Retraction of published articles is carried out based on the results of a proper investigation of the facts of any violations by the author(s) of legal, publication and/or ethical norms that have become known.

The main purpose of retracting an article is to preserve the integrity of scientific information and to alert readers to the unreliability of the article. A retraction can be initiated by authors, editors, or readers, and the decision is made by the editorial board after a thorough investigation.

Retraction procedure

The article retraction procedure may be applied to works that:

• did not properly undergo review procedures or the reviews are fake, ordered, or violate the principle of objectivity;
• the author(s) did not give consent for the republication of the material;
• the authorship is incorrect (for example, the list of authors includes persons who did not participate in writing the material or conducting the research, or the authors who participated in the research and preparation of the article are not indicated);
• the scientific work reveals grounds for doubting the scientific value of the material (serious errors, lack of evidence of reliability, misinterpretation of research results), which is confirmed during further thorough examination;or when the research results are misinterpreted, which is a good reason;
• the article reveals plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, or a hidden or veiled conflict of interest (if a small amount of plagiarism is found in the article, the editors take all possible measures to make the material holistic and useful for the scientific community and may suggest making edits with correct references to sources, rather than completely withdrawing the article).

In the event of duplication of an article by the editorial boards of the respective publications, measures are taken to find a compromise: the withdrawal of materials simultaneously by both publications or the adoption of a coordinated decision to withdraw the article that was published later.

Initiators of the retraction procedure

The initiators of the retraction procedure may be:

• authors of the material who have written a motivated appeal addressed to the editor-in-chief of the publication;
• the editor-in-chief, who addresses the editorial board with a motivated submission regarding the reasons for the withdrawal of the scientific article;
• the editorial office of the Journal, which sends a reasoned request to the editorial office of another journal that published the material;
• participants in a conflict of interest and other entities that submit evidence of violations of professional, legal and publication ethics.

In this part, the Journal's editorial board requires reasoning, justification, and provision of evidence for each claim.

A scientific article retraction procedure

The procedure for withdrawing a scientific article is as follows:

• the entity initiating the revocation procedure contacts the editorial office with an official statement of revocation and a detailed explanation of the reasons;
• the editorial board of the journal creates a commission that conducts an examination, involving authors and, if necessary, external experts;
• the editorial board creates a commission that comprehensively studies the case and reviews the evidence base;
• based on the results of considering the issue of withdrawing the material, a protocol is drawn up, indicating the reason and date of withdrawal (in case of detection of plagiarism, references to the original source are necessarily provided);
• the editorial office informs the author(s) about the decision made;
• information about the retraction of the article is posted on the page of the retracted article on the Journal's website (a clear watermark "Retracted" is placed on the electronic version of the retracted article and the date of retraction is indicated).¾This is also indicated in the table of contents of the issue.

Simply deleting the electronic version of an article from the journal archive is considered improper action.

A corresponding author may withdraw a published article with deficiencies and replace it with a corrected version. In such a case, the withdrawal procedure must be followed, but the withdrawal notice shall include a link to the corrected and republished article and the document history in the database.

Consequences of withdrawal

• retraction is not a punishment, but a tool for correcting information and preserving the integrity of scientific work;
• the article remains in the journal archives and databases, but with a retraction mark;

complete removal of an article is possible only in exceptional cases, for example, as required by law or in case of copyright infringement.