Post-publication corrections to journal articles
Corrections to Accepted Manuscripts
Once an accepted manuscript or published article is available online, it is considered to be a part of the permanent scholarly record. As such, we take requests to make changes very seriously. Only minor, essential corrections to your article can be made at proof stage, and these will only be visible in the Version of Record. Minor changes are those that do not significantly affect either the scientific meaning of the article or its bibliographic identity. No changes can be made to authorship (other than those covered by our Name change policy, which is available at https://publishingsupport.iopscience.iop.org/questions/name-change-policy/) and references cannot be added or removed unless in response to a specific proof query. We reserve the right to deny correction requests from authors which we deem in breach of our ethical policy.
Corrections to Version of Record
Once the Version of Record is published, only major essential corrections can be made at this stage. There are a number of ways to make a correction, depending on the type and severity of change required.
If you notice an error in your published article, several courses of action are available:
- A corrigendum
- should be published when you (the author) have made an error in your article.
- An erratum
- should be published when we (IOP Publishing) have made an error in your article.
- A post-publication change to the original article
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can only be made where the error affects the discoverability, visibility and citability of the article. For example, corrections can be made to author names, titles and abstracts. We only allow changes to affiliations, footnotes and/or acknowledgments in order to meet the requirements of a funding body, or those related to legal issues. Please contact the journal email address to request changes in these categories.
If you have changed your name and would like to update previously published articles, please refer to our specific policy relating to name changes in the related links below, which includes instructions on how to make a request.
In the case of a corrigendum or erratum, the PDF of the correction article will be attached to the online version of the original article, and a link created between the corrigendum/erratum article and the original article to make readers and other users/systems aware of the correction.
When submitting a corrigendum, the article title should be in the following format: “Corrigendum: “original article title” (“original article reference”)”
If a post-publication change is made, the online version of the article will be replaced and a dated note added to highlight the amendment that was made. Please note that in some cases it will not be possible to also correct any print versions.
Please contact us in the first instance and we can provide guidance on the most suitable course of action. Please note you may be required to provide reasonable proof that you are the author of the article. The majority of post publication changes require agreement from all co-authors to proceed.
In cases where serious errors are identified, we may publish a retraction or expression of concern:
- A retraction
- should be published as a way to correct the scientific record by bringing fundamental flaws/errors in a paper to the attention of the readership. They are usually reserved for cases where there is clear evidence the findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error. When articles are retracted they are not removed from IOPScience, instead they are retained with a clear notice of retraction and bibliographic databases are notified, as per COPE guidelines.
- An expression of concern
- should be issued when concerns about publications have not been conclusively proven but are sufficiently serious to warrant warning potential readers.