Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern Policy

Al-Adzka: Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Guru Madrasah Ibtidaiyah is committed to maintaining the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of the scholarly record. When errors, ethical concerns, or research-integrity problems are identified before or after publication, the journal will take appropriate and proportionate action. Editorial decisions concerning corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, article replacements, and article removals are guided by the journal’s Publication Ethics and Research Integrity, the COPE Retraction Guidelines, and other relevant COPE Guidance and Tools.

General Principles

The journal distinguishes between honest errors that can be corrected and serious problems that undermine the reliability or integrity of an article. Editorial action will be based on the seriousness of the concern, the available evidence, the effect of the problem on the article’s findings, and the need to protect research participants, readers, authors, and the scholarly record.

Corrections and retractions will not be used to suppress legitimate academic debate, punish authors, or resolve minor scholarly disagreements. All concerns will be examined fairly, confidentially, and proportionately. Authors will normally be given an opportunity to respond before a final decision is made, except when urgent action is necessary to prevent legal, ethical, privacy, or safety-related harm.

Published articles will not normally be removed from the journal website. When a correction, expression of concern, or retraction is issued, the original article will remain accessible and will be clearly linked to the relevant notice.

Reporting Errors and Ethical Concerns

Authors, readers, reviewers, editors, institutions, and other interested parties may report errors or ethical concerns by contacting the editorial office. Reports should clearly identify the article, explain the concern, and provide supporting evidence whenever possible.

Anonymous allegations may be considered when they contain specific, credible, and verifiable information. The journal will not act solely on unsupported, speculative, defamatory, or malicious accusations.

Authors who discover significant errors or ethical concerns in their published work must notify the editorial office promptly and cooperate with any investigation, correction, or retraction process.

Minor Corrections

Minor typographical, grammatical, formatting, or production errors that do not affect the meaning, interpretation, reliability, or conclusions of an article may be corrected directly in the online version when appropriate.

Minor changes that do not alter the scholarly content may not require a separate correction notice. However, the journal will not make silent changes when an error affects authorship, affiliation, funding information, bibliographic data, research findings, data interpretation, or the way an article may be cited.

Errata and Corrigenda

A formal correction will be published when an article contains an error that affects part of the publication but does not invalidate its principal findings or conclusions.

An erratum may be issued when an error was introduced during copyediting, layout, metadata preparation, typesetting, or publication production. A corrigendum may be issued when an error originated from the authors, such as inaccurate author information, affiliations, funding statements, data labels, numerical values, methodological descriptions, or other content requiring formal correction.

A correction notice will clearly identify the original article, explain the error and the corrected information, and indicate whether the correction affects the interpretation, findings, or conclusions. The notice will be linked to the original article and reflected in the article PDF, HTML, DOI metadata, and indexing services where technically possible.

Authorship and Affiliation Corrections

Requests to correct author names, affiliations, or contact information will be evaluated individually. Corrections may be made when the published information is factually inaccurate or when a legitimate change is required to preserve the correct scholarly identity of an author.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after publication are not considered routine corrections. Such requests must include a clear explanation and written agreement from all authors. When an authorship dispute cannot be resolved, the journal may refer the matter to the authors’ institutions.

The journal will not determine complex legal or institutional authorship disputes but will take appropriate action to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the publication record.

Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be published when serious questions have been raised about an article but the evidence remains inconclusive, an institutional investigation has not been completed, or the journal cannot obtain sufficient information to reach a final decision.

An expression of concern may also be appropriate when the reliability of the findings is uncertain, ethical approval or informed consent is disputed, data integrity cannot be verified, serious authorship concerns remain unresolved, or the investigation is expected to require a substantial period.

The notice will explain the nature of the concern without making unsupported accusations. It will be prominently linked to the original article and will be updated, replaced, or removed when the investigation has been completed.

Retraction

An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that its findings or conclusions are unreliable or when a serious violation of publication ethics has occurred. Grounds for retraction may include data fabrication or falsification, plagiarism, unethical research involving human participants or children, absence or misrepresentation of ethical approval, duplicate publication, unauthorized use of confidential or personal data, manipulated peer review, serious image or statistical manipulation, major authorship misconduct, or undisclosed conflicts of interest that materially affect the article.

Retraction may be initiated by authors, editors, the publisher, institutions, funding agencies, or other parties presenting credible evidence. Author agreement is not required when the journal has sufficient evidence that retraction is necessary to protect readers and the scholarly record.

An article will not normally be retracted solely because of a change in interpretation, scholarly disagreement, minor error, or an authorship dispute that does not affect the reliability of the research.

