As a researcher, you may want to cancel the publication of your article due to various reasons. If it is your case and the article is in the process of review by a journal, then you need to officially announce a withdrawal.
Notice that before you take action, you should know about legal rights and how to declare an “Article Withdrawal”. Review the consequences and then make your decision.
Violation of professional ethics, such as duplicate submission, plagiarism, and data breach lead to retraction of your article. It may even lead authors to face challenges in the accreditation process of their other articles. According to publication ethics, it is the author’s duty to retract or if the article has not yet been published, withdraw it. Notice that volunteering will reduce the damage caused by ethical mistakes in research.
For what reasons and under what circumstances can we declare “Article withdrawal”?
The author(s) of an article may have different reasons for refusing to publish it.
Our experience shows that the most common reasons include:
1. Unethical publication practices
This occurs in the case of unethical publication practices. An example is when an article, accepted by the journal is in the initial stages of publication, is submitted to another journal. Another instance which is rare is when the authors face issues about their contribution to the study. In this case, the corresponding author requests withdrawal.
2. Human and Systemic Errors
Sometimes the author may notice errors in the text, data, or analysis of the article. According to the publication ethics, the author should remove the article after noticing their mistake and notify the editor.
3. Rewriting the text of the article
In some cases, researchers may decide to rewrite their articles or publish them after the modification of its content. This is also called article replacement, so a request for an article replacement is sent to the publisher. the publisher will create a new access link.
4. Publishing It in Another Journal
Sometimes the reason for withdrawal is not ethical. Sometimes authors refuse to publish the article after they have accepted the journal because they want to publish it in a better journal. This often happens when the authors receive good reviews on their article and think that they can publish it in better-ranking journals. This is by no means illegal, especially if the letter of ethical commitment has not yet been signed, but this does not mean that it is morally right. Besides, the journal’s policies may not allow you to do so. It is mandatory to announce your reason for the withdrawal.
5. Long Reviewing Process
Sometimes the authors want to cancel the publication of their article because the process gets too long. This happens very often and has caused a lot of debate in the world of publication. Publishers have different policies regarding this reason. Elsevier, for example, permits such an issue and, if the author’s reviewing process is lengthy, allows the authors to withdraw their article before the review comes to an end.
6. Financial Rules and Issues
Another major reason raised by some authors for withdrawing their article is the lack of awareness of its cost. Sometimes some writers submit their manuscript without studying the terms of publication and refuse to pay for various reasons when the journal demands payment. This is not illegal. But journal policies regarding such a reason are different. In terms of the ethics of publishing, the authors can withdraw their article by announcing this as their reason.