Correction and Retraction

Biomedical Research and Theory Letters (BRTL) takes its responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record very seriously. Changes to articles after they have been published online may only be made under the circumstances outlined below. The journal places great importance on the authority of articles once published, and this policy follows best practices in the academic publishing community.

Erratum

An Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the paper should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the journal, but a notice of erratum is issued, freely available to all readers, and linked to the corrected article.

Retraction

A Retraction is a notice that the paper should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature. Retractions are issued if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error; if the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper referencing or permission; if the work is plagiarized; or if the work reports unethical research.

To protect the integrity of the record, the retracted article is not removed from the journal, but a retraction notice is issued, freely available to all readers, and linked to the retracted article. Retractions may be published by the authors when they discover substantial scientific errors, or by the Editors/Publisher when deemed appropriate. The notice will indicate the reason for retraction and who is responsible for the decision. If a retraction is made without unanimous agreement of the authors, this will also be noted. In rare and extreme cases involving legal infringement, the Publisher may redact or remove an article, while retaining bibliographic information to preserve the scientific record.

Publisher’s Note

A Publisher’s Note notifies readers that an article has been corrected subsequent to publication. It is issued by the Publisher in cases where typographical or production errors (the fault of the Publisher) affect the integrity of article metadata (such as title, author list, or byline) or significantly impact readers’ ability to comprehend the article. In such cases, the original article is removed and replaced with a corrected version. Publisher’s Notes are freely available to all readers.

Minor errors that do not affect metadata integrity or reader comprehension, and that do not involve scientific error or omission, will be corrected at the discretion of the Publisher. Authors should note that an article can only be removed and replaced with a corrected version if the correction is made within one year of the original publication date. Corrections to articles older than one year will only be documented by a Publisher’s Note.