Retraction Procedure

When a serious concern is received, the editor will conduct an initial assessment and may request explanations, raw data, research instruments, ethics documentation, consent records, statistical outputs, interview records, or other supporting evidence.

The journal may consult independent experts, reviewers, editorial board members, research-integrity specialists, institutional authorities, funding agencies, or other journals when necessary. An expression of concern may be issued while an investigation is ongoing.

Authors will normally be informed of the concern and given a reasonable opportunity to respond. Failure to respond will not prevent the journal from taking action when sufficient evidence is available.

The final decision will be made by the Editor-in-Chief or another responsible editor who has no conflict of interest. If the Editor-in-Chief is involved in the article or complaint, the matter will be handled by an independent editor or qualified external party.

Retraction Notice and Published Record

A retraction notice will clearly identify the retracted article, state who initiated the retraction, explain the reason for the decision, and distinguish misconduct from honest error whenever possible. The notice will be freely accessible, permanently linked to the original article, and written in clear and non-defamatory language.

The original article will remain accessible but will be clearly marked as retracted. A prominent notice or watermark will be added to the PDF and HTML versions where technically possible. The bibliographic record, title, authorship, DOI, and publication history will remain visible to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

The journal will update Crossref metadata and notify relevant indexing services, repositories, and preservation systems about the retracted status of the article where technically possible.

Article Replacement

Article replacement may be considered when a published article contains serious but correctable errors and the authors can provide a fully revised version that preserves the principal research contribution. Replacement will only be used when it does not conceal plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, unethical research, or other serious misconduct.

The original article will remain accessible and will be clearly linked to the replacement version. A replacement notice will explain the reason for the change and describe the main revisions.

Article Removal

Removal of a published article is an exceptional action and will only be considered when continued public access creates a serious legal, privacy, confidentiality, safety, or security risk. Possible grounds include a binding legal order, serious defamation, publication of highly sensitive personal information without consent, a substantial threat to research participants, unlawful content, or an immediate public-safety risk.

When an article is removed, the DOI landing page and bibliographic record will normally remain accessible with a notice explaining why the content is unavailable, unless legal requirements prohibit such disclosure.

Article removal will not be used merely because an article is controversial, criticized, or retracted.

Requests from Authors

Authors may request a correction, expression of concern, or retraction when they identify an important error or integrity problem. The request must clearly explain the concern and provide supporting information.

The journal will determine whether the appropriate action is a minor correction, formal correction, expression of concern, retraction, article replacement, or another measure. Authors cannot require removal of an article merely because they no longer support its conclusions, have changed institutions, or wish to publish the work elsewhere.

A request submitted by one author may require consultation with all co-authors. Disagreement among authors will not prevent the journal from taking necessary action to protect the scholarly record.

Institutional Investigations

When concerns involve possible research misconduct, the journal may contact the authors’ institutions, ethics committees, funding agencies, or relevant research-integrity authorities. The journal may consider the outcome of an institutional investigation when making an editorial decision.

The journal is not required to delay action indefinitely while waiting for an external investigation. When sufficient evidence is available, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction to protect readers and the reliability of the publication record.

Appeals

Authors may appeal a correction, expression-of-concern, or retraction decision when they believe that a significant factual, procedural, or ethical error occurred. Appeals must be submitted in writing, clearly explain the grounds for reconsideration, and include relevant supporting evidence.

Whenever possible, the appeal will be examined by an editor or independent expert who was not directly involved in the original decision. Disagreement with the outcome alone is not sufficient grounds for an appeal. Further information is available in the journal’s Appeals and Complaints policy.

Confidentiality and Fairness

Investigations will be conducted confidentially, fairly, and proportionately. Information will only be shared with individuals or institutions whose involvement is necessary to evaluate the concern.

The journal will avoid premature public allegations and will distinguish between honest error, questionable research practice, and intentional misconduct whenever the available evidence permits. Editorial actions will reflect the seriousness of the concern and its effect on the reliability and integrity of the published work.

Metadata and Indexing Updates

When a correction, expression of concern, retraction, replacement, or removal notice is issued, the journal will update the relevant article metadata and notify Crossref, indexing databases, repositories, and digital-preservation services where technically possible.

Each notice will be assigned appropriate publication information and permanently linked to the affected article so that readers, libraries, indexing services, and citation databases receive accurate information about the publication’s current status.

Related Policies and Standards

This policy should be read together with the journal’s Publication Ethics and Research Integrity, Peer Review Process, Manuscript Withdrawal Policy, Plagiarism Check, Ethical Oversight, and Appeals and Complaints.

The journal also refers to the COPE Retraction Guidelines and other relevant COPE Guidance and Tools.