CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS

If there is suspicion of misbehaviour or alleged fraud, International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after an investigation, there are valid concerns, the authors concerned will be contacted under their given email address and given an opportunity to address the issue.

Depending on the situation, this may result in the implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

1. an erratum/correction may be placed with the article.
2. an editor’s note or editorial expression of concern may be placed with the article.
3. or, in severe cases, retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, editor’s note, editorial expression of concern, or retraction notice. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform watermarked “retracted” and the explanation is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed.
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Removal of Published Content

In exceptional circumstances, International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences reserves the right to remove an article, chapter, book or other content from our platforms (online & offline). Such action may be taken when (i) International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences has been advised that content is defamatory, infringes a third party’s intellectual property right, right to privacy, or other legal right, or is otherwise unlawful; (ii) a court or government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring removal of such content; (iii) content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. Bibliographic metadata (e.g. title and authors) will be retained and will be accompanied by a statement explaining why the content has been removed.

Version of Record

When an article is published in its final form it is considered the “Version of Record” (VoR). The VoR establishes the expectation that that article can be relied upon as accurate, complete, and citable. International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences is committed to preserving the integrity and transparency of the VoR. Sage defines the VoR as (i) the article paginated in a volume and issue or (ii) the initial article publication for continuous publication in Open Access journals; in both cases, the VoR includes any post-publication corrections.  (Continuous publication Open Access journals do not publish any additional versions such as paginated issue/volume versions.)

Post Publication Corrections

International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences issues post-publication notifications to address any changes to the version of the record that include:

1. Errors or omissions that impact readability, indexing or compliance with our journal policy;
2. Errors or concerns related to the validity or integrity of the article.

Errors or Omissions that Impact Readability, Indexing or Compliance

As articles can be read and cited as soon as they are published, any changes thereafter could potentially impact those who read and cited the earlier version. We provide authors with an opportunity to review article proofs prior to publication with the express goal of ensuring the accuracy of the content. However, in some cases, corrections may be required post-publication. These can be made at the discretion of the Board Members of International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences, with the understanding that not all requests for post-publication changes will be permitted.

Correction Notice

A correction notice will be issued when it is necessary to correct an error or omission which may be integral to the reading, understanding or interpretation of the article.

Any errors of factual significance or major errors will be highlighted with the publication of a separate corrigendum (author error) or erratum (publisher error) highlighting the changes, provided the scholarly validity and integrity of the article remain intact. If the article is updated, a correction footnote will highlight the change(s) and reference the corrigendum or erratum. All corrigenda and errata will be linked to the original article.

Multiple major errors or omissions in the article may impact the validity of the research and will be investigated as per the COPE guidelines. If appropriate, a corrigendum will be written in collaboration with the authors and journal editor.

Minor errors in an article may be highlighted using a footnote within the corrected article to highlight the change(s).

Errors or concerns related to the validity or integrity of the article

All concerns brought to International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences will be investigated in line with COPE guidelines.

Expression of Concern

We will issue an expression of concern on a published article if:

• We are made aware of serious concerns such as concerns with the potential to mislead readers,
• We become aware of concerns relating to serious research or publication misconduct,
• Well-founded concerns where an investigation has been inconclusive, or
• If an investigation into a well-founded concern is ongoing and likely to take some time to resolve.

The expression of concern will be published after notifying the authors, but we shall not require author approval or agreement. International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences may choose to publish materials, figures or data provided by authors as part of an ongoing investigation to notify readers. The expression of concern will be linked to the published article(s) it is related to and may be replaced by a corrigendum or a retraction or may exist in perpetuity if an investigation remains inconclusive.

Retractions

International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences follows COPE Retraction Guidelines and a Retraction will be issued to alert readers to major errors or breaches of scholarly integrity. An article maybe retracted by us if, after an investigation and editorial assessment, the results or the conclusions cannot be relied upon for any reason.

We may retract an article if:

• The article contains honest errors or errors due to research or publication misconduct,
• If the article was accepted as a result of compromised peer review,
• If authors have been unable to satisfactorily resolve the concerns or queries raised in their article,
• If authors cannot be verified, are unable to provide underlying raw data and/or images, or are unable to provide evidence they undertook the research themselves.

Authors may choose to request retraction of their own article by emailing submissions@ijles.in. These requests will be reviewed by the Journal Editor(s) and may be declined if they are not in line with COPE guidelines and International Journal of Law Research, Education and Social Sciences policies, or if they have been made during our initiated investigation.

All retraction notices will explain the reasons for retraction and will be linked to the original article. Authors will be notified and given the opportunity to provide comments. We do not seek or require author approval for retractions and the decision to retract will be reconsidered only if new evidence comes to light.

We may choose to publish materials, figures or data provided by authors as part of the investigation to notify readers if necessary.

Please Note: Article Processing Charges (APCs) are not refunded if an article is retracted.

Removal

We will not remove the article or parts of it unless legally required to do so, i.e.:

1. The privacy of a participant has been inappropriately violated,
2. The article contains errors that would result in a risk to the public if followed,
3. The article makes defamatory comments about others or their work.