Article retraction and Expression of Concern

According to the COPE Retraction Guidelines that journal adheres to, an article may be retracted for the following reasons:

  1. Unreliable conclusions based on clear evidence of misconduct (eg, fraudulent use of data) or honest error (eg, miscalculation or experimental error).
  2. Redundant publication (such as findings that have previously been published elsewhere without appropriate cross-referencing, permission, or justification).
  3. Plagiarism or other unethical research misconduct.

Withdrawal procedure

Retractions should occur after the journal's editors have carefully considered appeals received from the editor(s), author(s), or reader(s). (For more details on the procedure for handling appeals, see the section "Complaints and appeals".

We use the EASE Retraction Form for the withdrawal procedure.

If, following the consideration of the appeal, it was determined that:

  • the conclusions are unreliable or based on a material error (for example, miscalculation or experimental error) or as a result of falsification (for example, image manipulation);
  • the text contains plagiarism;
  • the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper reference to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish or justification (i.e. there is a case of duplication of publications);
  • the text contains materials or data without obtaining proper permission for use;
  • copyright has been infringed or other material infringement of rights has been detected (for example, defamation, violation of privacy, etc.);
  • research is unethical;
  • the publication took place solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated review process;
  • the author(s) have not provided information to the editorial office about a significant conflict of interest that, in the opinion of the editor-in-chief, could significantly affect the evaluation of the work or the recommendations of the editors and reviewers.

The PDF file of the retracted article remains on the website, but is clearly watermarked with the note "Retracted" on each page.