Article correction, retraction and removal policy

Terra Alimentaria recognizes the critical importance of the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record to the scientific community and attaches the highest importance to maintaining trust in the authority of its published articles. As a general principle, articles that have been published shall remain extant, exact, and unaltered as far as is possible. However, circumstances may arise where an article needs to be corrected, retracted, or even removed.

It is a fundamental principle of scholarly communication that the Editor-in-Chief of a learned journal is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal shall be published. An outcome of this principle is the importance of the scholarly record as a permanent and historic record of the transactions of scholarship. Therefore, when the scientific record requires correction, this will be made by a formal notice that will be permanently linked to the article, providing transparency for the scientific community.

This policy describes Terra Alimentaria's approach to correcting the scientific record in our Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform. It is periodically reviewed and updated as standards and best practices evolve.

1. Author-Identified Errors

Authors who discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article must contact the journal’s editorial office as soon as possible.

In most cases, the corresponding author will be responsible for sharing the details of the error with the journal. The Editor-in-Chief, or a designated representative with appropriate subject matter expertise, will review the proposed correction together with any accompanying data. They may send the proposed correction for further peer review. The Editor-in-Chief will determine the appropriate mechanism to correct the article in consultation with the Editorial Board.

2. Article Correction

  • Corrigendum: A Corrigendum will be published when it is required to correct an error or omission made by the author(s), provided that the results and conclusions of the article are not fundamentally impacted by the error. The Corrigendum should be drafted by the authors but is subject to the review and approval of the Editor-in-Chief. All co-authors must agree to the publication of the Corrigendum. It will be permanently linked to the original article in OJS.
  • Erratum: On rare occasions, the publisher or editorial staff may need to correct an error made during the production or publication process. In this case, the journal will issue an Erratum. The Erratum will be permanently linked to the article that it corrects.
  • Authorship Corrections: A correction to the author or contributor list may be posted if the Editor determines that a change is justified when presented with documentation that supports the request, and only with the written consent of all original authors.

3. Editor's Notes

Editor’s Notes may be issued in circumstances that do not warrant a full retraction, correction, or expression of concern. They alert readers to elements within a published article that do not impact the results and conclusions of the article, but where Editors wish to advise readers to exercise a degree of caution. For example, an Editor’s Note may be warranted if:

  • Unethical behavior within the review process has caused the author(s) to make a change or addition they would not otherwise have made (e.g., adding redundant citations), but these changes do not impact the core results and there are no other signs of ethical misconduct.
  • The final outcome of a resolved concern or complaint no longer warrants an expression of concern, correction, or retraction.
  • There is an unresolved or unresolvable authorship dispute, but there is no reason to doubt the validity of the article’s scientific findings or data.

4. Expressions of Concern

An Expression of Concern alerts readers to potential concerns that might affect the reliability of parts or all of a published work. The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Board, will consider issuing an Expression of Concern if any of the following conditions are met:

  • There is inconclusive evidence that the work is potentially unreliable due to error, incorrect analysis, or research/publication misconduct that has not been resolved by an investigation, and which warrants notification to readers.
  • There is a well-founded belief that an institutional investigation into alleged unreliability or misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair, impartial, or conclusive.
  • An investigation is underway, but a formal judgment will not be available for a considerable time.

An Expression of Concern remains part of the permanent record. If an investigation is definitively resolved, the editor will publish a notice—such as a correction, retraction, or editorial note—that explains the outcome. The original Expression of Concern will not be removed but may be updated to reflect the resolution.

5. Article Withdrawal (For Articles-in-Press)

Articles-in-Press (or "Early View" articles) represent early, accepted versions of articles that have not yet been published in their final issue form. They may only be withdrawn if:

  • They represent an early version of an article that was published prematurely due to an editorial or production error.
  • They are discovered to be a duplicate of another published article due to an editorial or production error.

When Articles-in-Press are withdrawn for these reasons, the article content (HTML and PDF) will be removed and replaced with a notice stating that the article has been withdrawn according to the Terra Alimentaria Article Withdrawal Policy.

6. Article Retraction

The retraction of an article is a mechanism to correct the literature and alert readers to publications that contain such seriously flawed or erroneous data that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon. Articles may be retracted to correct severe errors or due to infringements of publishing ethics.

The Editor-in-Chief will consider retracting an article where:

  • There is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of a major error (e.g., severe miscalculation or experimental error), fabrication (e.g., inventing data), or falsification (e.g., image manipulation).
  • It constitutes plagiarism, involving substantial unattributed textual or conceptual overlap.
  • The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution, permission to republish, or justification (i.e., redundant/duplicate publication).
  • It contains material or data that the authors were not authorized to publish.
  • Copyright has been infringed or there is another serious legal issue (e.g., libel, breach of privacy).
  • It reports unethical research or breaches policies regarding the conduct of research involving human participants or animals.
  • There is evidence of compromised peer-review or systematic manipulation of the editorial process (e.g., paper mills).
  • There is evidence of authorship being sold, identity theft, or fictitious authorship.
  • There is evidence of severe citation manipulation.
  • The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (conflict of interest) that would have materially affected interpretations of the work.

The Retraction Process

In accordance with industry best practices, Terra Alimentaria handles retractions as follows:

  1. A formal retraction notice titled “Retraction: [Article Title]” signed by the Editor-in-Chief (and/or the authors) is published in a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the table of contents.
  2. In the electronic version on OJS, a permanent link is made between the retraction notice and the original article.
  3. The online article landing page is preceded by the retraction note.
  4. The original article is retained unchanged in the archive, except for a prominent watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “RETRACTED.”

7. Article Removal: Legal Limitations

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to completely remove an article from the online archive. Given the importance of maintaining the scholarly record as a permanent and unaltered archive, actual removal of an article's content is exceptionally rare and will only occur where it is determined that:

  • The article is defamatory, or infringes others’ legal rights, and a standard retraction is not a sufficient remedy.
  • The article is, or the publisher has good reason to expect it will be, the subject of a court order.
  • The article, if acted upon, might pose a serious and immediate health risk to the public.

In these circumstances, the metadata (Title and Authors) will be retained on the journal website, but the full text and PDF will be removed and replaced with a notice indicating the article has been removed for legal or safety reasons.

8. Article Replacement

In cases where an article, if acted upon, might pose a serious health risk, the authors may wish to retract the original flawed article and replace it with a corrected version. In these circumstances, the standard procedures for retraction will be followed, with the difference that the retraction notice will publish a direct link to the newly corrected and re-published article alongside a history of the document.

9. Official Archives

To ensure the long-term preservation of the scholarly record, Terra Alimentaria utilizes the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) and national archiving databases (such as Garuda or the National Library of Indonesia) to securely retain all article versions, including those that have been retracted.