Article Retraction, Withdrawal, Removal, and Replacement Policy

The International Journal of Religion, Law and Society (IJRLS)

It is a general principle of scholarly communication that the Editor-in-Chief of a journal or proceedings holds sole and independent responsibility for deciding which submitted articles should be published. In making this decision, the Editor is guided by the journal’s editorial policies and constrained by legal obligations concerning defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. As a result, scholarly publications serve as permanent historical records of academic discourse. Once published, articles should remain available, unchanged, and accurately archived. However, in exceptional cases, it may become necessary to retract or remove a published article. Such decisions must be made with utmost caution and only under extraordinary circumstances.

IJRLS, through its publisher, retains all versions of published articles in its archives, including those that have been retracted or withdrawn. This policy has been developed to address such scenarios while upholding best practices recognized within the academic and library communities. As standards evolve, IJRLS remains committed to revisiting this policy and actively engaging with stakeholders to support the development of an international standard and best practices for scholarly integrity and transparency.

Article Retraction

Articles may be retracted for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

  • Proven scientific misconduct or error

  • Duplicate submissions

  • False authorship claims

  • Plagiarism

  • Fraudulent use of data

A retraction will only be processed upon receiving a signed statement from the corresponding author, with the agreement of all co-authors. A formal retraction notice will be issued and linked to the original article, which will remain available but clearly marked as “Retracted.” The notice will include:

  • The reason for the retraction

  • Identification of the party initiating the retraction

  • A statement explaining the circumstances

The retracted article will remain accessible in both the online and print versions of the journal but will be labeled as retracted and listed in the table of contents accordingly.

Article Withdrawal

Article withdrawal is strongly discouraged and only permitted under exceptional circumstances. It applies primarily to early versions of articles that have been accepted but not officially published, although they may have already appeared online. Common reasons for withdrawal include:

  • Serious errors

  • Duplicate submissions

  • Violation of publication ethics (e.g., plagiarism, false authorship)

In cases involving ethical or legal concerns, or where the content could cause harm if acted upon, the article may be withdrawn from IJRLS's electronic platform. Both the HTML and PDF versions of the article will be replaced with a notice stating that the article has been withdrawn in accordance with IJRLS’s withdrawal policy, including a link to the policy.

Important note: Even if the author holds copyright to the article, this does not grant the right to withdraw it after formal publication. The integrity of the scientific record remains paramount.

Article Removal

Article removal will only occur under extremely rare circumstances, such as:

  • Clear evidence that the article is defamatory

  • Infringement of legal rights

  • Compliance with a court order

  • The article poses a serious health or safety risk

In such cases, the article text will be removed from the IJRLS platform. However, the metadata (e.g., title and author information) will be retained. A replacement screen will indicate that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article Replacement

If an article contains content that, if followed, could pose a serious risk (e.g., public health or safety), the author may request that it be replaced with a corrected version. In such cases:

  • The original article is retracted and removed following the procedure above.

  • A corrected version will be published.

  • The retraction notice will include a link to the revised version and a clear document history.

This policy aligns with best practices in scientific publishing and reflects IJRLS's commitment to maintaining transparency, ethical publishing standards, and the integrity of the academic record.