Article retraction policy

Central Asian Journal of Veterinary Sciences

General Provisions

The article retraction policy of the Central Asian Journal of Veterinary Sciences is based on the guidelines, recommendations, and standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including the COPE Retraction Guidelines, as well as internationally accepted principles of publication ethics.

Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the scientific record and informing readers about published articles that contain serious errors, unreliable data, ethical violations, or other flaws that make the conclusions and results of the work unreliable. Unreliable data may result either from honest error or from research or publication misconduct.

When an article is retracted, it is not removed from the journal website, the journal archive, or bibliographic databases. The article remains available with a clear retraction notice and preservation of its DOI or other permanent digital identifier. Only in exceptional cases, where the continued availability of the article may cause legal, ethical, scientific, or public harm, may access to the full text be restricted.

If only a limited part of an article contains an error or inappropriate borrowing, and the reliability of the article as a whole is not compromised, the Editorial Board may decide to issue a correction instead of retracting the article, in accordance with COPE recommendations.

Retraction is not limited by the time that has passed since publication. If serious violations or substantial errors are identified, the article may be retracted regardless of the publication date.

In the case of article retraction, any publication fees paid by the authors are not refunded, as editorial and publishing services have already been provided.

Grounds for Retraction

An article may be retracted in the following cases:

·         plagiarism or inappropriate textual borrowing;

·         duplicate publication of the same article or substantial parts of it;

·         significant self-plagiarism or redundant publication;

·         fabrication or falsification of data, including manipulation of experimental results;

·         serious errors that undermine the scientific validity of the article;

·         unreliable or unsupported conclusions;

·         unethical research involving animals, humans, biological materials, or confidential data;

·         incorrect authorship, including the inclusion of persons who do not meet authorship criteria or the exclusion of persons who made a substantial contribution;

·         undisclosed conflicts of interest;

·         violation of peer-review or publication ethics;

·         other serious breaches of the journal’s editorial and ethical policies.

Initiation of the Retraction Procedure

The retraction procedure may be initiated by:

·         the author or authors of the article;

·         the Editorial Board;

·         reviewers;

·         readers;

·         institutions;

·         other individuals or organizations that provide substantiated evidence of ethical or scientific violations.

Anonymous complaints are not normally considered sufficient grounds for initiating the retraction procedure. However, if an anonymous report contains verifiable evidence of serious violations, the Editorial Board may decide to examine the case.

If the authors consider it necessary to retract their article, they must submit a formal request to the editorial office, explaining the reasons for retraction.

If the Editorial Board receives a complaint from third parties or identifies potential grounds for retraction independently, it conducts an investigation. The Editorial Board may contact the authors, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties to obtain clarification and supporting information.

Following the investigation, the Editorial Board may decide to:

·         retract the article;

·         publish a correction;

·         publish an expression of concern;

·         reject the request for retraction if the grounds are insufficient.

The authors are informed of the decision and are given the opportunity to respond. However, if the violation is clearly established and the authors do not respond, the Editorial Board has the right to retract the article without the authors’ consent.

The authors must be informed of the wording of the retraction notice. Where appropriate, the Editorial Board may also inform the institution with which the authors are affiliated.

Article Retraction Procedure

The decision to retract an article is made by the Editor-in-Chief, scientific editor, or Editorial Board of the Central Asian Journal of Veterinary Sciences based on the results of the investigation.

If necessary, the Editor-in-Chief may appoint members of the Editorial Board or external experts to conduct an independent assessment of the case.

The decision on retraction is recorded in the minutes of the Editorial Board meeting. The minutes should include:

·         the date of the meeting;

·         the names of the Editorial Board members who participated in the decision-making process;

·         a summary of the investigation;

·         the grounds for the decision;

·         full bibliographic information about the article;

·         information about the initiator of the retraction;

·         the final decision of the Editorial Board.

The information about the retracted article should include:

·         full names of the author or authors;

·         title of the article;

·         journal title;

·         year, volume, issue, and page numbers;

·         DOI;

·         date of retraction;

·         reason for retraction.

Publication of the Retraction Notice

Information about the retraction is published on the journal website and, where appropriate, in the next available issue of the journal.

The retraction notice must be clearly linked to the retracted article and must include the reason for retraction. The notice should be freely available to readers.

The electronic version of the article must be clearly marked with the words

RETRACTED

The date of retraction must also be indicated.

A separate section of the journal website should contain information about all retracted articles. This section should include brief information about each retracted publication and the date of the Editorial Board’s decision.

After completion of the retraction procedure, information about the retraction is sent to indexing databases, repositories, and other national and international information resources in which the journal is indexed or archived.

Corrections Instead of Retraction

If the identified problem does not invalidate the article as a whole, the Editorial Board may decide to publish a correction instead of retracting the article.

Corrections may be issued in cases where:

·         minor errors are identified;

·         part of the article requires clarification;

·         incomplete or inaccurate information needs to be corrected;

·         the scientific conclusions of the article remain valid.

The correction notice must be linked to the original article and published on the journal website.

Editorial Responsibility

The Editorial Board of the Central Asian Journal of Veterinary Sciences is responsible for ensuring that retraction, correction, and expression-of-concern procedures are conducted objectively, transparently, and in accordance with international publication ethics standards.

The purpose of retraction is not to punish authors, but to maintain the integrity of the scientific record and protect readers, researchers, institutions, and the journal from the dissemination of unreliable or unethical publications.