If misconduct or fraud is suspected, the journal will investigate the case in accordance with COPE guidelines. If reasonable concerns arise after an investigation, involved authors will be contacted at their email addresses and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the journal taking the following actions, including but not limited to:

   1. If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

   2. If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the violation:

- a correction may be placed along with the article If a fundamental error or a mistake (e.g. an experimental error or miscalculation) was discovered,

- in some cases, the editors may decide to retract an article.

Reasons for potential retraction of the article:

• there is clear evidence that the results are not reliable, whether resulting from misconduct (for instance, fabricated data and manipulated images);
• the findings have been published previously elsewhere without the adequate referencing, license or justification (e.g. in cases of redundant or duplicate publication);
• the research contains plagiarism;
• there is evidence of fraudulent authorship;
• the peer review process is proved to have been compromised;
• there is evidence of unethical research and infringement of professional ethical codes.

Once the decision to retract an article has been made:

• the watermark 'Retracted article' will be added to the published version of the article’s record;
• the article’s title will be headed by 'Retracted article: [Title of the article]';
• a separate declaration of retraction will be published, titled 'Retraction: [Title of the article]'. The editors of the journal will sign this note;
• the declaration of retraction will be paginated and have a DOI assigned.

In some cases, the authors of the article considered by the journal may ask to withraw their article. A withdrawal may be initiated only before the article is published. To withdraw an article, the authors must write a clear and concise letter with an in-depth explanation as to why the manuscript needs to be withdrawn. The letter must be signed by all authors. A withdrawn manuscript is removed from the publisher’s database altogether, and copyrights remain with the authors of the withdrawn manuscript.