Article Withdrawal Policy

Terra Alimentaria is committed to providing high-quality, timely peer review. The editorial board, handling editors, and peer reviewers dedicate significant time and resources to evaluating submitted manuscripts.

To protect the integrity of the editorial process and align with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, we enforce a strict policy regarding the withdrawal of manuscripts. Authors must carefully read this policy before submitting their work.

1. Withdrawal Before Peer Review (Pre-Review Stage)

Authors may request to withdraw their manuscript without penalty only if the request is made before the manuscript has been assigned to peer reviewers (during the initial desk review stage).

  • Procedure: The Corresponding Author must send a formal email to the Editor-in-Chief stating the reason for withdrawal. The manuscript is not officially withdrawn until the editorial office confirms the withdrawal in writing.

2. Withdrawal During Peer Review

Once a manuscript has entered the double-blind peer-review process, withdrawal is strongly discouraged. Withdrawing a paper at this stage wastes the valuable, uncompensated time of our expert reviewers and the editorial team.

  • Procedure: If a withdrawal is absolutely necessary (e.g., discovery of a fundamental flaw in the data), the Corresponding Author must submit a formal, signed Letter of Withdrawal. This letter must state the exact, scientifically valid reason for the withdrawal and must be physically or digitally signed by all co-authors.
  • Unethical Withdrawal: Withdrawing a manuscript simply because the review process is taking longer than desired, or to submit the manuscript to a different journal, is considered a breach of publication ethics.

3. Withdrawal After Acceptance (Post-Acceptance Stage)

Withdrawing a manuscript after it has been officially accepted for publication, copyedited, or formatted for layout is considered highly unethical and an abuse of the journal's publishing infrastructure.

Sanctions for Unethical Withdrawal

If an author withdraws a manuscript after acceptance without a valid, catastrophic scientific reason, Terra Alimentaria reserves the right to impose the following sanctions:

  • Blacklisting the Corresponding Author and all co-authors from submitting future manuscripts to Terra Alimentaria or any other journals published by Nusaxis Pustaka Mandiri for a period of up to 2 (two) years.
  • Notifying the authors' affiliated institutions or funding agencies regarding the ethical breach.

4. Post-Publication (Retraction)

Once a manuscript has been published online (including as an "Early View" or "In Press" article) and a DOI has been registered with Crossref, it cannot be withdrawn or deleted.

Any corrections or removals of published articles must follow COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. Please refer to our Article Correction, Retraction & Removal Policy for details.

How to Request a Withdrawal

All withdrawal requests must be directed to the Editor-in-Chief via the official journal contact email. Do not attempt to withdraw a manuscript simply by deleting files within the OJS portal or ceasing communication, as the manuscript will remain active in our system and cannot be submitted elsewhere.