Withdrawal Policy

To provide a fair, transparent and ethical process for withdrawing manuscripts while protecting authors, reviewers, editors and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Purpose and Scope

Authors may sometimes need to withdraw a manuscript because of substantial errors, authorship issues, duplicate submission discovered after submission, legal or ethical concerns, or other legitimate reasons. The journal also may need to withdraw a manuscript from editorial processing when serious policy, integrity, legal or procedural concerns arise.

This policy applies from initial submission until formal publication. Once an article has been published as part of the scholarly record, concerns are normally handled through correction, expression of concern, retraction or another appropriate post-publication notice rather than by simply removing the article. Post-publication actions follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines (2019), COPE flowcharts and the ICMJE Recommendations, as implemented in the journal’s Corrections and Retractions Policy.

Core Principles

• Withdrawal requests will be handled fairly, consistently and without retaliation.

• Authors should not submit the same manuscript to another journal while it remains under active consideration unless withdrawal has been confirmed in writing.

• Withdrawal must not be used to avoid legitimate editorial scrutiny after suspected misconduct has been identified.

• Editorial decisions, APCs and commercial considerations must remain separate. Payment or non-payment of fees must not determine whether a withdrawal request is ethically evaluated.

• Where a manuscript has multiple authors, the journal may require written agreement from all authors or confirmation from the corresponding author acting with the consent of all co-authors.

• The journal may retain an internal record of the submission and withdrawal for audit, ethics and administrative purposes, while respecting applicable privacy and confidentiality obligations.

• Reviewers who have submitted or been invited to submit a review will be informed when a manuscript is withdrawn; their reports remain confidential and may not be used by the authors without the journal’s consent.

• Withdrawal correspondence, reviewer identities and unpublished content are treated as confidential and handled in accordance with the journal’s Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection law, including India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

• The journal will respond to withdrawal requests within the timelines set out in this Policy and will give reasons for any refusal.

Author-Initiated Withdrawal

Before Peer Review Begins

Authors may request withdrawal before external peer review begins. The corresponding author should submit the request through the journal’s manuscript system or official editorial contact, stating the manuscript title, manuscript ID and reason for withdrawal. The journal will confirm the status in writing.

During Peer Review

Authors may request withdrawal while peer review is in progress. Because reviewers and editors may already have invested substantial time, authors should provide a clear reason. The journal may pause further processing while the request is assessed. The manuscript should not be submitted elsewhere until written withdrawal confirmation is received.

After Revision or Editorial Decision but Before Acceptance

A withdrawal request may be made after revision or after an editorial decision has been issued, provided the article has not yet been formally accepted for publication. Authors should explain the reason for withdrawal, especially where reviewer comments or substantial editorial work have already been completed.

After Acceptance but Before Publication

Withdrawal after acceptance is exceptional because editorial, production, copy-editing, typesetting, metadata and DOI-related work may already have begun. Authors must provide a substantive reason, such as discovery of a major error, unresolved authorship dispute, legal restriction, duplicate submission, ethical concern, or another circumstance that materially affects publication.

The journal may consult the Editor-in-Chief and, where appropriate, all authors before deciding the appropriate action. If serious integrity concerns are involved, withdrawal may not end the journal’s ethical assessment or prevent communication with relevant institutions or other journals when justified.

Manuscripts with Multiple Authors

• The corresponding author should ensure that all co-authors are informed of the withdrawal request.

• For post-acceptance withdrawals, the journal may require written consent from all authors.

• If authors disagree about withdrawal, authorship or ownership of the work, the journal may pause processing and request that the authors’ institution(s) resolve the dispute.

• The journal will not normally adjudicate institutional authorship disputes beyond determining whether publication can responsibly proceed.

Duplicate or Simultaneous Submission

Submitting the same or substantially similar manuscript to more than one journal at the same time is generally inconsistent with accepted publication practice unless all journals involved have explicitly agreed to a coordinated submission model.

• If authors discover an accidental simultaneous submission, they should notify the journal immediately and request withdrawal from one venue.

• If simultaneous submission appears intentional or is repeated, the matter may be handled under the Research Misconduct or Publication Ethics Policy.

• The journal may contact the other journal or the authors’ institution when necessary to resolve a serious integrity concern, following due process and confidentiality principles.

Editorial Withdrawal from Processing

The journal may withdraw a manuscript from editorial consideration before publication when continued processing is not appropriate. Examples include:

• confirmed or strongly substantiated duplicate submission or redundant publication;

• plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, manipulated images, fraudulent authorship, fake peer review, paper-mill indicators, or other serious integrity concerns;

• failure to provide required ethical approval, informed consent, permissions or supporting documentation;

• legal, privacy, copyright, sanctions, security or safety concerns that prevent lawful or responsible processing;

• failure to respond to essential editorial queries after reasonable attempts to contact the authors;

• a manuscript being materially outside the journal’s scope or failing mandatory submission requirements;

• evidence that the peer-review or editorial process has been compromised.

Where appropriate, authors will be informed of the reason and may use the journal’s Complaints and Appeals procedure. Appeals are considered by an editor or ethics committee member not involved in the original decision and are normally answered within 30 working days. Where an editorial withdrawal relates to suspected misconduct, the journal follows the relevant COPE flowchart and may consult the authors’ institution before deciding.

