains a reference to the original paper; and bibliographic databases are notified of the retraction.
The author(s) receive a written notification of the reasons and consequences of the retraction. The applicant (if not the author) is informed of the editorial decision.
Authors have the right to appeal the commission’s decision and to publish a comment on the retraction decision. The appeal is considered by the editor-in-chief and independent experts, whose decision is final, within 14 days.