This Policy of Retractions and Corrections establishes the regulatory grounds, principles and procedures for making changes, publishing corrections and conducting retractions of scientific articles published in the scientific journal 'UNAIDS Journal' (hereinafter — the Journal).
The Policy is aimed at ensuring scientific reliability, correctness and reproducibility of published results, as well as maintaining the trust of the scientific and professional community in the Journal's publications.
The document was developed taking into account the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and applies to all materials that have passed the peer review procedure and published in the Journal.
Any changes made to an article after its acceptance for publication and passing all stages of peer review and pre-press preparation are classified into the following categories:
The choice of category is determined by the nature of the identified inaccuracies, the degree of their influence on the interpretation of research results, as well as the need to expand or clarify the published material.
The decision to publish corrections or additions is made by the editors of the Journal based on the recommendations of reviewers, members of the editorial board, or by written request from the authors of the article.
The procedure for considering the issue of making changes may include consultations with the authors of the article and, if necessary, an additional expert assessment.
The final decision on the form, volume and expediency of publishing changes is made by the editors and/or the editorial board of the Journal.
An addition is a publication of new material aimed at expanding, clarifying or developing the original content of the article without changing its basic scientific concept and main conclusions.
Additional material is subject to mandatory peer review and is considered by the editors in a manner similar to the consideration of a new manuscript.
The addition is placed on the Journal's website as a separate publication with a mandatory link to the original article.
Replacing, editing or correcting fragments of the text of an already published article by means of an addition is not allowed and can be implemented exclusively in the form of a publisher error correction or an author correction.
A publisher error correction is published in the event of major errors made by the Journal in the process of editorial and publishing preparation of an article (including typos, technical errors or missed changes) that affect the reader's understanding of the article's content.
Corrections are not published for minor, obvious typos that do not affect the scientific interpretation, data accuracy or research findings.
A publisher error correction is formatted as a separate notice containing a description of the identified error and the correct version of the text, with a mandatory link to the original publication and preservation of the article's bibliographic identification.
In the event that authors identify the need for changes after the publication of an article, the author is obliged to send a written request to the editors with a detailed justification of the proposed corrections and an indication of the affected publication fragments.
The editors of the Journal evaluate the potential impact of the proposed changes on the scientific accuracy, reliability and significance of the published article.
If necessary, reviewers or members of the editorial board may be involved.
The final decision to publish an author's correction is made by the editor-in-chief of the Journal together with the editorial board.
Article retraction is used in cases of identified significant errors, methodological inconsistencies, unreliable data or other violations that critically undermine the scientific reliability of the published results and cannot be eliminated by publishing corrections.
The decision to retract an article is made by the editor-in-chief and the editorial board of the Journal, taking into account the recommendations of reviewers, the results of an internal investigation and COPE principles.
Information about the retraction is published in open access with a clear indication of the reasons for the retraction and with the preservation of bibliographic information about the original article.
This ensures scientific traceability, correct indexing and informing readers about the publication status.
This Policy is mandatory for all authors, editors and reviewers of the Journal.
Submitting an article to the Journal means the author's agreement with the provisions of this Policy of Retractions and Corrections.
The editors of the Journal reserve the right to review and update this Policy taking into account the development of international scientific standards, COPE recommendations and changes in editorial procedures.