Retraction procedure

Procedure for the Retraction of Published Articles

 General Provisions

1.1 This procedure has been developed in accordance with the principles of academic integrity, the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the applicable legislation of Ukraine.

1.2 The purpose of article retraction is to correct the scholarly record and inform the academic community about unreliability or significant violations identified in a published article.

Grounds for Article Retraction

2.1 Author-initiated (voluntary) retraction is possible in cases where the research was conducted in good faith and in an ethical manner, but after publication the following issues are identified:

·         errors in data analysis or interpretation of results;

·         technical or methodological flaws that significantly affect the conclusions;

·         other unintentional errors that make further use of the results as reliable evidence impossible.

2.2 Editorial retraction is applied in cases where intentional or serious violations are established, including:

·         fabrication or falsification of data;

·         plagiarism, unethical research practices, or scientific or professional misconduct;

·         false statements regarding authorship and/or affiliation;

·         multiple submission or duplicate publication of an article;

·         concealment of conflicts of interest.

Retraction Procedure

3.1 A statement regarding possible grounds for retraction shall be submitted to the journal editorial office in written form, indicating the relevant facts and supporting materials.

3.2 The editorial board conducts a preliminary analysis of the information received.

3.3 The author(s) of the article shall be notified in writing about the initiation of the review and shall be granted the right to provide explanations within the period established by the editorial office.

3.4 If necessary, the editorial office may involve independent experts or contact the institution where the research was conducted.

3.5 The decision on retraction shall be adopted by the editorial board by a simple majority vote and recorded in the minutes.

Publication and Labelling of Retraction

4.1 If a decision to retract an article is adopted, the editorial office shall ensure transparent and clear marking of the retraction in accordance with COPE recommendations in order to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record:

·         applying a clear visual label “RETRACTED” to all electronic versions of the article (PDF, HTML, etc.);

·         preserving the full text of the article without changes, except for the indicated marking;

·         placing an active link to the retraction notice on the first page of the article.

4.2 A retracted article shall not be removed from the journal website or from repositories in which it is hosted, except in cases provided for by law.

4.3 A retracted article shall not be considered a valid scholarly publication and is not recommended for citation.