Errata, Expressions of Concern and Retratações Policy

The Critical Patient Journal (RDC) is committed to preserving the integrity, transparency, reliability and traceability of the published scientific record. Whenever errors, irregularities or ethical violations are identified that may affect the interpretation, credibility or validity of the published works, the Journal will adopt, in a prompt and proportionate manner, the appropriate corrective measures, in accordance with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and with the guidelines, Core Practices and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

 

⮚      Errata

Errata will be published when unintentional errors are identified that do not substantially compromise the results, the interpretation of the data or the conclusions of the published article.

They may include, but are not limited to:

●        Relevant typographical or editorial errors;

●        Inaccuracies in the identification of authors or their affiliations;

●        Inaccuracies in tables, figures, bibliographic references or other elements that do not alter the essential scientific content of the work.

Errata will be published quickly, clearly identified and permanently associated with the original article. Whenever technically possible, they will receive their own persistent identifier and will be linked to the original article and its metadata, ensuring the correct identification of the corrected version by readers and indexing systems.

 

⮚      Expressions of Concern

The RDC may issue an expression of concern when there are well-founded suspicions of irregularities or potential breaches of scientific integrity that are under investigation and do not yet allow for a final decision.

Expressions of concern aim to inform readers about the existence of relevant issues related to the published article, while preserving the principles of impartiality, adversarial and transparency until the conclusion of the investigation.

Once the investigation has been completed, the expression of concern may be removed, maintained, replaced by a correction or lead to the retraction of the article, depending on the nature and results of the assessment carried out.

 

⮚      Retractions

Retractions will be published when situations are confirmed that significantly compromise the reliability, integrity or legitimacy of the published work, namely:

●        Plagiarism;

●        Scientific fraud, including fabrication or falsification of data;

●        Serious errors that invalidate the results or conclusions;

●        Undeclared duplicate or redundant publication;

●        Significant ethical violations;

●        Other forms of scientific misconduct that justify the formal removal of the article from the scientific register.

Whenever appropriate, and when the nature of the error justifies it, the Journal may opt for the corrected republication of the article or for another editorial measure considered more appropriate to preserve the integrity of the scientific record.

Retractions shall be issued in a transparent manner, indicating the reasons for them, the entity responsible for issuing them and the full reference to the article in question.

The retracted article will remain permanently accessible in the Journal's archive, maintaining its persistent identifier (DOI), when applicable, and being clearly identified as retracted in all electronic versions, in the respective metadata and, whenever possible, in the indexing systems, safeguarding the integrity, transparency and traceability of the scientific record.

The retraction note will remain permanently associated with the original article and its metadata.

 

⮚      Other Scientific Record Correction Mechanisms

Whenever the circumstances warrant it, the RDC may resort to other mechanisms for correcting the scientific record, in accordance with the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), namely:

●        Republication, when an article needs to be republished to correct relevant errors that do not compromise the scientific validity of the work, preserving the transparency of the scientific record;

●        Replacement, in exceptional situations where the published version has been compromised for technical, editorial or other reasons that justify its replacement, maintaining the traceability and history of the changes made;

●        Withdrawal of manuscripts before publication, when a manuscript is withdrawn by the authors or by the Journal before its publication, namely for ethical, scientific, legal or editorial reasons, in accordance with the policies of the RDC.

The use of these mechanisms will always be duly justified, documented and carried out in a transparent manner, ensuring the preservation of the integrity, authenticity and traceability of the scientific record.