Retraction Policy

Retraction and Withdrawal Policy

Sui Generis is committed to maintaining the integrity, reliability, and transparency of the scholarly record. As a peer-reviewed journal in the field of legal sciences, the journal follows academic publishing ethics and applicable legal requirements, including those related to defamation, copyright infringement, plagiarism, duplicate publication, and other breaches of research and publication ethics.

Published articles are intended to remain part of the academic record and should not be altered, withdrawn, retracted, or removed except in exceptional circumstances. Any decision concerning withdrawal, retraction, removal, or replacement is made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board, where necessary.

Article Withdrawal

Article withdrawal may apply to manuscripts that have been submitted but not yet formally published. A manuscript may be withdrawn in cases such as:

  • duplicate submission to Sui Generis and another journal or publisher;
  • serious errors identified before publication;
  • plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or other breaches of publication ethics;
  • use of misleading, fabricated, or unreliable data;
  • authorship disputes or misrepresentation;
  • accidental duplicate submission.

A withdrawal request may be initiated by the author, the Editor-in-Chief, the Editorial Board, or the author’s institution. Where appropriate, the author may be asked to submit a written withdrawal request or explanation.

Article Retraction

Article retraction applies to articles that have already been published. A published article may be retracted if it is found to contain serious ethical, legal, or academic problems, including but not limited to:

  • plagiarism or self-plagiarism;
  • duplicate or redundant publication;
  • fabricated, falsified, or unreliable data;
  • serious errors that invalidate the findings or legal analysis;
  • fake, disputed, or misleading authorship;
  • copyright infringement;
  • serious breach of research or publication ethics.

A retraction may be initiated by the Editor-in-Chief, the Editorial Board, the author, the author’s institution, or other relevant parties. Retraction decisions are made after an appropriate editorial review.

When an article is retracted, Sui Generis will normally publish a retraction notice stating the reason for the retraction. The original article may remain available online with a clear indication that it has been retracted, for example through a retraction notice or watermark on the PDF. The purpose of retraction is to correct the scholarly record, not to remove academic debate simply because humans occasionally discover they were wrong after publication. A charming species feature.

Article Removal

In exceptional and legally sensitive cases, Sui Generis may remove an article from its online platform. Removal will only be considered where the article:

  • is clearly defamatory;
  • violates legal rights of third parties;
  • infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights;
  • is subject to a court order;
  • contains unlawful or seriously harmful content;
  • poses a serious legal or security risk.

In such cases, the article’s metadata, including title and author information, may be retained, while the full text may be replaced with a notice indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article Replacement

In limited cases, an article may be replaced with a corrected version where the original version contains serious errors but the corrected version remains scientifically and legally valid. In such cases, the replacement will be clearly indicated, and the article record may include a notice explaining the correction and linking to the updated version.

Replacement is not used to conceal ethical violations or serious misconduct. Where misconduct is identified, retraction or removal procedures may apply instead.

Final Decision

The final decision regarding withdrawal, retraction, removal, or replacement rests with the Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Board where appropriate. All decisions are made in accordance with academic ethics, publication integrity, and applicable legal standards.