General principles

A retraction (withdrawal) of a publication is an official notification that a scientific article contains falsification of data, gross errors, plagiarism, or unethical research, which makes its results unreliable.

The purpose of a retraction is to correct the published information and ensure the integrity of scientific publications, not to punish the authors.

Retraction procedure

The procedure is based on the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, Retraction Guidelines) , which provide for the publication of a "Retraction Note" that is linked to the original, and the article is marked as retracted, but not deleted.

1. The initiator of a retraction may be: the author(s) of the publication (voluntary retraction); the editor-in-chief or members of the editorial board; a reviewer; readers, or other interested parties who reported the violation.

2. The main grounds for withdrawing a scientific publication:

• ● falsification or fabrication of data, manipulation of images, provision of false information;
• ● methodological errors, technical problems that affected the data or conclusions; incorrect calculations or other critical errors;
• ● establishing the fact of plagiarism or self-plagiarism;
• ● previous or simultaneous publication (duplication) of the same material in another journal without proper citation or permission;
• ● improper or manipulative authorship (inclusion or exclusion of authors without justification);
• ● significant violations of ethical standards: research without appropriate ethical permits; violations of ethical principles for working with humans or animals; undisclosed or hidden conflicts of interest.
• ● identifying facts of unauthorized (without reference or justification) use of artificial intelligence technologies when writing an article or generating graphs, tables, or other graphic material.

3. Investigation procedure

Upon receipt of a substantiated appeal, the editorial staff of the publication conducts a confidential and impartial investigation in compliance with the principles of publication ethics defined by the SORE.

Upon receipt of a notification of a possible violation, the editorial board registers the complaint and begins an initial assessment.

The author(s) receive an official notification and an opportunity to provide an explanation. If necessary, the editorial board involves independent experts or an ethics committee. The final decision on retraction based on the results of the investigation is made by the editor-in-chief or his deputy.

If the circumstances are not unambiguous, but cause serious concern, the editorial board may publish an Expression of Concern.

4. Registration of retraction

In the event of a decision to retract a scientific article, a separate Retraction Notice is published, which clearly identifies the retracted article (title, authors, date, DOI); contains a clear explanation of the reasons for the retraction; indicates who initiated the process and is open to all readers and available free of charge.

The retraction notice is posted on the official website in the nearest issue of the professional publication and in the "Archive" section.

The original text of the article remains in the journal database, but receives a clear “RETRACTED” marking in the title, a “Retracted” watermark on each page of the PDF file, is accompanied by a hyperlink to the retraction message, and receives appropriate changes to the metadata.

The editorial board informs the relevant scientometric, bibliographic and institutional databases in which the publication is indexed (in particular, CrossRef, the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, etc.) about the retraction.

5. Authors' rights

Authors have the right to receive a detailed justification for the decision to retract, publish a comment on this decision, and also contact the editorial office with a statement about voluntary withdrawal of the article, explaining its reasons.