The Journal’s retraction policy (retraction meaning the withdrawal or formal removal of a published article from the scholarly record) is implemented by the Editorial Office in order to alert readers to cases of duplicate publication and/or self-plagiarism, where authors present the same data in more than one publication; plagiarism; the submission of unreliable data; and the concealment of conflicts of interest that may have affected the interpretation of the data or recommendations concerning their use.

Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the published record and informing readers about publications that contain serious deficiencies or erroneous data, including data that cannot be regarded as reliable. The publication of such data may result either from an honest error on the part of the author or from deliberate misconduct.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Editorial Office of the Journal applies the following policy regarding the retraction of previously published articles.

Grounds for Retraction

An article may be retracted on the following grounds:

• plagiarism is identified in the publication;

• the article has been duplicated in several publications;

• falsification or fabrication is identified in the work, for example manipulation or fabrication of research data;

• serious errors are identified in the work, for example incorrect interpretation of the results, calling its academic value into question;

• the authorship is incorrect, including the inclusion of individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship;

• a conflict of interest or other violation of publication ethics has been concealed;

• the article has been republished without the author’s consent.

Grounds for Initiating the Retraction Procedure

The process of article retraction may be initiated on the basis of:

• a request from the author of the article;

• a request from the editorial office of another journal;

• a request from third parties, including possible parties to a conflict of interest, accompanied by evidence of violations of research ethics by the author of an article published in the Journal;

• a request from external organisations or institutions, for example the Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Counteracting the Falsification of Scientific Research;

• the identification by the Journal’s Editorial Board of evidence that the authors of an article have violated research ethics.

Article Retraction Procedure

1. Upon receipt of a request from an author or another individual, organisation, or institution providing evidence of a violation of research ethics in an article, the Editorial Board of the Journal appoints a commission to investigate the case, taking into account all available facts and the available means of verifying compliance with publication ethics.

2. If a decision is made to retract an article, the Editorial Office records in the minutes of the meeting the reason for the retraction and the date of retraction. Where plagiarism has been identified, the sources from which material was borrowed and/or the source of information confirming the plagiarism must also be specified. The article and its bibliographic record remain available on the Journal’s website as part of the relevant issue; however, the electronic version of the article is marked RETRACTED, together with the date of retraction. The same notice is placed next to the article in the table of contents of the relevant issue.

3. The Editorial Office does not physically remove retracted articles from the electronic version of the Journal or from the archive on the Journal’s website, in order to preserve the integrity and correct structure of the relevant issue.

4. The relevant minutes are submitted to the Council on Publication Ethics of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP) for inclusion of the information in the unified database of retracted articles. The minutes shall indicate the date of the meeting, the composition of those present, the results of the expert assessment, the reasoned decision, and the retraction request form.

5. Information concerning retracted articles is submitted to academic information databases, including the Scientific Electronic Library (e