International Journal of Social Sciences and Management Research (IJSSMR) follows a clear and ethical policy regarding manuscript withdrawals to ensure fairness and transparency in the publication process.
Withdrawal Request Before Peer Review:
Authors may withdraw their manuscript at any time before it enters the peer review process, provided the manuscript has not yet been assigned to reviewers. In such cases, the author must submit a formal withdrawal request via email to the editorial team.
Withdrawal Request After Peer Review:
Once a manuscript has entered the peer review process, authors are required to provide a valid reason for withdrawing the submission. In these cases:
The author must notify the editorial office immediately and in writing.
The reason for withdrawal will be recorded, but the manuscript will be permanently removed from the review process.
If a manuscript has already received feedback from reviewers, a decision on withdrawal will be made at the editor’s discretion, considering the stage of the process.
Withdrawal After Acceptance:
If a manuscript is accepted for publication but the author wishes to withdraw it before the final publication stage (including any pre-publication proofs):
A formal withdrawal request must be submitted immediately.
If the author withdraws the manuscript after acceptance, a formal explanation for the decision will be required.
Authors may be asked to reimburse any editorial and processing fees incurred up to that point.
No Withdrawal After Publication:
Once a manuscript is published online or in print, it cannot be withdrawn. After publication, any corrections, retractions, or clarifications must be handled as part of the journal’s Correction and Retraction Policy, following standard ethical guidelines.
Ethical Considerations for Withdrawal:
Manuscript withdrawal should only occur for legitimate reasons, such as:
Author’s decision to submit the manuscript to another journal before acceptance
Discovery of significant errors in the paper
Ethical concerns or conflicts of interest
If the author believes that the manuscript has been misused or plagiarized by a third party.
Handling Withdrawal in Special Cases:
In cases where the withdrawal request arises due to misconduct or serious ethical concerns (such as plagiarism or duplicate publication), the journal may investigate the matter according to its ethical guidelines. If the manuscript is found to violate journal policies, it may be formally retracted or flagged for future reference.
Re-submission After Withdrawal:
After withdrawing a manuscript, authors may choose to submit the same or revised manuscript to another issue of the journal. The editorial office will review each submission on a case-by-case basis, adhering to the journal’s peer review standards.
