Corrections

Xia & He Publishing is very aware of our responsibility to correct errors in previously published articles. If there is sufficient evidence to prove an error in any published article, corrections must be made as soon as possible, in accordance with the requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Errors include but are not limited to a research claim, the label of a figure or a table that does not alter conclusions, authorship, and so forth.

a) Corrections should be made immediately in the electronic version or printed page of the journal. The places that need to be corrected should be clearly indicated, with the correction date. The corrections should be included in the Table of Contents of either an electronic version or a print version of the journal.

b) The corrected version, and the version with errors, should be available for future access upon request from the authors.

c) The prior electronic version should contain a note that clearly indicates the existence of an updated version.

d) If the error is major enough to jeopardize the fundamental results or conclusions of the research, retraction instead of correction will be demanded.

The title of the submission should have the following format: "Corrigendum: Title of original article". It is advised to use the corrigendum Word templates.

Retractions and Expressions of Concern

Xia & He Publishing acts in accordance with the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in cases of potential retraction. We also abide by two other key principles, as recommended by COPE:

a) Retractions are not about punishing authors.

b) Retraction statements should be public and linked to the original, retracted article. 

Although all retractions are dealt with in a case-by-case matter, Xia & He Publishing considers the following examples as sufficient cause for concern and potential retraction:

c) Sufficient evidence that findings are faulty or unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g., data fabrication) or academic error (e.g., miscalculation or experimental error);

d) Findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper permission or justification (i.e., dual publication);

e) Legal or political issues pertaining to the content of the article are identified;

f)  Major authorship issues have led to difficulty in determining the legitimate owners of the published work, i.e., proven or strongly suspected cases of ghostwriting or sold (‘gift’) authorship;

When scientific misconduct is alleged, or any concerns are raised about the conduct or integrity of published studies, appropriate procedures will be initiated as detailed by such committees as COPE. An expression of concern may be published pending the outcomes of these procedures. If any major flaw or academic misconduct is confirmed, the publisher reserves the right to retract the paper immediately. Examples of misconduct include, but are not limited to, data falsification, fabrication, duplication, or plagiarism.

An expression of concern and retraction will be posted, in an electronic or printed version of the Table of Contents, to ensure proper indexing. The title of the original article will be included in the heading. The retracted paper also will be clearly labeled and linked with the retraction letter from both directions.

Readers who would like to draw the editors' attention to published work that might require retraction should contact the authors of the article and write to the journal, making sure to include copies of all correspondence with authors.

If an article requires retraction, the corresponding author(s) will be required to pay a fee, which is specified on each journal's website, to cover the costs of retracting the publication.