R-W-C Policy

RWC Policy (Retraction, Withdrawal, & Correction Policy)

Policy Statement

We understand the effort authors put into their manuscripts and our peer-review process. However, there may be circumstances requiring retraction or removal of articles for scientific reasons. Such actions are taken only in exceptional situations with careful consideration to maintain trust in the electronic archive's integrity.

Article Retraction

Retractions maintain the scientific record's integrity and occur if:

  • Significant scientific errors invalidate conclusions.
  • Findings are published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing.
  • Ethical issues such as plagiarism or incorrect authorship arise. Retraction follows COPE guidelines:
  • Articles needing retraction are submitted to the journal editor.
  • The editor evaluates following COPE guidelines.
  • Findings are sent to the Ethics Advisory Board.
  • The final decision is communicated to involved parties.
  • A retraction statement is published online and in the next journal issue.

Article Withdrawal

Authors wishing to withdraw their manuscript after submission must immediately submit a written withdrawal request to the journal editor. The request must include the reasons for the withdrawal. The journal reserves the right to deny withdrawal requests if the manuscript is already in the review process or in the stages of publication.

This policy is intended to prevent unethical withdrawal practices after a manuscript has achieved an accept status or has been significantly processed by the editorial team and peer reviewers.

Article Correction

Corrections are considered if:

  • A small portion of the publication reports flawed or misleading data due to honest error.
  • The list of authors or contributors is incorrect. Corrections are categorized as:
  • Publisher's correction (erratum): For publisher/journal staff errors.
  • Author's correction (corrigendum): For author errors.
  • Addendum: For additional clarification by authors. The decision to publish corrections rests with the Editor, in consultation with Reviewers or the Editorial Board.

Article Removal

In limited cases, articles may be removed from our online platform if they:

  • Clearly defame or violate legal rights.
  • Are subject to a court order.
  • Pose a serious health risk. Metadata (title and author information) will be retained, with the article text replaced by a removal notice.

Article Replacement

If a follow-up article poses a serious health risk, the author may retract the original flawed document and replace it with a revised version. The retraction procedure will include a link to the corrected and republished article, along with its document history.