Where a journal is owned by and published on behalf of a learned society or association, you should refer to any additional requirements set out by that journal.
Please read these policies in full before submitting your article, to ensure you’ve correctly followed all the requirements.
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Affiliations
Competing interests
Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions
Corrections
A correction notice will be issued when it is necessary to correct an error or omission which can impact the interpretation of the article, but where the scholarly integrity of the article remains intact. Examples include mislabeling of a figure, missing key information on funding or competing interests of the authors.
KMU distinguishes between major and minor errors. For correction notices, major errors or omissions are considered to be any changes which impacts the interpretation of the article, but where the scholarly integrity of the article remains intact.
Expressions
In some cases, an Expression of Concern notice may be considered where concerns of a major nature have been raised (e.g. serious research or publication misconduct), but where the outcome of the investigation is inconclusive or where due to various complexities the investigation will not be complete for a considerable time.
When the investigation has been completed a Retraction or Correction notice may follow the Expression of Concern, and alongside the original article, all will remain part of the permanent published record.
Publication of an expression of concern notice will be considered if:
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There is inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors, but the nature of the concerns warrant notifying the readers.
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There are well-founded concerns that the findings are unreliable or that misconduct may have occurred, but there is limited cooperation from the authors’ institution(s) in investigating the concerns raised.
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There is an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication that has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive.
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An investigation is underway, but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time and the nature of the concerns warrant notifying the readers.
The expression of concern will be linked back to the published article it relates to.
Retractions
A retraction notice will be issued where a major error (e.g. in the analysis or methods) invalidates the conclusions in the article, or where research misconduct or publication misconduct has taken place (e.g. research without required ethical approvals, fabricated data, manipulated images, plagiarism, duplicate publication etc.). The decision to issue a retraction for an article will be made in accordance with COPE guidelines, and will involve an investigation by KMU editorial staff in collaboration with the editor. Authors and institutions may request a retraction of their articles if their reasons meet the criteria for retraction.
The COPE retraction guidelines can be found on the COPE website.