Corrections and Retractions

Annals of Infectious Diseases and Therapy maintains the integrity of the scholarly record. Once an article is published, it is part of the permanent record and is not silently altered or removed. Changes are made only through the mechanisms below, which follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines and the ICMJE Recommendations.

Corrections

Erratum

Corrects an error introduced by the journal during production. Published as a separate, citable notice linked to the article; the article is also corrected and marked as updated.

Corrigendum

Corrects an error made by the authors that does not invalidate the findings — e.g. a misprinted value, an incorrect affiliation, a missing funding statement, an omitted author (with all authors' agreement). Published as a separate, citable notice linked bidirectionally to the article. The original article is corrected and carries a note.

Requests for correction are sent to editor@somatopub.com with a clear description of the error and the correct information.

Expression of concern

Published when the editors have well-founded concerns about the reliability or integrity of an article but an investigation is incomplete or inconclusive. It alerts readers while the matter is examined and is later replaced by a correction, retraction, or a notice that the concerns were not substantiated.

Retraction

An article is retracted when the editors have clear evidence that:

  • The findings are unreliable, whether through honest error or misconduct (fabrication, falsification, image manipulation);
  • It constitutes plagiarism;
  • It is a redundant publication of work already published elsewhere;
  • It reports unethical research or research without required approval;
  • It contains material or data used without authorisation;
  • Authorship was misattributed in a material way;
  • Peer review was compromised;
  • It infringes copyright or is defamatory or otherwise unlawful.

Retraction is not used merely to resolve authorship disputes without concerns about validity, nor because the authors have since revised their conclusions.

Retraction process

  1. The Editor-in-Chief reviews the evidence, consulting the publisher and, if necessary, the authors' institution.
  2. The authors are informed and invited to respond.
  3. The decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief. Authors may appeal under the Complaints and Appeals Policy.
  4. A retraction notice is published, stating who is retracting the article and why, and linked to the article. The article remains online, watermarked "RETRACTED" on every page, with the notice attached. Retractions are not conditional on the authors' agreement.
  5. Indexing services are informed.

Removal

An article is removed from the website only in exceptional cases: where it is defamatory, infringes legal rights, is subject to a court order, or where its continued availability poses a serious health or security risk. The metadata and a notice explaining the removal remain.

Withdrawal before publication

Authors may withdraw a manuscript at any time before acceptance by writing to the editor. After acceptance, withdrawal is granted only for serious reasons and the APC, if already paid, is not refunded once production has begun. A manuscript is considered withdrawn if the authors do not respond to editorial correspondence for 90 days.

Article versions

The version of record is the published article. Later versions (corrections) are clearly labelled and dated; previous versions are retained by the archive services.

Last updated: 29 September 2026