Crossmark Policy

All articles published in CRJournal receive a DOI and are published permanently. This applies regardless of the results of peer review after publication. All content, including articles that have not (yet) passed peer review, is archived permanently on the CRJOURNAL OJS platform. All versions of all articles that pass peer review will be archived on the CRJOURNAL Archives Page.

Authors can revise, change and update their articles by publishing new versions, which are added to the article history; however, individual versions, once published, cannot be changed or withdrawn and are permanently available on the CRJOURNAL website. CRJOURNAL participates in the CrossMark scheme, a multi-publisher initiative that has developed a standard way for readers to find the most current version of an article. By implementing CrossMark policies, CRJOURNAL is committed to safeguarding the content it publishes and alerting readers to changes if and when they occur.

Clicking on the CrossMark logo (at the top of each CRJOURNAL article) will give you the current status of the article and take you to the most recent published version; it can also give you additional information such as important dates of the article.

To maintain the integrity and completeness of the scientific record, the following policies will be implemented when published content needs correction; This policy considers current best practices in the scholarly publishing and library communities:

 

Article Correction 

In traditional journals, where articles are peer reviewed before publication, Corrections (or Errata) are published to alert readers to errors in the article that were noticed after publication of the final article.

In contrast, articles in CRJOURNAL undergo post-peer review publication and the publication is not yet 'final' as new versions may be added at any stage. Possible errors uncovered during the peer review process may be highlighted in the published referee's report, which forms part of the article. Authors may publish a revised version, and any errors noticed during peer review or thereafter may be corrected through publication of a new version. Corrections and changes relating to previous versions are always summarized in the ‘Amendments’ section at the start of the new version.

 

Rejection

Articles can be withdrawn for several reasons, including:

  • honest errors reported by the author (for example, errors due to mixing samples or use of scientific tools or equipment that were later discovered to be defective)
  • research errors (falsification of data)
  • duplicate or overlapping publications 
  • fraudulent use of data 
  • clear plagiarism 
  • unethical research 

For each retracted article, the reason for the retraction and who prompted the retraction will be clearly stated in the Retraction notice. The retraction notice will be linked to the retracted article (which usually remains on the site) and the article will be clearly marked as retracted (including PDFs).

An article is usually only retracted at the request of the author or by the publisher in response to an institutional investigation. It is important to note in the context of the CRJOURNAL publication model, that – as in traditional journals – a retracted article is not ‘unpublished’ or ‘withdrawn’ in order to be published elsewhere. The reasons for retraction are usually so serious that the entire study, or most of it, is not worthy of inclusion in the scientific literature anywhere.

The content of a retracted article will only be removed if there are legal restrictions imposed on the publisher, copyright holder or author, for example if the article is clearly defamatory or violates another person's legal rights, or if the article is copyrighted. subject to court orders. In such cases, bibliographic information for the article will be stored on the site along with information regarding the circumstances that led to the content's removal.

In rare circumstances, for example, if false or inaccurate data has been published that, if acted upon, poses a serious health risk, the original incorrect version may be removed and a corrected version may be published. The reason for this partial removal will be clearly stated in the latest version.

 

Editorials Note

If there are potential unresolved issues with an article, it may be appropriate to alert readers via an Editorial Note. Such an Editorial Note may be added, for example, if CRJOURNAL receives information that a research or publication error may have occurred, or that there is a serious dispute between authors or between authors and third parties. Editorial Notes will usually be posted as further investigations are conducted and until a more permanent solution is reached