Retraction Policy

Retraction, Correction, and Withdrawal Policy

Purpose and Principle. The Turkish Music Journal (TM) conducts correction (erratum/corrigendum), retraction, expression of concern, and withdrawal procedures in a clear and transparent manner in order to preserve the integrity of the scientific record. Authors confirm their copyright transfer commitment and compliance with ethical principles when submitting their manuscript to the system. Once a manuscript has entered the publication process (DOI assignment, early view, or regular issue publication), the author(s) cannot unilaterally withdraw the manuscript. However, authors may apply for correction (erratum/corrigendum) to be included in subsequent issues.

Definitions
Correction (Erratum/Corrigendum): Corrections of errors that may affect the scientific content but do not invalidate the main results of the study.
Retraction: The withdrawal of a study due to serious ethical violations (plagiarism, data fabrication/falsification, duplicate submission/publication, unauthorized addition/removal of authors, etc.) or severe methodological flaws that compromise the reliability of the work.
Expression of Concern: A temporary notice to inform readers while an investigation is ongoing.
Withdrawal: An action applied only in exceptional legal cases (court decision, clear defamation, serious violation of third-party rights, national security issues).

Initiation and Review. Procedures may be initiated through notifications by editors, authors, institutions, or third parties. The Editorial Board conducts a preliminary review (≤15 days), collects evidence (data, ethics approval, similarity report), and requests an author’s response (7–14 days) before making the final decision.

Decision and Notification.
– Retraction notices are permanent, openly accessible, dated, and assigned a DOI; they include the reason, initiating party, and date of decision.
– The original article and PDF remain online; each page is watermarked “RETRACTED” and linked to the retraction notice.
– Withdrawal is applied only in cases of legal obligation; title/author/abstract metadata are retained and the page displays a statement such as “removed for legal reasons.”
– Corrections and expressions of concern are linked directly to the relevant article.
– Crossref, indexing services, and DOAJ are notified where required.

Sanctions. In cases such as abandoning the peer review process without valid justification, refusing to cooperate in an ethics investigation, or duplicate submission, the Editorial Board may impose a submission ban of up to two years on the author(s). The right to appeal is reserved.

Transparency and Record-Keeping. All processes are recorded with timestamps; decision numbers, board composition, and voting procedures are archived.