Corrections, Retractions and Withdrawals Policy

The International Journal of Nutrology (IJN) is committed to maintaining an accurate, transparent, and permanent scholarly record. This policy explains how the journal handles corrections, addenda, expressions of concern, retractions, withdrawals, removals, and replacements.

IJN considers each case on its evidence and follows relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and Crossref guidance for registering updates.

1. General principles

The Version of Record must remain identifiable, citable, and traceable.
Substantive changes must not be made silently.
Post-publication notices must state what changed, why action was taken, and who authorized the action.
Notices must be freely accessible and linked bidirectionally to the affected article.
Actions must be proportionate to the reliability, ethics, and integrity of the work.
Editorial decisions must be independent of commercial interests, article processing charges, author status, institutional affiliation, or agreement or disagreement among the authors.

2. Minor changes

Minor typographical, formatting, or metadata errors that do not affect the interpretation, indexing, attribution, scientific content, or conclusions may be corrected directly. The date of the change should be recorded when appropriate. Changes to author names, affiliations, data, results, figures, tables, methods, interpretations, or conclusions are not considered minor and normally require a formal notice.

3. Corrections

A correction will be considered when an otherwise reliable article contains an error or omission that materially affects its clarity, interpretation, attribution, metadata, or part of its findings, but does not invalidate the work as a whole.

Examples include:

important errors in data, calculations, figures, tables, methods, or interpretation;
incorrect or incomplete author or contributor information;
material production errors introduced by the journal;
missing or incorrect ethical approval, funding, competing-interest, data-availability, or author-contribution information; and
limited unattributed or incorrectly attributed material when correction is sufficient to restore the integrity of the record.

A formal correction notice must:

be clearly titled "Correction: [Article Title]";
identify the article, authors, citation, and DOI;
describe the error and the correction accurately;
state whether the error originated with the authors or during production;
be linked to and from the original article;
be freely accessible; and
receive its own DOI when the correction is editorially significant.

The corrected article must include a dated notice explaining that a correction has been published. The original DOI remains persistent. A correction must not be used to conceal changes that alter the article's central conclusions; such cases require consideration of retraction and, when appropriate, republication.

4. Addenda

An addendum may be published when important information arising after publication clarifies or extends an article without correcting an error or changing its original conclusions. Addenda are subject to editorial assessment and may require peer review. An addendum must be clearly identified, freely accessible, assigned its own DOI when appropriate, and linked bidirectionally to the original article.

5. Expressions of concern

An expression of concern may be published when serious questions have been raised about an article but the available evidence is inconclusive, an investigation is incomplete or unreasonably delayed, institutional findings are unavailable, or legal or procedural constraints prevent an immediate final decision.

The notice must describe the concern without making unsupported allegations, identify any investigation in progress when disclosure is appropriate, and be linked to and from the article. The journal will review the notice when additional evidence becomes available and will replace or supplement it with a correction, retraction, or statement that the concern has been resolved.

6. Retractions

Retraction is intended to correct the scholarly record and alert readers that an article's findings or reporting are unreliable or that the article involves a serious ethical or publication violation. Retraction is not primarily a punishment.

Editors will consider retraction when there is reliable evidence that:

the findings are unreliable because of major error, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate manipulation, or other serious problem;
the article constitutes plagiarism or unauthorized substantial use of another work;
the findings were previously published without adequate attribution, permission, or justification;
the research was conducted or published without required ethical approval or consent, or involved a serious violation of participant or animal welfare;
the article reports unethical, unlawful, or materially undisclosed research practices;
the peer-review or editorial process was manipulated or compromised;
copyright, privacy, confidentiality, or other legal rights were seriously infringed; or
authors concealed a major competing interest that materially affected the interpretation or assessment of the work.

A retraction may be issued by the authors, the Editor-in-Chief, or the publisher acting on the journal's editorial decision. Author disagreement does not prevent retraction when the evidence supports it.

7. Retraction notices and treatment of retracted articles

A retraction notice must:

be clearly titled "Retraction: [Article Title]";
identify the retracted article, authors, citation, and DOI;
state the reason for retraction and distinguish honest error from misconduct when the evidence permits;
identify who is retracting the article;
be objective, factual, and avoid defamatory or speculative language;
be published promptly, freely accessible, and assigned its own DOI;
be included in the journal's table of contents or continuous publication record; and
be linked bidirectionally to the original article.

The original article must not be silently deleted or replaced. Its landing page, HTML, and PDF must remain available unless removal is required under the exceptional circumstances described below. The article must be clearly marked "RETRACTED," and each page of the PDF should carry a visible retraction watermark. The original content should otherwise remain unchanged so that the history of the scholarly record is preserved.

