Athena: Journal of Social, Culture and Society is committed to maintaining the accuracy, reliability, transparency, and integrity of the scholarly record. When errors, ethical concerns, or research-integrity issues are identified after publication, the journal will take appropriate and proportionate action to correct the published record.

Post-publication action is intended primarily to preserve the reliability and integrity of the scholarly record, rather than to punish authors.

The appropriate action will depend on the nature, extent, reliability, and consequences of the identified problem. Athena may publish a correction, expression of concern, retraction notice, or another appropriate editorial notice following an evidence-based assessment.

A correction may be issued when an error or omission is identified in a published article but the overall findings, interpretation, and scholarly reliability of the article remain substantially valid.

Corrections may address matters such as:

• factual or typographical errors that materially affect interpretation;
• incorrect author names or affiliations;
• incorrect tables, figures, captions, or supplementary information;
• errors in numerical values, calculations, or labels that do not invalidate the principal conclusions;
• inaccurate acknowledgments, funding information, or declarations;
• citation or reference errors requiring correction; or
• limited unattributed material where correcting the affected passage is sufficient to preserve the reliability of the article.

Athena may publish an Expression of Concern when substantial questions have been raised regarding the integrity or reliability of a published article but the available evidence is insufficient to determine whether a correction or retraction is required.

An Expression of Concern may be appropriate when:

• an investigation into possible research misconduct is ongoing;
• available evidence concerning the reliability of the article is inconclusive;
• the journal is awaiting relevant information from an author, institution, ethics committee, or other responsible body;
• there are credible concerns regarding data, images, ethical approval, authorship, or peer review that have not yet been resolved; or
• an institutional investigation is unlikely to be completed within a reasonable period.

The Expression of Concern may subsequently be replaced or supplemented by a correction, retraction, or other notice when sufficient evidence becomes available.

Athena may retract a published article when there is sufficiently reliable evidence that the article or a substantial part of its findings can no longer be relied upon.

Grounds for retraction may include, but are not limited to:

• Unreliable Findings: Clear evidence that findings are unreliable because of major error, miscalculation, inappropriate analysis, fabrication, falsification, or data manipulation.
• Plagiarism: Substantial plagiarism or unattributed use of another person's work that materially compromises the integrity of the publication.
• Redundant Publication: Substantial findings or content previously published elsewhere without appropriate disclosure, attribution, permission, or valid justification.
• Unauthorized Material or Data: Publication of material, datasets, images, or other intellectual property without required authorization.
• Copyright or Serious Legal Issues: Copyright infringement, privacy violations, defamation, or other serious legal concerns affecting publication.
• Unethical Research: Research conducted or reported in serious violation of applicable ethical requirements.
• Peer-Review Manipulation: Publication obtained through a compromised, fraudulent, or manipulated peer-review process.
• Major Undisclosed Competing Interest: Failure to disclose a significant competing interest that materially affected the interpretation, evaluation, or editorial decision concerning the work.
• Other Serious Research Misconduct: Other established misconduct that makes the published article materially unreliable or compromises the scholarly record.

Athena does not retract an article solely on the basis of an allegation. Concerns will be assessed using available evidence and appropriate editorial procedures.

When an article is retracted, Athena will publish a retraction notice that is clearly identifiable and permanently linked to the affected publication.

A retraction notice should, where applicable:

• clearly identify the retracted article by title, author(s), publication information, and DOI;
• be clearly labeled as a Retraction;
• identify who is retracting the article;
• explain the reason for the retraction;
• distinguish, where appropriate, between error and research misconduct;
• use objective, factual, and non-inflammatory language; and
• remain freely and publicly accessible.

Retraction does not normally mean deletion of the published scholarly record. Except in exceptional circumstances, the original article will remain accessible so that its publication history and retraction status remain transparent.

The online article and, where technically feasible, the downloadable publication file will be clearly marked as Retracted and linked to the corresponding retraction notice. The article DOI and bibliographic record should ordinarily remain active.

Complete removal of a published article is expected to be rare because maintaining a transparent scholarly record is normally preferable to deleting published material.

Removal may be considered only in exceptional circumstances, such as when continued publication:

• is subject to a binding legal requirement;
• presents a serious and immediate risk to individual privacy or safety;
• contains unlawful material that cannot reasonably remain publicly available; or
• must be removed for another compelling legal or ethical reason.

Where possible, the bibliographic record and an explanatory notice will remain publicly available to indicate why the article content has been removed.

Athena will normally seek relevant information from the author(s) before issuing a major post-publication notice. However, author agreement is not necessarily required when sufficient evidence establishes that correction, expression of concern, or retraction is necessary to protect the scholarly record. Where appropriate, a notice may indicate whether the author(s) agreed or disagreed with the action.

When a correction, expression of concern, or retraction is issued, Athena will make reasonable efforts to update the relevant article metadata and publication records and, where applicable, communicate corrected status information through DOI registration, indexing, discovery, repository, and metadata-distribution services.