Correction & Retraction Policies
SEMPOA considers preservation of the scholarly record to be a fundamental editorial responsibility.
Post-publication changes will therefore be made transparently and proportionately. The journal will normally preserve the original published record while clearly identifying and linking any subsequent correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other notice.
Post-publication action is intended primarily to correct and protect the scholarly record rather than to punish authors.
A Correction may be published when an error or omission is identified after publication but the overall findings, conclusions, or reliability of the article remain valid.
Examples may include:
- incorrect author affiliations;
- minor errors in author information;
- incorrect or incomplete funding information;
- omitted conflict-of-interest declarations;
- mislabelled tables or figures;
- typographical errors affecting interpretation;
- minor errors in equations or mathematical notation;
- errors in numerical values that do not alter the main conclusions;
- incorrect bibliographic information;
- production errors introduced during copyediting or typesetting.
Where useful, the journal may describe an author-originated correction as a Corrigendum and a publisher-originated production error as an Erratum. However, SEMPOA may use the general term Correction for both types.
A correction notice will clearly identify the affected article, explain the change, and be linked to the original publication.
Very minor typographical or formatting errors that do not affect the meaning, interpretation, indexing, authorship, citation, data, or scientific content may be corrected without issuing a separate formal notice where appropriate.
Substantive changes to published scholarly content will not be made silently.
Requests to add, remove, reorder, or otherwise change authorship after publication require careful editorial assessment.
The journal may request:
- a written explanation of the requested change;
- confirmation from all affected authors;
- updated contributor statements;
- institutional clarification where an authorship dispute exists.
When an authorship change is approved after publication, the journal will normally issue an appropriate correction notice rather than silently modifying the published record.
A Retraction may be issued when there is clear evidence that the findings or scholarly record of an article are seriously unreliable, unethical, redundant, or otherwise unsuitable to remain in the literature without a prominent warning.
Grounds for retraction may include, but are not limited to:
- fabrication or falsification of data;
- serious manipulation of research results;
- substantial plagiarism;
- duplicate or redundant publication;
- serious errors that invalidate the principal conclusions;
- fundamentally flawed methodology;
- serious errors in mathematical proofs, models, or computations that invalidate the findings;
- fabricated participants, experiments, datasets, or observations;
- serious image or figure manipulation;
- fabricated or systematically false references;
- unethical research involving human participants;
- absence of required ethical approval where such approval was necessary;
- serious undisclosed conflicts of interest affecting the reliability of the work;
- manipulation or compromise of the peer-review process;
- unauthorized use of confidential or copyrighted material;
- other serious breaches of research or publication integrity.
A retraction may be initiated by the journal, authors, publisher, institution, or another responsible party, but the final decision to retract an article remains an editorial decision based on the available evidence.
When an article is retracted, SEMPOA will publish a permanent retraction notice designed to make the status of the publication clear to readers and indexing systems.
The retraction notice will normally:
- clearly identify the retracted article;
- include the article title and author information;
- be directly linked to the original article;
- ensure that the original article links back to the retraction notice;
- clearly state that the article has been retracted;
- explain the reason for the retraction;
- identify who initiated or issued the retraction where appropriate;
- remain permanently and freely accessible;
- avoid defamatory or unnecessarily accusatory language.
Where technically possible, the HTML and PDF versions of the article will be clearly marked or watermarked as "RETRACTED" while preserving the original scholarly content.
Retracted articles will normally remain accessible as part of the permanent scholarly record rather than being deleted from the journal website.
The article will be prominently marked as retracted and linked to the corresponding retraction notice so that readers can understand the reason for the editorial action.
Retraction will not normally be used when a limited part of an article contains an error but the principal findings and overall reliability of the work remain valid.
In such circumstances, a correction or another appropriate post-publication notice may be sufficient.
An Expression of Concern may be published when credible concerns have been raised regarding a published article but available evidence is not yet sufficient to justify a correction or retraction.
Examples may include situations where:
- an institutional investigation is ongoing;
- authors provide conflicting explanations;
- important evidence is unavailable;
- an investigation is substantially delayed;
- the reliability of the article remains uncertain.
The Expression of Concern will identify the affected article, describe the nature of the concern as accurately as possible, and be linked to the article.
When sufficient evidence becomes available, the Expression of Concern may be followed by a correction, retraction, clarification, or notice indicating that the concern has been resolved.
Complete removal of a published article is reserved for exceptional circumstances.
Removal may be considered where continued public availability creates substantial legal, ethical, privacy, confidentiality, or safety concerns, including:
- compliance with a valid legal or court order;
- serious defamation or unlawful content;
- serious privacy or confidentiality violations;
- unauthorized disclosure of sensitive personal information;
- content presenting an exceptional and immediate risk of serious harm;
- other circumstances where continued public availability would be unlawful.
When removal is necessary, the article page and bibliographic record should normally remain available with a Removal Notice explaining why the content is no longer publicly accessible, to the extent legally permissible.
The editorial office receives a concern from an author, reader, reviewer, editor, institution, publisher, or another credible source.
The editor evaluates whether the allegation is specific, credible, and relevant to the reliability or integrity of the published article.
Authors may be asked to provide an explanation, original data, calculations, source files, ethics documentation, contributor information, or other supporting evidence.
Where appropriate, the journal may consult independent experts, relevant institutions, ethics committees, research-integrity offices, or other responsible bodies.
Based on the evidence, the journal may take no further action, publish a correction, issue an Expression of Concern, retract the article, remove content in exceptional circumstances, or take another proportionate action.
Where circumstances permit, authors will normally be given an opportunity to respond to substantive concerns before a final post-publication decision is made.
However, author disagreement does not prevent the journal from correcting, retracting, or otherwise updating the scholarly record when the available evidence justifies such action.
Retraction is not normally used solely to resolve an authorship dispute when the underlying research remains reliable.
Where authorship requires correction, the journal may request documented agreement among the authors or appropriate institutional determination before publishing a correction.
When a correction, retraction, or other significant post-publication update is issued, SEMPOA will make reasonable efforts to update relevant article metadata and clearly communicate the new publication status to appropriate indexing, DOI, and discovery systems.
The DOI and permanent article URL will normally continue to resolve to the scholarly record, including the relevant correction or retraction information.
The formally published article constitutes the Version of Record.
Once published, substantive changes will not normally be made by silently replacing the Version of Record.
Necessary post-publication changes will instead be documented through transparent notices that preserve the history and integrity of the publication.
Authors may appeal a correction, expression of concern, or retraction decision by providing a clear explanation and relevant supporting evidence. Appeals should normally be considered by an editor or qualified individual who was not directly responsible for the original decision whenever practicable.
| Correction | Significant error exists, but the article remains fundamentally reliable. |
| Expression of Concern | Serious concerns exist, but the available evidence or investigation is not yet conclusive. |
| Retraction | The article is seriously unreliable, unethical, redundant, or otherwise requires formal withdrawal from the reliable scholarly literature. |
| Removal | Used only in exceptional legal, privacy, confidentiality, or serious safety circumstances. |
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