8. Partial retractions

A partial retraction may be considered only when a clearly identifiable and separable part of an article is unreliable while the remaining findings continue to be reliable. When a correction can adequately explain and contain the problem, a correction is preferred. The notice must state exactly which content is affected and must not leave readers uncertain about the article's overall status.

9. Withdrawal before publication

Authors may request withdrawal of a submitted manuscript by providing a written explanation to the editorial office. Before acceptance, the request will normally be honored after confirmation by the corresponding author. When possible, all authors should be informed.

After acceptance but before publication, the Editor-in-Chief will assess the request, the authorship agreement, ethical or legal concerns, and any need to preserve an editorial record. IJN does not charge authors a withdrawal penalty or withdrawal fee. Withdrawal does not prevent the journal from investigating suspected misconduct or notifying institutions or authorities when appropriate.

A manuscript that has already been formally published as a Version of Record, assigned a public article page, or made publicly available with a DOI is not ordinarily eligible for simple withdrawal. Any necessary action will instead follow the correction, expression-of-concern, retraction, or removal procedures in this policy.

10. Withdrawal of an early online version

In exceptional cases, an accepted manuscript or early online version that is not yet the final Version of Record may be withdrawn when it was published accidentally, is a duplicate, contains a serious error, violates journal policy, or creates an immediate ethical, legal, privacy, or public-health risk.

If the early version had a public DOI or landing page, its metadata and a permanent withdrawal notice must normally remain accessible. The notice must explain the reason for withdrawal to the extent legally and ethically possible.

11. Removal

Removal of the full text is reserved for rare circumstances in which continued display would:

violate a court order or applicable law;
infringe legal rights in a manner that cannot be addressed by correction or retraction;
expose confidential, private, or personally identifying information and create a substantial risk of harm;
contain unlawful or defamatory material; or
create an immediate and serious risk to public health or safety.

When removal is necessary, the article's DOI, title, authorship information, and landing page must be preserved whenever legally possible. The full text will be replaced by a removal notice stating the reason in terms permitted by law. Removal must not be used merely to resolve an authorship dispute, suppress criticism, improve the journal's reputation, or conceal an error.

12. Retraction with republication or replacement

When an article contains a pervasive but unintentional error and the corrected work is scientifically valid, the journal may consider retraction with republication. The retracted article and notice remain part of the record. The corrected article is treated as a new Version of Record, normally with a new DOI, and must contain a transparent history explaining the relationship between the versions.

Replacement without preservation of the earlier record is not permitted. In urgent public-health situations, a corrected replacement may be published promptly, but the history and links among all versions and notices must remain visible.

13. Investigation and due process

When a concern is raised, IJN will:

record and conduct an initial assessment of the allegation;
preserve relevant editorial and publication records;
notify the corresponding author and, when appropriate, all authors;
give affected parties a reasonable opportunity to respond;
seek advice from independent experts when needed;
refer matters to institutions, ethics committees, funders, regulators, or other competent bodies when they are better placed to investigate;
manage editorial conflicts of interest by assigning an independent editor; and
take interim or final action based on the available evidence.

The journal is responsible for the reliability of its published record but does not replace the investigatory authority of research institutions, employers, ethics committees, courts, or regulators. Confidentiality will be maintained as far as possible while allowing a fair and effective investigation.

14. Metadata, DOI, indexing, and preservation

For editorially significant updates, IJN will publish a separate notice and update the relevant article landing page, HTML, PDF, journal metadata, and DOI metadata. The notice should receive its own DOI and identify the DOI of the affected article. The original DOI must remain persistent and must not be deleted.

The journal will communicate corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, withdrawals, removals, and replacements to Crossref and relevant indexing or preservation services when technically applicable. Update relationships should be registered in the metadata so that databases and readers can identify the article's current status.

15. Appeals

An author may appeal a post-publication decision by providing a reasoned written explanation and relevant evidence. The appeal will be reviewed, whenever possible, by an editor or adviser who was not responsible for the original decision and who has no relevant conflict of interest. An appeal does not automatically suspend a warning, expression of concern, retraction, or other action necessary to protect readers or the scholarly record.

16. Fees

No fee is charged for publishing a correction, expression of concern, retraction, withdrawal notice, or removal notice. IJN does not charge authors a penalty for requesting withdrawal of a manuscript. Publication charges already incurred for services completed are governed by the journal's Article Processing Charges Policy, but payment disputes must not determine editorial or research-integrity decisions.

Last updated: August 2026.