Retraction and Correction Policies

Policy Statement

The editorial board of Indonesian Journal of Islamic Elementary Education (IJIEE) recognizes the intellectual rigor and dedication authors invest in their scholarship, mirrored by our meticulous double-blind evaluation system. Nevertheless, safeguarding the reliability and historical accuracy of the published academic record occasionally necessitates formal post-publication amendments, retractions, or pre-publication withdrawals. IJIEE treats these interventions as exceptional remedies exercised strictly to protect scientific validity, digital repository integrity, and institutional trust across the global educational research community.

Article Retraction

IJIEE upholds the integrity of scholarly communication and adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Retraction Guidelines when handling compromised publications. A published paper may be retracted under the following circumstances:

·     Compromised Scientific Validity: Evidence of pervasive flaws that invalidate core empirical conclusions, stemming either from methodological blunders (such as miscalculations, calculation anomalies, or unrepeatable sampling errors) or professional misconduct (including data fabrication, falsification, or citation manipulation).

·     Redundant Publication: Substantive overlap or prior publication of key findings elsewhere without explicit authorization, proper cross-citation, or legitimate editorial justification.

·     Severe Ethical Infractions: Confirmed occurrences of plagiarism, unauthorized use of confidential peer-review materials, or distorted authorship attributions (such as ghost, guest, or gift authorship).

The formal retraction workflow at IJIEE adheres to COPE standard procedures:

  1. Concerns are formally brought to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief and handling editors.
  2. The editorial desk examines the claim, gathers evidence, and requests a formal written clarification from the authors in accordance with relevant COPE flowcharts.
  3. Prior to enacting punitive or restorative decisions, the investigation dossier is reviewed alongside the journal's editorial and advisory committee to preserve consistency and due process.
  4. The editorial resolution is communicated to the authors and, when warranted by the severity of the case, to their affiliated institutions or research sponsors.
  5. An official Retraction Note detailing the background of the action is published online, linked directly to the original article page, and cataloged in the immediate subsequent issue of IJIEE. Retracted articles remain accessible in the archive but are visibly marked with a watermarked "RETRACTED" notice across all electronic versions.

Article Withdrawal

Authors may request manuscript withdrawal exclusively during the pre-publication phase—specifically during initial screening, peer review, or copyediting stages—before the final authorship declaration and copyright licensing documents are executed. Once a manuscript has been formally accepted and cleared for production, withdrawal requests are generally not granted. To initiate a legitimate withdrawal, the corresponding author must submit a formal letter to the IJIEE editorial office detailing valid academic or ethical grounds for the request. Unauthorized unilateral withdrawals, or withdrawals driven by intentions to submit elsewhere after review resources have been expended, violate submission ethics.

Article Correction

When an error does not undermine the overall validity or core conclusions of a published study, IJIEE issues an official correction. Corrections typically resolve minor mathematical discrepancies, typographical oversights, omitted acknowledgments, or legitimate adjustments to the contributor list (such as correcting inadvertent omissions or updating affiliations). Depending on the nature and origin of the oversight, corrections are categorized as follows:

·     Erratum (Publisher Correction): Corrects significant production, typographical, or administrative blunders introduced by the editorial or publishing staff that affect the accurate representation of the work.

·     Corrigendum (Author Correction): Addresses notable technical or data errors introduced by the authors that require public rectification without altering the study's primary scientific outcomes.

·    Addendum: Incorporates supplementary explanations, missing context, or explanatory expansions authored by the original contributors to enrich or clarify the existing paper.

Decisions regarding corrections are made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with handling editors and reviewers. All issued corrections are permanently linked to the original publication via a dedicated Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Article Removal

Permanent excision of a published article from the IJIEE online repository is restricted to extraordinary legal or public-interest scenarios. This measure applies only if a paper is subject to an enforceable court ruling, is determined to be defamatory, infringes upon statutory intellectual property rights, or presents severe, actionable real-world harm. In such events, the bibliographic metadata (title, author list, and DOI) will be preserved on the landing page, accompanied by a formal statement explaining that the full text has been removed for legal compliance.

Article Replacement

In rare instances where flawed educational, psychological, or health-related data could produce severe adverse outcomes if applied in practice, authors may retract the original text and provide a corrected, revised replacement. This follows standard retraction protocols while attaching a verified link to the re-evaluated document alongside a transparent timeline of modifications.