Article Policy

◆ Article Policy

Praefectura: Journal of Transformational Leadership and Educational Management recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity, completeness, and reliability of the scholarly record.

The journal is committed to preserving the accuracy and credibility of its published content and to maintaining appropriate editorial records for researchers, authors, reviewers, librarians, and other members of the scholarly community.

Published articles constitute part of the permanent scholarly record and should remain accessible, identifiable, and appropriately documented. Any post-publication action is therefore undertaken only when justified by clear editorial, ethical, legal, or scholarly considerations.

Editorial Responsibility

The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board of Praefectura are responsible for making editorial decisions concerning manuscripts submitted to the journal.

Editorial decisions are guided by the journal's aims and scope, editorial policies, peer-review procedures, publication-ethics principles, and applicable legal requirements, including copyright, plagiarism, defamation, and intellectual-property considerations.

Editorial decisions are made independently and should not be influenced by commercial, personal, institutional, or other inappropriate interests.

Integrity of the Scholarly Record

Once an article has been formally published, Praefectura considers it part of the permanent scholarly record.

Published articles will normally remain available and unchanged. Corrections, retractions, withdrawals, or removals are exceptional measures and will only be considered when there is a substantive reason to do so.

Where post-publication action is required, the journal will preserve an appropriate publication history and provide readers with clear information about the nature and reason for the action.

Article Withdrawal

Article withdrawal generally applies to manuscripts that have been accepted or made available before formal publication and are subsequently found to contain serious problems.

Withdrawal may be considered in circumstances such as:

• accidental duplicate submission or publication;
• serious violation of publication-ethics requirements;
• plagiarism or substantial unattributed material;
• fraudulent or unreliable data;
• inappropriate authorship or authorship claims; or
• other serious concerns identified before formal publication.

Where an article is withdrawn, the journal will provide an appropriate notice explaining that the article has been withdrawn.

Article Retraction

Retraction is an exceptional post-publication action used when an article is determined to contain serious problems that substantially affect its reliability, integrity, or compliance with publication-ethics standards.

Grounds for retraction may include, but are not limited to:

• plagiarism or serious publication misconduct;
• fabrication or falsification of data;
• serious methodological or factual errors;
• duplicate or redundant publication;
• unauthorized or inappropriate use of copyrighted material;
• serious authorship or contribution disputes;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest that materially affect the article;
• ethical violations involving research or participants; or
• other circumstances that substantially undermine the reliability of the published article.

Retraction decisions are made by the Editorial Board following an appropriate investigation and consideration of the available evidence.

Retraction Procedure

When an article is retracted:

1. A formal retraction notice will be published and clearly linked to the original article.
2. The notice will identify the article and provide the reason for the retraction where appropriate.
3. The original article will normally remain accessible for the purposes of maintaining the scholarly record.
4. The electronic version may be clearly marked as "RETRACTED" where technically and editorially appropriate.
5. The article's bibliographic and publication history will remain identifiable.

Article Removal: Legal and Exceptional Circumstances

In very limited circumstances, an article may need to be removed from public online access.

Such removal may be considered where:

• the article is subject to a valid legal requirement or court order;
• the publication creates a serious and demonstrable legal risk;
• the article contains material that infringes the legal rights of another party; or
• exceptional circumstances require removal to prevent serious harm.

Where an article is removed, the journal will, where legally permissible, retain its bibliographic metadata and provide an explanatory notice indicating that the article has been removed for legal or exceptional reasons.

Article Replacement

In exceptional circumstances, an article may require replacement when the published version contains a serious error that could cause significant harm if relied upon.

Any replacement will be considered only after an appropriate editorial assessment and, where necessary, consultation with the authors and relevant experts.

The journal will preserve a clear history of the original publication and the corrected or replacement version so that readers can identify the changes and publication history.

Corrections and Post-Publication Changes

Minor errors that do not materially affect the interpretation, findings, or conclusions of an article may be corrected through an appropriate correction notice or editorial update.

Corrections should be transparent and should not obscure the original publication history.

Where a correction materially affects the article's scientific interpretation or reliability, the Editorial Board will assess whether a correction, expression of concern, or retraction is more appropriate.

Expression of Concern

Where serious concerns have been raised regarding a published article but an investigation has not yet reached a final conclusion, the journal may publish an Expression of Concern .

This notice alerts readers to the existence of a significant concern while the Editorial Board, authors, institutions, or other relevant parties complete the necessary investigation.

Policy Review

This Article Policy may be reviewed and updated periodically by the Editorial Board of Praefectura to remain consistent with developments in scholarly publishing, research integrity, publication ethics, and applicable legal requirements.