Procedure for retracting published articles

The journal’s editorial board adheres to the principles of academic integrity and international standards of publication ethics, and has a procedure in place for retracting published articles in the event that significant violations or errors are discovered that affect the reliability of the research results. Retractions are carried out in accordance with international standards (COPE Retraction Guidelines) and the journal’s policy.

Grounds for retraction
An article may be retracted in the following cases:
    • detection of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or unethical borrowing; 
    • fabrication or falsification of research results; 
    • significant errors that render the results unusable; 
    • republication of the same article without proper justification; 
    • authorship violations (unjustified inclusion or exclusion of authors); 
    • a hidden conflict of interest that influenced the results; 
    • violations of the peer review or editorial process. 

Initiating the procedure
The retraction process may be initiated by:
    • the author(s) of the article; 
    • the editorial board; 
    • reviewers; 
    • third parties (researchers, institutions, readers) by submitting a substantiated request to the editorial board. 

Review Procedure
    1. The editorial staff conducts an initial review of the submission and verifies the facts. 
    2. If necessary, independent experts or members of the editorial board are consulted. 
    3. The author(s) are given the opportunity to provide an explanation. 
    4. Based on the results of the review, the editorial board makes one of the following decisions: 
        ◦ leave the article unchanged; 
        ◦ publish a correction (corrigendum/erratum); 
        ◦ retract the article. 
The final decision is made by the editor-in-chief or an authorized member of the editorial board.

Publication of a retraction
If a decision is made to retract the article:
    • a retraction notice stating the reasons is posted on the article’s page; 
    • the article remains openly accessible but is clearly marked as “retracted”;
    • the article’s metadata is updated to reflect the retraction status;
    • the relevant information is transmitted to scientometric databases and indexing systems. 

Storage and Transparency
Retracted articles are not removed from the journal’s archive but are retained with a clear indication of the fact and reasons for the retraction, ensuring transparency in scientific communication and preventing the reuse of unreliable results.