Post publication procedures

Post-publication policy

ScienceBank recognizes that ensuring the accuracy and reliability of published research is essential to advancing knowledge and fostering trust within the scientific community.

We actively support our communities by safeguarding the credibility of their scientific record. This includes managing all post-publication concerns raised by readers, while regularly updating community leaders on the process. Our post-publication policy reflects this commitment by addressing errors transparently, responding to researchers' concerns, and taking corrective actions promptly.

ScienceBank does not charge any fees to retract articles, publish expressions of concern, or corrections/addendums to published content.

All post-publication issues and concerns can be directed to edops@sciencebank.com.

Author rights and responsibilities

All authors will be informed and updated about post-publication procedures related to their articles. 

During investigations, authors may be required to provide additional data or supporting materials. In such cases, the corresponding author will be primarily responsible for maintaining contact with ScienceBank and communicating decisions on behalf of all authors. 

In some cases, ScienceBank may determine that additional authors, beyond the corresponding author, should be independently contacted. As part of the investigation, ScienceBank reserves the right to gather independent perspectives from all authors when deemed necessary, as well as to contact their institutions. 

Community rights and responsibilities

ScienceBank will receive and process all post-publications concerns from its readers related to community publications. Community leaders will be informed in a timely manner about any new issues, and given an update on the status of current open processes of their content. Community leaders and editors will be regularly consulted on their expert opinions during inquiries, and they will typically have the final decision on retractions.

ScienceBank Editorial Board members can be consulted at any point during the inquiries, including when no agreements are reached within the communities.

ScienceBank responsibilities

ScienceBank adheres to COPE guidelines to manage all post-publication procedures.

• For corrections and retractions, original publications and their translations will remain accessible on our platform and will be clearly flagged with a notice describing the post-publication amendment on all its forms, with links to the corrected articles, if any.
• ScienceBank will notify readers of post-publications changes via newsletter, including details on the reason for the change, the initiator, and any steps taken during the investigation. The language used will be objective, factual, and free of inflammatory statements or speculations.

Expressions of concern

Expressions of concern can be issued by community editors or ScienceBank’s Editorial Board to alert readers to potential, credible issues in published research that may affect its validity or ethical compliance. 

Editors can choose to publish an expression of concern when:

• There is an ongoing investigation about an article that has not yet met the criteria for retraction or correction.
• Conclusive evidence on a publication’s reliability cannot be obtained or is expected to be delayed.

Expressions of concern will be clearly identified as an “editorial expression of concern” when they are issued by the editors of a publishing community, or as a “ScienceBank expression of concern” when the issue has been raised by ScienceBank’s Editorial Board.

Corrections or Addendums

Corrections aim to amend minor errors that do not affect the article's scientific integrity, findings, and conclusions. 

Addendums provide significant new information that enhances readers' understanding of the original work and that came to light post-publication. They might clarify, expand upon, or add depth to the content. 

• All authors must approve corrections and addendums before publishing.
• Correction statements will be clearly identified as an “author correction” or “publisher correction.”
• When corrections involve the data, correction statements will include both the original and revised versions.

Retractions

When to retract an article?

Following COPE guidelines, ScienceBank and its community editors will consider retractions if:

1. Evidence suggests that the findings are unreliable either due to honest errors or intentional data manipulation.
2. The work contains plagiarism or redundant publication without proper attribution or permission.
3. Unauthorised use of material, copyright infringement, or other legal issues are reported.
4. The research lacks adherence to ethical standards.
5. The publication/peer-review process was compromised by conflicts of interest from any of the interested parties or manipulated peer review.

Each potential retraction will be evaluated individually, based on an internal review or, when applicable, recommendations from the author's institutional investigation. 

In the majority of cases, ScienceBank will not consider retractions based on disputed authorship, reported conflicts of interest deemed unlikely by the editor to have impacted the main findings, or minor correctable errors that do not compromise the findings' research overall.

Transparent retractions

Retracted publications, including all their translations to other languages, will remain accessible on the ScienceBank platform to all readers. 

The original publication and their translations will be clearly marked as retracted in the title, abstract, full text, and PDF, with a statement indicating who decided to retract the article and why. ScienceBank will protect the identity of the claimants, unless they explicitly give their consent to be public. If there are public institutional investigations, ScienceBank may direct its readers to the full reports.

Retraction statements are not intended to assign blame to individual researchers, but they will include any statements of assent or dissent from the authors. ScienceBank will work with authors and communities to develop informative retraction statements. However, we will avoid delays from prolonged negotiations. If consensus cannot be reached, ScienceBank will proceed with the retraction based on the advice of its Editorial Board or editors.

Permanent removal of content

ScienceBank will permanently remove articles when suggested by its legal advisors that the content is defamatory, poses a serious health risk for the general public, infringes on third-party rights (such as intellectual property or privacy), is otherwise legally problematic, or if removal is mandated or anticipated by a court or government order.

As for all other post-publication amendments, a statement of the content removal will be issued with proper explanations across ScienceBank’s different communication channels.

Article transfer

Chief editors of emerging communities may request the transfer of articles previously published in ScienceBank’s independent repository to their own community. The reasons for such transfers may include topic relevance or the memberships of previous authors, editors, and reviewers to the new community.

ScienceBank’s Editorial Board will consider these petitions case by case. When the Editorial Board finds the transfer request insufficiently substantiated, they may request detailed justification for why the article fits the new community and updated conflict of interest statements.

Terms of transfer

The newly appointed Chief Editor will serve as an advisor to ScienceBank on post-publication matters, providing expert opinions as needed. The Chief Editor will have access to all prior peer review reports and any other relevant information required for informed decision-making. 

ScienceBank will release a public announcement on its website and via newsletter to inform readers and users about the migration of the articles. This notice will also be reflected in the "About" section of each article's landing page.