Correction, Retraction, and Withdrawal Policy

Policies · For Authors

Correction, Retraction, and Withdrawal Policy

 

How the published record is corrected when something is wrong.

Correcting the record is a normal and necessary part of scholarly publishing, not an admission of failure. Radiology Research Journal (RRJ) follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines in deciding which instrument to use. Every notice is published promptly, made freely available, assigned its own DOI, and linked bidirectionally with the article it concerns. No fee is charged for any notice.

The Five Instruments
Erratum
Corrects an error introduced by the journal or publisher during production — a mislabelled figure, a lost correction, a typesetting error in a table, incorrect author order in the published version. The article is corrected and the notice states what was changed and that the error was the journal's.
Corrigendum
Corrects an error made by the authors that affects a part of the article but not its findings or conclusions — a numerical slip in a table, a misstated dose, an incorrect affiliation, an omitted funding source or competing interest.
Addendum
Adds information that clarifies or extends the article without correcting an error — supplementary analysis requested after publication, or a clarification of methodology in response to reader enquiry.
Expression of Concern
Published when the editors have well-founded concern about an article but the investigation is incomplete, the institution's inquiry is unresolved, or the evidence is inconclusive. It alerts readers without prejudging the outcome, and is later replaced by a retraction or withdrawn if the concern is dispelled.
Retraction
Used when the findings are unreliable or the article should not have been published. Retraction corrects the literature; it is not a punishment, and an honest error that invalidates the findings is retracted in the same way as misconduct, with the reason clearly stated.
Grounds for Retraction
Clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, whether through misconduct or honest error such as miscalculation or experimental fault.
Fabrication or falsification of data or images.
Plagiarism, in text, data, or images.
Redundant publication, where the findings have already been published elsewhere without disclosure or justification.
Research conducted without required ethical approval, or in breach of the approval granted.
Publication of identifiable patient information without valid consent.
Copyright infringement or other serious legal problem.
Manipulated or compromised peer review, including fictitious reviewers.
Undisclosed competing interests that a reasonable reader would consider material to interpretation.
Authorship established to be fraudulent, or the article traced to a paper mill.
Process
STEP 1
A request or concern is received from an author, reader, reviewer, editor, or institution and logged with a date.
STEP 2
The Editor-in-Chief assesses the concern against the COPE guidelines and determines which instrument is appropriate.
STEP 3
All authors are contacted and invited to respond. Where relevant, source data or original images are requested.
STEP 4
Where misconduct is alleged, the authors' institution is asked to investigate and its finding is awaited where practicable.
STEP 5
The notice is drafted, shared with the authors for comment, and published. Author agreement is sought but is not required for a retraction.
STEP 6
Crossref, indexing services, and preservation networks are notified so the status propagates to databases.
How Notices Appear
The retracted article remains online. It is never deleted, because removing it would break the citation record.
The PDF is watermarked RETRACTED on every page, and the landing page carries a prominent banner.
The notice is titled so that the instrument and the original article title are both visible in a search result.
The notice states who is retracting and why, distinguishing misconduct from honest error, and names the authors who agree and those who do not.
Both the article and the notice remain freely accessible to all readers, with no paywall and no fee.
Where only part of an article is unreliable, a partial retraction may be issued, identifying precisely which findings are affected.
Withdrawal Before Publication
During Review
Authors may withdraw a manuscript at any point before acceptance by written request from the corresponding author, copied to all co-authors. No reason need be given and no penalty applies. Withdrawal in order to submit elsewhere while review is under way is discouraged as a matter of courtesy to the reviewers.
After Acceptance
Withdrawal after acceptance is granted only for a compelling reason, such as the discovery of a serious error or an unresolved ethical problem. A request made in order to publish the same work in another journal is not accepted and, if the work appears elsewhere, is treated as duplicate publication.
Removal After Publication
Complete removal of an article from the website is exceptional and reserved for cases of legal compulsion, defamation, breach of an individual's privacy that cannot be remedied otherwise, or a serious health risk. Metadata and a notice explaining the removal always remain in place, so the record of publication is never erased.
How to Request a Correction

Authors who identify an error in their published article should write to [EDITORIAL EMAIL] as soon as possible with the article title and DOI, a precise description of the error and its location, the corrected wording or figure, an explanation of how the error arose, a statement of whether the conclusions are affected, and confirmation that all co-authors agree. Readers may raise a concern about any published article at the same address; the identity of anyone raising a concern in good faith is protected.

Self-Reporting Is Welcomed

Authors who discover a serious error in their own published work are encouraged to come forward. A retraction initiated by the authors themselves is recorded as such, is understood by the research community as an act of scientific integrity rather than misconduct, and is handled by this journal without any sanction against the authors.

Radiology Research Journal (RRJ) · Correction and Retraction Policy · Version 1.0, [MONTH YEAR]