Environmental Health Engineering And Management Journal- Corrections and Retractions Policy
Corrections and Retractions Policy

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Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions Policy
The Environmental Health Engineering and Management Journal (EHEMJ) is committed to maintaining the integrity, validity, and permanence of the scholarly record. The journal handles all corrective actions in strict accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Whenever the Editor-in-Chief becomes aware of errors, misconduct, or ethical deficiencies in a published article, a thorough and impartial investigation will be initiated.
1. Types of Corrective Actions Based on the severity and nature of the issue, EHEMJ will take one of the following actions:
  • a) Correction: Issued when a significant error affects the scientific validity, findings, or interpretation of results (e.g., major typographical errors, errors in formulas, tables, figures, or author lists). The correction is published as a separate note and bidirectionally linked to the original article.
  • b) Expression of Concern: Issued when the Editor-in-Chief has well-founded concerns but conclusive evidence is not yet available; or when an institutional investigation into alleged misconduct is ongoing. This notice alerts readers that there may be issues with the article.
  • c) Retraction: Issued when errors or misconduct are so severe that they fundamentally undermine the scientific validity of the article. Retraction does not mean removal of the article from the website; rather, the article remains in the archive but is clearly marked with the label "RETRACTED" (in both HTML and PDF versions) to prevent uninformed citation.
  • d) Removal: This action is extremely rare and is taken only in exceptional cases (e.g., serious violation of privacy, significant health or safety risks, or direct legal orders). In such cases, a brief notice explaining the reason for removal is published instead of the article.
2. Grounds for Retraction: Retraction will be issued in the following circumstances:
  • Substantial plagiarism or duplicate/redundant publication.
  • Data fabrication or falsification.
  • Fundamental errors that completely invalidate the findings and conclusions.
  • Research conducted without adherence to ethical principles (e.g., lack of ethics approval or informed consent in human and animal studies).
  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest that influenced the interpretation of results.
  • Manipulation of the peer review process.
3. Decision-Making Process
  1. Receipt of Report: Any allegation from readers, authors, reviewers, or other stakeholders is received through the journal's official email.
  2. Preliminary Investigation: The Editor-in-Chief reviews the matter confidentially and, if necessary, requests an explanation from the corresponding author.
  3. Referral to Relevant Institution: If the allegation involves ethical or scientific misconduct, the matter is referred to the author's affiliated institution (university or research center) for investigation.
  4. Decision-Making: Based on the investigation results and in accordance with COPE flowcharts, the Editor-in-Chief (or the Editorial Board in complex cases) makes the final decision.
  5. Implementation: The appropriate corrective action (Correction, Expression of Concern, or Retraction) is published as swiftly as possible.
4. Publication and Notification Requirements
  • All correction, expression of concern, and retraction notices are published free of charge and incur no costs for authors or readers.
  • These notices have their own DOI and are published in a journal issue.
  • The retraction notice includes the article title, authors, journal name, ISSN, specific reason for retraction, and the Editor-in-Chief's signature.
  • In the HTML and PDF versions of the original article, the label "RETRACTED" is prominently displayed on the first page in a clear font.
  • Bidirectional linking is established between the original article and the correction/retraction notice.
  • Indexing databases (such as Scopus, PubMed, DOAJ, etc.) are notified of the Editor's decision.
5. Right to Respond The author(s) of the article always retain the right to provide a response or explanation in the retraction or correction notice, and this response will be published alongside the Editor's notice.
6. Higher Authority In cases where the Editor-in-Chief faces ambiguity in decision-making or the author's affiliated institution fails to respond, the Editor-in-Chief will directly seek specialized guidance from COPE.
 
Topic URL in Environmental Health Engineering And Management Journal website:
http://ehemj.com/find-1.125.31.en.html
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