Article Retraction Procedure

  1. General Provisions

1.1. Retraction is a formal editorial procedure applied in cases of confirmed breaches of academic integrity, publication ethics, or substantial errors that materially affect the reliability of the research findings.

1.2. Retractions are processed in accordance with international standards, including the COPE Retraction Guidelines, and the journal’s internal policies.

1.3. The decision to retract an article is taken by the Editorial Board following an appropriate assessment and verification process.

  1. Grounds for Retraction

An article may be retracted if one or more of the following is established:

– plagiarism or improper appropriation of others’ results;

– data fabrication and/or falsification;

– duplicate publication without proper citation and/or without agreement with the editorial offices of other journals;

– copyright infringement;

– inappropriate authorship attribution (e.g., inclusion of “guest/ghost” authors or omission of legitimate co-authors);

– significant scientific or technical errors that distort the results or invalidate the conclusions;

– non-disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence in breach of the journal’s AI-related policy.

  1. Initiation of the Procedure

3.1. Retraction may be initiated by:

– the author(s) of the article;

– reviewers;

– readers;

– members of the Editorial Board;

– academic or educational institutions.

3.2. A request, complaint, or notification must be submitted in a written form to the journal’s editorial office and include relevant facts and supporting evidence.

  1. Review and Decision-Making

4.1. The Editor-in-Chief, in coordination with the Editorial Board, conducts an initial review of the submitted information.

4.2. Where necessary, independent external experts may be engaged to provide an objective assessment.

4.3. The author(s) are entitled to submit a written explanation and/or clarification within a reasonable timeframe.

4.4. Following assessment, the Editorial Board may decide to:

– dismiss the complaint as unfounded;

– issue a correction through publication of an editorial notice (e.g., corrigendum/erratum), where appropriate;

– retract the article formally and publish an official retraction notice.

  1. Retraction Procedure

5.1. If retraction is approved, the journal implements the following actions:

– an official retraction notice is published on the journal’s website and in the relevant issue, stating the reasons for retraction;

– the electronic version of the article remains accessible as part of the scholarly record and is clearly marked “Retracted” on each page of the PDF and within the article metadata;

– relevant indexing and abstracting services and bibliographic databases (e.g., Scopus, Web of Science, etc.) are notified of the retraction.

  1. Notification of Parties

6.1. The author(s) receive a written notice outlining the reasons for retraction and its implications.

6.2. The complainant/requester (if not an author) is informed of the Editorial Board’s decision, subject to confidentiality requirements.

  1. Appeal

7.1. The author(s) may submit an appeal within 30 calendar days from receipt of the retraction notification.

7.2. Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and independent experts; the resulting decision is final.

  1. Procedure Principles

Transparency – retraction notices are public and openly accessible.

Impartiality – decisions are evidence-based and informed by expert conclusions.

Accountability – authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and quality of the published work.

Preservation of the Scholarly Record – retracted articles remain in the journal’s archive with clear and permanent retraction labelling.