Retraction

Retraction, Correction, and Expression of Concern

PITUDUH: Journal of Physical Education, Human Development and Health Studies takes responsibility for the integrity of the scholarly record it creates. Where a published article is found to be unreliable, the journal acts openly and follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

Grounds for Retraction

An article will be retracted when the editors have clear evidence that:

  • the findings are unreliable as a result of misconduct such as data fabrication or falsification, or of honest error such as miscalculation or experimental mistake;
  • the work constitutes plagiarism, in whole or in substantial part;
  • the findings have been previously published elsewhere without proper attribution, permission, or justification (redundant publication);
  • the material or data were used without authorisation;
  • copyright has been infringed or another serious legal issue exists;
  • the research was conducted in breach of research ethics, for example without required ethics approval or informed consent;
  • the peer review process has been compromised or manipulated;
  • the author or authors failed to disclose a major competing interest that would, in the editors' judgement, have materially affected interpretation of the work.

How Retraction Is Handled

  1. A concern may be raised by a reader, reviewer, editor, institution, or the authors themselves, and should be sent to the editorial office with supporting evidence.
  2. The Editor-in-Chief conducts a preliminary assessment and, where appropriate, consults the editorial board, the reviewers, or the authors' institution.
  3. The corresponding author is informed and given a reasonable opportunity to respond before any decision is made.
  4. If retraction is warranted, a retraction notice is published, linked bidirectionally to the original article.
  5. The original article remains online, clearly watermarked as retracted on every page of the PDF and flagged on the article landing page. It is not removed, so that the scholarly record and existing citations remain traceable.
  6. Indexing services and Crossref are notified so that the retraction propagates to downstream databases.

The retraction notice states who is retracting the article, sets out the reason clearly, and distinguishes explicitly between misconduct and honest error. Notices are freely available to all readers and are not placed behind any barrier.

Correction (Erratum and Corrigendum)

Where an error affects part of an article but not its conclusions or reliability, a correction is published instead of a retraction:

  • Erratum — an error introduced by the journal during production.
  • Corrigendum — an error introduced by the authors.

Corrections are published as citable items with their own DOI and are linked to the original article. Typographical errors that do not affect meaning or interpretation are corrected without a formal notice.

Expression of Concern

Where an investigation is inconclusive, unresolved, or likely to be prolonged, the editors may publish an Expression of Concern to alert readers while enquiries continue. It is withdrawn or replaced by a retraction or correction once the matter is resolved.

Article Removal

Removal of an article is exceptional and is limited to cases where the article is defamatory, infringes legal rights, is the subject of a court order, or poses a serious health risk if acted upon. In such cases the metadata are retained and a notice explaining the removal replaces the full text.

Reporting a Concern

Concerns about a published article may be raised through the Contact page. All reports are treated confidentially, and the journal does not disclose the identity of a person raising a concern without their consent.