Correction & Retraction Policy

It is a general principle of scholarly communication that the Editor of a journal or proceedings is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted shall be published. In making this decision, the Editor is guided by journal policies and constrained by such legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. An outcome of this principle is the importance of the scholarly archive as a permanent, historical record of the transactions of scholarship: articles which have been published shall remain extantexact and unaltered as much as possible. However, occasionally circumstances may arise where an article is published that must later be retracted or even removed. Such actions must not be taken lightly and can only occur under exceptional circumstances.

The EYRAS recognizes the importance of the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record to researchers, authors and the wider academic community. Unintentional errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a notification or correction when they are detected. We adhere to the highest standards to maintain the trust in and correctness of our electronic archive. Our publications operate according to the below policies for making corrections to scholarly published material

Treatment

Reasons

Published

Unpublished

Correction

Publisher’s production error

Issuance of erratum statement

Make corrections to article

 

Author’s error

Issuance of corrigendum statement

Author’s inconsistencies

Issuance of addendum

Replacement

Posing a serious health risk

Issuance article replacement notice. Create a link to the corrected re-published article together with a history of the document.

Retraction

Academic misconduct & peer review compromised

Issuance retraction statement and display of ‘Retracted’ watermark on the article

Withdrawal: Return to author(s)

 

Removal

Defamatory, infringes others’ legal rights, court order issued

Retain metadata, a text to indicate that the article has been removed for legal reasons

1. Article Correction

A Correction Notice will be issued when it is necessary to correct an error or omission which can impact the interpretation of the article, but where the scholarly integrity of the article remains intact. Examples include mislabeling of a figure, missing key information on funding or competing interests of the authors. The EYRAS will consider issuing a correction if a small part of an otherwise reliable publication reports flawed data or proves to be misleading, especially if this is the result of unintentional error.

Corrections to peer-reviewed content fall into one of three categories:

  • Publisher correction (a.k.a. ‘erratum’): to notify readers of an important error made by publishing/journal staff (usually a production error) that has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
  • Author correction (a.k.a. ‘corrigendum’): to notify readers of an important error made by the Authors which has a negative impact on the publication record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the Authors or the journal.
  • Addendum: an addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main work when significant additional information crucial to the reader’s understanding of the article has come to light following the publication of the article.


The decision whether a correction should be issued is made by our Editorial Board sometimes with advice from Reviewers and Advisory Board members. Handling Editors will contact the corresponding author of the article concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and if so which type rests with the editors. Corrections to published articles are bi-directionally linked to and from the article being corrected and are represented by a formal notice both on the PDF- and HTML-version of the article concerned.

ERROR

POLICY

Title

 

Aesthetic change

No correction

Spelling mistake or factual error

Correction

 

Authorship line or affiliations

 

Author name spelt incorrectly

Correction if error affects surname or first initial

Degree incorrect

No correction

Affiliation incorrect or missing

Correction

Addition of study group to authorship line

No correction

Error in correspondence address

No correction unless error in email address

 

Summary and main text of paper

 

Typographical error or missing word

Correction if ambiguity caused or meaning changed

Error in methods

Correction if affects understanding or would prevent replication

Error in data

Correction

Drug name spelt incorrectly or wrong drug named

Correction

Drug dose or unit incorrect

Correction

Proprietary name of product (device or drug) spelt incorrectly

No correction

Name of company, institution, or any individual other than author or investigator spelt incorrectly

No correction

Funding in Summary incorrect

Correction

Point of anatomy incorrect

No correction

Quoted statement cited out of context or later withdrawn

Correction or address in Correspondence, as appropriate Appendix page citation incorrect

Appendix page citation incorrect

No correction

 

Tables

 

Error in data

Correction

Footnotes cited incorrectly

Correction if unclear

 

Figures

 

Error in data

Correction

Error in drawing

Correction

Source of reproduced figure omitted or incorrect

Correction

 

Contributors

 

Statement incorrect or missing

No correction

 

Declaration of interests

 

Statement incorrect or missing

Correction

 

Data sharing

 

Contact information to access data is incorrect

At discretion of the editors

 

Acknowledgments

 

Funding source omitted or incorrect

At discretion of the editors

Individual’s name omitted or misspelt

No correction

 

Study group*

 

Study group member or investigator omitted or misspelt

Correction if omitted or if spelling error affects surname or first initial

Affiliation of study group member or investigator incorrect

No correction

 

References

 

Reference missing or wrong reference given

No correction

Error in journal name, listed authors, or title

No correction

 

Appendix

 

Any error leading to request to resupply file to website

Same criteria apply as for main paper

*Please note, updates to the record on databases are not always within our control

 

2. Article Replacement

In cases where an article, if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk, the Authors of the original paper may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. Under such circumstances, the above procedures for retraction will be followed with the difference that the article retraction notice will contain a link to the corrected re-published article together with a history of the document.

3. Article Retraction

A Retraction notice will be issued when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing to errors in the academic conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also result in a study’s retraction. Authors and institutions may request a retraction of their articles if their reasons meet the criteria for retraction. EYRAS will consider retracting a publication if:

  • It contains infringements of Academic Misconduct Policy and professional ethical codes, such as academic misconduct, research misconduct, multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc.
  • It contains major errors (e.g. miscalculations or experimental errors) or the main conclusion is no longer valid or seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light of which author(s) were not aware at the time of publication.

EYRAS shall determine based on investigation whether a retraction is required and, in such cases, shall act in accordance with COPE’s Retraction Guidelines and best practice for article retraction developed by other scholarly bodies. A retraction note titled “Retraction: [Article Title]” which is signed by the Authors and/or the Editor is published in a subsequent issue of the journal and is listed in the table of contents of this issue.

  • In the electronic version, a link is added to the original article.
  • The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note; it is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
  • The original article is retained unchanged except for a watermark which is included on each page of the article PDF indicating that it has been “retracted”.
  • The HTML version of the document is removed.

Note that the author’s institution may be informed. A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

4. Article Withdrawal

Withdrawal of articles is only used in exceptional circumstances for early versions of articles which have been accepted for publication but which have not been formally published yet (“articles in press”). Early versions may contain errors, may have accidentally been submitted twice or may be in violation of the journal’s publishing ethics guidelines (e.g. multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc.).

In such situations, especially in case of legal/ethical violations or false/inaccurate data which could pose a detrimental risk if used, it may be decided to withdraw the early version of the article from our electronic platform.

The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance, and these policies on retractions and withdrawals still apply in such cases.

4. Article Removal

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove a published article from our online platform. This will only happen if an article is clearly defamatory, or infringes others’ legal rights, or where the article is, or we have good reason to expect that it will be, the subject of a court order, or where the article, if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk. In such circumstances, while the metadata (i.e. title and author information) of the article will be retained, the text will be replaced with a screen indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

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