Retraction serves to notify readers that the article presents false results. Retractions are made when there is convincing evidence that the findings—which may be the consequence of honest errors or improper conduct—are untrustworthy.

The editorial board may be asked to retract an article by any or all of the article’s authors, readers, institutions, journals’ publishers or owners, or other subjects.

The most frequent cause of the retraction is research flaws discovered by authors after publication.

The editorial office must conduct its own thorough investigation into the alleged incident if it gets a complaint from someone other than the authors (such as a reader, institution, journal publisher, or owner). A decision on retraction can only be taken based on the findings of this investigation. The editorial office also have to inform the authors of the made decision.

The reasons for the article retraction are as follows:

• Data fabrication or falsification.
• Plagiarism.
• Ethical violations.
• Errors or flaws in methodology.
• Duplication or redundant publication.
• Conflicts of interest or undisclosed biases.
• Honest errors.

The Journal publishes a retraction notice as a separate object in the printed and online copies of the next journal issue, with separate note in the issue’s contents.

Retracted papers are not deleted from the online journal edition, but are preserved on the website with a note of retraction, according to COPE rules (COPE Council. COPE Guidelines: Retraction Guidelines.). When a reader clicks on a link to a retracted article, a statement about the retraction appears on the screen, and a link redirects the reader to the page where they may view the content. Simultaneously, the watermark “retracted article” is placed on the article’s text.

A manuscript is deleted from the journal website in extremely rare situations involving a breach of law, privacy, or a major health concern. To protect the integrity of the journal content, bibliographic information about the article is retained, and the retraction notice must explicitly specify why the full text of the article has been deleted.

The retraction notice must include the following information:

• The article’s complete bibliographic data
• The retraction date
• Reasons for withdrawing the article
• The initiator of the retraction of the paper (all authors/co-authors, the editorial board at the request of the reader, institution, journal publisher or owner, other subjects)
• The source of information regarding the actions that led to the article’s retraction (the names of the applicants can only be disclosed if they have given permission)
• Details about the event that led to the retraction.

The Journal asks that you complete the Form to retract the article.

The retraction notice is also sent to scientometric databases where the article is indexed, as well as journal content aggregators.

The retraction notice must be visible in all internet search results for the withdrawn publication.

To withdraw the article, we suggest to follow the instructions of the European Association of Scientific Editors.

In the event of a retraction, please contact us at mmi@fem.sumdu.edu.ua.