Retractions Policy

Retractions

A retraction notice will be issued where a major error (e.g. in the analysis or methods) invalidates the conclusions in the article, or where research misconduct or publication misconduct has taken place (e.g. research without required ethical approvals, fabricated data, manipulated images, plagiarism, duplicate publication etc.). The decision to issue a retraction for an article will be made in accordance with COPE guidelines, and will involve an investigation by GU. J. Phytosci. editorial staff in collaboration with the editor. Authors and institutions may request a retraction of their articles if their reasons meet the criteria for retraction.

The COPE retraction guidelines can be found on the COPE website.

Retraction will be considered:

  • If there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication or image manipulation) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).

  • If the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross referencing, permission or justification (e.g. cases of redundant publication or duplicate publication).

  • If the research constitutes plagiarism.

  • Where there is evidence of fraudulent authorship.

  • Where there is evidence of compromised peer review.

  • If there is evidence of unethical research.

    Where the decision has been taken to retract an article GU J. Phytosci. will:

    • Add a “retracted” watermark to the published Version of Record of the article.

    • Issue a separate retraction statement, titled ‘Retraction: [article title]’, that will be linked to the retracted article on GU. J. Phytosci. Online.

    • Paginate and make available the retraction statement in the online issue of the journal.