Appeals against decisions

Authors may appeal once against a decision to reject their manuscript. Appeals are made in writing to the journal's email address (Contact) within 30 days of the decision, giving reasons and responding to the reviewer reports point by point.

• The appeal is examined by an editor or section editor who was not involved in the original decision. Where necessary, the opinion of a new reviewer is sought.
• The outcome is communicated to the author within four weeks at the latest. This decision is final.
• A successful appeal does not mean that the manuscript is accepted; the manuscript re-enters the review process.
• No appeal is possible against a desk rejection made solely because the manuscript is out of scope.

Complaints

Complaints about the review process, editorial procedures, publication ethics or a published article are sent in writing to the journal's email address. Complaints are examined by the Editor-in-Chief; a complaint concerning the Editor-in-Chief is examined by a member of the advisory board. The complainant receives a first response within two weeks. Complaints involving suspected misconduct follow the COPE flowcharts.

Post-publication discussion

Scholarly criticism of a published article may be sent in writing to the journal's email address (Contact). The editors assess the criticism, give the author of the article a right of reply, and may publish the criticism together with the reply. Where the criticism points to an error that requires correction, the principles for corrections and retractions below apply.

Corrections

When an error is found in a published article that does not affect the findings or conclusions but needs to be corrected (an author name, affiliation, table value, reference, etc.), a correction notice is published according to the source of the error. The correction notice receives its own DOI and is linked to the article in both directions. The original version of the article is not altered; a corrected version may also be published.

Expressions of concern

When there is serious ethical or scholarly concern about an article and an investigation is under way, the editors may publish an expression of concern to inform readers. At the end of the investigation, the notice is removed or the article is retracted.

Retractions

An article is retracted in line with the COPE retraction guidelines in the following cases:

• clear evidence that the findings are unreliable (fabrication, falsification or serious error);
• plagiarism or duplicate publication;
• failure to meet ethical requirements such as ethics committee approval, participant consent or permission to use data;
• serious authorship misconduct.

A retracted article is not deleted; it remains accessible with "RETRACTED" marked on every page, and a notice explaining the reasons for the retraction is published with its own DOI. Authors may also request a retraction.