Retraction

General Provisions

The editorial board of the publication “Agora. Social Sciences Journal” defines the grounds and procedures for the retraction of publications in accordance with the international standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, Retraction Guidelines).

The purpose of retraction is to maintain the reliability and integrity of scientific publications, ensure transparency, and uphold high standards of academic integrity of the journal.

Grounds for revocation

A publication may be retracted if it is determined that the following has occurred:

  1. There are serious scientific violations, including the following:
  • fabrication or falsification of data,
  • manipulation of results or images,
  • providing false or falsified information to the system.
  1. Errors that make the results and conclusions unreliable, including:
  • methodological errors;
  • technical issues that affect the data or conclusions;
  • incorrect calculations or other critical mistakes that cannot be corrected by issuing corrections.
  1. Violations of academic integrity include:
  • plagiarism or self-plagiarism;
  • excessive duplication or prior publication without proper citation (prior or simultaneous publication of the same material in another journal without appropriate references or permission);
  • Improper or manipulative authorship (inclusion or exclusion of authors without justification).
  1. Significant breaches of ethical standards, such as
  • research conducted without appropriate ethical approval;
  • violations of ethical principles regarding work with humans or animals;
  • undisclosed or concealed conflict of interest.
  1. Other substantial violations that call into question the credibility or ethicality of scientific work.

Initiation of the retraction procedure

The retraction process can be initiated by 

  • the authors of this article;
  • the editorial board or editor-in-chief; 
  • reviewers, or members of the editorial board; 
  • readers, researchers, or other interested parties who report any violations.

All reports regarding potential violations are considered confidentially and impartially by the editorial board.

Investigation Procedure

After receiving a notification of a possible violation, the Editorial Board registers the appeal and begins an initial assessment.

The author(s) will receive an official notification and an opportunity to provide an explanation.

If necessary, the editorial board involves independent experts and an ethics committee.

The editorial board makes the final decision on retraction through a professional and ethical analysis of all available evidence.

If the circumstances are not clear-cut but raise serious concerns, the Editorial Board may publish an Expression of Concern.

Retraction Notice

In the event that a decision is made to retract a publication:

  1. A separate retraction notice was published, which:
  • clearly identifies the retracted article (title, author, date, DOI);
  • provides a clear explanation of the reasons for the retraction;
  • specifies who initiated the process (author, editorial board, etc.);

is open to all readers and is freely accessible.

  1. The original article has not been deleted:
  • is marked as “RETRACTED” on all pages.
  • is accompanied by a hyperlink to the retraction notice.
  • receives the corresponding updates in metadata, bibliographic records, and indexing databases.
  1. If necessary, the publication will inform the relevant institutions where the research was conducted.

Cases of publishing corrections

If the identified shortcomings do not affect the reliability of the main conclusions, the editorial board may publish the following:

  • a correction (Correction/Erratum), or
  • an addendum (Addendum) without applying the full retraction procedure.

Withdrawal at the authors' initiative

Authors may request to withdraw their article if:

  • They discovered critical errors.
  • Ethical issues have arisen.
  • It is impossible to verify the results.

Such a request must be submitted in writing and agreed to by all authors. The editorial board makes the decision regarding retraction.

Principles and ethical standards

  • The purpose of retraction is to correct scientific publications, not to punish the authors.
  • Retraction notices should be clear, informative and neutral.
  • The editorial board ensures fair and objective consideration of all the cases.
  • All actions were performed in accordance with the COPE standards, with high-quality documentation of decisions.