Retraction/Withdrawal Policy

In principle, journal editors cannot independently decide which articles shall be published. In making decisions regarding publication, editors are guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and are limited by applicable legal requirements relating to defamation, copyright infringement, double publishing, and plagiarism. Articles that have been published will remain extant, exact, and unaltered as far as is possible. However, circumstances can arise in which published articles must be withdrawn or even deleted. Such actions should not be carried out except in exceptional circumstances.

A retraction of a published article can be initiated by journal editors, by authors, and/or by their institutions. In certain cases, the retraction must be accompanied by an apology for the previous mistakes and/or an expression of gratitude to those who revealed the error to the author. A retraction of a published scientific article must be accompanied by a statement that the original article must not be published and that its data and conclusions should not be used as part of the basis for future research.

Article Withdrawal

Withdrawal can occur if the initial version of the article contains an error, or if the article was accidentally sent twice to VARIA HUKUM: Jurnal Forum Studi Hukum dan Kemasyarakatan and/or to a different publisher. It can also occur because of infringements of the scientific code of ethics, such as double submission, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or the like. Where an author becomes aware that an article infringes the code of ethics, the author may withdraw the article by submitting a withdrawal statement letter addressed to the editorial board of VARIA HUKUM: Jurnal Forum Studi Hukum dan Kemasyarakatan.

Article Retraction

A retraction is carried out if an article is indicated to have infringed the scientific code of ethics, such as through double submission, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, fake authors, or the like. A retraction is also used to correct errors in submission or publication. A retraction is carried out by the author or the editor on the advice of the editorial board of VARIA HUKUM: Jurnal Forum Studi Hukum dan Kemasyarakatan. The journal applies the following forms of retraction:

  1. If infringements of the scientific code of ethics are indicated before the article is published, the editor will return the manuscript to the author, accompanied by a retraction letter from the Editor-in-Chief.
  2. If infringements of the scientific code of ethics are indicated after the article is published, the following mechanisms may be applied:
    1. The online article is preceded by a screen containing the retraction note. The article link resolves to this screen, and the reader can then proceed to the article itself.
    2. The original article is retained unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is "retracted."
    3. The HTML version of the article is removed.

Article Removal: Legal Limitations

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove an article from the online database of VARIA HUKUM: Jurnal Forum Studi Hukum dan Kemasyarakatan. This will occur only where the article is clearly defamatory, a hoax, infringes the legal rights of others, is subject to a court order, or endangers state security. In these circumstances, the metadata (title and authors) will be retained, while the text will be replaced with a screen indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article Replacement

Where an article, if acted upon, might pose a serious risk, the authors of the original article may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. In these circumstances, the procedures for retraction will be followed, with the difference that the database retraction notice will publish a link to the corrected, republished article and a history of the document.