Policy on corrections and appeals
Corrections policy
We follow the STM Association guidelines that “Articles that have been published should remain extant, exact, and unaltered to the maximum extent possible”. Necessary corrections will be made to published articles however as authorized by the Editor. Any necessary changes will be accompanied with a post-publication notice which will be permanently linked to the original article so that readers will be fully informed of any necessary changes. The Editor will decide the magnitude and the nature of the errors and decide on corrective actions accordingly.
Major corrections will be dealt with as follows:
- Erratum and Corrigendum (a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes the correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions) – This is used for errors that affects the integrity of the article, the reputation of the authors, or the reputation of journal. Hence, the corrected article is not removed, but a notice of erratum or corrigendum is given. All decisions on Errata and Corrigenda are made by the Editor.
- Retraction (notice that the paper should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature) – This is used if there is clear evidence that the published findings are unreliable, which may be the result of misconduct or an honest error. The published article is not removed from the online journal but notice of retraction is given as well as the reason for the action and who is responsible for the decision.
Appeals and complaints
We follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on appeals to editorial decisions and complaints about the management of the peer review process.
The decision to reject a manuscript will often involve the editor’s judgment of priority/ importance/relevance. These are things which authors usually cannot address through an appeal. However, if you believe that there is a case to be made for a genuine appeal, please submit an appeal letter to the Editor detailing the basis for the appeal. Should you as an author wish to comment on aspects of the journal’s editorial management, you are welcome to submit such a comment to the Editor.
