REGULATIONS
On the Procedure for the Retraction of Articles in the Scientific Journal "Kyiv Journal of Modern Psychology and Psychotherapy"

1. General Provisions

1.1. These Regulations define the grounds, principles, process, and procedure for the retraction of published articles inthe scientific journal 'Technologies of Intellect Development'of G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine to ensure research integrity, transparency, reliability of the scientific record, and compliance with the best international standards of publication ethics.

1.2. Retraction is an official procedure for correcting published materials, applied in cases of significant errors, violations of the principles and rules of academic integrity, violations of the journal's publication ethics, violations of copyright, concealment of facts of improper use of artificial intelligence contrary to the journal's policy, and other serious violations.

1.3. The implementation of this policy is based on international principles, particularly the Guidelines on Retraction (COPE), Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, Core Practices COPE, ICMJE Recommendations, and others.

2. Main Terms

2.1. Withdrawal/Retraction is the official annulment of published scientific material with the simultaneous publication of a retraction notice and appropriate marking in all versions of the article.

2.2. Withdrawal by Author is the voluntary withdrawal of an article before or after publication for valid reasons, but not related to ethical violations.

2.3. Correction (Erratum) is the correction of minor errors that do not affect key scientific conclusions.

2.4. Expression of Concern is a temporary notice from the editorial office about possible serious problems with an article under consideration.

3. Principles of Retraction Policy

3.1. Transparency: information about the retraction must be publicly available, linked to the original article, and have clearly stated reasons.

3.2. Objectivity and fairness: decisions are based on evidence, expert assessment, and international ethical standards.

3.3. Respect for the rights of parties: authors have the right to respond, provide explanations, and appeal.

3.4. Preservation of the scientific record: the retracted article is preserved in archives with appropriate markings to avoid incorrect citation.

3.5. Compliance with law: in exceptional cases (court order, security threat, etc.), removal of the text is possible whilst preserving the marking indicating the reason.

4. Grounds for Retraction

4.1. An article may be retracted either by the author with or without explanation of reasons, or by the editorial board upon discovery of one or more of the following grounds:

• a) proven falsification or fabrication of data, violation of the principles and rules of academic integrity;
• b) significant scientific errors that render the conclusions unfounded;
• c) established fact of plagiarism or self-plagiarism;
• d) duplicate or multiple publication without proper coordination;
• e) improper authorship or violation of rights to materials, substantially inadequate distribution of co-authors' contributions;
• f) incorrect disclosure or concealment of conflict of interest;
• g) unethical conduct of research subject to ethical oversight;
• h) concealment of facts of improper use of artificial intelligence contrary to the journal’s publication policy;
• i) for reasons of national security or based on a court decision.

4.2. Author(s) may initiate the withdrawal of an article only before its official publication for valid reasons with the consent of all co-authors. After publication, only the retraction procedure in accordance with these Regulations is applied, with mandatory specification of clear reasons.

4.3. In cases of voluntary request by author(s) regarding retraction of a published article, the editorial office conducts a full consideration procedure in accordance with Section 6 of these Regulations to establish the grounds and validity of the retraction.

5. Initiation of Retraction Procedure

5.1. Initiators of consideration may be: authors, readers, reviewers, editorial board members, scientific institutions, ethics committees, external experts.

5.2. The request is submitted in writing in the form of an application (including by email) to the journal's editorial office with justification and evidence and must contain:

• a) a clear description of the essence of the request;
• b) reference to the relevant article with full bibliographic data;
• c) available evidence or justification for grounds for retraction;
• d) contact details of the applicant (anonymous requests may only be considered if compelling evidence is available).

5.3. The application is considered by the Editor-in-Chief within 3 working days with confirmation of receipt to the applicant.

5.4. If the request concerns an article where the Editor-in-Chief is an author or co-author, or has another conflict of interest, consideration is carried out by the Deputy Editor-in-Chief or a senior member of the editorial board designated by the editorial board. If the request concerns another member of the editorial board, that member is excluded from the consideration process at all stages.

5.5. Submission of knowingly false requests for retraction or requests with malicious intent may result in restriction of the person's right to submit requests in the future and/or notification of relevant institutions about unethical conduct.

6. Procedure for Consideration of Retraction

6.1. The editorial office conducts a preliminary analysis of the request and, if necessary, creates a commission of three or five independent experts to assess the factual data. The commission is formed taking into account the following criteria:

• a) absence of conflict of interest with all parties to the request;
• b) availability of relevant scientific expertise in the subject matter of the article or in issues of publication ethics;
• c) experience in matters of academic integrity (if possible).

6.2. A request for explanation is sent to the authors with a detailed statement of the essence of the request. The explanation must be provided within the time frame established by the editorial office (not less than 14 calendar days).

6.3. The commission conducts a comprehensive analysis of the material, evidence, and explanations of the author(s), which may include:

• a) verification using specialised tools (plagiarism detection systems, AI-generated text detection systems, data analysis, etc.);
• b) analysis of primary research data;
• c) consultations with independent experts in the relevant field;
• d) analysis of compliance with ethical standards of research conduct.

6.4. The decision is adopted by a majority vote of the commission members.

6.5. After the commission's assessment of all materials and provision of a conclusion, the editorial office adopts one of the following decisions:

• a) rejection of the request;
• b) publication of a correction;
• c) publication of an expression of concern;
• d) adoption of a decision on retraction.

