DEALING MISCONDUCT
Editor-in-Chief considers retracting a publication due to the following:
- The Editor/Editorial board has clear evidence that the findings constitute plagiarism or unreliable. False findings include major errors due to the miscalculation/experimental errors, fabrication of data and falsification/image manipulation.
- The findings have been published elsewhere and the authors republish without proper credit to the previous sources or disclosure to the Editor, authorisation to republish from the respected copyright owner, or justification.
- Copyright has been breached, or there are some other severe legal issues. The research is reported to be unethical. The manuscript is published solely based on a compromised or manipulated peer-review process.
- The author(s) failed to disclose a conflict of interest that would have affected the interpretations of the work or recommendations by the editors and reviewers.
Notices of retraction should:
- Be linked to the retracted article wherever possible.
- Clearly identify the retracted article including the authors and title in the retraction heading.
- Be clearly identified as a retraction, not other types of correction or comment.
- Be published promptly to minimise harmful effects.
- Be freely available to all readers.
- State who is retracting the article.
- State the reason(s) for retraction.
- Be objective, credible and avoid sensitive language.
Retractions are not usually appropriate if:
- The authorship is disputed, but there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings.
- The main findings of the work are still reliable, and correction could sufficiently address errors or concerns.
- An editor has inconclusive evidence to support retraction or is awaiting additional information such as from an institutional investigation.
- Author conflicts of interest have been reported to the journal after publication, but in the editor's view, these are not likely to have influenced interpretations or recommendations or the conclusions of the article.
