Corrections & Retractions — Journal of Clinical & Applied Pharmacology (JCAP)

The principle

A published article is never quietly changed

Once an article has been published it becomes part of the scholarly record, and other people begin to cite it. From that moment the Journal of Clinical & Applied Pharmacology does not edit the article. If something in it needs to be put right, the journal publishes a separate notice saying so, and the two are read together.

Every notice is itself a citable item, with its own title and its own page in an issue, linked to the article it concerns. Nothing is removed, and no change is made silently. Matters of research and publication misconduct are handled following the flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Three notices

What the journal may publish

The findings still stand

Correction

For an error that does not affect the results or the conclusions — a misspelt name, a wrong affiliation, a transposed figure, a mislabelled table, an incorrect reference, a missing declaration. The notice states plainly what was wrong, what it should read, and who asked for the change. Corrections carry no blame; an honest error corrected promptly reflects well on everyone involved.

A doubt raised, not yet settled

Expression of concern

Used when a serious question has been raised about an article — about its data, its ethics approval, or its conduct — and the journal cannot yet resolve it, perhaps because an institutional enquiry is under way or because the authors have not replied. The notice sets out the concern, states that the matter is unresolved, and alerts readers to read the article with that in mind. It is always temporary: it is followed either by a correction, by a retraction, or by a notice recording that the concern was not upheld.

The findings can no longer be relied upon

Retraction

Used where the findings are unreliable — through a major error, unsound method, or misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or the absence of the ethics approval or consent that was declared. A retraction is a statement about the work, and it does not always imply misconduct: an honest error large enough to invalidate the results is retracted in exactly the same way, and the notice says which it was.

A retracted article stays online

Why nothing is deleted

A retracted article is not taken down. It remains at the same web address, with the same page numbers, marked clearly on every page as retracted and linked to its retraction notice. This is deliberate. Readers who already hold a copy, and papers that have already cited it, must still be able to find it and to discover what became of it. An article that simply vanished would leave those citations pointing at nothing.

Removal is different, and very rare. An article is withdrawn from view only where the law requires it, or where leaving it in place would breach a patient's privacy or place someone in danger. Even then the citation, the title and the notice remain, so that the record still shows what was published and why it was removed.

Raising a concern

How to tell us something is wrong

Anyone may raise a concern about a published article — an author, a reader, a reviewer, or an editor. Write to admin@jcapjournal.org with:

the title and reference number of the article, and the issue it appeared in;
the exact place in the article — the page, the section, the table or figure;
what you believe is wrong, and, if you are the author, the wording it should carry;
anything that supports the point, such as the correct data or a source.

Concerns may be raised in confidence. The journal will not disclose who raised a matter without their agreement, and a concern raised in good faith is never held against the person who raised it, whatever the outcome.

Process

How a concern is handled

Acknowledgement — the editorial office replies, normally within seven days, and records the matter against the article.
The authors are told — the corresponding author is written to and given a fair opportunity to explain or to agree. Where an author has raised the error themselves, this step is already met.
Assessment — the Editor-in-Chief considers the article, the concern and the authors' reply, and where it helps takes independent advice from a reviewer or a member of the editorial board. Where the question is one of institutional conduct, the authors' institution may be asked to look into it, and the journal will normally wait for that enquiry.
Decision — the Editor-in-Chief decides which notice, if any, is called for, following COPE guidance. A retraction is not decided alone: at least one member of the editorial board with no connection to the article is consulted first, and their agreement is recorded.
Publication — the notice is drafted by the editorial office, shown to the authors before it appears, and published in the next issue. Where the authors do not agree with it, the notice says so.

An editor's own work

Where the article in question is by the Editor-in-Chief, or the concern is about an editor's own conduct, that person takes no part in the assessment or the decision. The matter is handled by a member of the editorial board, and the notice records that this was done.

What a notice contains

Every notice says the same six things

On the notice

Its own title, beginning Correction, Expression of Concern, or Retraction
The full citation of the article it concerns, and a link to it
What was wrong, stated plainly, without jargon

And also

Who asked for it — the authors, the journal, or an institution
Whether the authors agree with the notice
The date it was published, and its own page in the issue

Notices are published in the journal's name and are not signed by an individual. They are free to read, like everything else the journal publishes, and carry the same CC BY 4.0 licence.

Before publication

Changes while a manuscript is still with us

None of the above applies to a manuscript that has not yet been published. Until an article appears in an issue it may be revised, corrected at proof, or withdrawn by its authors, and no notice of any kind is published. An author who wishes to withdraw a manuscript before publication need only write to the editorial office; see the Instructions to Authors for how proofs and revisions are handled.

The line is publication itself. Once an article carries an issue, a volume and page numbers, it belongs to the record, and from then on it is changed only in the open, by a notice.