The retraction policy (removal or withdrawal of a published article) is implemented by the Editorial Board to alert readers to cases of self-plagiarism (when authors submit the same data in multiple publications), academic plagiarism, fabrication and falsification, or the concealment of conflicts of interest that could have influenced the interpretation of data or recommendations for its use. Retraction of a scientific article serves as a mechanism to correct published information and notify readers about publications containing serious oversights or erroneous data, including data that cannot be trusted. The publication of such data by an author may result from either inadvertence or intentional misconduct.

The purpose of retraction is to inform readers about a publication containing unreliable data.

Based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the journal’s Editorial Board follows the policy outlined below for retracting already published articles.

Grounds for article retraction include:

• unauthorized appropriation of material;
• duplication of the article in multiple publications;
• detection of fabrication or falsification in the work;
• detection of serious errors in the work (e.g., misinterpretation of results) that undermine the scientific value of the material;
• incorrect authorship (including individuals who do not meet authorship criteria or omission of those who should be credited as authors);
• undisclosed conflict of interest (and other violations of publication ethics);
• republication of an article without the author’s consent;
• other violations of the ethical principles of the publication.

Circumstances that may trigger the retraction process include:

• a request by the author to withdraw the article;
• requests from third parties (possibly involved in a conflict of interest) with evidence of violations of research ethics by the author of the published article;
• identification by the journal’s editorial board of violations of research ethics by the authors of the article.

Decisions on article retraction are made by the Academic Integrity Committee based on the recommendation of the Editorial Board. Information about the retraction is published on the journal’s website.

After retraction, the article remains in the journal’s archive with a clear indication that it has been retracted. The text of the article is not removed but is marked as retracted, with an explanation of the reasons provided.

The author (or authors, in the case of co-authorship) receives a formal decision with justification for the retraction of the article.