Post-Publication Policies

In order to ensure the publication’s quality, Insights Publisher employs the following post-publication policies to address any issues that may be brought by authors or readers. Any serious ethics or integrity concerns will be evaluated and investigated in accordance with the policies outlined below.

Journals from Insights Publisher will typically get in touch with the authors regarding any issues that arise after publication and make decisions after conducting thorough investigations.

 

Corrections
We make errata corrections for articles published by Insights Publisher journals if, based on our editorial evaluation, the following conditions are met:
    • The overall findings of the article are supported.
    • There are no issues with the accuracy or dependability of the work that was reported.
    • The inaccuracies affect the article’s core ideas or comprehension.
    • Metadata like the authors’ names, funding sources, or statements about the accessibility of the data.

In extremely unusual circumstances, Insights Publisher may decide to replace the original online version of an article with a corrected one. In such cases, we will also post a linked correction or notice of republication that details the modifications.

Corrections for typographical errors or other minor faults that have no significant influence on the article’s scientific integrity, comprehension, or indexing are not published by Insights Publisher. If you are unsure whether to rectify an article’s errors with a correction or a comment, please get in touch with Insights Publisher through [email protected].

 

Expressions of Concerns
Expressions of Concerns (EOCs) are notices that editors publish if they have serious concerns about a piece of published work or if an article doesn’t follow the editorial policies. Most of the time, we will finish following up on a case before putting out a notice, but in some cases, we may put out an EOC as a temporary notice while Insights Publisher or another third-party entity looks into an issue. An EOC could also be used to solve a post-publication case if, at the end of our follow-up process, problems still haven’t been solved.

The journal’s Editor-in-Chief or Executive Editor writes EOCs. When it comes out, an EOC will have a link to the website where the article first appeared. An EOC does not change the status of the article that it links to. After an EOC is published, the article in question may be corrected or retracted, depending on how the editors know about the information, data, and/or other materials they received during the investigation process.

Before publishing an EOC, Insights Publisher will contact the authors about the concerns, but we do not require their approval or agreement. Supporting materials received from the authors with an EOC may be published by the journal, however this is not always the case.

With an “Expression of Concern,” Insights Publisher will let affected third parties know about the issue. This could be the institution(s) of the authors, a data repository, or another journal or publisher that has an article or submission that is related to the situation.

 

Retractions
Retraction is a way to fix mistakes in the literature and let people know when there are major concerns about an article’s integrity, validity, or reliability.

     • If problems arise after publication that cast doubt on the article’s scientific validity or that meet the requirements outlined in the COPE Retraction Guidelines, authors may ask for the retraction of their own work. Any request for an author-initiated retraction must be approved by the Insights Publisher Ethics Review Committee (IPERC) and will be rejected if the issues stated do not comply with the COPE Retraction Guidelines and the journal’s retraction procedures.

    • When issues are brought up internally or by outside parties, Insights Publisher investigates them in accordance with COPE guidelines and will retract an article if the editors decide that problems that are not resolved in post-publication discussions require retraction in accordance with COPE guidelines. If there are picture or data issues for which the original raw data are not provided, are not available, or are insufficient to address the issues, Insights Publisher may also retract an article.

    • Whether the concerns have developed as a result of honest mistake(s) or misconduct, Insights Publisher does not judge intent or individual-level accountability for issues raised, and we do not issue partial retractions, in compliance with COPE guidance.

When retracting an article, the journal will provide an explanation of the reason(s) for the retraction in a notice of retraction. The notice will contain a hyperlink to the original article’s website, and the phrase “[RETRACTED]” will appear on the abstract page of the article’s website. The PDF copy of the retracted article will be updated with a red watermark reading “RETRACTED.” Although the abstract of a retracted paper is still accessible online via the journal’s website after the article has been retracted, it is no longer regarded as part of the official published record.

Before publishing a retraction, we will inform all authors of the decision. The institution(s) of the author(s), the data repository, or the other journal/publisher that has an article or submission involved in the case will also be notified by Insights Publisher of a retraction.

After an article has been retracted, Insights Publisher will not consider republishing a revised version of the article. If the authors want the revised version to be re-published in other journals, they should talk to Insights Publisher about this. Insights Publisher will then link the original article, the notice that it was retracted, and the updated article.

 

Removal of the Content
In rare cases, such as the following, Insights Publisher reserves the right to remove articles from our journal’s website:
    • The removal has been ordered by a court or a government decree.
    • An editorial note or other article changes cannot adequately limit the danger that the content poses to personal privacy or to a third party’s legal right.
    • The research was not carried out or published legally, and/or its continued availability could put people’s legal rights or privacy at risk (s).
    • The information, even if it is identified as retracted, may nevertheless pose a serious threat to the public’s health or to a particular neighborhood or ecology.

The title, author list, and article metadata will all be removed from the journal’s website when an article is removed, but an editorial notice will still be visible to let readers know what happened.

 

Appeals of Post-Publication Decisions
No appeals of “Retraction” or “Expression of Concerns” decisions will be considered by Insights Publisher.