Crossmark Policy Page

Since the December 2017 edition, MASKANA has adopted the Crossmark scheme, whereby MASKANA's editors commit to maintaining published content and alerting readers to changes, if they occur.

Crossmark is an initiative of several Crossref publishers that provides a standard way for readers to locate the authoritative and current version of a document.

Clicking on the Crossmark logo will inform you of the current status of a published document and also provide additional information about it.

Content Subject to Crossmark

The content of MASKANA bearing the Crossmark icon is restricted to the current and future content of the regular editions hosted on the official website. It applies to two specific types of publications:

• Full-length original research article.
• Review article based on an exhaustive literature review.

Policies on Corrections and Article Retraction

In rare instances, a published article may require a correction note; this means that the publication of an erratum or a notification exposing or identifying relevant errors or ethical concerns will be necessary. In other cases, a published article may even be removed, something relatively easy in electronic journals. The following are MASKANA's policies for these situations:

The Editorial Team may consider removing a published article if:

• There is clear evidence that the findings of a publication are not reliable, either due to research misconduct by the authors (e.g., data fabrication) or due to good-faith errors (e.g., experimental errors or miscalculations).
• The findings have already been published in any other medium without clear cross-referencing, permission, or justification (e.g., redundant publication).
• The publication constitutes a case of plagiarism.
• There are breaches of professional ethical codes.

The Editorial Team will publish an alert note linked to the published article if:

• They receive inconclusive evidence of research misconduct by the authors.
• There is evidence that the findings are not reliable, but the sponsoring institution does not investigate the case.
• There is evidence that the research, which led to the publication, has been carried out through research misconduct, and therefore the publication has not been, or would not be, fair, impartial, or conclusive.
• An investigation is ongoing, but a verdict will not be available for a considerable time.

The Editorial Team will issue a correction note (erratum) if:

• A small portion of the publication, which is otherwise reliable, proves to be misleading (especially due to good-faith error).
• The list of authors or contributors is incorrect or incomplete, i.e., an author deserving to be on the list has been omitted, or someone who does not meet authorship criteria has been included.

In order to ensure the maintenance of the historical record of academic publications, MASKANA supports the principle of favoring "corrections" or "retractions" over "removal" or "withdrawal" in all possible cases. In this sense, a notice of withdrawal or removal will comply with the following considerations:

• It will be linked to the withdrawn article whenever possible (i.e., in all electronic versions).
• It will clearly identify that the article has been removed from the publication (for example, by including the title and authors in the header of the removal notice).
• It will clearly identify it as a removal (i.e., distinct from other types of notices, corrections, or comments).
• It will be promptly published to minimize the harmful effects of misleading publications.
• It will be freely available to all readers (i.e., not behind access barriers or available only to subscribers).
• It will indicate who has withdrawn the article.
• It will indicate the reason(s) for the removal (to distinguish it from a case of good-faith error).
• Potentially defamatory statements will be avoided.

The considerations outlined in this section, regarding content permanence, retraction and removal or elimination of articles, are based on recommendations made by the Guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and by the International Association of STM Publishers, as well as the Declaration of Ethics and Misconduct in Publication (PEMS) of the MASKANA journal.