Article Retraction & Withdrawal

It is a fundamental principle of scholarly communication that the Editor-in-Chief of SAMAWA: Journal of Islamic Family Law is solely and independently responsible for deciding which submitted manuscripts should be published. In making this decision, the Editor is guided by the journal’s editorial board policies and is constrained by legal requirements concerning defamation, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

This principle emphasizes the importance of maintaining scientific archives as permanent and accurate records of scholarly communication. Once published, articles should remain extant, precise, and unaltered as far as possible. However, under certain extraordinary circumstances, an article may need to be retracted, withdrawn, or even removed. Such actions are considered exceptional and will only be carried out following strict ethical and procedural review.

The editorial board of SAMAWA: Journal of Islamic Family Law will retain all versions of published articles, including those that have been retracted or removed, to maintain transparency in the publication record.

This policy aligns with international best practices in the academic and library communities and will be periodically reviewed to reflect the latest developments in publication ethics and scholarly standards.

Article Retraction

Articles may be retracted due to significant scientific errors or ethical violations, such as:

  • Multiple submissions,

  • False claims of authorship,

  • Plagiarism,

  • Fraudulent use or manipulation of data.

A formal, signed statement from the author(s) is required before retraction can proceed. The consent of all authors must be obtained before a retraction notice is published.

A Retraction Notice will be issued, linked to the original article, and clearly marked as “Retracted.” The notice will include the reason for retraction and identify who initiated it.

The retracted article will not be removed from the online archive or printed version but will be clearly labeled as a retracted publication. The retraction will also be listed in the journal’s Table of Contents.

Article Withdrawal

Article withdrawal is strongly discouraged and is only permitted under exceptional circumstances for an article that has been accepted for publication but not yet officially published.

Withdrawal may occur if:

  • The article contains serious errors,

  • It has been submitted or published elsewhere,

  • It violates publication ethics (e.g., plagiarism, data misuse, false authorship).

In such cases, especially when legal or ethical concerns arise, the article may be withdrawn from the journal’s online platform.

When an article is withdrawn, both the HTML and PDF versions are replaced with a statement indicating that the article has been withdrawn in accordance with SAMAWA: Journal of Islamic Family Law’s policy, including a link to this policy.

Note: Even if the author retains copyright of the article, they do not have the unilateral right to withdraw it after publication. The integrity of the academic record must be preserved at all times.

Article Removal

In extremely rare circumstances, a published article may need to be completely removed from the online archive. This may occur if:

  • The article is clearly defamatory,

  • It violates another person’s legal rights,

  • It is subject to a court order,

  • Its content poses a potential serious health or safety risk.

In such cases, the article’s metadata (title and author information) will remain accessible, but the text will be replaced with a statement indicating that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

Article Replacement

If the content of an article poses a serious risk (e.g., misinformation that could endanger public safety), the authors may request to replace the article with a corrected version.

In such cases, the same procedure as article removal will be followed. The replacement notice will include a link to the corrected version and a document history showing the revision timeline.