The Editorial Office of the journal adheres to the principles of academic integrity and publication ethics and reserves the right to retract a published article if substantial violations are identified that affect the reliability, originality, or ethical acceptability of the publication. In cases of rule violations or where necessary corrections have been made to a publication, the Editorial Board shall consider the relevant circumstances in accordance with the applicable COPE recommendations.
Grounds for article retraction include: detection of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or improper borrowing; fabrication, falsification, or significant distortion of data; duplicate publication without proper notification of the Editorial Office; copyright infringement; improper authorship or concealment of persons who made a substantial contribution to the preparation of the material; significant errors that render the article’s conclusions unreliable; violation of ethical standards in research or publication; or failure to disclose a conflict of interest where such failure could have affected the evaluation results or the content of the publication.
The retraction procedure may be initiated by the Editorial Office, the author, a reviewer, a reader, or another interested person by submitting a substantiated request to the Editorial Office.
Upon receipt of information concerning a possible violation, the Editorial Office shall conduct a preliminary review of the materials. If sufficient grounds are established, the Editor-in-Chief shall initiate an investigation procedure. A temporary commission may be established to examine the case, involving members of the Editorial Board and, where necessary, independent experts.
During the review process, the author or authors of the article shall be given an opportunity to provide written explanations and additional materials. The Editorial Office shall analyse all circumstances of the case and subsequently adopt a decision based on the principles of objectivity, impartiality, and evidence-based assessment.
Following the review, the Editorial Office may adopt one of the following decisions:
- to leave the article unchanged if the alleged violations are not confirmed;
- to publish a correction if the identified deficiencies do not substantially affect the main research findings;
- to retract the article if the established violations are substantial and incompatible with the requirements of academic integrity and publication ethics.
In the event of article retraction, the Editorial Office shall publish an official retraction notice indicating the title of the article, the name of the author or authors, the year of publication, the grounds for retraction, and the date of the decision. The text of the article may remain available on the website with an appropriate indication of its retracted status, provided that this complies with the editorial policy of the journal and ensures transparency in scholarly communication.
Information about the retraction shall be communicated to the author or authors and, where necessary, to the institution where the research was conducted or to other interested parties.
The author has the right to appeal the decision of the Editorial Office within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the official notification. The appeal shall be considered by the Editorial Office in accordance with the established procedure, after which a final decision shall be made.
The Editorial Office shall ensure confidentiality of the review at all stages of the procedure, except where disclosure of information is necessary to comply with the principles of publication ethics, protect the rights of third parties, or fulfil legal requirements.