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 extant, exact 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Treatment | Reasons | Published | Unpublished |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.