Q: How can we withdraw our article after it has been published in a journal?
After publication of an article in our journal, a lead author found that there was a serious authorship violation and asked us to withdraw the article. It does violate research ethics and it seems appropriate to accept the request for withdrawing. But the paper is already published. In that case, how can we cancel the article? Can revise the article and publish it in another issue?
An article cannot be withdrawn once it has been published. But since your case involves ethical issues regarding authorship violation, it is best to inform the journal editor about the situation. You can explain the matter to the journal editor and ask him/her if it can be corrected by issuing an erratum or corrigendum. If this is possible, the error will be corrected in the next issue.
However, if the nature of the authorship violation is such that it cannot be corrected through an erratum or a corrigendum, you might have to opt for self-retraction.
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This content belongs to the Conducting Research Stage