Withdrawal of Manuscript
Authors are generally discouraged from withdrawing a manuscript that is under review, except in exceptional and well-justified circumstances, such as the identification of serious errors, ethical concerns, or other compelling reasons. Withdrawal at this stage may disrupt the peer-review process and require substantial time and effort from editors, reviewers, and the publisher.
Authors who wish to request a withdrawal must submit a signed Article Withdrawal Form, completed by all authors or by the corresponding author on behalf of all co-authors, clearly stating the reasons for the request. All withdrawal requests are subject to editorial review and are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
A manuscript will be considered formally withdrawn only after written confirmation has been issued by the Editorial Office. To obtain an Article Withdrawal Form, authors are advised to contact the editorial team listed in the Contact section of the journal website.
The journal does not impose withdrawal penalties; however, repeated or unjustified withdrawal requests may be taken into consideration in future editorial decisions in order to safeguard the integrity, fairness, and efficiency of the peer-review process.
Articles that have been accepted and posted online as Articles in Press but not yet published in final form may be withdrawn under limited circumstances, such as:
The article was published prematurely or in error.
The article duplicates another published version.
In such cases, the article content will be replaced with a withdrawal notice explaining the reason for removal, in accordance with the Elsevier Policy on Article in Press Withdrawal.
