Corrections and Retractions

The Process for Handling Cases Requiring Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Expressions of Concern

The International Academic and Research Consortium makes sure that all of its journals are published in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE) and the International Academic Research Consortium (IARC) recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in all journals

All published or planned publications will have an academic record that is authentic, according to our goal. Whenever it is determined that a serious error, false statement, or skewed report has been published, it must be immediately and prominently rectified. An item should be retracted if a proper inquiry reveals it to be fake. Readers and indexing tools should be able to easily recognize the retraction.

Corrections

When the Editor-in-Chief feels it is acceptable to alert journal readers to a prior error and correct the error in the published article, errors in published papers may be identified in the form of a corrigendum or erratum. The erratum or corrigendum will be published as a new article in the journal and will reference the original work that was published.

Retractions

When an article contains serious mistakes that render the conclusions invalid, retraction requests are taken into consideration and published. Retractions are also issued when there is proof of publishing malpractice, such as plagiarism, publication in many places, or unethical research.

According to industry best practice and in accordance with COPE guidelines, IARCON implements the following procedure if a retraction is confirmed:

1. A retraction note titled “Retraction: [article title]” signed by the authors and/or the editor is published in a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list.
2. In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article.
3. The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. It is to this screen that the link resolves; the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
4. The original article is retained unchanged save for a watermark on the HTML and PDF indicating on each page that it has been “retracted.”

Editorial expressions of concern

Journal editors may think about making an expression of concern if there is a significant question about the truthfulness or integrity of an article that has been submitted or published. Expressions of concern should only be made through if a through inquiry into the issues raised by the article has come up empty-handed and there are still many compelling reasons to believe that the concerns are justified. In very unusual circumstances, an editorial expression of concern may also be published when an investigation is on-going but a decision won't be made for some time.

The expression of concern will be linked back to the published article it relates to.