SUBMISSION
Author Retraction Policy
Post-Publication Policy
Author Retraction Policy
IMPACT: Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Multidisipliner recognizes that authors may identify serious errors, ethical concerns, or other circumstances that require the withdrawal of a manuscript or retraction of a published article.
The journal handles every request carefully, transparently, and consistently with publication ethics. Retraction is intended to correct the scholarly record and alert readers that the findings or content of an article should no longer be relied upon. It is not intended as a punishment for authors.
Withdrawal and Retraction
Manuscript Withdrawal
Withdrawal applies to a manuscript that has been submitted but has not yet been formally published as part of a journal issue or as an online Version of Record.
Article Retraction
Retraction applies after an article has been officially published and assigned bibliographic information, such as a volume, issue, page range, article number, or DOI.
Grounds for Author-Initiated Retraction
Authors may request retraction when they discover that the published article contains serious problems that substantially affect its reliability, validity, integrity, legality, or ethical acceptability. Grounds may include:
- Major errors in data collection, analysis, interpretation, calculation, or reporting that invalidate the principal findings.
- Discovery that data, documentation, participant information, photographs, figures, tables, or other evidence are inaccurate, fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or unreliable.
- Duplicate or substantially redundant publication that was not adequately disclosed.
- Significant plagiarism, unattributed reuse, inappropriate translation, or unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
- Serious errors or misconduct involving authorship, contributor approval, or author consent.
- Failure to obtain required ethical approval, informed consent, institutional permission, community authorization, or permission to publish identifiable information.
- Legal, confidentiality, privacy, security, or public-interest concerns that cannot be resolved through a correction.
- Other serious circumstances demonstrating that the article should no longer be relied upon as part of the scholarly record.
Circumstances That Do Not Normally Justify Retraction
Retraction will not ordinarily be approved merely because an author:
- Changes their opinion regarding the findings or no longer wishes to be associated with the article.
- Wishes to submit the same or substantially similar article to another journal.
- Is dissatisfied with the journal, publisher, indexing status, citation performance, publication schedule, or article visibility.
- Faces an authorship disagreement that does not affect the reliability or integrity of the published findings.
- Identifies minor errors that can be adequately addressed through a correction.
- Receives a request from an institution, supervisor, sponsor, or other party without sufficient evidence that retraction is necessary.
Requirements for Submitting a Retraction Request
A retraction request must be submitted in writing by the corresponding author to the Editor-in-Chief through the journal’s official contact channel. The request should contain:
Evaluation Procedure
The editorial office records the request and verifies the identity and authority of the requesting author.
The Editor-in-Chief evaluates whether the issue may require a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or no editorial action.
All listed authors may be contacted and given an opportunity to provide their position, explanation, and supporting evidence.
The journal may consult editorial board members, independent experts, reviewers, ethics committees, institutions, funding bodies, or legal advisers when necessary.
The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the available evidence, the reliability of the article, the seriousness of the concern, and the need to protect the scholarly record.
Editorial Authority
An author’s request does not automatically result in retraction. The final authority to approve, decline, or initiate a retraction rests with the Editor-in-Chief, acting in accordance with the journal’s ethical obligations and the need to preserve an accurate scholarly record.
The journal may retract an article even when one or more authors disagree if reliable evidence demonstrates that the article is seriously flawed, unethical, misleading, duplicated, or otherwise unsuitable for continued reliance.
Publication of a Retraction Notice
When retraction is approved, the journal will publish a formal retraction notice. The notice will:
- Be clearly identified and titled as a retraction notice.
- Identify the retracted article by title, author names, publication details, and DOI.
- State who requested or initiated the retraction.
- Explain the reason for the retraction clearly and objectively.
- Distinguish honest error from misconduct when sufficient evidence is available.
- Be freely accessible and permanently linked to the original article.
- Avoid defamatory, speculative, misleading, or unnecessarily punitive language.
Treatment of the Retracted Article
A retracted article will normally remain available as part of the permanent scholarly record. The article will not be silently deleted or replaced.
The abstract page, article metadata, HTML version, and PDF will be clearly marked “Retracted”. The original article and the retraction notice will be linked in both directions.
Removal of the full text will be considered only in exceptional circumstances involving legal obligations, serious privacy violations, confidential information, public safety, or content whose continued availability creates a substantial risk of harm.
Disagreement Among Authors
Retraction does not require unanimous author agreement when there is sufficient evidence that the article is unreliable or seriously violates publication ethics. The journal will make reasonable efforts to obtain and document the views of all authors.
When one or more authors disagree with the retraction, the retraction notice may state which authors agreed, disagreed, or did not respond, provided that such information is relevant, accurate, and legally appropriate.
Correction as an Alternative
When the main findings remain reliable and the problem affects only a limited section of the article, the journal may decline the retraction request and publish a correction instead. Corrections may address inaccurate author information, minor analytical errors, incomplete acknowledgments, mislabeled tables or figures, citation errors, or other issues that do not invalidate the article as a whole.
Expression of Concern
The journal may publish an expression of concern when credible concerns have been raised but the available evidence is inconclusive, an investigation is ongoing, authors or institutions have not provided sufficient information, or a final decision cannot yet be made. The expression of concern may later be replaced or supplemented by a correction, retraction, or notice that the concerns have been resolved.
Publication Fees and Retraction
Retraction does not normally create an entitlement to reimbursement of Article Processing Charges or other publication costs because such charges relate to editorial management, peer review, production, publication, and digital services already performed. Any refund will be considered only in accordance with the journal’s applicable refund policy and the specific circumstances of the case.
Integrity of the Scholarly Record
IMPACT: Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat Multidisipliner encourages authors to report serious errors promptly and cooperate openly with editorial investigations. All author-initiated retraction requests will be evaluated fairly, confidentially, and transparently, with the correction and protection of the scholarly record as the primary consideration.