6.6. Consideration of the request should last no longer than 30 calendar days. In cases requiring additional expert examination, involvement of external specialists, or international consultations, the term may be extended to 90 calendar days, and in cases of court proceedings, for an even longer time, with mandatory notification to the applicant of the reasons for the extension. In this case, the applicant will receive interim notifications regarding the status of consideration until final results are obtained.

6.7. In case of detection of violations concerning several journals (multiple publication, plagiarism of materials from other publications), the editorial office undertakes to notify the relevant editorial offices for coordination of actions in accordance with COPE recommendations.

6.8. Preprints posted in recognised repositories (arXiv, bioRxiv, PsyArXiv, OSF Preprints, etc.) are not considered prior publication and are not grounds for retraction if the authors have properly declared their existence when submitting the manuscript.

7. Publication of Retraction

7.1. In case of a decision on retraction, the journal publishes a retraction notice with the following elements:

• a) title and identifying data of the article;
• b) a clear heading 'Retraction Notice';
• c) clear formulation of the grounds for retraction;
• d) information about the initiator of the retraction;
• e) the date of entry into force of the decision on retraction.

7.2. The retraction notice must be:

• a) freely accessible;
• b) bidirectionally linked to the original article (with a link to the article and from the article to the notice);
• c) with the marking 'Retracted' in the PDF and metadata.

7.3. The retraction notice must contain the date of adoption of the decision on retraction and the date of publication of the notice.

8. Consequences of Retraction

8.1. The retracted article remains in the journal’s archive in all versions (PDF, metadata) with the corresponding clear marking ‘Retracted’/“Retracted” on each page.

8.2. The following are notified of the retraction:

• a) all authors of the article (using the email specified by the authors for communication and, if necessary, the physical postal address in case of sending original documents);
• b) indexing databases where the journal is represented (according to technical capabilities);
• c) scientometric databases (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc.) where the journal is represented;
• d) international retraction databases (Retraction Watch Database, CrossRef);
• e) institution(s) where the author(s) work/study (if necessary);
• f) the interested scientific community through the journal's official channels.

8.3. Information about the retraction is published on the journal's official website in a separate section 'Retractions'.

8.4. In cases of serious violations (plagiarism, data fabrication, multiple publication, grossly improper use of artificial intelligence), the editorial office may inform:

• a) the institution where the author works/studies, for consideration of the matter in accordance with internal procedures;
• b) relevant scientific or professional associations;
• c) editorial offices of other journals if the violation concerns several publications;
• d) ethics committees or academic integrity commissions.

8.5. The editorial office reserves the right to take into account comments and remarks from the scientific community after publication (post-publication peer review) as grounds for initiating the procedure for considering possible retraction in accordance with the procedures defined by these Regulations.

9. Withdrawal Before and After Publication 

9.1. Withdrawal by the author is permitted only before the official publication of the article (including the online version) for valid reasons with the written consent of all co-authors. The reasons for withdrawal must be documented.

9.2. After official publication (including publication in early access mode before the publication of the relevant issue of the journal), only the retraction procedure in accordance with these Regulations is applied, with mandatory public disclosure of the reasons.

9.3. In exceptional cases (court order, security threat, violation of personal data confidentiality), removal of the article text is possible whilst preserving the metadata and marking indicating the reason for removal.

10. Appeal and Challenge of Decisions

10.1. Author(s) have the right to submit an appeal against the decision on retraction within 14 calendar days from the moment of receiving written notification of the editorial office's decision.

10.2. The appeal is considered by an independent commission or editorial board with mandatory involvement of independent experts who did not participate in the initial consideration. The term for consideration of the appeal is no more than 30 calendar days. In cases requiring additional expert examination, involvement of external specialists, or international consultations, the term may be extended, with mandatory notification to the applicant of the reasons for the extension. In this case, the applicant will receive interim notifications regarding the status of consideration every two weeks until final results are obtained.

10.3. The appeal must contain:

• a) clear justification for disagreement with the decision;
• b) new evidence or arguments (if available);
• c) specific requirements for revision of the decision.

10.4. The decision on the appeal is final and is not subject to re-appeal within the editorial procedures.

10.5. In case of rejection of the appeal, the retraction becomes finally effective and is published in accordance with Section 7 of these Regulations.

11. Monitoring and Prevention

11.1. The journal uses text plagiarism detection systems, AI-generated text detection systems, data manipulation analysis, image verification, and other tools to detect potential violations at all stages of review and after publication.

11.2. The editorial office conducts periodic audits of the journal's policies (not less than once every two years) to ensure compliance with international and national standards of publication ethics.

11.3. The editorial office takes into account notifications from the scientific community regarding possible violations of academic integrity in articles published by the journal.

12. Final Provisions

12.1. These Regulations come into force from the moment of their publication on the journal's official website.

12.2. The editorial office reserves the right to make changes and additions to these Regulations for the purpose of updating them in accordance with the development of international and national standards of publication ethics. The current version of the Regulations is published on the journal's official website.

12.3. In cases not provided for by these Regulations, the editorial office is guided by the recommendations of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), ICMJE principles, and other recognised international standards of publication ethics.

12.4. These Regulations are published on the journal's official website in Ukrainian and English and are accessible to all participants in the publication process.