Correction and Retraction

Article Withdrawal, Retraction, Removal, and Replacement Policy

Journal editors do not independently decide which articles are published. All publication decisions are made in accordance with the policies and guidance of the Editorial Board of Affinity: Journal of Social Studies and Community Engagement, and are subject to applicable legal requirements, including defamation, copyright infringement, duplicate publication, and plagiarism.

Published articles are intended to remain permanently available, accurate, and unaltered. However, in exceptional circumstances, articles may be withdrawn, retracted, removed, or replaced.

Article Withdrawal

An article may be withdrawn if:

  • The initial version contains significant errors;

  • The article was accidentally submitted more than once to Affinity: Journal of Social Studies and Community Engagement and/or another publisher;

  • Violations of publication ethics are identified, such as duplicate submission, false authorship claims, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication or misuse, or other ethical misconduct.

Authors who become aware of ethical issues may request withdrawal by submitting a formal withdrawal statement addressed to the Editorial Board.

Article Retraction

An article will be retracted if there is clear evidence or strong indication of serious violations of scientific and publication ethics, including but not limited to:

  • Duplicate publication

  • False authorship claims

  • Plagiarism or self-plagiarism

  • Data fabrication or manipulation

  • Fake or non-existent authors

Retractions may also be issued to correct major errors in submission or publication. Retractions may be initiated by authors, editors, or affiliated institutions upon the recommendation of the Editorial Board.

Retracted articles must be accompanied by a statement indicating that the article should not be cited or used as a basis for future research, and that the data and conclusions are invalid.

Retraction Mechanisms

  • If ethical violations are identified prior to publication, the manuscript will be returned to the author with a retraction notice issued by the Editor-in-Chief.

  • If violations are identified after publication, the following actions may be taken:

    • A retraction notice entitled “Retraction: [Article Title]” is published in a subsequent issue and listed in the table of contents;

    • The online article is preceded by a retraction notice screen;

    • The original PDF remains available with a “Retracted” watermark on each page;

    • The HTML version of the article is removed.

Article Removal

In extremely limited cases, an article may be removed from the journal’s online database if it is:

  • Clearly defamatory or constitutes a hoax;

  • Infringing upon the legal rights of others;

  • Subject to a court order;

  • Posing a threat to national security.

In such cases, the article metadata (title and authors) will remain visible, while the article text will be replaced with a notice stating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article Replacement

If an article, if acted upon, may pose a serious risk (including health or social risks), authors may retract the original article and replace it with a corrected version. Retraction procedures will apply, with the difference that the retraction notice will include a link to the corrected article along with the document history.