Article correction and retraction
Mechanics and Advanced Technologies (M&AT) believes in protecting and maintaining the integrity of the academic record. Articles officially published in M&AT are considered as the "Version of Record". When the scientific information in an article is substantially undermined then it becomes necessary for M&AT to publish corrections to, or retractions of articles published in the journal, at the discretion of the editors.
Article correction: This action is reserved to notify readers of an important error that has a negative impact on the version of record or the scientific integrity of the article, or on the reputation of the authors or the journal.
Corrections to peer-reviewed content are divided into:
Publisher correction ('erratum'): error made by the journal staff.
Author correction ('corrigendum'): error made by the authors.
Addendum: an addition to the article by its Authors to explain inconsistencies, to expand the existing work, or otherwise explain or update the information in the main work.
We expect authors to inform the journal’s Managing editor of any major mistake or error in their article after it has been published online.
Corrections are made at the journal's discretion, sometimes with advice from Reviewers, Advisory Board members or Editorial Board members. A correction will be issued by the editors when it is determined that the scientific community would be better served by a correction than a retraction. Editors will contact the authors of the article concerned with a request for clarification, but the final decision about whether a correction is required and if so which type rests with the editors.
A correction notice is published as soon as possible. There will be links from the online version of the article to the Erratum/Corrigendum and vice versa. Publishable amendments receive a DOI.
M&AT may consider correcting the actual article online (PDF), at the editor’s discretion. We will add a correction notice at the end to say what has been changed since it was first published and publish an erratum.
Article Retraction: This action is reserved for articles that are seriously flawed and so the findings or conclusions cannot be relied upon. Journal editors should consider retracting an article if:
- it contains infringements of professional ethical codes, such as bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, double publication, any other practice or act considered potentially harmful to the scientific community;
- it contains major errors (e.g. miscalculations or experimental errors) or the main conclusion is no longer valid or seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light of which Authors were not aware at the time of publication;
- it contains errors reported by the authors (for example, errors due to the mixing up of samples or use of a scientific tool or equipment that is found subsequently to be faulty).
For any retracted article, the reason for retraction and who is instigating the retraction will be clearly stated in the retraction notice. The retraction notice will be linked to the retracted article and the article will be clearly marked as retracted (the original article is retained unchanged except for a watermark which is included on each page of the article PDF indicating that it has been "retracted").
A retraction note titled "Retraction: [Article Title]" is published in a subsequent issue of the journal and is listed in the table of contents of this issue.
We may consider an expression of concern notice if an article is under investigation.
Note that if the authors retain copyright for an article this does not mean they automatically have the right to retract it after publication.
Article Replacement: In cases where an article, if acted upon, may pose a serious health risk, the authors of the original paper may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. Under such circumstances, the above procedures for retraction will be followed with the difference that the article retraction notice will contain a link to the corrected re-published article together with a history of the document.
