How to Withdraw Your Article

When you are sure about your intention to withdraw your article, you must follow some steps. But we do not recommend article withdrawal. Please use it only in critical cases. Note that journals pay a significant price for reviewing each article. So use it only if you or other writers have a compelling reason.

Step 1: The corresponding author is the only one who can officially announce the withdrawal of the article.          

Step 2: If you are the corresponding author, let the other writers know about your decision and ask for their opinion before announcing the withdrawal.

Step 3: You can submit your withdrawal request to the journal. You must do so by writing an official email. Remember, if there is more than one author, they all have to sign the request, and just asking one person is not enough.

All of the authors must sign the letter. But only the corresponding author is permitted to submit the request.

Tips: Some journals also allow the author to withdraw their article and there is no need to write a letter.

What Does the Editor Do When an Author Declines Her/His Article?

Step 1: After announcing the paper’s withdrawal, the journal’s chief editor should investigate the letter written by the authors of the paper, and report it to the editorial board if necessary.

Step 2: The journal’s chief editor is the one who makes all the necessary decisions. He is the one who has the final say in the withdrawal of the article and takes other actions if needed. The chief editor is usually informed in advance by the publisher of the intended consequences.

Tip: Sometimes the editor may decide to boycott the writers requesting a withdrawal. The editor is responsible for boycotting, such as paying fees, rejecting other articles submitted by the same authors, and so on. So keep this in mind before withdrawing. The idea of ​​being on the blacklist of that journal may hold you back. According to law, the editor may, based on the reasons given, sue the authors for the expenses they have incurred for the journal and blacklist them.

The editor may resist in 2 cases. First, if you withdraw immediately after the manuscript is registered, the editor might not accept your request. In this case, you should bring strong reasons for doing this. Second, you may want to withdraw your article after the review. If that is the case, it seems like you just wanted to use the journal’s resources to improve your article, and you have no intention of publishing your article in that journal. Here too, the reasons provided by you must be very convincing; otherwise, you will not get what you want. Depending on the policies of each journal, your withdrawal may or may not be accepted.

What Happens After Acceptance of the Article? Can I Withdraw My Article?

All that’s been said so far has been about the pre-acceptance process. But if your article is accepted or published and you want to withdraw your article from the journal list for reasons other than an ethical breach of copyright or scientific defects or printing errors, you may want to consider a few things.

 Before deciding to withdraw an article after publication, please note that the editor and reviewers of the magazine have invested significantly in your article (and often at no cost). Please let the journal know your reasons before the withdrawal. If there is anything that can prevent withdrawal, please discuss it with the journal’s authorities as they and the reviewers have spent a great deal of time and energy on your article. So to avoid having to do this, you can follow some steps:

• Don’t submit your article before being sure of it.
• Do not submit the manuscript to the journal until all the authors have agreed on everything.
• Choose your journal carefully.
• Consider all of the terms of publication and if you do not have any problems with them, continue the process.
• If you choose to withdraw your article, do so in accordance with ethics and laws.

Lastly, keep in mind that this may put you in the blacklist of the journal. So if this happens, you should be cool about it and consider that this deprivation is the consequence of your decision, but it’s not the end of your career in the world of research. You have learned a new lesson and you should benefit from continuing your research.