Withdrawal Policy

1. Pre-Publication Withdrawal:

• Authors can withdraw their manuscript at any time before the final acceptance decision is made by the ASSAJ editors. Withdrawal should be communicated formally to the editorial team via email.
• If the manuscript has undergone peer review at the time of withdrawal, ASSAJ reserves the right to charge a partial processing fee to cover associated administrative costs.
• No fees will be charged for withdrawals before peer review commences.

2. Post-Publication Withdrawal:

• Withdrawal of a published article from ASSAJ is generally not encouraged and considered an exceptional case.
• Authors may request withdrawal only for compelling reasons such as factual errors, ethical concerns, or plagiarism discovered after publication.
• Requests for post-publication withdrawal must be submitted in writing to the ASSAJ editors and clearly state the justification for withdrawal.
• The editors will assess the request and make a decision based on the severity of the reasons and potential impact on the scientific record.
• If the withdrawal request is approved, the article will be marked as "retracted" with a clear explanation provided on the article webpage. This explanation will not include sensitive details that may harm individuals or institutions involved.

3. Consequences of Withdrawal:

• Withdrawn manuscripts will not be considered for publication in ASSAJ or any other journal affiliated with the same publisher.
• Authors withdrawing their manuscript after acceptance but before publication may be subject to restrictions on submitting future manuscripts to ASSAJ.
• The decision on post-publication withdrawal and its consequences will be at the sole discretion of the ASSAJ editors.

4. Copyright Considerations:

• Authors retain copyright of their work even after publication in ASSAJ. However, by submitting their manuscript, authors grant ASSAJ a non-exclusive license to publish the article and make it available online.
• In the case of withdrawal, the non-exclusive license granted to ASSAJ is revoked. However, ASSAJ may retain a copy of the article for archival purposes and to inform readers of the retraction.