Retraction Procedure

This procedure is adopted in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Retraction of a scientific article is a mechanism for correcting published information and notifying readers that the published article contains serious flaws or unreliable data. Data unreliability may result from either accidental errors or deliberate misconduct.

Retraction is used to inform readers about cases of duplicate publication (when authors submit the same material to multiple journals), plagiarism, and undisclosed conflicts of interest that could have affected the interpretation of data or recommendations for their use.

The primary purpose of retracting a scientific article is to correct and ensure the integrity of the information published in the journal.

The main reason and basis for retracting an article is a violation of the journal's ethical principles, outlined in the sections «Publication Ethics and Editorial Policy» and «Academic Integrity and Ethics Policy»:

  • Presence of substantial unauthorized text borrowing;
  • Duplicate publication of the article in multiple journals;
  • Detection of fabrication or falsification in the article (e.g., for experimental research data);
  • Detection of serious errors in the article (e.g., misinterpretation of results) that undermine the scientific value of the material;
  • Incorrect authorship composition (persons included as authors who do not meet authorship criteria);
  • Authors have undisclosed conflicts of interest (and other violations of publication ethics);
  • Republishing the article without the author's consent;
  • Other violations of the journal’s ethical principles.

The grounds for retracting an article are:

  • Author’s request to retract the article;
  • Submission by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief.

Procedure for article retraction:

1. The decision to retract an article is made by the journal's editorial board upon the submission of the Editor-in-Chief. The submission must include information about the grounds for retraction as specified in these rules. The decision to retract an article takes into account the author’s response, which justifies their position regarding the retraction (if such a response is received).

2. If the author/author team considers it necessary to retract the article, they contact the editorial office, providing a reasoned explanation of their decision. The editorial office responds and may:
a) reject the retraction request, explaining the reason for its decision;
b) propose that the authors publish a correction;
c) if grounds exist, recommend full retraction of the article. In this case, the editorial office carries out the retraction independently.
The retraction decision is made by a majority vote at the editorial board meeting, held once a month (on the last Friday of the month). Meetings can be held either offline or online.

3. If the editorial office decides to retract the article based on its own expertise or information received, the author/author team is informed, and a response from the author is expected. If the author/author team ignores the editorial request, the editorial office has the right to retract the publication without considering the author's opinion.

4. The retraction decision is documented in the minutes of the editorial board meeting.

5. Upon deciding to retract the article, the editorial office indicates the reason for the retraction (in case of plagiarism – with the source indicated) and the retraction date. The article and its description remain on the journal’s website as part of the respective issue, but the electronic version of the text is marked “RETRACTED” with the retraction date. The same mark is placed in the article and in the table of contents of the issue.

6. The Editor-in-Chief prepares the minutes of the editorial board meeting, which includes the meeting date, list of attendees, results of the review, justified decision, and completed form:

  • Author's full name and article title
  • Journal title, volume, issue, and year of publication of the retracted text
  • Initiator of the article retraction
  • Reason for retraction and date of decision
  • Link to the page on the journal website with retraction information
  • Article metadata and DOI
  • Article subject area

7. The author (the corresponding author in the case of multiple authors) is sent the minutes of the editorial board meeting with a statement justifying the reason for the retraction.

8. The journal’s editorial board may simultaneously decide to impose a ban on accepting articles from the author of the retracted article for a certain period.

9. Information about the retraction is posted on the journal’s website.

10. Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief within 14 days.

Consequences of Retraction:
- The retracted article remains in the archive of this scientific journal with the corresponding mark;
- The retraction is communicated to the article authors, indexing databases, scientometric databases, and the relevant scientific community.

Authors have the right:
- to receive a detailed justification of the retraction decision;
- to appeal the commission’s decision;
- to publish a commentary on the retraction decision.