Articles in Press (Accepted Manuscripts Published Ahead of the Version of Record)

Where the journal publishes accepted manuscripts online ahead of the Version of Record (“Articles in Press”), such items already carry a registered DOI and have entered the public record. An Article in Press may be withdrawn only for the reasons listed under Editorial Withdrawal from Processing, on the instruction of the Editor-in-Chief. In that event the DOI and bibliographic metadata remain registered and resolvable; the full text (HTML and PDF) is replaced by a page marked “WITHDRAWN” that states the article title, authors, the date of withdrawal and, so far as legally possible, the reason; and the Crossref metadata is updated to reflect the withdrawn status. Articles in Press are not deleted.

Preprints

Posting a manuscript on a recognised preprint server before or during submission is not considered duplicate submission or prior publication, provided the preprint is disclosed at submission and cited in the manuscript. Withdrawal of a manuscript from the journal does not require the authors to remove the preprint. If the manuscript is later published elsewhere, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record to link to the Version of Record. Where a manuscript is withdrawn by the journal because of a confirmed integrity concern, the journal may notify the preprint server.

Withdrawal After Online Publication

Once an article has been formally published as the Version of Record, it should not ordinarily be treated as a manuscript withdrawal. The scholarly record should instead be corrected through the journal’s post-publication mechanisms.

Situation	Normal action
Minor error that does not invalidate the work	Correction or corrigendum
Serious uncertainty while an investigation is ongoing	Expression of concern, where appropriate
Findings are unreliable; plagiarism, unethical research, serious legal issue, or compromised peer review	Retraction where criteria are met
Exceptional legal/safety reason requiring removal of content	Removal or restricted access only in exceptional circumstances, with a public notice where legally possible
Article in Press (accepted manuscript online with DOI, before Version of Record) must be removed	Withdrawal notice retained at the DOI; full text replaced by “WITHDRAWN” statement; Crossref metadata updated

Retraction is not a punishment. Its primary purpose is to correct the literature and alert readers when findings or the publication process are unreliable or seriously compromised. Notices of correction, expression of concern and retraction follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines: they are freely accessible to all readers, clearly identified as such in the title, linked in both directions with the original article, state who is issuing the notice and the reason, are published promptly, and are registered with Crossref (and Crossmark where implemented) so that indexing services can update their records. The original article remains available with a prominent “RETRACTED” marking on every page of the PDF and on the HTML version; it is not deleted except in the exceptional circumstances described above. No fee is charged to authors for issuing a correction or retraction, and refunds of APCs are not made because an article has been retracted for misconduct.

Withdrawal Request Procedure

A withdrawal request should normally include:

• Manuscript title and manuscript ID;

• Name and email of the corresponding author;

• Clear reason for requesting withdrawal;

• Confirmation that all co-authors have been informed and, where requested, their written consent;

• Details of any duplicate submission, ethical concern, legal restriction or substantial error relevant to the request.

The journal will acknowledge the request and communicate the outcome through the manuscript system or official editorial correspondence. A request is not complete until the journal has confirmed withdrawal or otherwise closed the submission.

Timelines

• Acknowledgement of a withdrawal request: within 5 working days.

• Decision on a request made before acceptance: normally within 10 working days.

• Decision on a request made after acceptance, or where an integrity concern must first be assessed: normally within 30 working days; the authors will be informed if a longer period is needed and why.

• Written confirmation of withdrawal is sent to the corresponding author and copied to all co-authors on record; the manuscript status is updated in the submission system on the same day.

APCs, Charges and Refunds

Editorial consideration and withdrawal decisions must be independent of financial considerations. Authors should refer to the journal’s Article Processing Charge policy for any applicable payment, refund or waiver terms.

• No payment may guarantee acceptance or prevent a legitimate withdrawal request.

• Any administrative or production charge related to withdrawal must have been clearly disclosed to authors in advance and must not be used as a coercive or punitive measure.

• If an APC has already been paid, any refund will be handled according to the published APC/refund policy and the stage of production.

Withdrawal and Research Misconduct

A withdrawal request does not automatically terminate an investigation into suspected misconduct. If concerns involving plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, unethical research, manipulated peer review, authorship fraud or other serious misconduct arose before withdrawal, the journal may continue reviewing the concern and may contact institutions, funders, other journals or relevant bodies where appropriate and proportionate. Cooperation with institutions follows the COPE guidelines on cooperation between research institutions and journals on research-integrity cases. The journal does not itself adjudicate misconduct; it decides what action is needed to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Records and Transparency

The journal keeps a confidential record of every withdrawal, editorial withdrawal and post-publication notice, including the dates, the reason category and the decision-maker, for a minimum of ten years, in accordance with the Privacy Policy. Anonymised summary statistics on withdrawals, corrections and retractions may be published annually as part of the journal’s transparency reporting. This Policy is published on the journal website and linked from the author guidelines, the submission system and the Publication Ethics statement.

Policy Review

This Policy is reviewed at least annually, and whenever COPE, ICMJE, Crossref or indexing requirements change. The version number and date of last revision are displayed on the journal website.

Withdrawal Policy | Common Policy for All Journals