Retraction Procedure for Published Articles

Retraction of a published article is an official procedure applied in cases of detected violations of academic integrity, publication ethics, or significant errors affecting the reliability of research results. Retraction is carried out in accordance with international standards, including the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
Grounds for retracting an article are:
  • detection of plagiarism or improper use of others’ results or materials; 
  • falsification or fabrication of scientific data or facts;
  • duplicate publication (submission of the same work to multiple journals);
  • identification of significant errors in the research that affect its results and make them unreliable;
  • copyright infringement;
  • improper authorship attribution;
  • undisclosed conflict of interests;
  • violation of ethical research standards;
  • a copyright infringement has been detected.
Initiation of Retraction
Retraction may be initiated by the authors, reviewers, the editorial board of the scientific journal, readers based on a substantiated request, research institutions, or other interested parties.
The person initiating the retraction shall submit a written statement explaining the reasons for retracting the publication. The request must be submitted in writing to the Editorial Office and include relevant facts and evidence supporting the need for this procedure.
The Editor-in-Chief, together with the Editorial Board, conducts an initial review of the request. Based on the results of an impartial investigation conducted in accordance with the principles of publication ethics and the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Editor-in-Chief, in agreement with the Editorial Board, makes one of the following decisions:
  • reject the complaint as unfounded;
  • correct the article by publishing a correction notice;
  • formally retract the article with an official published notice.
If a decision is made to retract an article, an official retraction notice stating the reasons is published on the journal’s website and in the relevant issue; the electronic version of the article remains available in open access with the label “Retracted”; and information regarding the retraction is sent to the relevant indexing and scientometric databases. The author(s) receive written notification of the reasons and consequences of the retraction. The submitter (if not the author) receives information about the editorial board’s decision.
The author(s) have the right to file an appeal within 30 days of receiving notification of the retraction. The appeal is reviewed by the editor-in-chief and independent experts, whose decision is final.