Article Withdrawal Policy

Article Withdrawal Policy

A fair, documented process for manuscript withdrawal before publication, distinct from post-publication retraction.

1. General Principle

FUADUNA expects authors to submit manuscripts in good faith and to remain engaged throughout editorial assessment. Authors should avoid simultaneous submission, unnecessary withdrawal, or withdrawal intended to bypass an editorial or ethical inquiry. At the same time, legitimate withdrawal requests may arise and will be considered fairly, transparently, and proportionately.

2. Withdrawal Before External Peer Review

The corresponding author may request withdrawal before external peer review has begun by sending a written request through the journal's official communication channel. The request should identify the manuscript and briefly explain the reason. The editor will confirm when withdrawal has been recorded in the journal management system.

3. Withdrawal During Peer Review

Once peer review has begun, authors should provide a clear reason for withdrawal because reviewers and editors have already committed scholarly work. The request should be made by the corresponding author and, where appropriate, reflect the agreement of all co-authors. The handling editor will assess the request, close outstanding review tasks when appropriate, and issue a written confirmation if the manuscript is withdrawn.

4. Withdrawal After Acceptance but Before Publication

Withdrawal after formal acceptance is exceptional because copyediting, layout, metadata registration, scheduling, or other production work may already be underway. The authors must provide a substantive written reason. The Editor-in-Chief may request confirmation from all authors and may assess whether an ethics, authorship, duplicate-submission, or other integrity concern needs to be resolved before the manuscript is closed.

5. Ethical Abuse of Withdrawal

Withdrawal itself is not automatically misconduct. However, deceptive practices such as simultaneous submission, repeated submission-and-withdrawal designed to manipulate editorial work, fabricated reasons, authorship disputes concealed from the journal, or withdrawal intended to obstruct an integrity inquiry may be handled under the Publication Ethics policy. Any restriction on future submissions must be evidence-based, proportionate, documented, and decided through due editorial process rather than imposed automatically.

6. Fees and Financial Matters

Editorial decisions and permission to withdraw are independent of payment. Any Article Processing Charge (APC), refund, or production-cost implication is governed by FUADUNA's published Author Fees policy and the stage at which the relevant cost was incurred. This page does not create a separate punitive withdrawal fee. Authors should not make payments to personal accounts or third parties outside the journal's official payment procedure.

7. After Publication

An article already published online cannot be treated as an unpublished manuscript for withdrawal purposes. If authors discover an error, ethical concern, legal issue, or other serious problem after publication, they should contact the journal promptly. The journal will consider correction, expression of concern, retraction, or exceptional removal under the Correction and Retraction Policy.

8. How to Request Withdrawal

1. Use the official journal contact or editorial communication channel.
2. Provide the manuscript ID, title, corresponding author, and a concise reason for withdrawal.
3. Confirm co-author agreement when requested by the editor.
4. Wait for written confirmation from the journal before treating the manuscript as formally withdrawn.
5. Do not submit the same manuscript to another journal until withdrawal has been formally confirmed.