Erratum, Editorial Expressions of Concern, Corrections and Retractions

Forum Multimedia Publishing follows the ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

To ensure the integrity of all published or potentially published academic records, whenever it is recognized that a materially inaccurate, misleading statement, or distorted report has been published, it must be corrected in a timely manner and given due weight. Corrections to published articles that affect the interpretation and conclusions of the article, but do not completely invalidate the article, will be made through early publication of corrections or editorial expressions of concern at the discretion of the editor.

Retraction of a published article may be necessary if the scientific information in the article has been seriously compromised by either error or misconduct. Retraction notices will be indexed and linked back to the original article.

Erratum

Errata are corrections to errors introduced by the publisher in the article, including post-publication changes to the formatting of the paper, other non-scientific changes, and changes made to the authorship.

Formatting issues may include missing or unclear figures, or accidentally deleted text. Very minor errors that do not affect readability or meaning will not require publication of an erratum. Therefore, we ask all authors to carefully proofread the final version.

Editorial Expressions of Concern

Journal editors may consider issuing an expression of concern if substantial doubts arise about the honesty or integrity of a submitted or published article. Expressions of concern should be issued when an investigation into issues related to the article proves inconclusive and there are still strong indications that the concerns are valid. Expressions of concern may also be issued in some rare cases when an investigation is ongoing but a verdict cannot be reached for a significant period of time. The expression of concern will be linked to the published article to which it relates.

Corrections

  • When it is necessary to correct an error or omission that may affect the interpretation of the article, a correction notice will be issued.
  • A notice of correction will be issued when it is necessary to correct an error or omission that may affect the interpretation of the article, but the integrity of the article remains intact.

This will appear as a separate publication with a link to the original paper (which has been updated).

Retraction

Retractions will be published when there are significant errors (e.g., analytical or methodological errors) that invalidate the conclusions of the article, or when research misconduct or publication misconduct has occurred (e.g., studies without required ethical approval, fabricated data, manipulated images, plagiarism, duplicate publications, etc.).

Forum Multimedia Publishing will follow the COPE recommendations for retraction:

  1. A retraction note entitled "Retraction: [Original article title]" and signed by the author and/or editor will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents.
  2. In the electronic version, there is a link to the original article.
  3. A screen containing the retraction reasons precedes the online article. The link to the original article is on this screen; the reader can then go to the article itself.
  4. The original article remains unchanged except for a prominent watermark on the HTML and PDF files indicating that it has been "retracted".
  5. In exceptional circumstances, such as to protect privacy, prevent serious harm to people or the environment, or when required by a court order, the original article will be removed.